Space-Time Maps for Virtual Environments

Abstract

Terrain image maps are widely used in 3D Virtual Environments, including games, online social worlds, and Virtual Reality systems, for controlling elevation of ground-bound travelers and other moving objects. By making use of all available color channels in the terrain image, it is possible to encode important information related to travel, such as presence of obstacles, directly into the image. This information can be retrieved in real time, for collision detection and avoidance, at flat cost of accessing pixel values from the image memory. We take this idea of overloading terrain maps even further and introduce time maps, where pixels can also define the rate of time, for each player at given location. In this concept work, we present a general mechanism of encoding the rate of time into a terrain image and discuss a number of applications that may benefit from making time rate location specific. Also, we offer some insights how such space-time maps can be integrated into existing game engines.