Simulation Stream Pipeline for Real-Time High Fidelity Animation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Real-time rendering engines, such as gaming engines, face computational limitations in dynamically animating high-resolution skeletal mesh models, particularly in interactive VR or AR environments, where high fidelity animations are required but computationally expensive, leading to lower fidelity content being presented to meet real-time rendering requirements.
Innovation Solution
A pipeline that processes simulation data and skeletal mesh data to create a transformed simulation vertex cache usable by real-time rendering engines, allowing for high-quality, offline-generated simulations to be leveraged in real-time environments by converting data into frames of vertex and index buffers, reordering, and computing inverse-transformed tangent spaces, enabling high fidelity real-time content generation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If high-resolution skeletal mesh data is used for realistic animation, then animation fidelity is improved, but computational cost becomes prohibitive for real-time rendering
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-processes simulation data offline to create transformed vertex caches that capture complex mesh deformations in advance. During runtime, the real-time engine only needs to interpolate between pre-computed frames, dramatically reducing computational requirements while maintaining high animation fidelity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a transformed simulation vertex cache that copies and transforms simulation data into a format optimized for real-time skinning. This cache serves as a pre-computed representation that can be efficiently applied during runtime without re-running expensive simulations.
2Measurement precision
If PCA animation with many shapes is used to maintain accuracy for complex motions, then animation accuracy is improved, but computational limitations are introduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the parameter representation from PCA coefficients requiring many components to a vertex cache format using fewer parameters. By changing how animation data is structured and stored, the system achieves comparable or better accuracy with reduced computational requirements for real-time interpolation.
3Manufacturing precision
If offline simulation is used for high-quality animation, then animation quality is improved, but real-time interactivity is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs the computationally intensive simulation work in advance during an offline preprocessing stage, storing results in a transformed vertex cache format. During runtime, only lightweight interpolation operations are needed, enabling both high quality and real-time performance.
Data Source
AI summary
Some implementations of the disclosure are directed to a pipeline that enables real time engines such as gaming engines to leverage high quality simulations generated offline via film grade simulation systems. In one implementation, a method includes: obtaining simulation data and skeletal mesh data of a character, the simulation data and skeletal mesh data including the character in the same rest pose; importing the skeletal mesh data into a real-time rendering engine; and using at least the simulation data and the imported skeletal mesh data to derive from the simulation data a transformed simulation vertex cache that is usable by the real-time rendering engine during runtime to be skinned in place of the rest pose.