Team Members: Sainan Chen, Tianqi Yang, Yizhou Chi, Huibo Yang
Birds are born to the sky, flapping their wings without constraints.
It’s always fascinating to observe the flock of birds flying off the
trees. Happily, freely, wandering around, they are flying so close,
but they will never collide with each other. It is such a scenery to
peek during sunset. We want to not only learn and simulate the
flying pattern of a flock of birds but also reproduce the scene
we’ve just described. There are two major challenges. We need to
firstly use appropriate algorithms (e.g., Boids) to simulate the
flock behaviors. The birds will be interacting with each other and
can also be influenced by the external factors like winds, scare,
and places to rest. Then, by applying suitable light tracing
methods, we want to make the flock reflect the environment lighting
in order to create beautiful images.
In this project, we will implement a 3D flocking simulation.
We extend the boids algorithm, which contains separation,
alignment and cohesion, by adding features like landing and
taking off from trees. Users can interact with the flock by
leading or scaring birds.
