Massive Crowd Simulation With Parallel Computing on GPU

The ability to simulate realistic crowds is a highly sought-after capability in the fields of entertainment (video games, movies), urban planning and evacuation simulations. Traditional approaches to crowd simulation rely on heavy Central Processing Unit (CPU) computation. This approach has limitati...

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Main Authors: Vincenzo Lombardo, Davide Gadia, Dario Maggiorini
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10755065/
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author Vincenzo Lombardo
Davide Gadia
Dario Maggiorini
author_facet Vincenzo Lombardo
Davide Gadia
Dario Maggiorini
author_sort Vincenzo Lombardo
collection DOAJ
description The ability to simulate realistic crowds is a highly sought-after capability in the fields of entertainment (video games, movies), urban planning and evacuation simulations. Traditional approaches to crowd simulation rely on heavy Central Processing Unit (CPU) computation. This approach has limitations in terms of scalability and performance, which are solvable with the use of Graphics Programming Units (GPUs) and parallel computing techniques. In fact, the development of Compute Shaders on GPU allows the execution of general-purpose operations alongside traditional rendering tasks within real-time applications. This paper aims to contribute to the current literature on crowd simulation methods by developing a real-time simulation model that integrates and expands several techniques from literature, adapted and optimized to exploit GPU computing capabilities. The proposed model incorporates continuous representations for crowds in order to simulate human movement and decision-making. The achieved results demonstrate a high level of scalability and efficiency. The implemented techniques and optimizations allow the model to handle a significant number of agents while maintaining real-time performances to achieve reduced simulation time and good user experience. Stress tests showcase that the proposed model significantly outperforms other macroscopic models, maintaining a stable frame rate of 60 FPS when simulating 20,000 agents even on mid-range systems intended for personal use.
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spelling doaj-art-8d9bb4daa3134a5eb964bdd44c0dc19e2025-08-20T02:49:09ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362024-01-011217327917330310.1109/ACCESS.2024.350109310755065Massive Crowd Simulation With Parallel Computing on GPUVincenzo Lombardo0https://orcid.org/0009-0001-7563-2788Davide Gadia1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4491-9150Dario Maggiorini2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7460-2966Department of Computer Science, University of Milan, Milan, ItalyDepartment of Computer Science, University of Milan, Milan, ItalyDepartment of Computer Science, University of Milan, Milan, ItalyThe ability to simulate realistic crowds is a highly sought-after capability in the fields of entertainment (video games, movies), urban planning and evacuation simulations. Traditional approaches to crowd simulation rely on heavy Central Processing Unit (CPU) computation. This approach has limitations in terms of scalability and performance, which are solvable with the use of Graphics Programming Units (GPUs) and parallel computing techniques. In fact, the development of Compute Shaders on GPU allows the execution of general-purpose operations alongside traditional rendering tasks within real-time applications. This paper aims to contribute to the current literature on crowd simulation methods by developing a real-time simulation model that integrates and expands several techniques from literature, adapted and optimized to exploit GPU computing capabilities. The proposed model incorporates continuous representations for crowds in order to simulate human movement and decision-making. The achieved results demonstrate a high level of scalability and efficiency. The implemented techniques and optimizations allow the model to handle a significant number of agents while maintaining real-time performances to achieve reduced simulation time and good user experience. Stress tests showcase that the proposed model significantly outperforms other macroscopic models, maintaining a stable frame rate of 60 FPS when simulating 20,000 agents even on mid-range systems intended for personal use.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10755065/Crowd simulationGPU computingvideo gamesreal-time
spellingShingle Vincenzo Lombardo
Davide Gadia
Dario Maggiorini
Massive Crowd Simulation With Parallel Computing on GPU
IEEE Access
Crowd simulation
GPU computing
video games
real-time
title Massive Crowd Simulation With Parallel Computing on GPU
title_full Massive Crowd Simulation With Parallel Computing on GPU
title_fullStr Massive Crowd Simulation With Parallel Computing on GPU
title_full_unstemmed Massive Crowd Simulation With Parallel Computing on GPU
title_short Massive Crowd Simulation With Parallel Computing on GPU
title_sort massive crowd simulation with parallel computing on gpu
topic Crowd simulation
GPU computing
video games
real-time
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10755065/
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