FEBURARY/MARCH 1997 GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE GGAMEAEM GAME PLAN MMX Germinates Pod Editor Alex Dunne hile some debate continues were very surprising. That was one of the [email protected] as to the significance of good surprises of MMX.” Managing Editor Tor Berg MMX technology for Helias said that while the Ubi Soft [email protected] today’s game developers, sound team immediately profited from Editorial Assistant Chris Minnick there is at least one compa- the new instructions, the team members [email protected] ny which capitalized on the who created POD’s 3D engine found that Contributing Editors Larry O’Brien MMX launch hype, that getting it to work with MMX was a [email protected] being Paris-headquartered longer process, since the project (and Chris Hecker WUbi Soft. Ubi Soft’s latest game, POD, much of the 3D engine design) started six [email protected] puts you behind the wheel of a customiz- months before Ubi Soft had any specifics David Sieks able race car on a closed track. While on implementing MMX technology. [email protected] that’s not exactly an earth-shattering What advice does Helias give to Web Site Manager Phil Keppeler concept, the game offers good playability developers beginning a project using [email protected] and great graphics and Dolby surround MMX? “You have to change the way you Cover Art sound thanks to MMX, and Intel held it program,” he said. “Include MMX tech- Vector Graphics up at their launch event in San Francisco nology in your structures and algorithms Publisher/Group Director as a model of MMX capabilities. Behind from the start.” KoAnn Vikoren Associate Publisher every game, there’s a story waiting to be Information on POD and a shareware told by the developers, and Bertrand version of the game (two are available, one Cindy Blair (415) 905-2210 Helias, the lead programmer on the POD that’s optimized for MMX and one that’s [email protected] project, explained what it was like work- not) are on the Ubi Soft web site: http:// Western Regional Sales Manager ing with the new MMX instruction set. www.ubisoft.com/usgames/pod2.html. Tony Andrade (415) 905-2156 Helias told me that POD was devel- [email protected] oped by a team of 14 programmers, 5 of Interplay Saves whom worked directly on the MMX World, Buys Dodgers Marketing Manager Susan McDonald portions of the project. The team used I recently received a couple of press releas- Marketing Graphic Designer Azriel Hayes Watcom C/C++ for most of the project, es from Interplay that definitely didn’t fol- Advertising Production Coordinator Denise Temple and, when developing the assembly mod- low conventional PR guidelines. In the Director of Production ule, they dropped into Microsoft Macro first release, Interplay’s CEO Brian Fargo Andrew A. Mickus Assembler (MASM). Helias said that announced that he would be offering mili- Vice President/Circulation Jerry M. Okabe approximately 10-15% of the total POD tary strategists in the Pentagon free copies Group Circulation Manager Mike Poplardo code was rewritten for the MMX chip — of its just released game M.A.X: MECHA- Assistant Circulation Manager Jamai Deuberry NIZED SSAULT XPLORATION about what Intel has said developers A & E to off- Subscription Marketing Manager Melina Kaplanis should expect for an MMX optimization. set government budget cutbacks. Fargo Newsstand Manager Eric Alekman I asked Helias what surprised him was quoted saying “If we are to be ready to about working with MMX. “My first deal with all threats, both terrestrial and Reprints Stella Valdez (916) 729-3633 thought,” Helias explained, “was that it extraterrestrial, the Pentagon’s long-range would be very interesting: 57 new planning must have access to every Chairman/CEO Marshall W. Freeman instructions using 64-bit registers. Ouah! resource without the restrictions of bud- President/COO Donald A. Pazour But after we began to use it, we expected get.” Yeah. In a second release, Fargo Senior Vice President/CFO Warren “Andy” Ambrose other instructions. For example, there is implored 10,000,000 Dodger fans to each Senior Vice Presidents David Nussbaum, Darrell no instruction to transfer a 64-bit MMX purchase a copy of Interplay’s VR BASE- Denny, Ted Bahr, Wini D. Ragus, Regina Ridley register in two 32-bit Pentium registers. BALL ‘97 so that the company could make Vice President/Production Andrew A. Mickus And there are some limitations when you a bid on the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now, I pass from an MMX module to a float can buy the need to beef up our extrater- Vice President/Circulation Jerry Okabe one. But for sound, the MMX is espe- restrial defenses. But c’mon. There’s not Senior Vice President/ cially interesting. Our sound program- 10,000,000 Dodger fans in the universe. ■ Software Development Division Regina Starr Ridley mers quickly found new opportunities Alex Dunne Miller Freeman with the new instructions and the results Editor A United News & Media publication 4 GAME DEVELOPER • MARCH 1997 http://www.gdmag.com/ SEZ U! BETTER OFF WITH TALISMAN? depth buffer. And to simulate some, but not and C++, and there is no question which one Dear Editor: all, three-dimensional motion effects, Talis- is easier to implement. n the beginning was the sprite. And the man lets the game developer distort the dis- If you're a Windows 95 Developer, I can't see game developer saw that it was good, for it play of the sprite using affine transformations. any reason why you wouldn't want to give Del- Iwas a computationally efficient way of rep- But fundamentally, the three-dimensional phi a try. I've been using the RingZero GDK 1.1 resenting moving objects on the screen. world must still be represented by two-dimen- from SAGE Inc. for about six months now, and Alas, the sprite also had deficiencies, for to sional sprites and is again held captive by the I'm very pleased with the performance. You display a three-dimensional scene with sprites many limitations that they impose. can find MegaRoids 3D, one of my Delphi/ required that the sprites be sorted and dis- Is the game developer better off with Talis- DirectX demos, on their web site. played in depth order. Also, since sprites are man? Does Talisman truly save the game I'm also glad to see some other DirectX compo- inherently two-dimensional images, scenes developer? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide. But nents on the market. Looks like Delphi may that require interaction between concave or be forewarned — there is no free lunch. have a future in game development. interpenetrating objects might not be able to Anonymous Dave Scarbrough be drawn using sprites. However, if the game Via e-mail Via e-mail developer was able to design the game to bypass the limitations of the sprite, highly SEEKING STOUT’S SOURCE PROBLEMS WITH interactive games could be written — even on Dear Editor: GD CODE ARCHIVES relatively slow computers. enjoyed Bryan Stout's article "Smart Move: Dear Editor: Thus the sprite begat the depth buffer, which Path-Finding" (October/November 1996). I have every issue of Game Developer, and overcame the limitations of the sprite by Iespecially liked the PathDemo program. I I've been very content with the quality of recording depth at each pixel on the screen. would like to know if you can send me the Ithe articles. I have been disappointed with The depth buffer is truly a robust device for source code, as I would like to slightly modify the lack of quality control within the source displaying all kinds of three-dimensional it for a project I am working on. code listings, however. There have been miss- scenes. But the game developer despaired at Stephen Hadley ing files in code archives, often there aren't the added computational cost that the depth Via e-mail instructions on how to compile them. Problems buffer entailed, since it required a depth com- like these make readers doubt your ability to parison at each pixel. Fortunately, the hard- Bryan Stout replies: deliver quality information, and these days ware vendors of the world came to the rescue I'm not sure this program is the best way for using the Internet, just one discontented read- of the game developer by accelerating the you to see artificial intelligence implemented. er can electronically inform thousands of pos- functions of the depth buffer in hardware and This — and all the other algorithms I used— sible subscribers to not purchase a magazine. relieving the game developer of the need to are sliced into bits distributed here and there to Ravi Singh write fast, slick rendering code. Thus, the allow the search to be paused and resumed and Via e-mail game developer could concentrate on produc- parameters to be changed midstream. A good ing superior game play instead. And the game place to research AI is Steve Woodcock's game Alex Dunne replies: developer saw that the depth buffer was good, AI web site: http://www.cris.com/~swoodcoc/ You are correct to feel this way. We make every even better than the sprite. ai.html. There, he has pointers to code imple- effort to ensure that source code archives are Then, from on high in Redmond, sprang forth mentations of AI. complete, but sometimes code samples are Talisman to save the game developer. Talis- delivered to us late, or we accidentally omit a man combines depth buffers with sprites and DOIN’ IT WITH DELPHI file from the archives. However, any questions throws in affine transformations for good mea- Dear Editor: or concerns about code printed in the maga- sure.