System and method for procedurally generated object distribution in regions of a three-dimensional virtual environment

• US 10,157,498 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2016
• Issued: 12/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Zou, Lincan, Ren, Liu
• Primary Examiner(s): Guo, Xilin
• Application Number:
  US15/240,296
• Publication Number:
  US 20180053345A1
• Time in Patent Office: 852 Days
• Field of Search: 345418
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/00 Three dimensional [3D] modelling, e.g. data description of 3D objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/10 Constructive solid geometry [CSG] using solid primitives, e.g. cylinders, cubes
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/006 Mixed reality object pose determination, tracking or camera calibration for mixed reality G06T7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/12 Bounding box
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/61 Scene description

Abstract

A system and method of procedural generation of graphics includes generating a bounding polygon corresponding to a size and shape of a region within a three-dimensional virtual environment that includes the plurality of objects, aligning, with the processor the bounding polygon with a two-dimensional arrangement of tiles that include predetermined locations corresponding to the objects, identifying object locations within the bounding polygon based on the data corresponding to the predetermined plurality of locations within the tiles, each object location corresponding to one predetermined location in one tile in the plurality of tiles that lies within the bounding polygon, and generating, with the processor and a display device, a graphical depiction of the three-dimensional virtual environment including graphical depictions of the plurality of objects positioned in the plurality of object locations within the bounding polygon in the region.

Claims

1. A method for generating graphics corresponding to a plurality of objects in a three-dimensional virtual environment comprising:

generating, with the processor, a bounding polygon corresponding to a size and shape of a region within a three-dimensional virtual environment that includes the plurality of objects;

retrieving, with the processor, a plurality of tiles from a memory, each tile including data corresponding to a predetermined plurality of locations for the plurality of objects distributed in the tile;

arranging, with the processor, the plurality of tiles in a two-dimensional arrangement of non-overlapping tiles in a predetermined pseudo-random order with reference to a predetermined random index stored in the memory, the two-dimensional arrangement including a plurality of instances of at least one tile in the plurality of tiles;

aligning, with the processor, the bounding polygon with the two-dimensional arrangement of the plurality of tiles, the bounding polygon containing at least one entire tile in the plurality of tiles and only a portion of at least one other tile in the plurality of tiles;

identifying, with the processor, a plurality of object locations within the bounding polygon based on the data corresponding to the predetermined plurality of locations within the tiles, each object location corresponding to one predetermined location in one tile in the plurality of tiles that lies within the bounding polygon; and

generating, with the processor and a display device, a graphical depiction of the three-dimensional virtual environment including graphical depictions of the plurality of objects positioned in the plurality of object locations within the bounding polygon in the region.

2. The method of claim 1, the identification of the plurality of object locations further comprising:

identifying, with the processor, a plurality of corner locations corresponding to each corner in a plurality of corners of the at least one entire tile in the plurality of tiles; and

identifying, with the processor, the plurality of object locations including all of the predetermined plurality of locations within the at least one entire tile in response to each corner location of the at least one entire tile being within the bounding polygon.

3. The method of claim 1, the identification of the plurality of object locations further comprising:

identifying, with the processor, a plurality of corner locations corresponding to each corner in a plurality of corners of the at least one other tile in the plurality of tiles; and

identifying, with the processor, the plurality of object locations including only a portion of the predetermined locations within the at least one other tile in response to at least one corner location of the at least one other tile being outside of the bounding polygon.

4. The method of claim 1, the generation of the graphical depiction of the plurality of objects in the three-dimensional virtual environment further comprising:

identifying, with a clock in the processor, a time of year of an external environment that corresponds to the three-dimensional virtual environment; and

retrieving, with the processor, a subset of the plurality of objects that corresponds to the time of year from the memory.

5. The method of claim 1, the generation of the graphical depiction of the plurality of objects in the three-dimensional virtual environment further comprising:

retrieving, with the processor, a plurality of graphical objects corresponding to a plurality of trees; and

generating, with the processor and the display device, the graphical depiction of the three-dimensional virtual environment including graphical depictions of the plurality of trees positioned in the plurality of object locations within the bounding polygon in the region.

6. The method of claim 1, the generation of the graphical depiction of the plurality of objects in the three-dimensional virtual environment further comprising:

identifying, with the processor, a first object type associated with a first object location in the plurality of object locations in one tile in the plurality of tiles; and

generating, with the processor, the graphical depiction of the three-dimensional virtual environment including a graphical depiction of an object retrieved from the memory corresponding to the first object type in the first object location.

7. The method of claim 1, the generation of the bounding polygon further comprising:

identifying, with the processor, data corresponding to a road in the three-dimensional virtual environment extending through the predetermined region; and

generating, with the processor, the bounding polygon including at least one side of the bounding polygon that borders the road to exclude the road from the bounding polygon.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, with a user input device, a first input parameter corresponding to a density of the plurality of objects;

generating, with the processor, the plurality of tiles including a randomized distribution of locations that correspond to the plurality of objects in for each tile in the plurality of tiles based on the first input parameter; and

storing, with the processor, the plurality of tiles in the memory prior to the retrieving of the plurality of tiles from the memory.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

receiving, with a user input device, a second input parameter corresponding to a type distribution of the plurality of objects; and

generating, with the processor, the plurality of tiles including a randomized distribution of object types for the plurality of locations in each tile in the plurality of tiles based on the second input parameter.

10. A graphics display system that generates graphical representations of a three-dimensional virtual environment comprising:

a display device configured to generate a graphical display of the three-dimensional virtual environment;

a memory configured to store;

graphical data corresponding to the three-dimensional virtual environment and a plurality of objects; and

a plurality of tiles, each tile including data corresponding to a predetermined plurality of locations for the plurality of objects distributed in each tile; and

a processor operatively connected to the display device and the memory, the processor being configured to;

generate a bounding polygon corresponding to a size and shape of a region within the three-dimensional virtual environment that includes the plurality of objects;

retrieve a plurality of tiles from a memory, each tile including data corresponding to a predetermined plurality of locations for the plurality of objects distributed in the tile;

arrange the plurality of tiles in a two-dimensional arrangement of non-overlapping tiles in a predetermined pseudo-random order with reference to a predetermined random index stored in the memory, the two-dimensional arrangement including a plurality of instances of at least one tile in the plurality of tiles;

align the bounding polygon with the two-dimensional arrangement of the plurality of tiles, the bounding polygon containing at least one entire tile in the plurality of tiles and only a portion of at least one other tile in the plurality of tiles;

identify a plurality of object locations within the bounding polygon based on the data corresponding to the predetermined plurality of locations within the tiles, each object location corresponding to one predetermined location in one tile in the plurality of tiles that lies within the bounding polygon; and

generate a graphical depiction of the three-dimensional virtual environment including graphical depictions of the plurality of objects positioned in the plurality of object locations within the bounding polygon in the region with the display device.

11. The system of claim 10, the processor being further configured to:

identify a plurality of corner locations corresponding to each corner in a plurality of corners of the at least one entire tile in the plurality of tiles; and

identify the plurality of object locations including all of the predetermined plurality of locations within the at least one entire tile in response to each corner location of the at least one entire tile being within the bounding polygon.

12. The system of claim 10, the processor being further configured to:

identify a plurality of corner locations corresponding to each corner in a plurality of corners of the at least one other tile in the plurality of tiles; and

identify the plurality of object locations including only a portion of the predetermined locations within the at least one other tile in response to at least one corner location of the at least one other tile being outside of the bounding polygon.

13. The system of claim 10 further comprising:

a clock; and

the processor being operatively connected to the clock and further configured to;

identify a time of year of an external environment that corresponds to the three-dimensional virtual environment; and

retrieve a subset of the plurality of objects that corresponds to the time of year from the memory.

14. The system of claim 10, the processor being further configured to:

retrieve a plurality of graphical objects corresponding to a plurality of trees; and

generate, with the processor and the display device, the graphical depiction of the three-dimensional virtual environment including graphical depictions of the plurality of trees positioned in the plurality of object locations within the bounding polygon in the region.

15. The system of claim 10, the processor being further configured to:

identify a first object type associated with a first object location in the plurality of object locations in one tile in the plurality of tiles; and

generate the graphical depiction of the three-dimensional virtual environment including a graphical depiction of an object retrieved from the memory corresponding to the first object type in the first object location.

16. The system of claim 10, the processor being further configured to:

identify data corresponding to a road in the three-dimensional virtual environment extending through the predetermined region; and

generate the bounding polygon including at least one side of the bounding polygon that borders the road to exclude the road from the bounding polygon.

17. The system of claim 10, the processor being further configured to:

receive a first input parameter corresponding to a density of the plurality of objects;

generate the plurality of tiles including a randomized distribution of locations that correspond to the plurality of objects in for each tile in the plurality of tiles based on the first input parameter; and

store the plurality of tiles in the memory prior to the retrieving of the plurality of tiles from the memory.

18. The system of claim 17, the processor being further configured to:

receive a second input parameter corresponding to a type distribution of the plurality of objects; and

generate the plurality of tiles including a randomized distribution of object types for the plurality of locations in each tile in the plurality of tiles based on the second input parameter.