3D Smart Asset for Virtual World Environment

Abstract

One of the goal of virtual environment is to create engaging experience. The presence of inhabitants in a virtual environment heightens the user experience. User- controlled avatars are the main inhabitants in virtual environment. Just like the real world, virtual environment is also populated with other inhabitants that might not have direct interaction with the main avatars. However, these inhabitants play a huge role in making the environment alive. The challenge is to be able to populate the environment effortlessly. The crowd is made of generic representation coupled with relevant behavior. Behavior demonstrated is very much driven by the context of the environment. This study focused on the process of creating 3D models that is embedded with certain behavior based on observations. Virtual environment relevant behaviors were identified and programmed into the models. Each component could then be used as 3D smart asset. The context aware 3D smart assets were tested in multiple independent virtual environment development projects. This paper describes the process of creating and reusing behavior embedded 3D models to populate a virtual environment with context aware inhabitants.