Applying constraint satisfaction techniques to 3D camera control

Abstract

Controlling an autonomous camera in three-dimensional virtual environments is a difficult task which manifests itself in many interactive computer graphics applications, such as computer games. In this paper, we represent this problem as a constraint satisfaction problem which is often over-constrained. A range of complex requirements, such as frame coherence, occlusion and camera holes can be elegantly represented as constraints. We then apply both complete and incomplete search methods to find the optimal camera placement. An interactive computer games application was developed to experimentally evaluate these methods. Our experimental results and a discussion with related studies conclude that our approach is sophisticated both in modelling and solving the difficult task of 3D camera control. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.