Talking Heads: Facial Animation in The Getaway by Gavin Moore [04.18.01] The Getaway takes place in possibly the largest environment ever seen in a video game; painstakingly re-creating over 50 square kilometers of the heart of London in blistering photorealistic detail. The player will be able to drive across the capital from Kensington Palace to the Tower of London. But the game involves much more than just racing, the player must leave their vehicle to enter buildings on foot to commit crimes ranging from bank robberies to gang hits. Gavin Moore describes Talking Heads, Team Soho's facial animation system which uses parsed speech and a skeletal animation system to reduce the workload involved in creating facial animation on large scale game projects.

Image Compression with Vector Quantization Ivan-Assen Ivanov [04.16.01] Until we start seeing games with a serious amount of geometry, the greatest slice of the memory pie will belong to textures. The hundreds of megabytes of stuff coming from the art quarters must be compressed. Conventional image-compression algorithms are not very well suited to the specific requirements of art storage in games. This article provides an introduction to the field of VQ, presents two algorithms for performing VQ, and goes into the details of a successful real-world application for VQ texture compression.

A Real-Time Procedural Universe, Part One: Generating Planetary Bodies by Sean O'Neil [03.02.01] If you've been interested in procedural texturing and modeling for even half the amount of time I have, you've probably read many of the same articles and web sites I've read. You may have even bought a book or two and written some code. If you're like me, you've also probably been frustrated by how much time it takes to sift through all the information out there to figure out what really works. Although this article won't solve all your problems or answer all your questions, hopefully it will get you much further along the path than you are now, or at least give you plenty of ideas.

Four Tricks for Fast Blurring in Software and Hardware by Alex Evans [02.09.01] Computer games and real-time graphics are acquiring a a sharp-edged, polygonal look. One option that is often overlooked is blurring elements of the scene. This article presents a few tricks which can help make real-time blurring possible, and hopefully will provide enough material to inspire you to invent your own hybrid techniques.

Refractive Texture Mapping, Part Two by Gustavo Oliveira [11.17.00] The second part of Gustavo Oliveira's detailed implementation of refractive texture mapping for a simple water wave simulation using directional sine waves applied to a flat polygonal mesh looks at how refractive texture mapping can be implemented to simulate refractions.

Refractive Texture Mapping, Part One by Gustavo Oliveira [11.10.00] Gustavo Oliveira presents, in two parts, a detailed implementation of refractive texture mapping for a simple water wave simulation using directional sine waves applied to a flat polygonal mesh. In this installment, Gustavo investigates the use of sphere mapping to simulate curved-surface reflections.

Siggraph 2000 From a Game Development Perspective by Daniel Sanchez-Crespo [08.04.00] Hardware, software, papers, general wackiness... If you missed the party last week in New Orleans, be sure to check out this wrapup of what Siggraph 2000 had to offer game developers. If you were there, check out some of the stuff you might have missed

Building an Advanced Particle System by John van der Burg [06.23.00] Smoke, sparks, and blood are routinely created in today's games using particle systems. To realize these effects, you need to build a particle system, and not just a simple one. You need an advanced particle system, one that's fast, flexible, and extensible.

Choosing Between Utility and Modifier Plug-Ins for 3D Studio Max by David Lanier [06.14.00] So which type of 3D Studio Max plug-in should you be developing: a utility, or a modifier? David Lanier, a programmer who knows all too well how important the choice can be, tackles the pros and cons of each type of plug-in, discussing the advantages and drawbacks of each, as well as the use of the Microsoft Foundations Class (MFC) inside a utility.

GDC '99 Video Session: Fast Collision Detection for Interactive Games by Ming Lin from GDC 2000 [06.12.00] The problem of collision or interference detection between two or more objects in dynamic environments is fundamerntal in computer graphics, robotics, and computer-simulated environments. This lecture from GDC '99 presents efficient alrgorithms for contact determination and interference detection between geometric models undergoing rigid motion. This presentation is available in either Quicktime or RealVideo format.

Implementing Curved Surface Geometry by Brian Sharp [05.30.00] Back when Quake was first released, consumer-level 3D acceleration was nearly unheard of, and id's software renderer scaled in speed with the clock speed of your Pentium processor. During the few years since then, though, the game market has reached a point of extreme processor stratification. As game developers, it's important to support high-end consumers, and yet we'd prefer not to abandon the low-end players. And from this desire was a new industry trend born: scalable geometry. Article by Brian Sharp.

The Blobs Go Marching Two by Two by Jeff Lander [05.22.00] The challenge of accurately modelling organic shapes and the they way they slop, splash, waddle and plop has caused many game artists to crumple under the pressure of recreating such phenomena. Jeff Lander shows how to use meta-goop to create and manipulate organic objects.

The Trials and Tribulations of Tribology by Jeff Lander [05.10.00] The simple force of friction in the physical world is so familiar to everyone in a potential game audience, that any departure from realism can be glaring and yet realistically simulating these simple physical properties is quite challenging. In this article Jeff Lander discusses the simulation of friction in real-time 3D applications, otherwise known as the field of tribology.

Using Bitmaps for Automatic Generation of Large-Scale Terrain Models by Kai Martin [04.27.00] As game worlds (especially online, persistent ones) get larger, game development teams need efficient ways of creating large expanses of terrain without having to build it manually. Kai Martin introduces a bit-map based technique that helps automatically generates terrain, while still giving artists and world builders control over the details.

Implementing Subdivision Surface Theory by Brian Sharp [04.25.00] Brian Sharp expands his introduction to subdivision surfaces with techniques for implementing the modified butterfly scheme in real-time development, complete with a demo.

Flex Your Facial Animation Muscles by Jeff Lander [04.14.00] Given a nice, short list of the 13 visemes needed to represent speech realisitically, how would you adapt them to a character mesh to enable continuous lip-synching? In the second of two part series, Jeff Lander continues his examination of facial animation techniques by investigating how to construct and manipulate meshes.

Subdivision Surface Theory by Brian Sharp [04.11.00] A relatively new, up-and-coming technique for implementing scalable geometry, subdivision surfaces have emerged as a compelling contender among scalability solutions.Brian Turner explains different surface schemes and how they can be applied to real-time 3D development.

Read My Lips: Facial Animation Techniques by Jeff Lander [04.06.00] Until recently most facial animation used in games has been limited to cut-scene movies, but now more and more games have begun to include facial animation in real-time 3D. In the first of a two part series, Jeff Lander examines the basic concepts of facial movement.

Real-Time Dynamic Level of Detail Terrain Rendering with ROAM by Bryan Turner [04.03.00] Once the sole domain of flight simultations, outdoor landscaping is now finding its way into 3D action gaming. In this article Bryan Turner examines the state of the art in hardware accelerated landscape engines and the algorithms which power them, with particular emphasis on Real-time Optimally Adapting Meshes (ROAM).

Advanced Collision Detection Techniques by Nick Bobic [03.30.00] Collision detection in 3D becomes ever more complicated as gaming worlds become ever more realistic, but many games still exhibit collision problems. Because today’s players demand increasing levels of realism, developers will have to do some hard thinking in order to approximate the real world in their game worlds as closely as possible. Nick Bobic's article assumes a basic understanding of the geometry and math involved in collision detection, and covers some advanced collision detection techniques.

Devil in the Blue Faceted Dress: Real Time Cloth Animation by Jeff Lander [03.27.00] Cloth animation is tricky, and even in the world of high-end computer graphics, it’s difficult to get right. Jeff Lander wanted to create realistic cloth in his environments and on his characters, so with his hardware accelerated graphics rasterization freeing enough processor power necessary to make it possible, he set set about creating a real-time cloth simulation.

Continuous LOD Terrain Meshing Using Adaptive Quadtrees by Thatcher Ulrich [02.28.00] Right now is a particularly interesting point in the development of terrain rendering technology, because polygon budgets have risen to the point where, in conjunction with real-time LOD meshing algorithms taken from published academic papers, state-of-the-art game engines are able to draw quite a bit of reasonably detailed terrain. However, the techniques which are currently in common use must compromise either on terrain size or on close-up detail. Thatcher Ulrich demonstrates an extension that eliminates the tradeoff between terrain size and close-up detail.

2D Surface Deformation by Max I. Fomitchev [02.16.00] Increases in the performance of graphics accelerators free additional CPU cycles that can be used for real-time physical world modeling. Modifying the geometry of an object is more effective than mapping a new or animated texture, because correctly deformed objects will look right from any angle and in any lighting conditions. Max I. Fomitchev discusses the implementation of deformable surfaces for real-time 3D games that simulate realistic environments.

Crashing into the New Year: Collision Detection by Jeff Lander [02.10.00] Collision detection is a huge issue and an active area of research in graphics simulation. Using techniques such as the dot product and cross product, Jeff Lander investigates some common problems that can be important to a variety of game applications.

Collision Response: Bouncy, Trouncy, Fun by Jeff Lander [02.08.00] Apply forces and acceleration to particles and you get the big "D" word: dynamics. With the help of a virtual Jello simulator, Jeff Lander investigates how particle dynamics affects collision response.

Using NURBS Surfaces in Real-Time Applications by Dean Macri [11.17.99] The quest goes on to find suitable alternatives to polygonal models, and one of the most promising candidates seems to be NURBS surfaces. In this article, Dean Macri covers everything from concepts and terminology associated with parametric curves and surfaces, to difficulties encountered when using NURBS surfaces in place of polygonal models, to the types of 3D content that can be created by using parametrics.

Real-Time Shadow Casting Using Shadow Volumes by Jason Bestimt and Bryant Freitag [11.15.99] Despite the rich colors, intricate textures, and dazzling effects in today's games, the human brain still notices that something is missing, and that something might just be shadows. Running with this idea, Jason Bestimt and Bryant Freitag discuss real-time dynamic shadowing using shadow volumes, presenting techniques and code listings for creating accurate shadows in 3D environments.

Rendering to Texture Surfaces Using DirectX7 by Kim Pallister [11.12.99] The Microsoft DirectX7 API offers the opportunity for programmers to tap into some fairly remarkable graphics capabilities, including the ability to render primitives to texture surfaces. Kim Pallister discusses some of the methods and uses for rendering to texture surfaces, comparing methods for both high-end and low-end hardware.

Occlusion Culling Algorithms by Tomas Möller and Eric Haines [11.09.99] Developers are always going to want better performance in real-time rendering, and so speed-up techniques and acceleration schemes will always be needed. In this excerpt from Chapter 7, "Speed-Up Techniques," of Real-Time Rendering, the authors discuss the class of acceleration schemes known as the occlusion culling techniques.

Implementing A Group Behavioral Control System Using Maya by Kian Bee Ng [10.11.99] Crowd scenes, schooling fish, and other forms of flocking behavior once required postprocessing techniques. However, using Maya Embedded Language, you can script these behaviors within the animation environment. Check out theory, code, and a short movie that demonstrates the technique.

MaxScript 3.0 for Game Development by Wyeth Ridgway [10.08.99] Learn how to write a game editor inside of Max 3.0 without touching a line of C code. According to Ridgeway, the language is easy, powerful, and a great resource for building custom geometry tools. MaxScript included.

Real-time Soft-object Animation using Free-form Deformation by Alex Ferrier [08.27.99]With increasing processor speeds, soft-object animation is finally affordable. You've heard of Bezier curves and surfaces - now use Bezier volumes to morph the heck out of your geometry. Add personality and exaggeration to a character's movements, or calculate the "intuitively correct" way to smash up a car.

A Compact Method for Backface Culling by Osnat Levi, et. al. [08.06.99] Detecting and eliminating polygons in scene that face away from the viewer reduces the amount of computation and memory traffic. This article describes a new culling technique that performs accurate backface culling in object space, will speed up your 3D games on the PC.

Understanding and Using OpenGL Texture Objects by Richard Wright [07.23.99] What is a texture object, anyway? Apparently, they can improve your textured rendering performance by more than 10 times while using the same hardware. If this sounds like a good deal to you, read on. Wright will tell you all about how to make use of them.

Curved Surfaces Using Bézier Patches by Gabe Kruger [06.11.99] Traditionally, 3D geometry used in games has been stored as static polygons in a structure like a mesh or BSP tree. However, by taking advantage of today's powerful graphics hardware and making use of Bezier patches, games can realize more organic shapes in real-time.

Implementing a 3D SIMD Geometry and Lighting Pipeline
By Ronen Zohar & Haim Barad [04.16.99] The new generation of Pentium III processors accelerates floating-point operations via new instructions collectively called "Streaming SIMD Extensions." This article explains how to optimize your current graphics engine's geometry and lighting pipeline by taking advantage of these new instructions.

Run-Time MIP-Map Filtering by Andrew Flavell [12.11.98] Texture maps can suffer from several unfavorable visual effects. This math-heavy but computationally efficient method of generating MIP-maps can filter and scale textures for sharp-looking texture maps at varying LODs.

Multitexturing in DirectX 6 by Jason L. Mitchell, Michael Tatro and Ian Bullard [10.09.98] One of the gmes in Microsoft's Directx 6 API is support for multiple texture mapping. Learn how to implement this feature, along with a fall back tecnique for handling out-dated silicon.

From 3D Studio MAX to Direct 3D, Part 2: How to Create a Plug-In
by Loic Baumann [03.20.98] The series continues as we examine how to integrate MFC inside the plug-in.  A simple example of a Utility Plug-in is included.

From 3D Studio MAX to Direct 3D - Introduction by Loic Baumann [02.20.98] The first of a series that will explore how to create a 3D Studio MAX plug-in that exports artwork into your real-time 3D engine.

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