8

Priority Rollout 1087
try a different traversal of the lower-priority
delegate/biped’s motion flow graph. If necessary,
the system will back up two or more clips.
Priority R ollout
Create panel > Helpers > Object Type rollout > Crowd
> Priority rollout
Select a Crowd object. > Mo dify panel > Priority rollout
The Crowd system uses the Priority rollout
settings when solving a simulation involving
bipeds associated with delegates. The Priority
parameter is a positive integer assigned by the
user to a delegate. When priorities are used, the
Crowd simulation computes one biped at a time,
based on its priority setting
from lowest to highest ;
that is, a lower Priority setting means a higher
priority. If the priorities of two biped/delegates
are the same, the computation order of those two
biped/delegates is randomly determined.
This topic describes the six different ways of setting
a delegate’s priority, and how priorities might be
puttouseindifferentsituations.
Using Pri orities
Ifyouhavealargecrowdallgoinginonedirection,
you would typically want the delegates in front to
solve first. In that case, using Proximity To An
Object or Proximit y To A Grid would be useful in
setting pr iorities.
Inacasewhereyoustartwithacircleofbipeds,
and you want them all to wander and mingle, you
mightnotcareaboutthebipeds’priorities. You
could let them all have the same priority and let
the system decide which goes first. However, it
might be better to assign random priorities or
make priorities unique, so that you are guaranteed
thesameordereachtime,andyoucanreadthe
priority numbers to know what will happen next.
This a lso lets you change the order if you need to.
Suppose you have two groups of bipeds, all of
which are assigned random priorities. If you
wanted to keep the priority relationships within
each group, but make one group start after
or before the other, you could use Increment
Priorities to increment or decrement al l the
priorities in one group.
If none of the algorithms applies to your situation,
you need some way to set the priorities by hand.
It’s useful to be able to set them visually. That’s
what the Assign By Picking method is for.