ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to extend on previous work in the field of crowd rendering, focusing predominantly on the math, techniques, and optimizations that can be made for stadium crowds. It explores the use of instancing technology, deferred rendering and imposters in reducing the cost of rendering huge crowds on the graphics processor units (GPUs) without compromising the color consistency in the scene. Accurate seat and character placement is vital for creating a convincing stadium crowd representation. The chapter discusses the model data that used to generate imposters and the platform for accurately placing each one around the scene. The first content pipeline produces the character and seat data for the Atlas Rendering Phase. The second content pipeline provides the data for accurately positioning the authors' seat and character imposters around the stadium. The crowd mesh contains four data streams: vertex, billboard UVs, ambient occlusion UVs, and color. Each data stream has a special role to play in the system.
