ARTIST - 20102
keywords: 3-D real-time animation, behaviour definition, 3-D games, simulation, virtual reality, scientific visualisation, 3-D objects, animation and modelling tools, optimised graphics database structures, entertainment, industry, medicine, military and scientific, 3-D real-time applications, games
Start Date: 1 November 1995 / Duration: 24 months
[ contact / participants ]
Summary
The aim of the project is to develop an animation package for the development of real-time graphic applications including games, simulation and virtual reality. It will be a fully integrated package which can be used to generate graphics which are optimally designed for speed and to define the context-sensitive behaviour of objects used in applications.
The package will solve several problems that are encountered with current systems:
- Costs: Current systems run on expensive and dedicated platforms (workstations with high-cost/high-performance graphics cards). In contrast, the ARTIST package will run on a low-cost standard platform (a PC equipped with a relatively inexpensive rendering board). An interface will be provided to run on different graphics boards.
- Development time: Animation tools do not incorporate mechanisms for defining context-sensitive behaviour of objects. Virtual reality applications do, but they lack the modelling and animation features. Neither incorporates mechanisms for efficiently linking behaviour and animation. ARTIST will provide a means for defining both the graphics and the context-sensitive behaviour of objects used in a game, simulation or virtual reality application. It will also enable these two aspects of the application to be easily linked, saving development time and improving the product's functionality and consistency.
- Speed: Animation and modelling tools do not incorporate automatic optimisation algorithms for defining graphics databases. The ARTIST package will generate graphics database structures that are optimised for speed and which take maximum advantage of the graphics hardware.
- Risks: The current risk of being obsolete before reaching the market aimed for (e.g. games, virtual reality or simulation) is high because such markets (especially the games and virtual reality markets) are very dynamic. With current tools, development time is high and therefore time-to-market is as well. The bigger the gap, the bigger the possibility for the competition to introduce new products, gaining market share. ARTIST will reduce the risk involved in the development of new real-time graphics applications, enabling a shorter time-to-market and thus providing an advantage over competition using traditional tools.
The tools being developed in the project will be tested in the development of a 3-D real-time application incorporating a high degree of animation.
Contact Point
Luis Pedro MARZAN
APD, S.A.
Projects Department
Antonio López 234
E-28026 MADRID
tel: +34 1 5000140
fax: +34 1 5000141
E-mail: pesteve@gapd.es
Participants
APD, S.A. - E - C
ART&MAGIC - B - P
LISITT - E - P
NORSK REGNESENTRAL - N - P
ARTIST - 20102, December 1995
please address enquiries to the ESPRIT Information Desk
html version of synopsis by nick.cook@newcastle.ac.uk