University of Central Florida STARS Institute for Simulation and Training Digital Collections 1-1-1992 Preliminary Investigations Into Efficient Line Of Sight Determination In Polygonal Terrain Mikel D. Petty Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/istlibrary University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Research Report is brought to you for free and open access by the Digital Collections at STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Institute for Simulation and Training by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recommended Citation Petty, Mikel D., "Preliminary Investigations Into Efficient Line Of Sight Determination Inoly P gonal Terrain" (1992). Institute for Simulation and Training. 154. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/istlibrary/154 I I I I I Contract Number N61339-89·C-0044 I February 28, 1992 I I Preliminary Investigations I into Efficient Line of Sight I Determination in Polygonal Terrain I I I I iSl Institute IOf Simulation and Training I 12424 ReMatCh Parkway. Suite 300 Orlando FL 32826 University 01 COntral FIorldll I Division of Sponsored Research J IST-TR-92-5 J I I I NS T ITUT E F O R SIMULATION AND TRAINING I I Preliminary Investigations into Efficient Line of Sight I Determination in Polygonal Terrain I I Contract N61339-89-C-0044 I February 28.1992 I IST·TR·92·5 I I I I Prepared by I Mikel D. Petty, Char1es E. Campbell, Robert W. Franceschini, ~DP~ Micheline H. Provost. Clark R. Karr I Reviewed by I Richard A. Dunn-Roberts (Ltcbw< .. -(~ I Inslilul8 lor Simulation and Training • 12424 Research Parkway, Suile 300 • Orlando, Florida 32826 University of Central FlorkJa • Division of Sponsored Research I I I PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIONS INTO EFFICIENT LINE OF SIGHT DETERMINATION I IN POLYGONAL TERRAIN Mikel D. Petty I Charles E . Campbell Robert W. Franceschini Micheline H. Provost I Clark R. Karr I February 28, 1992 IST-TR-92-5 Institute for Simulation and Training I 12424 Research Parkway, Suite 300 I Orlando FL 32826 I I I I I I I I I I I I I Tabl e of Contents I 1. Introduction . 1 1.1 Purpose. 1 1.2 structure of this document 1 1.3 Line of Sight in battlefield simulation 1 I 1.4 Polygonal terrain 3 1.5 Research goa l s 3 I 1.6 Order notation 4 2. LOS algorithms . 5 2 .1 General algorithm structure 5 2.2 Polygonal terrain database 8 I 2 . 3 1ST algorithm F: Grid/edge method 10 2 . 4 1ST algorithm c: DCEL Traversal method 15 2.5 1ST algorithm P: Triangle Traversal method 28 I 2.6 BBN SIMNET PVD algorithm 42 3 . LDS comparison experiment 45 I 3 .1 Discussion 45 3.2 Test polygonal terrain 45 3 • 3 Test LOS cases • 46 I 3.4 Experimental results. 47 4. Conclusions and future work 48 I 5. References 50 6. Appendices • 52 I 6.1 List of acronyms 52 6.2 Authors' biographies 52 6.3 Credits. 53 I 6.4 Test data files and algorithm source code 53 I I I I I I I I I 1 . I ntr o ducti on I 1.1 Purpose This document is the final technical report required as a I deliverable under University of Central Florida Division of Sponsored Research grant #90370 , titled "Efficient Line of Sight Determination in Polygonal Terrain". It is also a non-required deliverable under DARPA contract N61339- 89- C- 004, titled I "Intelligent Simulated Forces: Evaluation and Exploration of Computational and Hardware Strategies". The research described I herein was supported by those two sources. 1 . 2 structure ot this doeument Following this subsection, the remainder of section 1 introduces I the Line of Sight problem in the context of real-time battlefield simulation, describes polygonal terrain, and lays out the objectives of this research. section 2 explains in detail the I Line of Sight algorithms developed during this project, and the existing algorithm used as a standard for comparison. Section 3 presents the comparison experiment performed on those algorithms, I and the experimental results obtained. section 4 summarizes the results and identifies potential areas of future related work. Sections 5 and 6 contain references and appendices related to the I project. This document assumes that the reader is familiar with computer algorithm design in general , but not with the specific algorithms I or data structures used for Line of Sight determination. It further assumes that the reader has some familiarity with real-time battlefield simulation, as exemplified by the SIMNET I system. (This document shares some text excerpts with 1ST Technical Repor t IST-TR- 92- 6, titled "The 1ST Semi-Automated Forces I Dismounted Infantry System: Capabilities, Imp lementation, and Operation". Most of the shared t ext is contained in section 2.3 of this document. The text is repeated so as to allow each I report to be read without requiring the reader to have access to the other.) I 1 .3 Line of Sight in batt l efield s imul ation In an interactive real-time battlefield simulation (such as SIMNET), a question of paramount concern is this: can two I hostile entities, such as tanks, see each other? More for mally, does there exist a Line of Sight (LOS) between them? The existence of a LOS between a pair of entities in the simUlation I substantially affects their behavior ; for example , a LOS is a prerequisite of direct fire. It is the simulated terrain that can block the LOS; two tanks on opposite sides of a hill cannot I see each other. I 1 I I A LOS determination must be made for each pair of entities whose behavior may be affected by the existence of a LOS. The I potential number of LOS determinations that must be made in a simulation is very large; in ~he worst case, for a scenario with n entities, on the order of n individual LOS cheCKs must be made I during each LOS check cycle. More precisely, the worst case is approximately I Heuristics exist to reduce this in the average case to O(n), but the worst case remains 0(n2 ). (See section 1.6 for a definition I of order notation.) Furthermore, those LOS determinations must be made often to I ensure realistic behavior. For a typical real-time simulation, each entity should check for a LOS to each hostile entity at least once each second, and preferably more often, to maintain I realism. The point is that in a simulation of a size typical for interactive battlefield simulation, a great many LOS I determinations must be made in a short time. The required LOS calculations can consume a significant portion of the computational power of the simulation computer, reducing the I resources available for more interesting processing , such as realistic vehicle dynamics or intelligent behavior. An improvement in LOS algorithm run-time efficiency could have a I significant impact on simulation system performance. By now, a reader who is familiar with distributed battlefield simulation systems such as SIMNET will be raising the issue of I SIMNET's inherent parallelism. In SIMNET, it is often the case that each simulated enti~y is supported by a separate simulation computer. Thus, the O(n ) LOS determinations are distributed I onto n simulation computers. The situation can be described as a parallel algorithm requiring O(n) LOS determinations on each of n processors. Furthermore, there are no data dependencies, given the usual SIMNET situation of a redundant static terrain database I on each simulation computer. There are two points to consider in relation to the preceding I observation. First, reducing the num~er of LOS determinations for each simulation computer from O(n ) to O(n) does not change the fact that an improvement in the efficiency of each LOS I determination makes more computational power available to other tasks. Second, SIMNET simulations often include simulators that control multiple, possibly many, entities. Semi-automated forces systems are a prime example of this . Those systems must perform I LOS determinations for each of the entities they support, between each pair of those entities as well as the other entities in the simulation. For semi- automated forces systems, the processing of I LOS determinations has been estimated to consume more than half of a system's computational power (Companion,1989]. Clearly, a I I 2 I more efficient LOS algorithm is of considerable importance to I semi-automated forces systems. 1.4 Polygonal terrain I In nearly all interactive real-time battlefield simulations, the terrain over which the simulation takes place is constructed from a large set of planar polygons. Adjacent polygons share edges , I but are not necessarily coplanarj the ridges, valleys and rolls in the terrain are determined by the 3D spatial coordinates of I the polygons. See figure 1.1 for an example. I I I I I I Figure 1.1. Polygonal terrain representing a hillside (seen I from an oblique viewpoint). 1.5 Resaarcb goals I Of course, real-time battlefield simulations exist (e.g. SIMNET), so LOS algorithms have been produced. They are often ad hoc algorithms whose performance is adequate but not optimized I (Stanzione,1989], or approximation algorithms that achieve good performance at the expense of occasionally incorrect results I (Gonzalez,1990). Some interesting theoretical results in the computer science subdiscipline of computational geometry have been derived that are potentially relevant to the problem of efficient LOS I determination; see any of (Guibas,198?), (Ghosh,198?}, [Chazelle,1988), [Hershberger,1989 ), or especially [Cole,1989].