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Event Wrap-Up: Physics Simulation Real-time physical simulation has become a must-have feature for new games. It is an area in which we have historically been told that it takes an expert to stabilize numerical integration, and been advised to stick with middleware solutions like Havok. Last year, Guendelman et al. showed that plausible simulation is still a young field where simple insights can make suddenly change all the rules. They showed that inverting the typical order of operations in simulation can make it both easier to implement and extremely stable. This year offers two new ideas that might have similar impact.
Rigid Fluid simulation solves the Navier-Stokes fluid equations over everything in the scene including solids, and then enforces rigid body constraints. This allows fluids to move rigid bodies, and the bodies to push back for the first time. Although the results presented in the paper are not real-time, this method could probably be adapted for game simulation using a coarse fluid grid and GPU simulation techniques. Check out the pre-SIGGRAPH General Purpose Computing on Graphics Processors conference to see just how well GPUs can simulate fluids and particle systems. The authors of A Virtual Node Algorithm for Changing Mesh Topology During Simulation solve a different problem: allowing deformation in fracture when simulating with coarser meshes than those used for rendering. They achieve this by embedding the mesh in a tetrahedral grid and duplicating instead of subdividing tetrahedra upon fracture. Simulation in games often uses such low-resolution meshes, and, combined with 3D textures, this approach may be useful for creating breakable environments. Hardware Talks In addition to the pure graphics research discussed at SIGGRAPH, ATI and NVIDIA each gave a number of presentations on how to get the most from graphics hardware. These combined material previously seen at the Game Developer's Conference with a few new nuggets and information on their new shader analysis suites. One
particularly valuable new idea from these was ATI's transparent
shadow map method from the Ruby: The Double Cross demo. Shadow
algorithms generally assume a single depth is visible for each pixel
and don't work well with transparent objects because they violate
that assumption. The Ruby team proposes a
new kind of shadow map that stores distance from the light source
to an opaque surface in the alpha channel and the blended RGB values
from transparent objects between the light and that surface in the
color channels. The color channel is white where there are transparent
objects in front of the light. As with regular shadow mapping, the
pixel shader for the visible scene provides no illumination when
a surface is farther from the light than the shadow caster. The
new twist is that the illumination at points closer to the light
is modulated by the RGB value in the shadow map. This makes the
transparent surface appear darker than it should but casts correct
translucent shadows on opaque objects. When there are multiple transparent
surfaces they are colored incorrectly but the error is likely to
go unnoticed in many cases.
DirectX and OpenGL The state of the DirectX and OpenGL APIs were also discussed in some detail at SIGGRAPH. Microsoft is following Apple's lead and moving all 2D windowing and rendering to 3D acceleration in the new Windows Graphics Foundation (WGF). This will be the end of the GDI interface and a significant new step for making DirectX both more powerful and more reliable, since many functions will be moved out of the kernel. This also means that DirectX will begin to require multi-tasking at the GPU level since multiple applications will be rendering simultaneously. Like OpenGL, the new DirectX will also require implementation of a core feature set -- no more capabilities bits and multiple render paths. The programmable GPU model is being extended in several ways. First, pixel and vertex shaders will operate under a unified instruction set model. Dual vertex shaders will allow programmable access to vertices both before and after curve tessellation, and a new Geometry shader will be introduced. The Geometry shader receives an entire post-vertex shader triangle and may alter it in unconstrained ways, including subdivision and killing the entire triangle. These new features make several pieces of the fixed function pipeline obsolete and Microsoft is taking this opportunity to clean house. Expect dinosaurs like triangle fans, point sprites, vertex lighting, and fog to go away soon. Newer cards don't have dedicated silicon for these anyway; they emulate them with the programmable pipeline. OpenGL is evolving more slowly, although we can probably expect vendors to release GL extensions for the geometry shader and other features before WGF actually ships. The new OpenGL functionality available this summer is mostly catch-up work against DirectX 9.0. The ARB_texture_non_power_of_two extension allows normal [0, 1] indexing and MIP-maps for textures with arbitrary dimensions. ARB_mirrored_repeat is a new wrapping mode that provides four-fold symmetry for textures and ATI_texture_float is a straightforward floating-point texture format. Programmers hate the convoluted, platform-specific p-buffer APIs needed for rendering to texture under OpenGL (John Carmack has even said that he almost switched to DirectX just to get away from p-buffers on Doom 3). The new EXT_framebuffer_object and EXT_pixel_buffer_object provide long over-due relief in the form of a vendor and platform independent off-screen rendering API. One use for p-buffers is shadow map rendering, which is getting another a big boost as well. OpenGL shadow maps now perform percentage-closer filtering automatically for nicely filtered soft shadows and both ATI and NVIDIA's SM3 cards provide depth-only shadow rendering at twice the speed of visible surface rendering.
With regard to OpenGL extensions, NVIDIA is to be commended for supporting a number of "ATI_" extensions in their newest drivers and pushing a number of new features into OpenGL as "EXT_" extensions. Vendors have traditionally proposed competing but equivalent OpenGL extensions that just force OpenGL developers to implement features twice. Since extensions are the key that unlocks the advanced features of new graphics cards and consumers don't see the extension names, agreement on common extensions is good for everyone. Developers are more likely to use features that require only one code path. Vendors sell hardware based on the number and quality of features they provide, not behind the scenes IP issues. In the end, consumers want fast cards and good games, and common extensions help produce them. Although nothing has been formally announced for the APIs, expect to see some new image formats available in both DirectX and OpenGL soon. Likely candidates are OpenEXR for high dynamic range and ATI's 3Dc format for 4:1 compressed normal maps. 3D Displays Finally, the formerly novelty area of 3D displays got some serious attention at SIGGRAPH. Remember when R2-D2 projects a holographic image of Princess Leia at the beginning of Star Wars? The image can be seen (in the world of the movie) simultaneously by multiple viewers, without special glasses, and appears in front of the physical display. While the underlying technology is different from what Lucas envisioned, the experience of today's 3D displays is remarkably similar to what was once only science fiction. A variety of 3D displays are about to hit the consumer and professional markets. Game developers need to be aware of them for three reasons. Artists may benefit from the enhanced shape perception provided by these displays, which already support popular tools like 3D Studio Max and Maya. Arcades and handhelds have faster technology turnover than PCs and consoles, so developers should immediately consider supporting 3D displays that may be deployed in those markets as early as next year. Most of these displays can be configured to create true 3D images from applications intended only for traditional displays. They do this either by intercepting all rendering calls and executing them multiple times with slightly different projection matrices or by reading the depth buffer to determine the 3D location of each pixel. Developers can easily future-proof their titles without explicitly supporting 3D displays by ensuring that they render scenes in ways that are compatible with these tricks. NVIDIA has added an entire chapter to their GPU Programming Guide on supporting these stereoscopic retrofitting methods.
To make their output appear to actually inhabit 3D space, most of the new displays use a traditional LCD monitor behind either a parallax barrier or a lenticular screen. For each, the application renders stereo views. These are then horizontally interlaced so that odd columns of pixels correspond to the left eye and even ones to the right eye. A parallax barrier is like a fence with one-pixel gaps between the fence posts, set slightly in front of the LCD screen. When the viewer's head is within the display's "sweet spot", only the odd columns are visible through the gaps to the left eye; the posts block the even columns completely. The opposite is true for the right eye. The viewer thus sees two separate images as if they were wearing red/green or shutter glasses, but the image is in true color and at the full refresh rate of the display. A lenticular screen instead directs different columns to each eye using one-pixel wide cylindrical lenses. You've seen the effect before as a gimmick on airport billboards, stickers, and CD covers. In those cases, instead of 3D views, they often display separate frames of an animation. Two views gives a small sweet spot. If the viewer moves more than a few centimeters the effect breaks down and may appear to have inverted depth, moiré, and diffraction patterns. To make the sweet spot large enough for a single viewer to move comfortably and for multiple people to share a display, four, eight or sixteen views can be rendered. This also creates a parallax effect so that by moving their head, the viewer can look behind objects. Because they divide the pixels of a single monitor over multiple views, both barrier and lenticular displays have intensity and resolution divided by the number of views, which makes them dim and pixilated compared to 2D displays. Sharp was the first to reach consumers with a mass market 3D display -- their two-view barrier display cell phone is already available in Japan and the 15-inch LL-151-3D LCD will soon be appearing on laptops and PC's. Sanyo's TM080SV-3D is an 8-inch LCD barrier display with four views, each at 600x200 resolution. It is much brighter and sharper than Sharp's entry. Viewing cartoony games that appear to stand out of the tiny display immediately immediately makes one think of Nintendo-hopefully the next handheld after the DS will have a 3D display as good as this one. X3D takes the displays to the next level and is the minimum for what you would want on your desktop. Their eight view barrier displays are now available from 4-inch to 50-inch, with the 17-inch priced at a very affordable $1,500. The company is aware that content availability is the key to launching their displays. They provides the X3D OpenGL Enhancer automatically renders eight views for normal OpenGL programs and Vice President of Content Services Ken Hubbell is actively seeking game developers to establish partnerships and build in native support for the displays. They are also developing technology to automatically convert console games to work with 3D televisions. X3D's displays are bright, sharp, and large (if low resolution), and will be appearing in casino and arcade machines and as digital signage in a few months. Ampronix Inc. is one of the few companies pursuing lenticular technology. They show two 800x1200 views on their $4,000 20-inch display. Because Ampronix only provides stereo output, it works with any regular stereo card and is a drop-in replacement for shutter glasses. The downside of this display is horrible flicker and diffraction if the viewer's head isn't within 2.5 cm of the ideal position. Kodak has a unique technology in which viewers look through a spherical lens that merges stereo 1280x1024 images, the highest resolution available on any 3D display. It is targeted at CAD users and carries a price tag in the tens of thousands of dollars. The major drawbacks of this display are the huge footprint (similar to a washing machine) and that it requires the user to place his head against a very small window to precisely match the tiny sweet spot of the unusual lens. Lightspace Technologies has the DepthCube Z1024, the only display where the viewer actually focuses at different depths, and by far the brightest on the show floor. Their unique technology has a rear projector that illuminates a stack of 20 screens inside a cube. The individual screens can be toggled between opaque and transparent. An extremely high frame rate projector paints separate images at the 20 different depths in the time a conventional display paints a single 2D image. This means that the object seen is really 3D, with parallax, perspective foreshortening, and ocular convergence. Combined with an effectively unlimited sweet spot, this display likely produces less fatigue and a more subtly compelling sense of depth. The downsides are 15-bit color (displaying a real 3D image requires huge bandwidth), CRT-size footprint, and depth shadows. These depth shadows appear as black outlines on objects when viewed off-axis (as if wearing a head lamp). Also, the price is prohibitive at tens of thousands of dollars. Because of this, the company is not considering the consumer or art workstation markets but is focusing on scientific visualization, security, and engineering markets. SIGGRAPH - Roll on 2005! Overall, this year's SIGGRAPH was both interesting and thought-provoking. You can download the complete SIGGRAPH Proceedings from the ACM Digital Library or read collected preprints on the web for free. SIGGRAPH
returns to the Los Angeles Convention center July 31, 2005 and will
be in Boston in 2006. The papers submission deadline is January
26, 2005 -- consider not just attending but also submitting your
work. Although full papers require time and detailed disclosures
that are not appropriate for many game developers, sketches, posters,
and the animation festival are great venues to advertise your new
title and get credit for your innovation.
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