10/13/20101Hardware Matters – Multiplatform Game DevelopmentBrian ApgarTechnical DirectorBuzz Monkey SoftwareGame Development Is Hard!z Technically difficultShdl &t flitzSchedule pressure & team conflictsz But... it's challenging workz It's creativez It's always changingA d it CS th th di i lizAnd it uses more CS than any other discipline I've come across...10/13/20102Aside #1 – Relevant CSz Obviously graphics & AIData structures & algorithmszData structures & algorithmsz Computer architecturez Compilersz Operating SystemszMultithreadingzMultithreadingz Networkingz Even databases!How Do I Get In?z What do I look for in entry-level candidates?S lid CS b k dzSolid CS background z Solid C++ knowledgez Problem solving ability, and quick learningz Working with a team in a meaningful wayCitiithi−Communications with non-engineersz Passion for games10/13/20103Passion For Games?z How do you judge THAT?Ntj t“I l LOT”zNot just “I play games a LOT”z Demo is great (obviously) z Awareness of issues in game development is good, too (although harder to see) zThat's what we're talking about todayzThat s what we re talking about today...Aside #2 – How The Industry WorksPblihConsoleRtilESRBPublisherConsole ManufacturerLicense HolderRetailerWAL-MARTSonyNintendoMicrosoftEAMicrosoftActivisionUniversalDeveloperWarner Bros.SonyUniversalEAMicrosoftBuzz Monkey10/13/20104Aside #3 – Critical Issuesz Performance!F t b d titizFeature creep based on competitionz Memory footprintz Load timesz Performance!Back To The Technical Side...z So you're working on a game, and the publisher says it has to be multi-platformsays it has to be multiplatform...z Why would they do that?z What does that mean to an engineer?10/13/20105How Do Platforms Differ?z High-end versus low-end PCsD ti diff i CPU GPU−Dramatic differences in CPU, GPU, memoryz PC versus consolesz Console differencesz Bigger differencesMulti-core−Multi-core− Shadersz Input systems (keyboard/mouse, controller, Wiimote, Kinect, PSMove, etc)Lowest Common Denominatorz Approach generally doesn't work.Plithhihdh d tt t k−People with high-end hardware want to take advantage of it...z Enabling features based on hardware− Common in PC gamesz Means that the code support needs to be ttlltipresent at all times.z What about consoles?10/13/20106More Low-Level Hardware Differencesz Cache. Both d-cache and i-cache.Hi hdPCh28MB L2h−High-end PC has 2-8MB L2 cache.− PS2 has 16kB data & 8kB instruction− PS3 has 32kB data & 32kB instruction (PPU) z Bus bandwidth− Bus contention becomes a big deal as resources become biggerz Fill-rateWhat Can We Do About It?z Different content per-platformBi i−Business issue− Development time− Team sizesz Tool pipeline to massage data into platform-specific formatsz Algorithms that can scale − AI?− Physics?z Performance / memory tradeoffs10/13/20107What We Can Do, Part 2z Abstraction layersPerformance issues?−Performance issues?z C++ versus C code− Performance issues?z Data planes− Effect on cache− Effect on code & maintenanceConclusion, Sort Of...z Design code for flexibility and performance at all levelslevels.z Yes, that's really hard.Any questions about this or game developmentAny questions, about this, or game development in
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