Questionnaire: Crowd Simulation

[Steedie]

Hey guys,

I'm just finishing off the final stages of my research section for my dissertation, but would be a lot easier for me if I had a few more answers for one of my questionnaires, so if you kind chaps could help me it would be much appreciated.

If these threads arent allowed, please delete, I apologise.

Questionnaire:

1. With a virtual Crowd Simulation, what are the key features that you expect to be in such a program? (e.g Realistic Behaviour, Dynamic Environments, Graphical User Interface etc)


2. In relation to the previous question, please place these attributes of a Crowd Simulation in your order of preference of most importance. Please give a brief explanation why you have chosen this order

Performance, Realism, Graphics, Interactivity


3. Have you had any experience with a Crowd Simulation before, witnessed one in action, or had to use one for personal/work reasons? If so, what features did you notice most and what did you dislike about your experience? If not, would you ever consider using one or are you likely to ever use one?


4. When you hear the term Crowd Simulation, what do you think of as its main use? Games, Films or Training Purposes


5. Finally, in real life, do you believe a crowd’s behaviour is influenced by the crowd as a whole, or by the actions and behaviour of individuals? Please give a brief description as to why


Many thanks in advance

 

[D.P.]

Hey guys,

I'm just finishing off the final stages of my research section for my dissertation, but would be a lot easier for me if I had a few more answers for one of my questionnaires, so if you kind chaps could help me it would be much appreciated.

If these threads arent allowed, please delete, I apologise.

Questionnaire:

1. With a virtual Crowd Simulation, what are the key features that you expect to be in such a program? (e.g Realistic Behaviour, Dynamic Environments, Graphical User Interface etc).

Realistic behaviours: a realistic behaviour will automatically cope with dynamic environments. GUIs are just to look pretty.

2. In relation to the previous question, please place these attributes of a Crowd Simulation in your order of preference of most importance. Please give a brief explanation why you have chosen this order

Performance, Realism, Graphics, Interactivity
Depends on purpose but for me:
Realism: I would like to develop more cognitive models of human flocking behaviours and use the modeling to predict potential dangerous outcomes such as stampedes.
Performance: You probably have to run the siulator hundreds of times to gather stats and to test parameter changes. Personally I would like to be able to evolve paramters or behaviours over hundred of generations. 2000x rel-time would be nice...
Interactivity: important for explratory analysis
Graphics: science doesn't need pretty pictures...


3. Have you had any experience with a Crowd Simulation before, witnessed one in action, or had to use one for personal/work reasons? If so, what features did you notice most and what did you dislike about your experience? If not, would you ever consider using one or are you likely to ever use one?
No. But I have played with generic flocking algorithms


4. When you hear the term Crowd Simulation, what do you think of as its main use? Games, Films or Training Purposes
For me, perhaps Training puposes or to predict negative events, or to optimise foot paths or advertising placements. Then Films, then games

5. Finally, in real life, do you believe a crowd’s behaviour is influenced by the crowd as a whole, or by the actions and behaviour of individuals? Please give a brief description as to why


An individual's behaviou is controlled by the behaviour of the individuals around it in their sphere of influence modulated bz the desires and goals of the individual. If I want to walk form A to B in a crowd then I will follow the general motion of the crowd using flcoking principles such as keeping a minium distance and velocity matching, but I will turn against the crowd if my target destination differs at some point.

Many thanks in advance

 

[Steedie]

snip

Thanks a lot mate

 

[Psyk]

I don't think the input from most people here would really be that useful for your project. I'm sure 99% of people here will never have a need to use crowd simulation software, so they can only speculate on what would be important if they did need it.

Still, I suppose it's better than nothing since it must be hard to find people who might need it.

 

[Steedie]

I don't think the input from most people here would really be that useful for your project. I'm sure 99% of people here will never have a need to use crowd simulation software, so they can only speculate on what would be important if they did need it.

Still, I suppose it's better than nothing since it must be hard to find people who might need it.

Yeah thats my biggest problem mate, thing is most people have experience with a crowd simuation, even if its indirectly through things like games. Dead Risings a good example, controlling all those zombies, or GTA, the npcs walking around the city

 

[cleanbluesky]

1. With a virtual Crowd Simulation, what are the key features that you expect to be in such a program? (e.g Realistic Behaviour, Dynamic Environments, Graphical User Interface etc)

Realistic Behaviour - including attention to potential polarisation, outliers within group, changes to group sizes and locust effect


2. In relation to the previous question, please place these attributes of a Crowd Simulation in your order of preference of most importance. Please give a brief explanation why you have chosen this order

Performance, Realism, Graphics, Interactivity


Realism - Should do what it says on the tin, otherwise all the others are useless
Interactivity - It would be nice to see how outcomes can be changed through altering variables
Performance - this would be a big bonus, but if neccessary a faster computer can be used for important research
Graphics - It is ultimately a functional tool, rather than just a pretty face


3. Have you had any experience with a Crowd Simulation before, witnessed one in action, or had to use one for personal/work reasons? If so, what features did you notice most and what did you dislike about your experience? If not, would you ever consider using one or are you likely to ever use one?

No

4. When you hear the term Crowd Simulation, what do you think of as its main use? Games, Films or Training Purposes

Study and Training

5. Finally, in real life, do you believe a crowd’s behaviour is influenced by the crowd as a whole, or by the actions and behaviour of individuals? Please give a brief description as to why

Depends on the size of the crowd, ultimately any crowd are composed of individuals who feed off each other, but as a crowd grows each individual tends to take greater and greater influence off of the mass itself