Hierarchical Terrain Representation and Flood Fill-based Computation of Large-Scale Terrain Changes for Agent-based Simulations

Luis A. L. Silva, Luis A. L. Silva, Evaristo Nascimento, Evaristo Nascimento, Eliakim Zacarias, Raul Nunes, Raul Nunes, Edison Freitas, Edison Freitas

2022

Abstract

Modern virtual training benefits from the recent advances in Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation (ABMS), making it possible to use real-world dynamic terrain scenarios that enhance the users learning from agent-based simulations. An important issue for distributed ABMS systems is the possibility of using terrain services that promptly compute large-scale terrain map changes as a result of natural phenomena such as river floods and wildfires. Performing the alterations in terrain maps is challenging since they depend on the combination of terrain features and terrain sizes. To address this problem, this work proposes the use flood fill-based techniques along with the hierarchical QuadTree approach for the terrain representation. We show that these techniques are essential to promptly compute the effects of the changes on a large number of nodes of the hierarchical map representation that captures the terrain features in different levels of detail. Also, a way to store and recover the QuadTree nodes in/from a dictionary-based memory is proposed, improving the nodes’ refinement and restoration process when the terrain changes are required on the simulations. Experiments with the proposed techniques show encouraging results, with reduced computing times considering terrains with different characteristics and numbers of alterations.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Silva L., Nascimento E., Zacarias E., Nunes R. and Freitas E. (2022). Hierarchical Terrain Representation and Flood Fill-based Computation of Large-Scale Terrain Changes for Agent-based Simulations. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and Applications - Volume 1: SIMULTECH, ISBN 978-989-758-578-4, pages 15-25. DOI: 10.5220/0011134800003274

in Bibtex Style

@conference{simultech22,
author={Luis A. L. Silva and Evaristo Nascimento and Eliakim Zacarias and Raul Nunes and Edison Freitas},
title={Hierarchical Terrain Representation and Flood Fill-based Computation of Large-Scale Terrain Changes for Agent-based Simulations},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and Applications - Volume 1: SIMULTECH,},
year={2022},
pages={15-25},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0011134800003274},
isbn={978-989-758-578-4},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and Applications - Volume 1: SIMULTECH,
TI - Hierarchical Terrain Representation and Flood Fill-based Computation of Large-Scale Terrain Changes for Agent-based Simulations
SN - 978-989-758-578-4
AU - Silva L.
AU - Nascimento E.
AU - Zacarias E.
AU - Nunes R.
AU - Freitas E.
PY - 2022
SP - 15
EP - 25
DO - 10.5220/0011134800003274