Baa! A procedural game based on real-time flocking behaviour

Abstract

Simulating the natural movement of large groups of flocking animals has been a growing field of research within computer science since the 1980’s, largely because of its potential in performance optimisation. The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to combine this existing research in flocking behaviour with gameplay design and optimisation to create a procedural game with flocking as its main feature. To accomplish this, Unreal Engine 4 and C++ has been used as a working environment. The result is an optimised game where roughly 700 sheep in a flock can be present without a significant performance loss. The actual number of sheep used in the game, however, is significantly lower to make the game more playable.