ABSTRACT
Assuming a large population of agents (say, 30 or more being simulated at once), it is impractical for a single agent to query the animations of every other agent before playing an animation of its own. However, a single data structure available to all agents, such as a blackboard [Isla 02], can be used to store the relevant information in a manner that can be quickly checked for duplicates. When an agent needs to play an animation, the blackboard can be checked to ensure that no other character is playing the same animation within whatever time period is specified. Once an agent has permission, the blackboard is updated with the animation the agent has chosen to play.
