As the simulation progresses, 20 times every second, each avatar will cumulate a utilization counter on the grid square they are on, and at the end of the cycle these utilizations are stored within the navigation grid itself. This provides a ‘record’ or statistics on where the environment was utilized and how it was. This data is used to create 4 different types of heatmaps:


Utilization

Maximum Density

Average Density

Average Speed

Sum of the total usage of that cell.

Highest recorded density, including neighbouring cells (up to 2.25m2).

Average of all densities recorded for that cell.

Average speed of avatars within that cell.


All heat maps have a grid resolution of 0.5m x 0.5m, (0.25m2). Each grid cell represents one pixel on the heatmap. When the ‘smooth’ option is enabled, each grid cell takes into account the surrounding neighbour cells, and averages them. For example in the middle of a room a cell will have 8 surrounding it, it will use these for its calculation to create an average. At the edge or in the corner of a room, there may only be 3-5 cells surrounding the cell, this is also taken into account and averaged, to create realistic densities near walls. 


The legend is automatic, ie the dark red on the scale, always automatically fits to the maximum in the data available. However you can adjust the maximum amount on the legend, so it’s easier to view a smaller range of information, eg 0.0 - 0.5 average densities.

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