Abstract:
In this talk, I will present Dynamo (DYNAmic MOtion capture), our approach to
controlling animated characters in physically dynamic virtual worlds. Characters
are simultaneously physically simulated and driven to perform kinematic motion
(from mocap or other sources). Continuous simulation allows characters to interact
more realistically than methods that alternate between ragdoll simulation and pure
motion capture.

We demonstrate Dynamo through in-game simulations of characters walking, running,
jumping, and fighting on uneven terrain while experiencing dynamic external forces.
We show that an implementation using standard physics (ODE) and graphics (G3D/OpenGL)
engines can drive game-like applications with hundreds of rigid bodies and tens of
characters, using about 0.002s of CPU time per frame.  Papers and videos pertaining
to this work can be viewed here:

  http://graphics.cs.brown.edu/games/Dynamo/

I will share thoughts, outcomes, and perspectives about our approach to "Innovating
Game Development", a course taught at Brown during Spring 2006.  This course fostered
independent student projects that combined research topics in CS with new ideas for
games technology.