Improved Shortest Path Maps with GPU Shaders

TL;DR

This paper introduces GPU shader-based improvements for computing shortest path maps in 2D environments, enabling real-time queries without CPU pre-computation and supporting multiple source types.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel GPU-based method using Compute Shaders for efficient, real-time shortest path map computation without CPU pre-processing, handling various source types.

Findings

Achieves real-time shortest path map computation on GPU

Supports both point and line segment sources

Ensures globally optimal paths for animated agents

Abstract

We present in this paper several improvements for computing shortest path maps using OpenGL shaders. The approach explores GPU rasterization as a way to propagate optimal costs on a polygonal 2D environment, producing shortest path maps which can efficiently be queried at run-time. Our improved method relies on Compute Shaders for improved performance, does not require any CPU pre-computation, and handles shortest path maps both with source points and with line segment sources. The produced path maps partition the input environment into regions sharing a same parent point along the shortest path to the closest source point or segment source. Our method produces paths with global optimality, a characteristic which has been mostly neglected in animated virtual environments. The proposed approach is particularly suitable for the animation of multiple agents moving toward the entrances or exits of a virtual environment, a situation which is efficiently represented with the proposed path maps.