Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Telekinesys Research Limited

Nvidia Corporation

Oliver Michael Strunk

Maxwell Simon Abernethy

Nikola Nikolic

Milan Simic

Petar Mitrovic

Rory Mullane

Pavle Josipovic

Eoin McLoughlin

Andrew Nicholas Bond

Milos Jovanovic

Janos Benk

Nathanael Presson

Adrian Gasinski

Simon G Green

Mark J Harris

Michael Alexander Buschbeck

Yuri Pekelny

Alexander Sven Fichtner

David Davidovic

Norbert Nemec

Pavle Popovic

Jad Nohra

A physics engine executed on a processor to simulate real-time rigid body dynamics of a simulated physical system with a minimizing function between initial velocities and intermediate solver velocities is provided. The physics engine may be configured to iteratively loop through a collision detection phase, an iterative solving phase, updating phase, and display phase. The physics engine may be configured to store initial velocities for colliding pairs of bodies. The physics engine may be further configured to determine intermediate solver velocities for the colliding pairs of bodies based on accumulated results of constraint solving for each pair of bodies. The physics engine may be further configured to calculate friction velocities for that colliding pair of bodies based on the stored initial velocities and the intermediate solver velocities using a minimization function, and apply a friction force or impulse based on the calculated friction velocities.

Minimization function for friction solving

A physics engine executed on a processor to simulate rigid body dynamics of a simulated physical system using an inertia scaling function is provided. The physics engine may be configured to iteratively loop through a collision detection phase, an iterative solving phase, updating phase, and display phase. The physics engine may further be configured to determine a neighboring body weighting value for one or more of the plurality of bodies, and determine an inertia scaling value for the one or more of the plurality of bodies based on the neighboring body weighting value for that body. The physics engine may further be configured to scale an inertia value for a body of that colliding pair of bodies based on the inertia scaling value for the iterative solving phase.

Inertia scaling based on neighboring bodies

A computing device is provided, comprising a processor configured to execute a physics engine. The physics engine is configured to, during narrowphase collision detection of a collision detection phase, identify a set of convex polyhedron pairs, each including a first convex polyhedron from a first rigid body and a second convex polyhedron from a second rigid body. The physics engine is further configured to, for each convex polyhedron pair, determine a separating plane. The physics engine is further configured to perform neighbor welding on pair combinations of the convex polyhedron pairs during the narrowphase collision detection to thereby modify the separating planes of at least a subset of the convex polyhedron pairs. The physics engine is further configured to determine collision manifolds for the convex polyhedron pairs, including for the subset of convex polyhedron pairs having the modified separating planes.

Physics engine with collision detection neighbor welding

A computing device, including a processor configured to execute a physics engine. At a first time step, the physics engine may, for a first body located at a first position, determine a non-collision region bounded on a side by a separation plane such that when the first body is within the non-collision region, the first body does not collide with a second body. The physics engine may apply lossy compression to the separation plane to generate a compressed separation plane, and may determine a first conservative distance vector between the first body and the compressed separation plane. At a second time step, the physics engine may move the first body to a second position, determine a second conservative distance vector between the first body and the compressed separation plane, and translate the compressed separation plane based on the second position and the second conservative distance vector.

Separation plane compression

A physics engine executed on a processor to simulate real-time rigid body dynamics of a simulated physical system with permissive penetration functionality is provided. The physics engine may be configured to iteratively loop through a collision detection phase, solving phase, updating phase, and display phase. When a penetration between a pair of bodies is due to an initial penetration from a prior collision detection phase, the physics engine may permit the initial penetration between the pair of objects during the current solving phase by not applying a bias or position change to correct for the initial penetration. Also the physics engine may be configured to detect geometry changes and modify the initial penetration distance accordingly.

Physics engine with permissive rigid body penetration

A computer-implemented technique is described herein for generating a digital representation of real-world surfaces in an environment. The technique involves receiving sensor data captured by one or more depth-sensing devices. The technique then provides a low-detail (LD) representation of surfaces in the physical environment based on the sensor data; that LD representation describes one or more planes in the physical environment. The technique then generates a high-detail (HD) representation of the surfaces based on the sensor data and the LD representation. Finally, the technique provides an output result based on the LD representation and/or the HD representation. According to one illustrative aspect, the technique produces the HD representation such that it is non-duplicative of information that is already present in the LD representation. The technique performs this task by identifying and excluding HD information that is already adequately represented by the LD representation.

Using a low-detail representation of surfaces to influence a high-detail representation of the surfaces

A computing device, including a processor configured to execute a physics engine. The physics engine may, for a first body having a first position and a velocity vector, determine that a second position along the velocity vector is located outside a first non-collision region for the first body and a second body. The physics engine may determine a safe position along the velocity vector at which the first body would lie tangent to a first separation plane. The physics engine may determine an advanced position along the velocity vector between the safe position and the second position, and may determine an advanced separation plane. The advanced separation plane may have an advanced normal vector based on the advanced position. The physics engine may move the first body to a new position based on the velocity vector and the advanced separation plane.

Collision detection with advanced position

A computing system, including at least one imaging sensor configured to collect imaging data of a physical environment. The computing system may further include a processor configured to generate, based on the imaging data, a first anchor graph including a first plurality of anchors connected by a first plurality of edges. Each anchor of the first plurality of anchors may indicate a respective estimated position in the physical environment. The processor may be further configured to detect a change in the estimated position of at least one anchor of the first plurality of anchors relative to the at least one imaging sensor. Based on the change in the estimated position, the processor may reposition the first anchor graph relative to the at least one imaging sensor. Estimated lengths of the first plurality of edges and estimated angles between the first plurality of edges may remain fixed.

Anchor graph

A method and apparatus wherein complex physical interactions and collisions are modeled at a high level of detail while reducing the computational demands placed on the processing system. In one embodiment the method comprising the steps of defining a first object and a second object, each object adapted for colliding with the other object; assigning an interaction type for at least one of the first and second object in response to an object parameter; and selecting between a continuous simulation of a collision and a discrete simulation of the collision in response to the interaction type.

Physics simulation apparatus and method

A graphics processing unit calculates transformation matrices for changes to the position and orientation of objects. The graphics processing unit applies the transformation matrices to vertices of objects to be rendered.

Apparatus, system, and method for rendering objects with position and orientation computed on a graphics processing unit

A graphics system supports arrays of cube map textures. In one implementation, a cube map texture is utilized as an index into a set of cube map textures. The set of cube map textures may further be arranged into an atlas of two-dimensional textures.

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Munich, Germany

Oliver Michael Strunk