Remember that Digital Emily video I posted last year? The one by Image Metrics? Well we finally get an explanation of the technology behind the making of this video. Paul Debevec, who created the techniques behind this technology, takes us behind the scenes to watch the real life Emily, turn into Digital Emily. Which is hard to distinguish if you’re not looking closely. Oh, who am I kidding? I can’t tell which one is real and which one is digital. Just watch.

Paul Debevec leads the Graphics Laboratory at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies and is a master of HDRI technology.

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From/De: Capcom

CAPCOM REVEALS SHIP DATE FOR RESIDENT EVIL 5 FOR THE PC

A Whole New Dimension of Horror Comes to PC Fans

Capcom is pleased to announce that Resident Evil 5 for the PC will release on September 15, 2009 in North America and September 18 th in Europe. PC gamers will get the ultimate Resident Evil package in the new PC version as new features will include NVIDIA®’s new GeForce® 3D Vision technology (wireless 3D Vision glasses sold separately), new costumes and a new and improved mercenaries mode with three times as many enemies.

Fans that pick up the PC version will be the first to experience stereoscopic 3D out of screen effects as their living rooms are transformed into the world of Kijuju. Infected Majini coming at players from every angle, dust flying in and out of screen and the scariest bosses to date are taken up a notch . Resident Evil 5 PC is a whole new level of fear players will never forget. The game also supports Stereoscopic 3D in all of its cut scenes – an industry first.

These groundbreaking stereoscopic 3D effects were developed in close cooperation with NVIDIA, which is why the game is part of NVIDIA’s “The Way It’s Meant To Be Played” partnership program. Resident Evil fans can check out the 3D action for themselves today as a new stereo 3D tech demo with benchmark is available to download today on NVIDIA’s official site at http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_re5_downloads.html . To find out more info on NVIDIA’s GeForce 3D Vision technology, click on the link here, http://www.nvidia.com/3dvision/ .

If you can ’ t get enough of RE5 for the PC, it will be making its public debut at Comicon 2009 in Booth #5133 in full 3D . It will also be shown to thousands of gamers at this year’ s Penny Arcade Expo in the Fall. More details on the game will be hitting in the upcoming months.

About Resident Evil 5

From the ashes of old conflicts, a new terror arises. The Umbrella Corporation and its crop of lethal viruses have been destroyed and contained. But a new, more dangerous threat has emerged. Years after surviving the events in Raccoon City, Chris Redfield has been fighting the scourge of bio-organic weapons all over the world. Now a member of the Bio-terrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSSA), Chris is sent to Africa to investigate a biological agent that is transforming the populace into aggressive and disturbing creatures. Joined by another local BSSA agent, Sheva Alomar, the two must work together to solve the truth behind the disturbing turn of events. Featuring a revolutionary new co-op mode of gameplay, Resident Evil 5 will let players experience fear together as terror moves out of the shadows and into the light of day.

Co-producer and series veterans Jun Takeuchi (Lost Planet) and Masachika Kawata (Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles) unleash an unprecedented level of fear for the new generation in Resident Evil 5, the sequel to one of the highest-rated videogames in history according to Metacritic.com and Gamerankings.com. Promising to revolutionize the series by delivering an unbelievable level of detail, realism and control, Resident Evil 5 is certain to bring new fans to the series. Incredible changes to both the gameplay and world of Resident Evil make this a must-have game for gamers across the globe.

The Resident Evil series has sold over 40 million units since the original game was released in 1996 and has spawned a multi-million dollar trilogy of films from Sony Pictures. The latest installment of the game, Resident Evil 5 promises to revolutionize the series just as Resident Evil 4 did.

Fore more information and the latest assets, check out Capcom’s official press center at www.press.capcom.com.

ABOUT CAPCOM

Capcom is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment for game consoles, PCs, handheld and wireless devices. Founded in 1983, the company has created hundreds of games, including best-selling franchises Resident Evil®, Street Fighter®, Mega Man® and Devil May Cry®. Capcom maintains operations in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Korea, with corporate headquarters located in Osaka, Japan. More information about Capcom can be found on the company web site, www.capcom.com.

So liebe Leutz. Dieses Update kommt ganz frisch! Wie einige von euch wissen, wollen wir ja Giga Mansion 2 in einen frischen Comic-Look packen. Dafür gab es einige wirklich gute Ideen im Team, und die werden jetzt natürlich Stück für Stück umgesetzt. Eine Idee ist jetzt nahezu in der Endphase der Implementation. Es handelt sich um die “Sprechblasen”. Henning hat dafür die Freizeit seiner letzten Wochen genutzt, und so funktioniert es:

Bibliotheken wie SDL bieten einem die Möglichkeit mit wenigen Schritten elementare Grundformen auf dem Bildschirm zu zeichnen. Genau diese machen wir uns nun zu nutze. Denn die variable Länge und der unterschiedliche Aufbau eines Satzes würden es schwer machen nur mit einfachen .png oder .jpg eine Sprechblase hinter den Satz zu hängen. Immerhin wollen wir ja dieses Element auf den gesprochenen Satz speziell zuschneiden. Viel einfacher ist es daher mit der Engine selbst diese Elemente zu zeichnen.

Wie das ganze nun aktuell in der Tech-Demo aussieht, könnt ihr in den folgenden Bildern sehen:

Was nun folgt, ist die Implementierung dieses Features in das Game selber. Damit wäre dann ein weiterer Punkt, unter der großen Liste abzuhaken.

Ebenfalls gute Nachrichten gibt es aus der Zeichenfront. Evtl. gibt es bald die Möglichkeit ein erstes Bild eines weiteren spielbaren Charakters zu präsentieren.

Stay Tuned
Euer GM2-Team…
… mit Benjamin

WOW! Всички знаем, че новият iPhone 3G S е по-мощен от останалите iДивайси. Колко по-мощен обаче? Видеото което ще видите след малко, няма да ви даде точен отговор, но със сигурност ще ви помогне да придобиете по-ясна представа

Става въпрос за култовата игра на Firemint – Real Racing [app store] която в сегашният си вид изглежда чудесно. Както сигурно знаете, играта без проблеми се конкурира, че дори задминава DS-то и PSP-то и определено е правилният избор за демонстриране на моща на играчката ви
В нормална игра, Real Racing позволява наличието на до 6 коли на екрана. За да демонстрират колко мощен е iPhone 3G S-а обаче, Firemint са решили да “вдигнат летвата… малко” добавяйки 10, 12, 16, 20… 40 коли! Мда, сладурите са успели да докарат 40 коли на екрана, без осезаем дроп в производителността! А причината това да е впечатляващо, се дължи на факта че играта ползва “реалистичен” физичен енджин, и повечето коли наистина натоварват системата. Но стига приказки, просто гледайте:

Все пак е важно да знаете, че това е TECH DEMO и Firemint нямат планове да го пускат “на пазара”
Въпреки това – крайно впечатляващо!

Източник: Firemint 3GS Tech Demo [Firemint Real Racing Blog]

Wow two Jimmy Fallon clips in as many days. He’s picking up popularity with a generation that loves Saved by the Bell and video games. I’m sold!

- Jason

Aus den alten Versionen von OpenEngineer und Libertine habe ich nun alle Quellen beisammen, um in Machine den Solver für Schwarm und Fluid einbauen zu können. Die ersten Schritte sind getan und der Bilanzraum mit Fluid Teilchen können in Machine nun dargestellt werden. Ich versuche alles gleich im neusten Programmierstil umzusetzen, da ich mit Spannung den Release von OpenCL erwarte…

It’s been a while, but we’ve got something special for you: Our second techdemo!

Our focus for this techdemo:

• Better dialog system.
• Sounds
• Bigger room.
• (Dynamic) Lighting.
• Postprocessing (Edge Detection).

We haven’t established any goals for our next demo. Anyhows, the system requirements have changed a bit. A pixel shader 3.0 video card is now required to run the demo. Also you need to have the following frameworks installed on your machine. These are the same as the last time:

• Microsoft XNA Framework 3.0 (7.6 MB)
• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (22.4 MB, not required for Windows Vista

Download link: Cyl Techdemo #2

And of course, a gameplay video for the people incapable of running the demo themselves:

Hope you all enjoy it. We’re going to celebrate the holidays with our families now. Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Mit dem nun einigermaßen funktionierenden Menü habe ich angefangen OpenEngineer nach Linux zu portieren. Endlich kann ich ohne Windows GUI’s oder sonstige Widgets Menüs bauen und Cross-Plattform anwenden. Im Bild unten die ersten geometrischen Flächen in “Machine” – dem neuen OpenEngineer.

Irgendwie hakt die Entwicklung an Libertine Online. Die Handhabung von zoidcom fällt mir viel zu schwer, als dass es Spaß machen würde. Somit musste ich das Projekt zeitweilig auf Eis legen und mich mit anderen Dingen beschäftigen: Dem Über-Editor. Meine alten “Windows Only” Applikationen: OpenEngineer bedürfen sowieso einer Generalüberholung und ich wollte schon immer den Schwarm auf Linux portieren. Zudem hatte ich eine Idee für eine Menüführung (die aber gar nicht so neu ist, wie ich es dachte…). Im Bild unten die ersten Gehversuche mit dem Kreisförmigen Menü. Im Grunde optimiert für Touch-Screens. Wie klug von mir, wo ich doch gar keinen Touch-Screen habe…

…und so sieht das Menü aus, nachdem ich es noch ein wenig überarbeitet, eine Wrapper Klasse eingefügt und die MouseOver Funktion verbessert habe.

I see it at SCAD, in mod videos, and in the professional industry. People or companies showing off early versions of a product, and when who they’re showing the product to says, “Why are there only a dozen zombies on screen?” or “What is up with these terrible textures?” the developers respond by saying, “More zombies,” or “Better textures will be in the final version.” Oh, well, that’s great. So then why are you showing us what you’ve got now?

I have Triwing in an early phase right now, but I have only shown off its current technical iteration to a select few. Why? Because it’s early. Human beings have a tendency to view what they see as final. Even if you’re just showing off that the code works in your game or website, people are still going to want to see the art. No one can see the code, but they can see the pictures.

For example, here are some comparisons of Dead Rising on the 360 and the Wii.

Hey! Check it out! Zombies!

Hey! Um… 6 zombies!

Capcom continues to claim that there will be “up to 100″ zombies on screen at once. Sounds to me like the “at least 100 years ago” meme when people on the internet have no idea when something took place. Which means, of course, Capcom probably has no idea how many zombies they can fit on screen on the Wii. So far, the max looks like 20. That ain’t bad but it ain’t the 360’s zombie count.

To continue with the undead examples, a new, user generated level for Left 4 Dead demonstrates the “Dawn of the Dead” mall this modder has been working on for a while.

Throughout the video, messages popup that say, “These textures have been replaced” and “better models in the final version.” Well, that’s nice, but then howabout you show us the final version instead of the work in progress, especially because you claim that the better textures and models have already been implemented?

To be honest, I’m tired of the BS. Yes, people are interested in what you’re doing, but why risk losing interested parties in showing off work that’s so early in development that people will lose interest upon seeing it? My guess is because the PR department gets bored. But seriously: know your goals and hit them. If you honestly think you can get 100 zombies on screen on the Wii, show us that, not six. If you claim to have new textures implemented, show us the new textures, not the old ones.

There really is no easy solution to this, though. On the one hand, you want to show off what you’ve been working on. On the other hand, you don’t want to lose potential buyers by showing off a shoddy project, and often you are forced to show off what you have been working on. I find that the best thing to say is, “Work in Progress.” This way, you don’t have to make false promises about what the final product will deliver and can still let people know that it’s in an early form. Also, never give specifics if you’re not 100% certain you can do them or they are already implemented. For example, do not say, “Then this dragon mouth will close and make a RAWR noise when you enter it,” and when you show off the final product and weren’t able to implement either, you WILL get called out on it. People will say, “Where is the animated dragon mouth?” and you will be all, “I didn’t have time to implement that.” Oh really?

The bottom line is know your limits and pick what you say carefully. If you promise specific things, your audience will want to see those certain things by the time you’re done. But, if you have them in there already when you show your product off, there is a lot less pressure on you to get those things done, especially if they are essential to the core. Never be afraid to kill your features, but try to promise the features you know you may have to kill.

Image Metrics è una tecnologia per la modellazione e l’animazione facciale in 3d, messa a punto da un gruppo di programmatori Californiani.

Il video che segue, spiega la cattura dei movimenti facciali e il suo innovativo sistema di telecamere ad alta definizione e relativo processo software.

Immaginatevi le future applicazioni nel mondo cinematografico e videoludico…. impressionante

Sul sito ufficiale è possibile visionare un’altro filmato, dove viene mostrato in un riquadro l’attrice in carne e ossa e la sua relativa controparte digitale (Una tech demo per dimostrare le potenzialità espressive).

New nvidia tech demo, give a nice look at the future of gaming running on my PC.

iD Software first new Game IP with EA publishing it and I am really impressed with it, also its is said to be a less-action gore fest like previous iD games and will feature racing, adventure and RPG elements here and there, which sparked my interest already. What is even more impressive is that the game runs on Mac, PC, PS3 and xbox 360 flawlessly. The game is built on OpenGL which is quite impressive.

Rage is the first iD game to be developed fully in house and I am looking forward to see how they will work out the gameplay to make it interesting. Check out the tech demo links to see the iD Tech 5 engine in action.

[ext links]

RAGE Fansite

http://www.rage-central.com/

QuakeCon 2007 iD tech 5 Demo 1 – 3

http://gamevideos.com/video/id/13717

http://gamevideos.com/video/id/13727

http://gamevideos.com/video/id/13728

Lá no longíquo ano de 1993 o mundo se surpreendeu com uma imagem de um videogame que fazia uma cabeça de tiranossauro rex em 3d e em 1994 o mundo se apavorou quando ele fez o bicho inteiro e botou o jogador no comando. Esse e alguns demos de jogos era o conteúdo do cd de demonstração que veio com a primeiríssima leva de Playstations modelo grande que deram defeito antes de um mês de uso. Tecnicamente esse cd já conta como abandonware, então vamos juntar isso ao poder da internet e do Nero e brincar um pouco com essa maravilhosa tecnologia: o arquivo de imagem está no link logo abaixo e abaixo do link abaixo tá a senha pra poder abrir o arquivo, certifique-se de queimar o cd na velocidade mais baixa possível, não mais do que 4x:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=51MD2MN0

retr0dreaming

Nachdem ich den Code etwas aufgeräumt habe und im Netz ein Modell eines Asteroiden (leider ohne Textur-Koordinaten) gefunden habe, kann sich das erste Bild schon sehen lassen. Das Gitter des Asteroiden wird zweimal mit unterschiedlichen Eigenschaften gerendert: Das etwas kleinere Gitter mit Textur-Koordinaten und der Asteroidenoberfläche, das zweiter Gitter mit transparentem Environment Mapping, sodass ein “Glas-Effekt” entsteht.

Nun… meine ganzen Optimierungen waren für die Katz. Ich habe heute in die neue RenderEngine Vertex Arrays eingebaut und die FrameRate steigt ins unglaubliche – und das ohne Polygon-Reduktion. In dem Bild unten sieht man ein Modell mit 512000 Dreiecken mit annehmbaren 30 FPS gerendert. Ich hoffe, dass ich auch noch meine Polygon-Reduzierer in die VertexArrays einbauen kann. Vor allem das Normal-Vector-Facing würde die Anzahl der zu rendernden Trias um die Hälfte reduzieren.

Schon seit langem dachte ich mir, dass es eigentlich viel besser wäre, wenn man anstelle einer Klasse pro Modell eine Klasse pro Dreieck (Tria) hätte. Für Das nächste Spiel hatte ich mir dann auch vorgenommen diese Methode mal konsequent umzusetzen. Nun habe ich die ersten Schritte hinter mir und im nachfolgenden Bild sieht man das Ergebnis:

Da ich nun jedes Dreieck einzeln adressieren und ansprechen kann, sind für ein paar Performance Features Türen und Tore geöffnet:
Frustum Culling pro Dreieck
Fade in/out pro Dreieck/Vertex
Blending pro Dreieck
Farbe pro Dreieck/Vertex
Texture pro Dreieck/Vertex
Koordinatenmanipulation pro Vertex
Zudem kann ich in die Dreieck-Klasse die Information der Nachbar-Dreiecke einspeichern (siehe Tech-Demo Vererben von Nachbar-Indizes) – mal sehen, ob ich damit etwas anfangen kann.

Leider gehen möglicherweise andere Features verloren:
OpenGL Listen (noch nicht getestet)
VertexBuffer (noch nicht getestet)

Поредният епизод от серията Tech Demo-та, за задаващият се хит Alone in the Dark. Този път Nour Polloni ще ни разкажe малко повече за враговете и бойната система

По-стари писания по темата:
Alone In The Dark – системни изисквания
Alone in the Dark – Cinematic Trailer
Alone in the Dark – Tech Demo ep.03
Alone in the Dark – Tech Demo ep.02
Alone in the Dark – Tech Demo ep.01
Alone in the Dark 5 излиза през юни
Alone in the Dark 5 Info