Interactive behavioural update of large flocks

The availability of powerful and affordable 3D PC graphics boards has made the rendering of rich immersive environments possible at interactive speeds. The scene update rate and the appropriate behaviour of objects within the world are central to this immersive feeling. We explore new techniques for increasing the efficiency of the flocking algorithm, which has been used extensively to emulate the flocking behaviour of creatures found in nature. The main contribution of this paper is a new method for imposing a hierarchical structure on the flock so that each members nearby neighbours can be determined more efficiently. This allows for far larger flocks to be updated at interactive speeds on a PC.