EUROGRAPHICS 2006 / E. Gröller and L. Szirmay-Kalos Volume 25 (2006), Number 3 (Guest Editors)

Official Sponsors

Graphics meets Games

M. Wimmer, T. Aila (editors) MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories

ISSN 1017-4656 Impressum c 2006 The Eurographics Association ISSN 1017-4656 Produced by: Institute of and Algorithms Technical University Vienna, A-1040, Austria Cover Design: Katharina Bruckner Print Preparation: Georg Zotti, TU Vienna September 4–8, 2006 Vienna, Austria

Graphics meets Games

Preface

These proceedings contain abstracts of all the items presented in the “Graphics meets Games” track at Eurographics 2006, the 27th Conference of the European Association for Computer Graphics, held in the buildings of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Austria, between the 4th and the 8th of September 2006. Digital games have paved the way for computer graphics to become a mainstream technology. Con- versely, computer graphics has elevated digital games to a popularity never seen before. Eurographics acknowledges this fact by dedicating a whole new program track to the interface between these two disciplines. Read on to learn more about the very first “Graphics meets Games” program, including special in- dustry talks, a panel, physical games, and an exciting competition! We would like to extend our special gratitude to Markus Giegl, who took care of the Graphics meets Games competition, and the European GameTools project for sponsoring the prizes for the competition, and Georg Zotti for his unrelenting efforts to get the proceedings you hold in your hand into print. Vienna, August 2006

Michael Wimmer, Timo Aila EG 2006 Graphics meets Games Co-Chairs

Published by The Eurographics Association ISSN 1017–4656 Graphics meets Games Track 1: Talks

Listen to well-known game community professionals in special game industry sessions, as they talk about new industry challenges and technologies at the interface between research and game development.

Graphics meets Games Session 1

Collada Remi Arnaud – Sony Computer Entertainment

Abstract Speaker’s Bio Remi joined the US is a royalty free stan- R&D department at dard 3D asset exchange format. Fostered by Sony Sony Computer En- Computer Entertainment to raise the quality of con- tertainment as Graph- tent and tools for consoles such as the PLAYSTA- ics Architect in 2003, TION 3 console, it is now an industry standard in where he designs the Khronos Group, also home of OpenGL, OpenGL PS3 graphics API ES. COLLADA has made quite a journey in its 3 and tools, such as years of existence. It is supported by all major DCC PSGL and COL- tools (3dsMax, Maya, XSI, Blender, ..) both in ex- LADA. Remi has a port and import, and used by many game develop- long experience in ers on all platforms. It is used as intermediate for- API and tools for mat by many game engines, such as , real-time graphics, C4 Engine, OGRE, and has advanced features such since he obtained his as FX and Physics, supported by specialized PhD in ‘Real-Time tools and libraries (FXComposer 2.0, PhysX, image Synthesis’ in 1994 while he was working in ,..), that are essential to nowaday’s content, but the R&D department of Thomson Training & Sim- unfortunately not available in any other standard ex- ulation designing Space Magic, a visual systems for change format. This talk will provide all the infor- civil and military applications. He moved to the USA mation needed to take advantage of this technology, in 1996 and worked for Silicon Graphics, working and provide some insights on its usage on the PS3. high-end features to IRIS Performer, a multi proces- sor optimized scene graph. He then decided to be more adventurous and co-founded Intrinsic Graphics and co-designed the Alchemy cross-platform , which is now owned by Activision.

2 Graphics meets Games Session 2

Gelato: Film Rendering on Game Hardware Eric Enderton – NVidia

Abstract Speaker’s Bio High-quality off-line rendering can be accelerated Eric Enderton has been with standard graphics hardware by using the hard- a leader in rendering and ware in somewhat non-standard ways. Since visibil- animation software for ity must be sampled at high rates in space and time, visual effects since 1990, shading is sampled in parameter space rather than when he joined Indus- screen space. To support displacement efficiently, trial Light & Magic as bounding box visibility queries are intermixed with their first full-time com- rendering. Transparency uses depth peeling. The re- puter graphics software sulting modified Reyes algorithm is implemented in engineer. His projects the NVIDIA renderer. there included the orig- Even so, film frames take minutes or hours, while inal NURBS stitching game frames render at over 30 Hz. However, the first program for Termina- frame of a game takes much longer. The problem tor 2 and ILM’s first is that every film frame is a first frame. Accelerated GUI lighting software for relighting is one solution we have implemented. Jurassic Park. He also founded and managed ILM’s production engineer- ing group. Eric went on to consult at several major film studios before joining NVIDIA in 2003, where he is a principal software engineer on Gelato, the first GPU-accelerated final frame renderer. Eric has degrees in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley.

3 Graphics meets Games Session 3: Game Architectures

Using Direct3D10 Peter-Pike Sloan – Microsoft

Abstract Speaker’s Bio Direct3D10 is the most recent evolution of graph- Peter-Pike Sloan has been in the Di- ics hardware/API and includes significant changes. rectX group at Microsoft for the past This talk will discuss the latest version of the shad- four years. Prior to that he was ing model (4.0), new pipeline stages like the geome- a member of the graphics group in try shader and other changes to pipeline and API that Microsoft Research, a staff mem- have occurred. It will also cover some of the tech- ber at the Scientific Computing and niques that leverage these features and ship in the Di- Imaging group at the University of rectX SDK: GPU Accelerated sparse morph targets, Utah and worked at both Evans and particle systems and procedural geometry. Sutherland and Parametric Tech- nologies. He is interested in most aspects of com- puter graphics and most of his publications are avail- able online.

Modern computer and video games rendering techniques and how they can be used besides games in other fields of computer graphics such as cinematic rendering Folker Schamel – Spinor

Abstract Speaker’s Bio The talk addresses current rendering techniques used in Folker Schamel heads the games, and future trends in development of the Shark this area. Furthermore, dif- 3D platform ferent techniques used for for consoles and com- facing the increasing complexity of game technol- puter games, broadcast- ogy are discussed, for example different approaches ing, simulation and other of efficient graphical tool pipelines, feature assem- high quality interactive bling techniques, modularization, and software archi- realtime 3d applications. tectures. A second aspect of the talk is the usage of A mathematical physicist by training, Folker has a such techniques in other areas of computer graphics, decade of experience in realtime 3d development for such as broadcasting and digital film. The experi- the computer and console games industry. ences at Spinor on the value, advantages and disad- As Spinor’s representative of the OpenGL specifica- vantages of the different techniques in such areas are tion consortium ARB, Folker takes actively part in presented. the work on the specification of OpenGL.

4 Graphics meets Games Session 4: Academia meets Industry

Discrepancy between research world and what actually works in games Matthias Müller-Fischer – Ageia

Abstract physics is still an open research field. While the vi- sual quality might not be as compelling, interactiv- Physically based simulation has ity brings a completely new dimension to simulation. been an active research field in We would like to encourage researchers to advance computer graphics for the last into this new and exciting direction. twenty years. In early years, real time simulation was not possible Speaker’s Bio due to the lack of computing power. Still today, most methods presented at conferences target offline use. Matthias Müller-Fischer received The main reason being the possibility of producing his Ph.D. on atomistic simu- more realistic and visually compelling results – typi- lation of dense polymer sys- cally used for special effects in movies – even though tems in 1999 from ETH Zurich interactive applications, especially computer games and changed fields to macro- represent a far greater market than the movie indus- scopic physically-based simula- try. tions during his post-doc 1999- Making physical simulation methods suitable for the 2001 with the MIT Computer use in movies is challenging. However, it is even Graphics Group. more challenging to make these methods work in In 2002 he co-founded NovodeX, games. A game typically runs at 40-60 fps and phys- now a subsidiary of AGEIA Inc., ical simulations only get a fraction of the 20 mil- the company developing the world’s first Physics liseconds per time step. In addition, the simulation Processing Unit (PPU) for games. He currently must be stable even in unphysical environments and works for AGEIA as a principal software engineer it must consume as little memory as possible. responsible for the development of hardware acceler- There is already a substantial body of work con- ated simulation software for real-time effects such as cerning offline simulations. In contrast, interactive fluids, cloth and rigid body animation.

Academia meets Industry – Panel Session

Issues in collaboration of game developers, researchers, and educators

Participate in a panel session with game developers, of Vienna, Austria. After two years of developer sup- researchers and middleware developers. port for IBM and smaller freelance games jobs he started working for Reality 2, a VR and LBE com- Participants pany that was based in Innsbruck in 1997. In 2000 he joined neo Software GmbH in Vienna which turned Tobias Sicheritz (moderator), Jaakko Lehtinen (Rem- into Rockstar Vienna in 2003. During his 6 years in edy Entertainment), Peter-Pike Sloan (Microsoft), the company, he held the positions of Lead Program- Sanjay Patel (Ageia, University of Illinois), Wolf- mer, Head of Game Development and Technical Di- gang Heidrich (UBC) rector. He is now partner in and Technical Director of ML Enterprises, an entertainment industry produc- Moderator’s Bio tion and licensing agency based in Munich, Germany. Tobias Sicheritz studied Computer Science at the Technical University

5 Graphics meets Games Track 2: Physical Games

Enter the game itself as GmG meets the physical reality in our physical games installations. These installations explore three different ways in which the physical reality can be used as an interaction tool in computer games.

VirtuSphere

Abstract mounted display, 3D sensors, sphere rotation track- ers, a computer, device drivers and 3D software ap- VirtuSphere is an international award winning prod- plications. uct that revolutionizes the way man interacts with The VirtuSphere is a result of over 45 man-years in- computers. vested into research and product development. "The The patented method and system provide infinite HIT Lab has been looking at omni-directional inter- space and the most immersive experience for simu- faces for some time, and we are convinced that Virtu- lated training, exercise and gaming to address a USD Sphere has developed the most elegant and effective 42B vis-sim market. solution for navigating within virtual environments," The VirtuSphere platform consists of a large hollow said Dr. Suzanne Weghorst, senior research scientist sphere that sits on top of a base and allows the sphere and assistant director of research at the University of to rotate 360 degrees. Wearing a wireless, head- Washington’s Human Interface Technology Lab. " mounted display, users can step inside the sphere to fully interact in immersive virtual environments. The Team VirtuSphere enables 6 degrees of freedom — one can move in any direction; walk, jump, roll, crawl, run Nurakhmed Latypov (CTO, Virtusphere, Inc., Co- over virtually unlimited distances without encounter- Inventor of VirtuSphere), Nurulla Latypov (COO, ing real-world physical obstacles. Virtusphere, Inc., Co-Inventor of VirtuSphere), VirtuSphere systems are made to client specifications Dr.Peter Panfilov (Associate Professor, Moscow and typically include an easy-to- assemble sphere, State Institute of Electronics and Mathematics - a base platform that enables it to rotate, a head- Technical University)

6 PongX

Abstract puter Graphics), Anton Fuhrmann (VRVis Research Center) The well known computer game Pong will be trans- ferred into a real-world game. A data projector shows the Pong playing field (including the ball) on the floor. Two people play against each other with real world tennis rackets that are optically tracked. While there are many examples transferring an exist- ing physical game into a computer game, this instal- lation goes the opposite path, recreating a game that originated as a computer game in the pysical reality.

Team Stefan Jeschke, Clemens Brandorf, Michael Wimmer (Vienna University of Technology, Institute for Com-

Neon Racer: Machination

Abstract per Austria University of Applied Sciences, Hagen- berg, AUSTRIA This installation is a combination of the successful Ary Setijadi Prihatmanto FAW, Johannes Kepler Uni- demos Augmented Coliseum [1] and NeonRacer [2] versity Linz, Linz, AUSTRIA and shows how robotics meets computer graphics in Masahiro Tomita, Masahiko Inami Department of the real world. Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems, Neon Racer: Machination is a multi-user Augmented The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Reality racing game adapting the simple and power- JAPAN ful gameplay of racing games to an Augmented Real- ity tabletop setting. The game combines an intuitive and tangible interface with quality content. The ac- tive setting for the game is provided by the real world. Physical objects and real robots act as collision obsta- cles and influence the course of the race itself. [1] http://www.avantgaming.com/ac.html [2] http://www.neonracer.net/

Team Doris Bernert, Wolfgang Litzlbauer, Ines Stuppacher, Manuela Waldner, Markus Weilguny, Peter Brandl, Juergen Zauner, Michael Haller Digital Media, Up-

7 Graphics meets Games Track 3: Competition

The challenge in the Graphics meets Games competition is to create a cool new graphics effect that could be useful for a computer game, and showcase it in a small 3D demo game. A special emphasis lies on interaction: If the player can interact with the effect or if it interacts with the environment (i.e., it is more than eye candy), maybe in some kind of physically based way (such as low-gravity, magical physics, zero-friction liquids, balls that multiply on collision, etc.), then all the better. In response to the call, we received a total of 17 submissions. The overall quality was very high, and the technical jury was faced with the tough decision to select a limited number of “contestants” for the final round of the competition. According to the call, the main selection criterion was the novelty and the interactivity of the shown effect(s). As a result, 8 contestants showing outstanding novelty were chosen to be showcased on a large screen on the games showfloor. Out of the 8 contestants, the audience chooses the game that shows the coolest and most novel in- teractive graphical effect, and thus selects the winner of this year’s competition – awarded with prizes sponsored by NVIDIA and the EU GameTools project!

Title & Description Authors Screenshot Coperspective Kam Wong, This work takes the simultaneous juxtaposition of multiple points Hector of view one step further by enabling two users interactively and Rodriguez jointly to determine the perspective of an image in real time. Each user interactively moves a separate virtual character inside a virtual room. The system then calculates an average of the points of view of the two individual characters and produces an image that combines both perspectives into one. In this work, is not merely an individual achievement. It is a joint, collaborative accomplishment produced in real time. Cubophobia Anton You are a ball - you are trapped in a cube - you do not remember Frühstück, when and why this happened. Strange things happen in this cube, Heinrich Fink so you decide to escape...

pingK Alexander This game takes Pong and creates a different gameplay Kusternig, Chris experience by adding rotational physics that might not be Chiu, Georg realistic, but they are fun! Various powerups also add a slight Semanek twist to the classical Pong gameplay! Enjoy new matches that were never possible in the original Pong!

8 Title & Description Authors Screenshot Raytrace Effects Car Driving Game Tamás This is a small demo program showing raytrace-like effects such Umenhoffer, as reflections, refractions, caustics and diffuse reflections. The László program uses the OGRE 3D graphics engine and the PhysX Szirmay-Kalos, . Balázs Tóth, László Szécsi "RealMatter" Soft Body Character Dynamics Alec Rivers, When shooting a zombie with a rocket launcher causes him to David Rosen, simply curl to the floor, video game players lose a sense of Aubrey Serr immersion and the suspension of disbelief is broken. The future of video game realism lies with soft body physics simulation, which allows for the simulation of everything from an exploding zombie to a splintering door to a collapsing building. However, existing methods of soft body physics simulation have been too slow for use in interactive video games. We present three demos of the first soft body physics engine capable of simulating dozens of high-detail soft bodies simultaneously in real time.

Realtime Radiosity Bugs Stepan Hrbek, Bugs sneak in dark corners. Hunt them! (In fact, they are Space Petr Stastny Invaders!) The presented effect is global illumination computed in real time. Think about bug behaviour, it’s possible only with realtime radiosity.

Robot Dancer Jorik Blaas, This highly interactive game contains a playful combination of Edwin Jakobs rigid body dynamics and musical synchronization. The user can experiment by linking the instruments from a musical score directly to forces and torques on the bodyparts of a 3D model. Robot dancer uses an innovative user interface to present the wealth of information generated by the music clearly.

Shell Shock Alistair Brown Shell Shock is a demo game to showcase a new method of visualising explosions in real-time. The user aims and fires an artillery turret that upon impact creates a massive explosion. The explosions are physically simulated using smoothed particle hydrodynamics, and are visualised using a new technique, semi-screen space iso-surface rendering. Other effecs such as volumetric glow and a shockwave that refracts light also add to the realism.

9 EUROGRAPHICS 2006 / E. Gröller and L. Szirmay-Kalos Volume 25 (2006), Number 3 (Guest Editors)

Official Sponsors

Graphics meets Games

M. Wimmer, T. Aila (editors) MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories

ISSN 1017-4656