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A
Model for
Coordinating
Interacting
Agents
Paul
Lalonde,
Robert
Walker,
Jason
Harrison, and
David
Forsey
Appeared in Graphics Interface '94 (pp. 149-156; Banff, Alberta)
TR-93-53
ABSTRACT
SPAM (Simulated Platform for Animating Motion) is a simulation software
system designed to address synchronization issues pertaining to both animation
and simulation. SPAM provides application programs with the manipulation,
configuration, and synchronization tools needed when simulations are
combined to create animations. It is designed to be used as the glue
between applications that supply lists of the parameters to animate and the
callback procedures to invoke when a user wishes to modify the parameters
directly. SPAM does not impose a particular model of simulation, accommodating
keyframing, physical simulation, or a variety of other models, providing they
can be abstracted into a set of externally modifiable values.
In SPAM we recognize that the important part of simulation is not the state
of the system at each time step, but rather the change in states between
steps. Thus SPAM uses an interval representation of time, explicitly
representing the intervals over which change occurs.
In a complex animation or simulation, multiple actions will access the same
resource at the same time. SPAM defines a strategy for recognizing such
conflicts that increases the use and re-use of sequences.