Sony PlayStation 2

Supporting both the audio CD and DVD-Video formats, PS2 offers consumers a wide range of music and video entertainment options. The new system is compatible with the original PlayStation, bridging the gap between the two systems while legitimizing consumers investment in their existing PlayStation software libraries. Playstation2 is delivering simplicity and style in a breakthrough compact design that frees up valuable workspace. Measuring only 12 inches wide, 7 inches high, and 3 inches deep, and weighting 2.1 kg (4lbs. 10 oz.). PS2 is creating a path toward the future of networked digital entertainment and its combination of breathtaking digital graphics, superb sound and DVD video will open the doors to a new computer entertainment experience at home. PS One

Play THE GAME!

PlayStation 2
CPU: 128-bit "Emotion Engine" at 294.912 MHz frequency Graphics: "Graphics Synthesizer" with 4 MB VRAM Main Memory: Two 128Mbit RDRAM modules, 3.2GB/s bandwidth Sound Processor: SPU2 with 2 MB memory, supports 48 channels Disc Device: DVD-ROM Device Speed: CD-ROM - 24x; DVD-ROM - 4x Media: PlayStation2 CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, PlayStation CD-ROM Formats supported: Audio CD, DVD-Video The PlayStation2 (PS2) comes with the PS2 unit, a Dual Shock 2 analog controller, an 8MB Memory Card, a utility Disc, an AV Multi Cable, an AC Power Cord and a manual.

Logitech Driving Force

Technology: Features: Number of buttons: Connection type: Requirements: Force Feedback Includes pedals, ergonomical shape 8 programmable buttons USB functions with PlayStation 2

Console Games

Accessories
CPU: 32 bit RISC (R3000 custom) Clock Speed: 33.8688 MHz Main Memory: 16Mbit Graphics: PlayStation GPU Graphics Memory: 8Mbit Sound: SPU 24 channel Sound Memory: 4Mbit Disc Drive: CD-ROM 2x Formats Supported:
PlayStation CD-ROM, Audio CD Interfaces: Controller port (2) Memory Card slot (2) AV Multi Cable output (1)

Accessories Included:

DUALSHOCK analog controller (1) AV Multi Cable (1) AC Adapter (1)

Controller PS ONE

Multitap

G-Con 45 Gun

Memory Card PS 2: 8 MB PS One: 1 MB
Electronic Arts - OEM Games

FIFA 2001

Get out of the stands and onto the field! FIFA 2001 delivers 90 minutes of loud, aggressive, end-to-end action. From the deafening chants of fans in the stand to the irate coaches on the sidelines, FIFA 2001 has all the sounds and all the action to bring the pitch alive. Now you can take it online for some real gritty head-to-head competition, so login, matchup and go to the goal. Genre: SPORTS Genre: RTS

C&C - RED ALERT 2

The Soviets are back, this time on American soil, and their mysterious mind-control technology is turning Americans into mindless automatons. Take up arms for the Red, White and Blue, or just the Red. Whatever your allegiance, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 pushes the frontier of realtime strategy gaming. Genre: AUTO

NFS: Road Challenge

Earn your dream collection: Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, BMW, Mercedes, Corvette, Camaro and more. Raise the stakes with traffic, night driving & real weather conditions. Make the DRIVE of your life!

PGA Tour 2001

Reinventing golf with a new engine that takes the fun of Sunday golf with your buddies, mixes it up with the competitive pressure of the PGA TOUR, and delivers it in a fast and furious game experience. Feel the club, feel the ball, and feel the shot!

SIM CITY 3000

Create and control your urban empire with more power than ever before. Expand your SimCities with new customizable terrain and hundreds of new buildings, including building sets from Asia and Europe. Inflict new disasters on your citizens. Take on challenging scenarios or create your own with the SimCity scenario creator. Genre: SIMULATION Genre: AUTO

NFS: Porsche 2000

Need for Speed Porsche 2000 delivers the next level of open-road racing with a collection of cars from the 50-year history of the world's most storied performance car manufacturer - Porsche. Push every boundary to unleash the potential of these incredible vehicles while weaving through traffic and battling fierce competition.

Genre: SPORTS

Theme Park World
What could be more fun than building and running your own Themepark? Well how about getting to play in it and ride all the rides you created? Then how about sharing your park with the whole world on the Internet?

THE SIMS

Create simulated people and build their homes, then help your Sims pursue careers, earn money, make friends, and find romanceor totally mess up their lives! Test your "people skills" as you deal with family, friends, careers, and chaos! There is no right or wrong way to play this game. Genre: SIMULATION Genre: AUTO

Sports Car GT

Experiment GT races onbord of the coolest cars ever! Containing high resolution car models and exceptional graphics, this game has the famous versions of the best cars in the world: Porsche 911, Callaway C7, BMW M3, Saleen Mustang, Panoz GTR1, Mosler Raptor or Vector M12. Start the RACE and "Push the pedal to the metal!"

Genre: SIMULATION

Games Research: the Science of Interactive Entertainment

Craig Reynolds

Research and Development
Sony Computer Entertainment America

Course 39

July 25, 2000

Goals of this course

Present specific gamerelated research Strengthen ties between the SIGGRAPH and game development communities:
Encourage contributions to SIGGRAPH by the game development community Encourage academic researches to pursue topics related to game development. Encourage game developers to follow developments in the research world.
In this introductory session.
Background on game research Todays speakers Two communities A very brief history of video games A quick peek at my own recent work Note course web page:
http://www.red3d.com/siggraph/2000/course39/

Audience survey

How would you describe yourself?
Academic researcher 2: Game developer 3: Game researcher 4: Film/TV production (including effects) 5: Tool developer (hardware/software) 6: Artist 7: Other

Games Research

Research underlies game progress Game industry draws on research from

academia

SIGGRAPH, partnerships with universities,. in the game industry and elsewhere very limited resources

corporate R&D labs

inhouse work by game developers
Research versus production
Speakers at two SIGGRAPH 99 panels:
R&D for Film Production How SIGGRAPH Research is Used in Games

agreed:

there is no time during production for research at best, they could adapt published research to their needs depend on research community for innovative solutions to hard problems

Speakers

Craig Reynolds: introduction Jonathan Blow: terrain modeling Robert Huebner: progressive meshes Chris Hecker: rigid body dynamics Panel discussion: continuous LOD Robin Green: steering behaviors John Funge: intelligent characters All: questions & answers
Research Scientist Sony Computer Entertainment America craig_reynolds@playstation.sony.com http://www.red3d.com/cwr/ Interests: autonomous characters for animation and games, Evolutionary Computation, Artificial Life. Earlier work: animation system design, a game authoring system, and a technique for modeling surfaces immersed in flow.

Background:

Jonathan Blow
VP of Software Development Bolt Action Software jon@boltaction.com Interests: modeling terrain with extremely high detail levels, and the fast rendering of materials with accurate reflectance properties. In 1995 he cofounded Bolt Action Software, which develops multiplayer games.

Robert Huebner

Director of Technology Nihilistic Software, Inc. innerloop@nihilistic.com Contributed to Jedi Knight, Descent, Starcraft. Contributes to Game Developer magazine and serves on the advisory board for the Computer Game Developers Conference.

Chris Hecker

Technical and Art Director definition six, inc. checker@d6.com http://www.d6.com/users/checker/ Interests: highend physics and graphics technologies. Member of Game Developers Conference advisory board, contributor to Game Developer magazine, editorial board of The Journal of Graphics Tools.

Robin Green

Software Engineer Sony Computer Entertainment America robin_green@playstation.sony.com http://www.robingreen.net/ Interests: new graphical, dynamics and AI techniques for upcoming games. Created steering behaviors for Dungeon Keeper 2, real time procedural textures for Theme Park World and an ingame Soccer AI for FIFA Soccer Manager.

John Funge

Research Scientist Sony Computer Entertainment America http://www.jfunge.com/ Interests: quasiintelligent computer characters for use in computer games. His Ph.D. Work was a new approach to highlevel control of autonomous characters. Author of the book "AI for Games and Animation: A Cognitive Modeling Approach"

Two communities

While they share much in common, the two worlds of computer graphics and animation and games have separate cultures, conferences, and publications.
Two communities: moving together?
Historically, the game industry had an ad hoc and nonacademic software culture. Increasingly, game developers look to SIGGRAPH and other research forums. More academics now attend and speak at game conferences. More game developers attend and (as in this course) speak at SIGGRAPH.
Two communities: conferences
Graphics (academic, film, TV, VR.and games)
SIGGRAPH Graphics Interface Eurographics Game Developers Conference.and increasingly, all of the above
Two communities: periodicals
ACM TOG (Transactions on Graphics) IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications Journal of Graphics Tools Computer Graphics World Game Developer Magazine (online: Gamasutra).and increasingly, all of the above

Two communities: books

Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice (Foley, van Dam, et al.) Graphics Gems series Texturing and Modeling: Procedural Approach (Ebert, Musgrave, Peachey, Worley, Perlin)
Game Programming Gems (Deloura) Graphics Programming Black Book (Abrash) Zen of Code Optimization (Abrash)
.and increasingly, all of the above
A brief history of video games
(pre) History of video games

1961: spacewar

Steve Russell at MIT on a PDP1 Nolan Bushnell at Nutting Associates. First dedicated game machine. Based on Ralph Baers 1951 concept and a 1967 prototype.
1971: Computer Space 1972: Magnavox introduces Odyssey
1977: Atari introduces VCS (2600)
Game history: on personal computers
1977: Apple 2 1982: Commodore 64 1985: Commodore Amiga 1987: VGA 1993: Doom 1995: Voodoo Graphics 1996: Quake 1997: Ultima Online

Game history: consoles

1985: Nintendo Entertainment System 1989: Sega releases 16bit Genesis 1991: Nintendo releases 16bit SNES 1992: 3DO releases its 32bit console 1995: Sega releases 32bit Saturn 1995: Sony releases 32bit PlayStation 1996: Nintendo releases N64 1999: Sega releases Dreamcast 2000: Sony releases PlayStation2

Some of my recent work

Interaction with realtime flocks
Based on the 1987 boids model of flocks, herds and schools Uses fast hardware (PS2), and spatial data structures to accelerate boids: about 6000 times faster than in 1987. Allows real time (60 fps) interaction with a group of about 300 birds. Includes behavioral state transitions

Pigeons in the Park

Coevolution of Tag Players

The game of tag

symmetrical pursuit and evasion role reversal
Goal: discover steering behavior for tag Method: emergence of behavior
coevolution competitive fitness no expert knowledge required

Selforganization:

Sensors and obstacles

It works!

Typical fitness test (1)

Typical fitness test (2)

Competitive coevolution: summary
Can produce high quality players Meets or beats humandesigned players Does not require knowing a winning strategy or how to implement it. Requires very long computation time even for a very simple game. Untested for games requiring complex strategy.

Summary

Game research

the field this course

Course speakers Two communities Video game history My work Course web page