SIGGRAPH 2012 Game Industry Content Summary Guide

The following is a roundup of all content at SIGGRAPH 2012 originating from the game industry as compiled by Naty Hoffman, SIGGRAPH 2012 Games Chair and Technical Director for Activision.

Introduction:

This post lists all the content at SIGGRAPH 2012 originating from the game industry; note that in addition to the sessions on this list, SIGGRAPH 2012 also includes many relevant presentations from other industries (animation, VFX people, research, software and hardware vendors, etc.).

 

Summaries:

SIGGRAPH 2012 will feature content from 33 game development studios and industry R&D groups:

• Activision Studio Central
• Avalanche Studios
• Bioware Austin
• Bungie
• CCP
• Crytek
• DICE
• DONTNOD Entertainment
• Double Fine Productions
• EA Canada
• Epic Games
• Firaxis
• Gobo Games
• Guerrilla Games
• High Moon Studios
• Id Software
• Limbic Software
• LucasArts
• Maxis
• Microsoft Studios User Research Lab
• Naughty Dog
• NetherRealm Studios
• Ninja Theory
• Petroglyph Games
• Project Soul/Namco Bandai Games
• Q-Games
• Relic Entertainment
• SCEA R&D
• Square Enix Research
• tri-Ace
• Ubisoft Montreal
• Valve
• Vicarious Visions

This content will cover 20 game titles:

• ADRIFT
• Civilization V
• DmC Devil May Cry
• DOTA 2
• Dust 514
• End of Nations
• Far Cry 3
• Just Cause 2
• Killzone 3
• Mortal Kombat
• Once Upon A Monster
• Pixeljunk 4AM
• Rage
• SimCity
• Soulcalibur 5
• SSX
• Star Wars 1313
• Star Wars: The OId Republic
• Uncharted 3
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
• Plus content will cover game engines and various industry R&D projects

The lists below break out the game industry presentations by conference program.  Each session lists the participating game development studios and any specific games covered.

Courses

• Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games Part I and Part II: Bungie, CCP (Dust 514), Epic Games, Ubisoft Montreal, Firaxis (Civilization V), Vicarious Visions, Gobo Games
• Beyond Programmable Shading: DICE
• Character Rigging, Deformations, and Simulations in Film and Game Production: Bioware Austin (Star Wars: The Old Republic)
• Efficient Real-Time Shadows: Guerrilla Games (Killzone 3)
• Virtual Texturing in Software and Hardware: Id Software (Rage)
• Practical Physically-Based Shading in Film and Game Production: Ubisoft Montreal (Far Cry 3), Activision Studio Central, tri-Ace

 

Talks

• Furry, Floppy, Fuzzy: Once Upon a Monster's Fur Pipeline: Double Fine Productions (Once Upon a Monster)
• What If Earth was Flat - Building Globe UI of SSX: EA Canada (SSX)
• From a Calm Puddle to a Stormy Ocean - Rendering Water in Uncharted: Naughty Dog (Uncharted 3)
• Adaptive Level-of-Detail System for "End of Nations": Petroglyph Games (End of Nations)
• Screen Space Decals in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine: Relic Entertainment (Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine)
• Asking the Impossible on SSX: Creating 300 tracks on a ten-track budget: EA Canada (SSX)
• Fast Generation of Directional Occlusion Volumes: Maxis (SimCity)
• Local Image-based Lighting with Parallax-corrected Cubemaps: DONTNOD Entertainment (ADRIFT)
• Creating Vast Game Worlds - Experiences from Avalanche Studios: Avalanche Studios (Just Cause 2)
• Character Customization of Soulcalibur 5 In-Depth: Project Soul/Namco Bandai Games (Soulcalibur 5)

 

Technical Papers

• Theory, Analysis, and Applications of 2D Global Illumination: Limbic Software

 

Panels

• The Battle for Motion-Controlled Gaming and Beyond: Microsoft Studios User Research Lab, SCEA R&D
• Virtual Production Branches Out: High Moon Studios

 

SIGGRAPH Dailies!

• Mortal Kombat Morphing: NetherRealm Studios (Mortal Kombat)
• Pixeljunk Space Odyssey: Q-Games (Pixeljunk 4AM)

 

Computer Animation Festival

Screenings (Daytime Selects)

• DOTA 2 Teaser: Valve (DOTA 2)

Production Sessions

• Ninja Theory presents DmC Devil May Cry: Breathing Life into Video Games: Ninja Theory (DmC Devil May Cry)

Real-Time Live!

• Luminous Studio Tech Demo: Square Enix Research
• Uncharted 3 Visual Effects: Naughty Dog (Uncharted 3)
• Star Wars 1313: LucasArts (Star Wars 1313)
• Unreal Engine 4 Elemental: Epic Games

 

The Studio

Studio Talks

• Film/Game Convergence: What's Taking So Long?: Crytek
• Creating Vast Game Worlds - Experiences from Avalanche Studios: Avalanche Studios (Just Cause 2)

Studio Workshops

• Python Scripting in Maya: Crytek
• MaxScript for Artists: Crytek
• VFX for Games: Pre-Baked Destruction: Crytek
• Building a Game Level: Crytek
• VFX for Games: Particle Effects: Crytek

Q&A with SIGGRAPH 2012 Games Chair Naty Hoffman

Naty Hoffman - the 2012 Games Chair

Following is a brief conversation with Naty Hoffman, the SIGGRAPH 2012 Games Chair and Technical Director at Activision, regarding games and SIGGRAPH 2012. Please check back later this week for an article summarizing all the game industry content at SIGGRAPH 2012.

How does games content fit into SIGGRAPH and what are the can’t-miss sessions for this year?

Games are a core SIGGRAPH constituency, just like animation, VFX, fine arts, and research. As such, game content can be found in all the SIGGRAPH programs. There is a lot of great games industry content this year - please check out the full list. If I had to pick just one or two key sessions from each program, I would mention the "Advances in Real-TIme Rendering" Course, the "Game Worlds" and "Surf and Turf" Talk sessions, Ninja Theory's Production Session on "DmC Devil May Cry: Breathing Life Into Video Games", the "Battle for Motion-Controlled Gaming and Beyond" Panel, the "Big Game" Studio Talk session, the "VFX for Games: Pre-Baked Destruction" and "Building a Game Level" Studio Workshops and the SIGGRAPH Dailies! and Real-Time Live! sessions. 

Given the increasing convergence between the industries, I also recommend that game industry attendees check out some of the amazing and relevant content from the film industry, such as courses on cinematography and matte painting presented by legends in their respective fields, as well as Talks and Production Sessions by companies such as Dreamworks, ILM, and Pixar.

What are your thoughts on the growth of casual and mobile gaming, particularly as it relates to the new SIGGRAPH Mobile program?
Casual and mobile gaming are an immense growth area and we have been making special efforts (such at the Mobile Symposium) to bring related content to the conference. I hope we will continue to see more content in these areas at future SIGGRAPHs.

What do you think is the next big technology that will be featured in mainstream games? In your opinion, what is the key to next-gen success for console gaming?
While cutting-edge technology will always be a big part of game development, I feel that the next generation will bring a renewed emphasis on the importance of art - supporting talented artists with solid and powerful tools, workflows and best practices will be no less (and probably more) important than having the latest whiz-bang engine feature.

The industry has been buzzing about free-to-play games recently. How do you think this will affect game development? 
I think it's always good to have new ways to reach customers and fund development, though I believe that the traditional models will continue to thrive for a while yet.

SIGGRAPH Game Content Revealed: Part III

Following is the final entry of a three-part series focusing on game content that will be featured at SIGGRAPH 2011. This is a conversation between Naty Hoffman (pictured at the right) and ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter Reporter Mariebeth Aquino.

Naty Hoffman is a Technical Director at Activision Studio Central, where he assists Activision's worldwide studios with graphics research and development. He is a co-author of the book Real-Time Rendering, 3rd Edition.

Background details: This year's content features a substantial amount of game development content: game papers, courses, talks (technical, studio, and exhibitor talks), workshops on game development, and technical papers. In addition, game content can be found in the Computer Animation Festival where Real-Time Live! showcases the latest trends and techniques in games. And for those wanting a hands-on experience, the Sandbox provides the ideal environment to test drive the latest in interactive entertainment.
A Conversation with Naty Hoffman, SIGGRAPH 2011 Game Development Community Director
What are your responsibilities as Game Development Community Director?

My responsibility is to engage with the professional game development community, both to encourage them to submit more content for presentation and to facilitate higher industry attendance at the conference.
It must be hard motivating a game development community which has its own big conferences like the GDC, how do you engage them?

It can be challenging, but SIGGRAPH has some unique things to offer compared to industry-specific conferences like GDC, such as the opportunity to interact with top graphics minds not only within the game industry, but outside it as well. SIGGRAPH attendees can see content presented by people from companies like Pixar, ILM, Disney, Digital Domain, Dreamworks, etc., as well as researchers from top academic institutions around the world. In addition, the graphics focus and extremely high quality bar means that for anyone involved with the visual side of game development (such as artists and graphics programmers), the breadth and depth of relevant content at SIGGRAPH is simply unmatched.
This year, I have enjoyed the able assistance of the game development subcommittee; a group of prominent developers who have been advising me and helping me reach out to studios across the world. Other members of the conference committee with game industry ties such as Drew Davidson, Jason Smith, and Chris Williams have also provided invaluable help.
It is important to note that we did not start from scratch; we benefit from the momentum slowly built up over previous years. Each year SIGGRAPH has more content submissions from game developers, more presentations of interest to them, and more awareness in the game development community in general. I hope that within a few years, we will be close to parity with the film production community in terms of content and attendees.
How important are emerging technologies in game development, or rather, are upcoming technologies supported by game studios?

The game industry is highly technology-driven; new technology is constantly being evaluated, and if it fits the needs and constraints of production it is integrated into the engine and/or tools pipeline. A few examples of note include screen-space ambient occlusion, filter-based anti-aliasing, deferred shading, and high-dynamic range image-based (HDRI) lighting. All of these have been covered at SIGGRAPH - one of them (filter-based anti-aliasing) is the topic of a half-day course this year.
Industry and research can often tell different stories (i.e in goals and communication) - is one more important to game development, and one to SIGGRAPH? Or if not, where and how do these two areas intersect?

Game development tends to be focused more on short-term development, but we do keep an eye on longer-term research as well. SIGGRAPH covers both - some programs (such as the Technical Papers) are targeted more at research and some (such as Courses, Talks and The Studio) at current industry practices.
Which upcoming trends in game development do you see having the greatest impact on game production? And are these featured in this year's SIGGRAPH games coverage?

Rendering techniques are always evolving in our industry, both on the PC side (where constantly increasing hardware power enables new techniques) and on the console side (where much ingenuity is needed to squeeze out better visuals ever year from the same hardware). The courses "Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games" and "Beyond Programmable Shading" cover both sides of this divide; many of the techniques presented are also relevant for emerging platforms such as tablets and mobile phones.
A specific example of technology used to increase visual quality on consoles is the recent rise of new techniques for filter-based anti-aliasing, which (as I previously mentioned) has an entire course devoted to it this year: "Filtering Approaches for Real-Time Anti-Aliasing".
Another important trend is the convergence of techniques between film and games - we have a lot to learn from the film industry and I believe they are interested in learning from us as well. SIGGRAPH has a variety of content addressing this. Some are explicitly targeted at both industries (for example, the courses "Destruction and Dynamics for Film and Game Production" and "Character Rigging, Deformations, and Simulations in Film and Game Production"). Also, content presented by people from one industry is often of interest to the other - I often find interesting content in the film production Talks and Courses, and I hear from my film industry counterparts that they find useful information in the game development content at SIGGRAPH.

As free-to-play, mobile and independent games become more popular (for gamers and developers, alike) is there potential to optimize top notch technology for such games?

Definitely. Mobile platforms in particular are rapidly increasing in power, and as they continue to do so in the future, they will enable unprecedented visual quality on the go. Since the types of games, input devices, and visual styles often differ from games on more traditional platforms, there is also a need for new technology as well as adapting existing methods.

The game development community is expanding. Great ideas and concepts are now emerging from the independent community - without the use of high performance technology. Will SIGGRAPH cover these noteworthy areas as well?

SIGGRAPH welcomes ideas from all areas of game development, not just "blockbuster" console titles. One of the talks this year (in the "Light My Fire" session) is by an independent developer, Q-Games; Frontier Developments - another independent studio - is presenting their game "Kinectimals" in the Real-Time Live! program. I would like to see more submissions from indie developers in future years, especially from some of the smaller teams.
What are some of the highlights of the game development content?
There is so much good game development content this year, it's hard to pick just a few highlights. Many of the courses have great game content, two in particular are "Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games" (both parts) and "Filtering Approaches for Real-Time Anti-Aliasing". There are also many game development Talks - for example, the entire "Hiding Complexity" Talk session. A few highlights from other Talk sessions: "Rendering the Interactive Dynamic Natural World of the Game: From Dust", "Deferred Shading Technique Using Frostbite in Battlefield 3 and Need for Speed The Run", and "Fluid Dynamics and Lighting Implementation in PixelJunk Shooter 2". The Computer Animation Festival is showcasing a lot of game content as well, most notably "Halo: Reach" and "Portal 2" in the Electronic Theater and "Killzone 3" in the Production Sessions; several other games are featured in the "Commercials, Games, and Music" screening.

Unusually, one of the Technical Papers ("Physics-Inspired Upsampling for Cloth Simulation in Games") was written by game developers; I hope for more such at future SIGGRAPH conferences. This year, there are many game presentations at The Studio which are also well worth attending. Finally, the Real-Time Live!, Sandbox, and SIGGRAPH Dailies! programs are showing several notable game pieces.

Is there content that applies to people both new to the game industry and veterans?
Most of the content is targeted at relatively experienced developers, though beginners who listen carefully should find it interesting as well, and perhaps get some good ideas for areas to study up in! Some of the content should be more approachable for beginners; SIGGRAPH Dailies!, Sandbox, and Real-Time Live! come to mind, as well as the game content at the Computer Animation Festival and The Studio.

What are your “must attend” sessions this year?

I haven't had a chance to work out my schedule yet, but I very much hope to see the Technical Papers Fast Forward, Cory Doctorow's keynote, SIGGRAPH Dailies!, the Electronic Theater, and the "Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games" course.