GDM January 2006

7.3 MB·English

by  UBM TechWeb

G D C : 0 6 P R E V I E W G U I D E I N C LU D E D
JANUARY 2006
T H E L E A D I N G G A M E I N D U S T R Y M A G A Z I N E
>>2005 FRONT LINE AWARDS >>BETTER GRASS BY DESIGN >>FUN FANDANGO
THE VERY BEST TOOLS MAKING VERTEX BUFFER CHARTING INGENUITY
FOR GAME DEVELOPMENT GEOMETRY TEXTURES WITH TIM SCHAFER
POSTMORTEM:
THE BRAINS BEHIND WIDELOAD’S
STUBBS THE
ZOMBIE
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CONTENTS
[ ]
JANUARY 2006
VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1
FEATURES
10 GAME DEVELOPER’S 2005
FRONT LINE AWARDS
Game Developer’s eighth annual Front Line
Awards aim to single out those companies
and products that have made significant
strides in the battle to get developers home
by five in the afternoon. Along with a panel of
respected industry judges, we have awarded
the leading tools, hardware, and book for
their excellence, and inducted one
distinguished tool into the Hall of Fame.
10
19 MAKING THE GRASS
As 3D game worlds become more realistic,
small-scale geometric details will become
more and more important. While it’s vital to
showcase our expanded hardware power in
impressive ways, these tiny details, be they
POSTMORTEM
tufts of hair or blades of grass, can be
computationally expensive. This technical
article discusses the use of the GPU and
24 CHOMPING AT THE BIT:WIDELOAD GAMES’ STUDIO
vertex buffers to create memory efficient
EXPERIMENT BITES BACK WITH STUBBSTHEZOMBIE
details in vibrant game worlds.
Wideload is using a unique model for game development which has
By Holger Gruen
generated significant buzz in the industry. Similar to what Hollywood
studios do, the company only hires select core staff and outsources the 19
brunt of thework to contractors. Here, Wideload founder Alexander
Seropian lays out the ups and downs of his cost-effective model, sharing
how it helped his team ship a successful game.
By Alexander Seropian
DEPARTMENTS COLUMNS
2 GAME PLAN By Simon Carless 33 THE INNER PRODUCT By Mick West [PROGRAMMING]
Zombie Zoo Mature Optimization
4 HEADS UP DISPLAY 37 BUSINESSLEVEL By Philip Oliver [BUSINESS]
Bioware/Pandemic, Xbox 360 launch, and Valve’s Steam Pigeonholed
7 SKUNK WORKS By Carey Chico 38 PIXEL PUSHER By Steve Theodore [ART]
Softimage XSI 5.0 Anatomy for Animators Part III
48 A THOUSAND WORDS 41 GAME SHUI By Noah Falstein [DESIGN]
Atlus’ MAGNACARTA Schafer on Creativity
42 AURAL FIXATION By Alexander Brandon [SOUND]
The Voice Over Challenge
COVER ART:JUANRAMIREZ ANDMARKBERNAL
WWW.GDMAG.COM 1
GAME PLAN
[ ]
www.gdmag.com
CMP Media, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107
t:415.947.6000 f:415.947.6090
EDITORIAL
EDITOR
Simon [email protected]
MANAGING EDITOR
ZOMBIE ZOO Jill Duffy [email protected]
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Brandon Sheffield [email protected]
ART DIRECTOR
Cliff Scorso [email protected]
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Alexander Brandon [email protected]
Noah Falstein [email protected]
Steve Theodore [email protected]
Mick West [email protected]
STUBBS THE ZOMBIE, THE MCCARTHY ERA bank. Beautifully detailed tufts of grass have ADVISORY BOARD
Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large Dave Pottinger Ensemble Studios
throwback from Wideload Games’ first title, meets never been so accessible. Ellen Guon Beeman Monolith George Sanger Big Fat Inc.
the Game DeveloperFront Line Awards in the gory Elsewhere, programming columnist Mick West Andy Gavin Naughty Dog Harvey Smith Midway
Joby Otero Luxoflux Paul Steed Microsoft
cover image of this issue—or at least it would be adds a highly relevant feature about code
ADVERTISING SALES
gory if the statuette could bleed. Fending off optimization; Pixel Pusher’s Steve Theodore DIRECTOR OF SALES
monsters with one hand and giving out plaudits continues his anatomy lesson; longtime design Afton Thatcher e:[email protected]:415.947.6217
SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST COAST, EUROPE & EASTERN CANADA
for game tools with the other has left us feeling columnist Noah Falstein interviews Double Fine’s Ayrien Machiran e:[email protected]:415.947.6224
slightly zombie-fied, too. Tim Schafer about game originality; Heads Up ACCOUNT MANAGER, SO. CALIF., SOUTH WEST, CONTRACTORS, &
Display explores the key BioWare/Pandemic MARKETPLACE
Susan Kirby e:[email protected]:415.947.6226
TRENCHANT WARFARE merger; and the A Thousand Words art section ACCOUNT MANAGER, NO. CALIF., NORTHWEST, ASIA & WESTERN CANADA
In a year when game tools and other products to showcases Korean RPG MAGNACARTA. Nick Geiste:[email protected]:415.947.6223
ACCOUNT MANAGER, GLOBAL RECRUITMENT/EDUCATION & TEXAS
aid game professionals are even more important, Aaron Murawski e:[email protected]:415.947.6227
especially as game budgets increase during a SLUMPING? MAYBE JUST A LITTLE ADVERTISING PRODUCTION
market transition, we’re delighted to present the As I write this, the full ramifications of the U.S. video ADVERTISING PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Kevin Chanel
2005 Front Line Awards (pg. 10), honoring the game holiday season sales are yet to be realized, REPRINTSJulie Rapp e:[email protected]:510.834.4752
best products related to video game development but it’s pretty clear that game sales were, at the GAMEGROUP MARKETING
DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS STRATEGYMichele Maguire
in multiple categories, such as middleware, game very least, somewhat disappointing in the key post- DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Tara C. Gibb
engines, hardware, and a number of others. Thanksgiving weeks. A fully fledged crash? Hardly,
CMP GAMEGROUP
Thanks to our panel of experienced judges, we but an uncomfortable pause, perhaps. SENIOR VP, GROUPDIRECTOR, APPLIEDTECHNOLOGIESPhilip Chapnick
whittled down first the nominated products and Of course, critics are already pointing to a sagging CONFERENCE DIRECTOR Jamil Moledina
then winners in each category. Plus, one tool has game industry that produces tired sequel after tired CONFERENCE MANAGEREvelyn Donis
EXECUTIVE WEB PRODUCERPeter Leahy
earned its way into the Game DeveloperFront sequel, and, as usual, they’re largely wrong. Sure,
EDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COMSimon Carless
Line Hall of Fame, joining the ranks of DirectX there are plenty of follow-ups this holiday season, as FEATURES EDITOR, GAMASUTRA.COMQuang Hong
(2002), Photoshop (2003), and Renderware in any holiday season, and since companies are CIRCULATION
(2004) for its continued dedication to improving working on early versions of next-gen titles, it may CIRCULATION DIRECTORKevin Regan e:[email protected]
game development. be difficult for them to produce all-new games for CIRCULATION ASSISTANTManager Jessica Ward e:[email protected]
CIRCULATION COORDINATORMiguel Mendiolaza e: [email protected]
current generation hardware. There’s only so much
CIRCULATION ASSISTANTMichael Campbell e:[email protected]
INTESTINAL FORTITUDE production game companies can endure. CIRCULATION ASSISTANTAdrea Abidor e:[email protected]
When former Bungie Software co-founder But iterating on the same game template and SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES
Alexander Seropian set up shop on his own with gameplay engine often makes titles better in the FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES
t:800.250.2429 f:847.763.9606e:[email protected]
Wideload Games, he decided to do things a little long-term, and there have still been plenty of
INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INFORMATION
differently. Company-owned IP? Check. Small, interesting, original titles on the market this
Mario Salinas
manageable internal team and lots of external season. Naturally, I’m not saying that GAME t:650.513.4234 f:650.513.4482 e:[email protected]
contractors to complete the game? Check. FRANCHISEVOL. 8is always the best idea, but I don’t CMPMEDIA MANAGEMENT
In early 2004, when Seropian first announced think that sequels are what disrupted the market PRESIDENT & CEO Steve Weitzner
EXECUTIVEVP & CFO John Day
this route, it was thought to be a sign of things to this year. Rather, it was the promise of next-
EXECUTIVEVP, CORPORATE SALES & MARKETING Jeff Patterson
come, and, to many, an important test of alternate generation gaming that got in the way. SENIOR VP, AUDIENCE MARKETING AND DEVELOPMENT Bill Amstutz
production methods. Now that the quirky 1950s Am I blaming Microsoft’s undersupply of the Xbox SENIOR VP, INTERNET BUSINESS Mike Azzara
brain-eatin’ Xbox action title STUBBSTHEZOMBIE: 360 for all the industry’s woes? Not entirely, SENIOR VP, CMP INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS Joseph Braue
SENIOR VP & GENERAL COUNSEL Sandra Grayson
REBELWITHOUTA PULSEis complete and on retail although it certainly has not helped. But knowing SENIOR VP, CORPORATE SALES Anne Marie Miller
shelves, Seropian has had a chance to sit down that a new, allegedly transformative graphical and SENIOR VP, MANUFACTURING Marie Myers
and write a definitive account of its creation. How online experience is just around the corner (even if SENIOR VP, COMMUNICATIONS Alexandra Raine
did these new business attitudes affect the game, you can’t find the bloody hardware) will make SENIOR VP, CORPORATE MARKETING Kate Spellman
VP, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Michael Zane
both positively and negatively? Wideload’s founder anyone back off from buying current-gen games
PRESIDENT, CHANNEL GROUP Robert Faletra
spills the beans in the STUBBSpostmortem (pg. 24). for a while. And that’s exactly what happened. PRESIDENT, CMP ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA Tony Keefe
Suddenly, the gold at the end of the rainbow is PRESIDENT, CMP HEALTHCARE MEDIA Vicki Masseria
MOW NO MORE more important than the riches piled around us SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR ELECTRONICS & SOFTWARE GROUPS
Paul Miller
We’re also pleased to feature some fresh right now. * SENIOR VP, ENTERPRISE GROUP Fritz Nelson
technical features and columns this month, with SENIOR VP, GROUP DIRECTOR COMMUNICATIONS GROUP
Stephen Saunders
Holger Gruen’s full-length article on vertex buffer-
based geometry textures (pg. 19), which
discusses ways of adding geometric details to
the game world without breaking the processing Simon Carless, editor
Game Developer
is BPA approved
2 JANUARY 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER WWW.CMPGAME.COM

HEADS UP DISPLAY
[ ]
GOT NEWS? SEND US THE BIG SCOOP AT [email protected]
PANDEMIC, BIOWARE: SOLD!
ELEVATION PARTNERS, A PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM assuring that their power isn’t wrestedaway.
which includes notable personalities such as ex- Riccitiello will assume the role of CEO for the
EA CEO John Riccitiello and rock star Bono among holding company, which will be headquartered in
its board members, announced that the company Elevation’s offices in Menlo Park, Calif. Both
has purchased a majority share in developers developers will remain in their original locations—
BioWare and Pandemic. with BioWare, which was recently named one of
The developers will continue to operate Canada’s top 100 employers, staying in Alberta,
independently of one another, but will have a and Pandemic keeping its Los Angeles home.
This effective construction of a super-developer
is a markedly new tactic for Elevation, and for the
industry at large. Traditionally, publishers buy
developers in order to fill out their product
portfolios and streamline workflow. In April 2005,
in fact, Elevation was in the running to purchase
U.K. publisher Eidos, but was beaten to the punch BioWare’s KNIGHTSOFTHEOLDREPUBLIC.
by the publisher SCi. Acquiring developers is not
typically seen as a money-making venture for Partners) to pursue growth in a whole bunch of
potential investors, given that they do not always areas we had thought of as longer term
receive royalties for their games and have high opportunities in the past,” Muzyka adds.
overhead between projects. “Relative to the broader business, the new
“I think things will change only for the better as company will offer something different to
a result of this deal at both BioWare and publishers,” says Pandemic CEO Andrew Goldman.
Pandemic,” says Ray Muzyka co-head of BioWare. “We will provide them with well-developed product
“On a day-to-day basis, Greg Zeschuk and I will against commercial IPs where they do not
continue to act as joint CEOs of BioWare, but we shoulder the full risk of development and
Pandemic’s DESTROYALLHUMANS. will also take on roles at the larger BioWare/ commercialization. We believe this will help them
Pandemic headquarters, serving as corporate VPs to manage their risk portfolio, grow their
centralized executive team and share resources within the larger organization.” businesses and bring additional innovation to the
and technology under the banner of the newly- “BioWare as a whole will continue to grow in a industry,” he said.
formed holding company BioWare/Pandemic careful, controlled manner, and we now have the “This deal was our ideal scenario for continuing
Studios. The founders of both developers will financial backing (with infusion of significant to build Pandemic.”
retain shares in their respective companies, working capital into the company from Elevation —Brandon Sheffield
DEUS EX
SPECTOR GAINS STEAM
ACCORDING TO INFORMATION NOW is continuing to sign deals that allow don’t fall under Valve’s
available on the official Junction it to sell PC titles directly through bundle deals for its
Point Studios web site, DEUSEX Steam—both games that use its own games. The first
creator Warren Spector’s new firm is Source Engine, as HALF-LIFE2 did, of these is the
“currently working with Valve on a and games running their own innovative action title
new game using the Source Engine, technology. RAGDOLLKUNGFU, from
to be delivered via Steam,” Valve’s This latest high-profile deal with Lionhead artist Mark
online game distribution site. Spector is a continuation of Valve’s Healey, and other
Spector, whose past work includes wish to expand Steam into an effective Valve-developed titles
ULTIMAUNDERWORLD, SYSTEMSHOCK, method of digital distribution for PC are now also available for THEYHUNGER: LOSTSOULS, PIRATESOF
and THIEF, had been without an games from multiple developers. individual purchase. THEBURNINGSEA, and SIN EPISODES,
announced project since early 2005 In early October, Valve announced The most recent games to showing an intriguing blend of
when his previous studio closed, its long-term plans for Steam anounce distribution via Steam are indie PC titles, expansions to
Austin-based Ion Storm. He founded alongside the latest changes to its UNREALmod extension RED popular mods, and episodic efforts
Junction Point shortly thereafter. client, which have completely ORCHESTRA: OSTFRONT41-45and cult from larger developers.
Following the success of HALF-LIFE redesigned the client’s GUI, and title DARWINIA. Other titles that are —Simon Carless
2’s online distribution via Steam and added a discrete “Shop” area to available or will soon be available
the resulting large user-base, Valve allow separate purchases which on Steam include NARBACULARDROP,
4 JANUARY 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER
BGT ACQUIRED FOR SERIOUS GAME AI
A LUCRATIVE FIRE HAS BEEN KINDLING version 3.6, software that’s
IMAGE COURTESY OF BGT
between the simulation industry and used in a number of
the serious games market. Engenuity prominent video games;
Technologies, a global player on the recent deals include an
visualization and simulation software agreement with Midway to
side, recently stoked its flame by use the technology as its
adding a little kindling: BioGraphic preferred AI engine for
Technologies (BGT). products such as JOHNWOO’S
BGT develops AI software for games, STRANGLEHOLD, and a deal with
visual simulation uses, and other Sony to use it for MAJOR
electronic media. The Montreal-based LEAGUEBASEBALL2006.
company counts among its game The details of the
customers Sony Computer acquisition are as follows:
Entertainment America, Midway Engenuity acquired all of
Games, and Kuju Entertainment. BGT’s outstanding shares (in
When Engenuity announced the exchange for around
acquisition the company stated that subsuming strategy to expand our presence in the broader $835,000 of its shares), about $162,000 in
BGT will allow it to “offer a broader range of simulation market,” said Patrice Commune, CEO cash, and a promissory note of $250,000 to be
applications to its existing simulation of Engenuity at the time of the announcement. paid in 12 months from closing. Engenuity also
customers, and to penetrate new vertical “We are excited about the standalone strength assumed nearly $1.5 million of BGT’s debt,
markets, such as urban simulation, homeland of the AI.implant product in its existing games, about a third of which was repaid at closing.
security, and serious games.” entertainment, and VizSim markets.” —Jill Duffy
“This is the first step in our acquisition BGT’s latest product release was AI.implant
XBOX 360 LAUNCHES WORLDWIDE
CHIP SHORTAGE CITED AS REASON FOR SOME ORDERS GOING UNFILLED
THE XBOX 360, MICROSOFT’S million and 3 million consoles considered successful, with good holiday. While coordinating a console
newest console, achieved instant worldwide within the first three reactions to the console’s wide- launch across multiple continents is
sellout status during its November months of the system’s life implied ranging 18 launch titles and an truly a massive undertaking, a
22 U.S. launch—but while demand that reasonable restocks would especially positive reaction to the company as massive as Microsoft
was certainly great, that wasn’t the follow. Unfortunately, as of press Xbox Live and Xbox Live Arcade has no excuse for being so grossly
only reason you couldn’t find an time, some pre-orders at U.S. stores service, which offers new unprepared.”
Xbox 360 the day after the U.S. and such as GameStop had still not been opportunity to independent —Brandon Sheffield, Simon Carless
U.K. launches. In the Ottawa Citizen filled, due to continuing lack of developers.
newspaper, Microsoft CEO Steve hardware, and the European launch of But the major supply
Ballmer cited difficult chip the console on December 2 suffered problems have affected CALENDAR
production as the primary reason for from similar problems. The Japanese game professionals’
the crushing Xbox 360 shortage, debut on December 11 was reportedly opinions of the launch, The Mobile Games Forum
commenting, “In these new better, due to less severe demand with Coray Seifert of London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square
consumer electronics devices based for the console. Large Animal Games London
on new chips, there’s always the R. Richard Fontaine, chairman and sharply critical of January 25 and 26, 2006
question of what yield will you get CEO, GameStop commented in Microsoft in his Cost: £1,299
out of the manufacturing process of November that “the total hardware response to a www.osneymedia.co.uk
the new chip. We’re getting a little released to date in the U.S., and to Gamasutra.com
less, but not much less than the GameStop, are far less than we had Question Of The Week, How to Break Into the Game Industry
yields we expected, and we know anticipated,” leading worldwide game commenting that the Pickle Research Campus
that the yields we expected will retailers, including The GAME Group company had “suffered Austin, Texas
probably outrun supply.” in Europe, to warn of possible profit- a huge setback when it January 21, 2006
Though limited initial numbers are related issues due to reduced supply. failed to get enough Cost: $45–$60
to be expected, Microsoft’s publicly Aside from the supply issues, the machines to the market www.gameconference.com
stated plans to ship between 2.5 Western launches were largely for the Christmas
WWW.GDMAG.COM 5

SKUNK WORKS
[ ]
OUR RATING SYSTEM :
DA BOMB PRETTY SLICK SLICK SO-SO LAME
SOFTIMAGE XSI 5.0
BY CAREY CHICO
A SMALLER NUMBER OF TOOLS WHICH, property weight maps, envelope weights,
when combined together, produce a U.I. FAMILIARITY HURDLE and shape animation from one object to
larger number of results—that’s the The software now sports an additional another. These models need not share
Softimage XSI way of thinking. And in interaction mode that clearly targets Maya any component, attribute, or even vertex
version 5.0, Avid has given game users by implementing the QWERTY key or triangle count to permit transfer. The
developers (as well as film creators) a set that they’ve used for years. Whether results are remarkable, and the benefits
few new toys to play with. Luckily for the this move is an olive branch to make the of using Gator in next-gen game pipelines
game-making group, many of the new environment easier and more comfortable are clear. I tried it on numerous objects,
tools in XSI 5 are designed for building for new users, or a stepping-stone to transferring high-resolution UV, texture,
next-generation games. It's clear that convert them is something of a moot and vertex color data onto lower-
Softimage is taking next-generation point. Since XSI has always had a very resolution LOD models, and it worked
game development seriously and is in flexible control UI, offering the QWERTY key magically well.
serious competition with both Autodesk set option can only be seen as yet another Softimage also included a great
(Max) and Alias (Maya)—or, given their layer on top of that very agile system. surprise for modelers hidden in the
latest news, should I say “Maya Max?” My personal feelings on this new plug-in manager. Under File>Plug-in
On the whole, Avid has tweaked and interaction mode are mixed, however. It Manager>Workgroups, you can click
refined XSI, giving it a fresh coat of paint seems the time it took to create and Connect and find a button called Try
without changing the color. But what implement this feature would have been SDK Example Workgroup. Once
makes the new release stand out is a better spent investing in even more installed, you'll find a newly realized
handful of new tools within. From GATOR tools for this release or expanding some version of the User Normal Editing
(Generalized Attribute Transfer of the Texture editor controls into the script. This tool, once found as a script
OperatoR) to the refined Ultimapper tool main 3D Viewport. in the NetView, now is found in the Alt-
(previously known as GPUSurfaceFX), RMB menu and has an actual PPG
XSI gives us ways to acquire and GATOR GOODNESS window. With it, developers can directly
manage new texture data types and One of the most astounding and industry- manipulate all or any normals on an
handle the higher-resolution models leading features to come out of this object as desired. It’s a great tool that
that the influx of new games is bringing release is the GATOR toolset. Gator has provides a needed solution for the
to the table. Moreover, these new tools been getting a lot of industry attention, game developer crowd.
are primed to bring game developers and once you hear what it can do, you’ll
into the next generation without losing understand why. TWEAK AWAY
too much hair. With Gator, users can transfer Let’s revisit the Softimage philosophy
materials, texture UVs, vertex colors, and restate it more fully as “a smaller
number of tools which, when combined
together, produce a larger number of
SOFTIMAGE XSI 5.0
results.” The bit about “smaller number
of tools” basically means that similar
operations are grouped together as
STATS Pentium III or higher processor See www.softimage.com for full single tools. When invoked by typical
Softimage Co. • OpenGL accelerated graphics card, at requirements and recommendations.
modifier keys such as Alt, Shift, and
3510 St-Laurent Blvd. least 64MB RAM (recommended)
Montreal, Quebec, H2X 2V2, Canada • 710MB available hard disk space PROS Ctrl, each of these tools contains a
514.845.1636 • TCP/IP service protocol installed on 1. New tools like Gator and Ultimapper larger number of specific features.
www.softimage.com both client and server computers will rock the gaming world. Following this line of thought, the
• 512MB RAM (minimum) 2. Still an excellent melding of UI
PRICE • 200 to 300MB swap space simplicity with underlying tool Tweak Component tool bulges with new
$495 (foundation version), $1,995 • 1,280x1,024 screen resolution complexity. feature goodness. Replacing the classic
(essentials), $6,995 (advanced) (recommended) 3. Superb customer service and support. Move Point tool previously mapped to the
• Three-button mouse
REQUIREMENTS • Web browser. CONS ‘m’ key, the Tweak Component tool is
Softimage XSI 5.0 supports the following ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS 1. New QWERTY UI options not much replete with quick manipulation controls
operating systems: XSI for Windows XP use for veteran users. for directly moving vertices, edges, and
PWrionfdeoswsiso,n Lailn; uXxS, Ia fnodr LIriinxu. x; SPM for IDnVteDr nderitv ceonnection 2. Nleeawrn p.hysics engine not intuitive to polygons. Users can just grab and
Software DVD 3. Would like to see an expansion of translate components any way they like
The listed requirements are for WinZip tool some of the Texture editor controls in any coordinate system.
Windows XP Professional. Ata pbea cdkruivpe d, reevmiceo,v saubcleh haasr da DdiAsTk,, 1o/r4” into the main 3D Viewport. Additionally, the tool includes weld and
• Workstation with AMD K7 or higher
DVD/CD-R/CD-RW drive magnet features that allow users to
processor or workstation with Intel
WWW.GDMAG.COM 7
[SKUNK WORKS]
The GATOR tool, new to XSI 5, lets you transfer materials, texture
UVs, vertex colors, property weight maps, envelope weights,
and shape animation from one object to another.
single texture out visualize and animate the weighting of
of six. each shape, watching the results in the
Since Mental Ray 3D viewport. Shape Editor greatly
automatically writes enhances the organization and process
out the alpha of shape animation.
channel data—you Two big changes were made to XSI 5 on
get that too—I tried the data management side. First, the OBJ
this on a tree model importer was improved to import
and transferred not complex Zbrush geometry and
only the 3D alpha, displacement maps for rendering.
but the texture alpha Second, the dotXSI file format has
into a single texture. grown up since version 3.6, and users
Behind the major finally get the source code for the format,
“slide” components across surfaces. You new upgrades and tools, there are some a long-time wish list item which now
can even loop select with the Alt key and smaller features that should get some gives the users support for multiple UV
slide that over the surface! I tried this on notice, too. The Texture Editor can now and Vertex Color sets with the freedom to
a medium-resolution head model and handle multiple UV coordinate editing add what they need to the format.
watched with glee as I adjusted entire simultaneously. For example, if you
edge loops across the model’s face. Very select as many as four objects, a drop- SWEET CHANGES
nicely done. down menu allows you to access and XSI 5 gives users even more reasons to
view their multiple UVs, a very useful stay with Softimage and gives other 3D
ULTIMAP THIS resource when you’re attempting to package users, in light of recent industry
Texturing has not been left out of the v5 group multiple object UVs onto a single developments, an alternate patch of
upgrades—some new features improve normal map texture page. green grass to rest their heads on. It’s
upon existing ones to make generating There’s also a brand new dynamics hard to find a cleaner integrated feature
special data-rich textures even easier. engine implementation using PhysX from set with a more fluid interface than
What does the Ultimapper do, you ask? Ageia. That is the new “physics-on-a-chip” Softimage’s.
The Ultimapper generates a variety of engine that provides hardware While I clearly enjoy working with XSI, I
texture map data types. In addition to acceleration to dynamics in the same do question why a new interaction model
normal maps in both tangent and model way Nvidia provides hardware was incorporated into this release. Other
space, it also outputs ambient occlusion, acceleration to visuals. As more card packages aren’t doing this, and as a user,
depth, and albedo map types. (It also vendors get on board, Softimage users I’m fully capable of transitioning between
outputs material tag image maps.) It will have support already built in. key maps from one software package to
operates on a cage-based system and another when needed.
takes full advantage of Mental Ray while ANIMATION AND DATA MANAGEMENT Ultimately, these issues are small in
doing so. Also, it generates tangent data On the animation front, there’s improved comparison to the new tools that target
and creates preview shaders so that you support for viewing keys on the time line. the game industry such as Gator and
can view the results in real time using any You can copy, paste, and move these Ultimapper. These two tools alone make
variety of real-time shader formats like keys without reverting to the Animation our working lives immensely easier and
CG, DirectX, and OpenGL. And incidentally, Editor. There’s also a brand new more efficient.
this release also delivers .FX support. Parameter connection editor, which XSI’s 4.0 release was considered a fully
I found a great use for the Ultimapper speeds up the creation of linked robust tool, but 5.0 is all icing on the
in generating texture data for LOD parameters. cake—the whipped cream kind. *
objects. I tried taking a higher-resolution The Shape Editor also makes editing
model with six textures and translating and animating shape keys a snap. With
CAREY CHICO, a 10-year veteran of
that data onto a very low-resolution this new interface, you can save separate
model using only one texture. shape keys, which automatically get put the game industry, is the executive art
Ultimapper chewed up the data and spit into a list with sliders. You can then both director at Pandemic Studios. Email him
out virtually identical texture data all
at [email protected].
spaced out on my UV set, deriving a
8 JANUARY 2006 | GAME DEVELOPER