ELIS – Multimedia Lab

Peter Lambert

Multimedia LabGhent University - iMinds

Games @ School3D game content compression & creation

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

• Context

• 3D game content compression and streaming

• 3D game content generation and authoring

• Conclusion

Overview

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

Context

• Games need to “look good” AND be developed cost-effectively- maybe especially true for educational games- needs to compete with non-educational games

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

Context – geometry & texture

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

Context – geometry & texture

• Textures are important- strong impact on graphics quality- typically 50% - 70% of total game data- not only ‘color’: also normal maps, displacement maps, …

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

• “Looking better” more (texture) data- larger environments / levels- more visual details

• Hitting limits- memory on graphics cards- storage on computer (disk)- distribution of games (DVD or Blu-Ray)- needs to be crafted by game designers & artists

• Example: Antilope Island

Context

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

• Antilope Island (Utah, USA)

• How to deal with this amount of data?- compression (like JPEG, ZIP, …)- only loading small portions of the data set

Context – Example

Length: 24kmWidth: 7,8km

digital1 pixel = 25cm resolution128 000 x 128 000 pixel textures

~ 61GB !!!

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

3D game content compression & streaming

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

3D game content compression & streaming

GAME GPU

Tiling Backend

Streaming Runtime

(disk or network)

• G@S architecture

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

3D game content compression & streaming

• Scalability of the system

• Performance- Real-time on most modern computers- 50% less download time- 80% less waiting to start playing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg6FE-HVJ44

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

• Problem statement- educators vs. game artists regarding game world creation- lack in richness and interactivity will quickly bore players

and betray the exercises as filled-in templates

• Goal within G@S- an authoring solution for 3D game content - easy to use for non-expert users- accelerates workflow even for expert users suggestion framework for supervised level generation

3D game content generation & authoring

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

• Automatic object placement- given an environment- given a number of randomly placed objects- generate or suggest a realistic layout

• Requirements- should be fast- should be unique (same input, (slightly) different result) - should be integrated into a game editing environment

3D game content generation & authoring

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

• G@S results- Proof of Concept- system / algorithm based on pseudo physics- semantics and rules for object types- integrated in Larian’s Glasses editing environment- very fast (instant suggestions for common settings)

3D game content generation & authoring

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

• G@S results – example

3D game content generation & authoring

randomly placed objects

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ELIS – Multimedia Lab

• Results of the game technology research in G@S

- bigger games with much more visual details

- easy and efficient workflow for game world generation

more cost-efficient development of 3D educational games

Conclusions