Playstation 3 exclusive Insomniac s Ratchet Clank Tools of Destruction Xbox 360 exclusive Bungie Halo 3 Playstation 3 exclusive Insomniac Ratchet Clank Tools of Destruction Lecture 1 Introduction Prof Aaron Lanterman School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology http www gametrailers com player 23668 html 2 Games are serious business Xbox 360 exclusive Bungie s Halo 3 Facts from www esa org Xbox 360 exclusive 7 4 billion revenues in 2006 Average player is 33 years old and has been playing for 12 years 36 percent of American parents play computer 80 percent of gamer parents play with their kids Bungie Halo 3 Blizzard press release World of Warcraft surpasses 9 million subscribers in July 2007 Playstation 3 exclusive Insomniac Ratchet Clank Tools of Destruction Monthly fee of 13 to 15 Do the math Stephen Johnson Everything Bad is Good for You How Today s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter Screenshot from www worldofwarcraft com burningcrusade imageviewer html images screenshots 65 241 http www gametrailers com player 11237 html 3 4 1 Our MPG class fills an industry need The realities of real time CPU GPU programming skill is the biggest hole they have They can t find students who can do it well Prof Blair MacIntyre The architectures we will look at are driven by real time constraints 60 frames per second 1 60 16 7 milliseconds Average performance is irrelevant it s the max that matters The biggest challenge facing game companies right now is the problem of writing multithreaded code that fully supports the multiple core architectures of the latest PCs and the next generation game consoles Jeremy Reimer Valve goes multicore In contrast most scientific applications can be handled offline If a programming genius like John Carmack can be so befuddled by mysterious issues coming from multithreaded programming what chance do mere mortals have Jeremy Reimer Crossplatform game development and the next generation of consoles Computers historically designed to work well in batch mode Near the end of the course we will discuss exploiting this kind of hardware for scientific applications http arstechnica com articles paedia cpu valve multicore ars http arstechnica com articles paedia hardware crossplatform ars GPGPU movement Sony s folding home 5 This is NOT a course on game design or This is only partially a graphics course No background in computer graphics required See CS4455 Video Game Design Make sure class is accessible to ECE majors Founded by Amy Bruckman in 1998 We will review a minimal amount of necessary background See CS4731 Game AI for the real deal on AI Geometric transformations backface culling clipping rasterization lighting texture mapping etc But we may dabble in AI just a little bit Also won t be talking about Emphasis will be on real time graphics We won t be talking about things like Handheld game devices That may change in the future 6 Perception Global illumination ray tracing radiosity photon mapping Alternative controllers Networking issues LAN parties MMORPGs etc Prototyping user testing Societal impact of games Gender and games Business issues organizational issues of large teams etc Although people are experimenting with putting such algorithms on GPUs Advanced animation techniques inverse kinematics See CS3451 CS6491 Computer Graphics CS4496 CS7496 Computer Animation CS4475 Computational Photography CS4480 Digital Video Special FX May incidentally touch upon some of the above issues 7 8 2 This is WILL be a course on Then vs Now Emphasis will be on games that simulate and depict realistic animated 3 D environments In the early days of computer games the designer and the programmer were often one and the same Algorithms Architectures Programming paradigms Practical target platforms Nowadays there are usually separate positions of producer lead designer lead artist lead programmer etc Xbox 360 Playstation 3 Windows PCs with NVIDIA or ATI graphics cards and a taste of Playstation 2 Theoretical target platforms Mac OS Linux What about the Wii 9 Taking a broad view of video games Two recurring themes Commercial game industry is brutal Theme 1 Hardware features influence game design Nov 2004 EA Spouse post ea spouse livejournal com Some companies get hundreds of resumes per week per listing If the Atari 400 gives you 4 sprites you ll naturally find something to do with those 4 sprites If a Playstation 3 can push a gazillion polygons developers feel obligated to provide a gazillion polygons 10 Driving budgets through the roof 100 person teams 30 programmers 70 artists Trend not sustainable With all the emphasis on 3 D realism could great games like Ms Pac Man or Balance of Power be made today www gamasutra com features 20050711 mcshaffry 01 shtml Think outside the box a bit Computer engineering Nothing is driving technological develop as fast as gaming Gaming experience gives future computer engineers insight Maybe you ll work for NVIDIA or ATI Maybe you ll work for Intel AMD or IBM Maybe you ll help design the Playstation 4 or Xbox 720 Game programming design think beyond the commercial industry Scientific potential of GPGPU Even if you never program any games multicore is the future That all said we d be totally thrilled if you got a job at Insomniac Bungie Blizzard Activision LucasArts etc Theme 2 Sufficient cleverness can sometimes overcome hardware limitations 11 12 3 Many opportunities for independent developers On line distribution Consoles hostile territory for indie developers 1 To sell games on a console you still must pass the gatekeepers at Sony Microsoft and Nintendo Code must be digitally signed to run Takes manufacturing costs out of the equation Brick mortar stores have limited shelf space on line services like Amazon Netflix etc can exploit the long tail Why are we still shipping boxes mostly full of air Piracy concerns Consoles supposed to provide safe environment Greg Costikyan s Manifesto Games Unlike PC users who are used to dealing with viruses spyware crashing programs Manufacturers worried about untrustworthy code screwing up people s consoles Want to ensure a uniform quality experience Same reasons Apple is wary about turning people lose on the iPhone Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software has been crafting oldschool 2 D and isometric RPGs as his full time job for over a decade Exile Nethergate Avernum Geneforge www spiderwebsoftware org They have more lawyers than you Makes house payments feeds kids 13
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