GDC2018 hosts International Participation

GDC2018 hosts International Participation

Not surprising, an International flavor permeated this year’s computer Game Developers’ Conference (held at the Moscone Convention Center March 18 and 19, here in San Francisco). Delegations from Europe and parts of Asia included dozens of new game titles, and literarily hundreds of people. First-person shooting games remain popular, as were puzzles — fail to solve them at your peril.

Active and visible were offerings from the Polish delegation. Games sampled, along with sausage and kielbasas, at the “Polish Party,” included Game titles include “Witcher 3: Wild Hunt,” a 2015 medieval combat scenario, “Monarchs and Mountains.” Many of these titles include impressive realistic imagery. https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=polish+video+games&chips=q:polish+video+games,g_1:poland&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiCxtqokpDaAhVJwmMKHSMrA7YQ4lYIKCgA&biw=1280&bih=615&dpr=1.5#imgrc=JJ1YCmcKC7MRLM:

The goal is to promote the uniqueness of the Polish gaming industry, says Lukasz Plesnowicz, a spokesperson for the delegation. Polish game developers are very “integrated” the designer says. He cites a B2B award in 2014 for “This War of Mine,” a game demonstrating the sense of despair (the decreasing number of choices) of residents in a war-torn city. http://store.steampowered.com/app/282070/This_War_of_Mine/

In fact, Poland has its own independent games festival, says Jan Kleszcgski The country’s support for the video gaming industry has paid off: The segment was worth an estimated $279.6 million in 2014, according the investors’ newsletter VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/2014/11/22/the-birth-and-growth-of-the-polish-game-industry/

Jakub Marszalkowski “head geek” for the Polish Gaming authority cites the “deep story lines” of many Polish games, in contrast with intensive graphics supporting the on-screen runners or shooters. Popular Polish game titles like “Witcher” are easy to play, says Marszalkowski. The experiment with games as a “story-telling form” is recent.

But the experiments with intensive story telling is hardly peculiar to Polish games. The GDC also highlighted games from Europe (Swiss Nex), whose promoted title features a time-travel journey (“All We have is Time), Norway, Scotland Pavilion at GDC, and Korea, among others. Countries and multi-country consortiums touting products and infrastructure at GDC include:

A European consortium called “Swiss Nex” enables monetization for games with a block chain ecosystem for creators. In one game, a user brandishing a digital wallet hunts for “digital collectables.” A branch the Swiss arts council, Swiss Nex operates from San Francisco. https://www.swissnexsanfrancisco.org/event/swissgames/

The German Games Industry Compendium reported over 659 million Euros in game sales for 2017. And 43.9 million units in 2016. That’s 173 million users 2016 — up from 124 million users 2012. Success stories include “Angry Birds Evolution,” “Angry Birds Epic,” and “Drone Swarm” which runs on PCS.

The virtual reality “Eye of the Temple,” puts the play on the ramparts of an ancient castle, climbing on brick steps which may-or-may-not be real. Try not to fall over. Sanctum Dreams, the game’s creator, is based in Denmark. Its software runs on Macs, Linux, and PCs (but not consoles).

Norwegian Games are published by Innovation Norway, a subsidiary of the Norwegian Film Institute. Promoted titles include “Mosaic,” a tale of loneliness in an urban environment, “oVRshot,” a virtual reality game for multiple shooters, and “Trolls vs. Vikings 2,” a war game with trolls and dragons

Products of the Korean Pavilion (KOCCA) Korean Creative Content Agency include “Mad World,” in which a player fights multiple demons, and “Transformers” with augmented reality. KOCCA supports a wide range of creative industries in Korea, including gaming, animation, character licensing, music, fashion, and broadcasting. http://eng.kocca.kr/en/contents.do?menuNo=201433

“Fight the Horror” is a multi-monster attack uses an Unreal processing engine to depict attacking Zombies. The game’s main character, reminiscent of Laura Croft in “Tomb Raider,” must “fight, kill and resolve puzzles” according to the creator Lam Kai Wa (“Tony”) of 4DMacau. The first product out of Macau, “Fight the Horror” is slowly making its way into Hong Kong and Taiwan, where a government bans made it illegal to promote the horror game category. (No exploding heads here.)

GDC 2018 – Reel Time Becomes Real Time

GDC 2018 – Reel Time Becomes Real Time

San Francisco, March 25, 2018.   At this year’s GDC 2018 (Game Developer’s Conference), there were a couple of demos that stood out that strongly reinforced my thoughts about the eventual futuristic merging of computer gaming and movies.

After just a few demos on the GDC expo floor,  I was not be able to discern the difference between the computer game graphics and the live action from movies anymore.  Realism for game developers have never looked so real.

On the first day of GDC, NVIDIA announced their latest RTX technology of Real time-Cinematic rendering.  Nvidia’s RTX technology, alongside Microsoft’s new DirectX® Raytracing (DXR) API, has been an intensive work-in-progress for the last ten years.  It’s ray tracing renders lifelike and realistic lighting, along with reflections and shadows that make it nearly impossible to distinguish what is real and what is not, in terms of computer graphics.   It brings real-time, cinematic-quality rendering to content creators and game developers.

Yes, you read right: “real time”.

This new technology is a milestone for not just gaming developers and filmmakers, but any creator who needs to render an object as realistic as can be.  The computer graphics of tomorrow will make computer graphics of today look like a lifeless imitation.

Nvidia had Project Spotlight “Reflections” at their booth at GDC, which looks more like a teaser trailer for the next Star Wars feature film, but in reality, it’s a real time tracing demo, which Epic’s team along with ILMxLAB and NVIDIA’s DGX Station, equipped with four Tesla V100 GPUs, Epic’s Unreal Engine and NVIDIA’s RTX ray-tracing technology.

It definitely wowed the enthusiastic GDC crowd as it was hard to believe that there were no actual actors used in the storm troopers costumes.  It was all computer graphics being rendered.

At GDC, game developers will have access to ray-tracing denoiser module, part of the GameWorks SDK from Nvidia.  Photo by Marcus Siu.

NVIDIA has also announced that the GameWorks SDK will add a ray-tracing denoiser module, helping game developers take advantage of new capabilities. This updated SDK, which is coming soon, includes support for ray-traced area light shadows, glossy reflections and ambient occlusion.  This will help save a huge amount of time for creators.

Imagine how the Screen Actor’s will feel after they realize that computer graphics characters may jeopardize their career in the near future.  One of those actors will

Motion capture performance artist, Andy Serkis, known for playing “Gollum” in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “Caesar” in the “Planet of the Apes” trilogy may not have problems finding work.  Just a few sections away from the Nvidia booth, I saw a computer generated “digital” Andy Serkis acting out his lines as his alien creature character was being rendered in real time at the Unreal booth.

Unreal indeed.

Just unreal – Andy Serkis’s character talks as Andy talks in real time at the GDC 2018. Photo by Marcus Siu

 

Maybe in the near distant future, we can just get rid of the entire Screen Actor’s Guild with the exception of performance capture or voice-over actors.  Or perhaps one day we can just clone the actors so there wouldn’t be any need for them to come in and perform on a sound stage.

Imagine at the Academy Awards…, “and the nominees for “Best Clone Actor in Supporting Role are”…

In addition with the progress of computer graphics coming from ray tracing in the visual sides, audio will also be just as important for content creators.  End user consumers are continuously looking for an immersive experience with their gaming, so many are reaching out to THX certified equipment for their PC gaming.

THX demonstrated their spatial audio platform, using the latest audio standard, MPEG-H, as well as UHD.  They were using the game trailer for “Helblade”, which ironically, was one of the first live motion capture technology for Epic Games in 2006.  It was in a way, ahead of its time.  Coming from a 2.1 THX certified Logitech speakers and a sub-woofer, it was quite sonically immersive.  I felt that I was right in the middle of the soundscape.

There was also a demo of it using headphones, but I still preferred the speakers.

                                    Certified THX Logitech Speakers at GDC. Photo by Marcus Siu.

In addition, they utilize personalized audio profiles using HRTS’s (Head-Related Transfer Functions), which are optimized and customized for each listener, based on user’s unique hearing anatomy.

Long associated with the Lucasfilm movie sound in movie theatres in the 80’s, it seems that THX is staging a comeback into the public eye in the marketplace.  In addition to its traditional THX certified products such as home entertainment products over the years, such as projectors, pre-amps, receivers and speakers, they have been gaining momentum into the gaming world by introducing THX certified products, such as laptops, headsets and satellite speakers.

The audience is listening…again.

Article and photos by Marcus Siu 

(originally published on mlsentertainment) 

OWC USB-C Dock

OWC USB-C Dock

OWC is best known as being a supplier for Apple products but there are two changes going on in the world. One is – the connections are changing and people not just using Mac anymore. They are using PCs. As a result OWC is selling more parts for just regular computers.

OWC has too new products for PC and Mac users in content creation area.

It lets make your laptop or workstation connect like a full desktop computer. That means multiple monitors, a mouse, an external storage and a network connection. All being hooked up with just one wire connection. This gives the convenience of portable computer and the work efficiency of a standard editing desk. Because this DOCKS – USB-C DOCK and USB-C Travel Dock, then the high speed connection can support the displays, storage and what called HID (Human Interface Device).

The difference between DOCKS – one is a stationary for your office and one is design for travel to give the same convenience when you on location.  

With the HP Z series workstations the Dock supports 4K video and more important – does not change a color on the screen what is a problem for more other docks on the market.