Highly scalable cluster engine for hosting simulations of objects interacting within a space

A method for simulating objects in a three-dimensional virtual space, comprising:

• determining a target object by virtue of a change in position or condition;
• identifying gill padding spheres, enclosing cubes in an octree defined in the three-dimensional virtual space, overlapped at least partially by a visibility sphere associated uniquely with the target object;
• identifying objects within or overlapping each of the intersected padding spheres as candidate objects;
• determining a visibility ratio for each candidate object as a maximum dimension of the object relative to dimensions of the three-dimensional virtual space, divided by distance of the candidate object from the target Object;
• comparing the visibility ratio for each candidate object to a threshold ratio;
• deeming each object to be visible if the visibility ratio for the object is equal to or greater than the threshold ratio;
• and
• rendering the target object and the objects deemed visible in the display.

A system for simulating objects in a three-dimensional virtual space, comprising:

• a host computing node coupled to a network and executing a simulation engine from a non-transitory storage medium;
• padding spheres defined in the three-dimensional virtual space, one padding sphere fully encasing each cube in an octree:
• a plurality of objects defined in the three-dimensional virtual space, each object tracked for position in the three-dimensional virtual space;
• a light source at a known position in the three-dimensional virtual space, the light source having a radial boundary of a specific diameter, and a visibility sphere of a specific diameter;
• a camera viewpoint at a specific position in the three-dimensional virtual space;
• and
• at least one display, displaying objects in the three-dimensional virtual space;
• wherein a search is initiated to determine objects to be rendered in the display, a first step in the search comprising identifying all padding spheres overlapped at least partially by the visibility sphere of the light source as candidate padding spheres, and identifying objects within or overlapping the candidate padding spheres as visible, to be rendered in the display, and a second step comprising constructing a visibility cone having a vertex at the camera viewpoint and a base diameter at the radial boundary of the light source, and discovering objects at least partially overlapped by the visibility cone, the overlapped objects also identified as visible, all objects identified as visible rendered in the display.

A system for simulating objects in a three-dimensional virtual space, comprising:

• a host computing node coupled to a network and executing a simulation engine from a non-transitory storage medium;
• padding spheres defined in the three-dimensional virtual space, one padding sphere fully encasing each cube in an octree;
• a plurality of objects defined in the three-dimensional virtual space, each object having a specific recorded mass, and a visibility radius and tracked for position in the three-dimensional virtual space;
• and
• at least one display, displaying objects in the three-dimensional virtual space;
• wherein, upon one of the objects becoming a target object by virtue of a change in position or condition, a search is initiated to determine objects to be rendered in the display, a first step in the search comprising identifying all padding spheres overlapped at least partially by the visibility radius of the target object as candidate padding spheres, and identifying objects within or overlapping the candidate padding spheres as candidates to be visible, to be rendered in the display, and a second step comprising determining a gravity force between the target object and each candidate object according to the masses of the objects and the distance between the objects, determining each object to be visible if the determined gravity force between the object and the target object is equal to or greater than a threshold gravity force, all objects identified as visible rendered in the display.