Data compression for real-time streaming of deformable 3D models for 3D animation
View Patent ↗Systems and methods are described for performing spatial and temporal compression of deformable mesh based representations of 3D character motion allowing the visualization of high-resolution 3D character animations in real time. In a number of embodiments, the deformable mesh based representation of the 3D character motion is used to automatically generate an interconnected graph based representation of the same 3D character motion. The interconnected graph based representation can include an interconnected graph that is used to drive mesh clusters during the rendering of a 3D character animation. The interconnected graph based representation provides spatial compression of the deformable mesh based representation, and further compression can be achieved by applying temporal compression processes to the time-varying behavior of the mesh clusters. Even greater compression can be achieved by eliminating redundant data from the file format containing the interconnected graph based representation of the 3D character motion that would otherwise be repeatedly provided to a game engine during rendering, and by applying loss-less data compression to the data of the file itself.
1. A process for compressing a deformable mesh based representation of 3D character motion, comprising:
repeatedly specifying parameters for an interconnected graph based representation of portions of the 3D character motion wherein the parameters include a maximum number of mesh clusters used to generate the interconnected graph based representation of the portion of the 3D character motion, wherein the extent of the compression that is achieved is determined by the number of the maximum number of mesh clusters and the frequency with which the interconnected graph is updated;
automatically identifying mesh clusters within the deformable mesh based representation of each portion of the 3D character motion wherein the number of automatically identified mesh clusters is limited to the maximum number of mesh clusters specified for the portion of the 3D character motion;
automatically generating an interconnected graph based representation of each portion of the 3D character motion based upon the motion of the mesh clusters during the portion of the 3D character motion;
performing a temporal compression process on the time-varying behavior of the interconnected graph based representations of the portions of the 3D character motion; and
writing the compressed interconnected graph based representations of each portion of the 3D character motion to a file located on a storage device.
2. The process of claim 1 , wherein automatically generating an interconnected graph based representation of a portion of the 3D character motion based upon the motion of the mesh clusters during the 3D character motion further comprises:
generating an interconnected graph based upon the motion of the mesh clusters during the portion of the 3D character motion; and
generating a smoothed mesh based upon the mesh clusters and the interconnected graph.
3. The process of claim 1 , further comprising eliminating redundant data from an interconnected graph based representation of a portion of the 3D character motion.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to automatically generate an interconnected graph based representation of a portion of the 3D character motion based upon the motion of the mesh clusters during the 3D character motion by:
generating an interconnected graph based upon the motion of the mesh clusters during the portion of the 3D character motion; and
generating a smoothed mesh based upon the mesh clusters and the interconnected graph.
5. A system configured to provide spatial and temporal compression of deformable mesh based representations of 3D character motion, comprising:
a processor connected to a storage device, where the processor is configured to receive data describing a deformable mesh based representation of 3D character motion, select an interconnected graph update frequency, and divide the deformable mesh based representation of 3D character motion into portions of 3D character motion based upon an interconnected graph update frequency;
wherein the processor is configured to automatically select a maximum number of mesh clusters for each portion of the 3D character motion and identify a number of mesh clusters that does not exceed the maximum number of mesh clusters based upon the deformable mesh based representation of each portion of the 3D character motion;
wherein the processor is configured to automatically generate an interconnected graph based representation of the portions of 3D character motion based upon the identified mesh clusters and the deformable mesh based representation of the 3D character motion and perform a temporal compression process on the time-varying behavior of the interconnected graph based representation of the 3D character motion; and
wherein the processor is configured to write the interconnected graph based representation of the 3D character motion to a file on the storage device; and
wherein the extent of the compression that is achieved is determined by the selected frequency with which the interconnected graph is updated and the selected maximum number of mesh clusters for the interconnected graph in each portion of 3D character motion.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the processor is further configured to eliminate redundant data from an interconnected graph based representation of a portion of the 3D character motion.