Velocity-based compression of 3D rotation, translation, and scale animations for AAA video games

Abstract

In our previous publication [Goodhue 2017], we presented a prototype based on promising new techniques for how the state-of-the-art in animation compression for video game engines might be advanced. Later that year, we completed development on a production-quality version of that technology which has since seen active use in the ongoing production of future AAA titles. Many of our previous hypotheses were put to the test, and the algorithms were generalized to support translation and scale animations keys in addition to rotations. Having used this new technology for quite some time now, we were able to confirm our expectations regarding the sort of technical problems it presents, as well as how to solve them. We are also able to compare our results to other state-of-the-art techniques for the first time, thus confirming the efficacy of our method.