Archive for the ‘Dev’ Tag
Koch Media and Slitherine conclude sales agreement
Leave a CommentKoch Media, a leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products, and history specialist Slitherine, a UK-based independent developer and publisher, announced today that they have concluded an exclusive distribution agreement, according to which Koch Media will handle exclusive initial sales for six titles from the Slitherine catalog in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (including French and Italian versions), Scandinavia, Spain, the Benelux countries, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
Titles for PC, Nintendo DSTM, WiiTM, Xbox 360®, the video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®, PLAYSTATION®3 and PSPTM (PlayStation®Portable) include games from various Slitherine brands, such as HISTORYTM and MILITARY HISTORYTM, the Horrible HistoriesTM and a game from Slitherine’s agreement with the BBC.
Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Koch Media, comments on this cooperation: “In Slitherine, we gained a valuable partner with reputed brands and licenses. We are happy that we get to distribute these attractive, entertaining games with historical contents exclusively in the designated countries.”
Marco Minoli, Marketing Director at Slitherine, said: “As a UK Developer we had already worked extensively with Koch over the years. Now that we have transitioned into publishing they were our distribution partner of choice and a natural fit. We are very pleased to be working with them on our 2009 line up.”
Details regarding individual titles will be released soon.
Softkinetic and SilverFit Introduce Gesture-based Gaming for the Aging Population
Leave a Comment3D Gesture Recognition Technology Simplifies the Exergaming Experience for Senior Citizens
Softkinetic S.A., the leading 3D gesture recognition software provider, and the Dutch company SilverFit today announced the unique Silverfit game system, specifically targeted at adults ages 65 and up.
The Silverfit system and its games were developed in close collaboration with Dutch physiotherapists and were designed specifically to include a broad range of exercises that are recommended as physical therapy after a stroke or an accident, as well as games that provide general fitness benefits. The Silverfit systems are currently being installed in retirement communities and care centers across the Netherlands followed by expansion to the rest of Europe and North America.
Exercising is key to the health of seniors as it reduces the risk of contracting chronic diseases. A recent International Sports Science Association (ISSA) study pointed out the health benefits that exergaming can provide by immersing players in exercise as part of the overall game experience.
By using Silverfit the aging population can exercise with computer games that are specifically developed for them and that take into account any physical limitations. The Softkinetic 3D gesture recognition technology combined with a 3D depth-sensing camera make the experience intuitive. The first installation of Silverfit systems, at the Groenhuysen care center in the Netherlands, provided unexpected benefits; the system created a social atmosphere where seniors enjoyed encouraging each other to play the games and also offered friendly competition amongst users to achieve the highest scores.
Joris Wiersinga, co-founder of SilverFit explains, “Most fitness videogames are developed for the younger generation, typically on videogame consoles like the Wii, but for seniors these games are too busy or too aggressive. In our games the player can pick virtual pieces of a puzzle at their own pace simply by standing up from their chair or leaning to the sides. By using Softkinetic’s 3D gesture technology players do not need to hold anything or know anything about computers. They simply play the games by moving in front of the camera. We chose Softkinetic as a partner because they are the leading provider of software for gesture recognition. Their Software Development Kit offers a rich set of tools that our developers can utilize to create natural interfaces and the software platform supports all the 3D cameras on the market.”
Partnering with SilverFit extends Softkinetic’s presence in the field of games and fitness. In the past year Softkinetic has worked with iTech Fitness to bring an active gaming application to the market, EA Sports on a basketball advergame, and Sprint/Wireless Ronin on a football advergame.
“Gaming specifically for the aging population is a growing industry,” said Michel Tombroff, CEO, Softkinetic. “SilverFit is another exciting exergaming venture for us and we are proud to be involved in a project which can improve the lives of senior citizens.”
Autodesk Now a Member of Epic Games’ Integrated Partners Program
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CARY, NC, December 16, 2008 — Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) and Epic Games, Inc. today announced that Autodesk has become a member of Epic Games’ Integrated Partners Program (IPP). This has allowed Autodesk to integrate its Autodesk HumanIK animation middleware with Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 (UE3). Kynapse artificial intelligence (AI) middleware was also previously integrated with UE3. Publishers and developers licensing this game engine now have access to a production-ready solution for dynamic in-game character animation, as well as 3D navigation and spatial reasoning.
“Epic constantly pushes the technology behind Unreal Engine 3, and working with renowned partners like Autodesk is critical to providing our licensees with best in class development tools,” said Dr. Michael Capps, president of Epic Games. “Autodesk is a leader in 3D design software for games, and we are pleased to welcome them to the Integrated Partners Program.”
“Autodesk is working to help game designers create the most realistic characters possible,” said Michel Kripalani, director of business development, Games Technology Group at Autodesk. “Believable characters have life-like movement and can navigate their environments intelligently. Integrating HumanIK, along with Kynapse, into UE3 makes it much easier for publishers and developers to achieve this level of realism, which is demanded by gamers today.”
Optimized for next-generation platforms, Autodesk HumanIK middleware consists of a run-time, full-body inverse kinematics (IK) solver, as well as a run-time retargeting engine for characters of differing size, proportions and skeletal hierarchy. HumanIK allows animators and game designers to alter animations on the fly, letting characters interact dynamically and realistically with their environments. HumanIK has been licensed for several titles including Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed, as well as Electronic Arts’ DEF JAM: ICON™, FIFA Soccer 07 and NBA STREET Homecourt.
Autodesk Kynapse is a world leading AI solution for game development and real-time simulations. Designed to give nonplayer characters (NPCs) spatial awareness so that they can realistically navigate digital environments, this high-performance engine supports dynamic 3D pathfinding, 3D topology analysis, and team coordination. Additional advanced pathfinding capabilities include dynamic environment evaluation and support for large-crowd pathfinding in complex terrains. Kynapse has been adopted for more than 70 AAA titles.
Epic Games’ Integrated Partners Program establishes a formal business relationship with exceptional companies making cross-platform technologies which integrate with, and are complementary to, UE3. Under the IPP, Epic provides continuous UE3 source code access and full technical support to IPP members. Companies who join the IPP agree to provide a high level of technical support for UE3 licensees through Epic’s established support channels, keep their implementations up-to-date with the latest engine versions and collaborate with Epic on potential promotional and co-marketing efforts.
Emotion FX V3.7 Released, Now Includes Motion Mirroring, a Jiggle Controller, and Much More
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands – December 16, 2008
MysticGD, a leader in real-time character animation middleware, today announced the release of its latest version of EMotion FX, the real-time character animation and model export system.
What’s new in this release:
* Realtime Motion Mirroring: This feature allows you to mirror the motion, playing the animation data of the left-handed side of the character on the right-handed side and the other way around. Only one motion is stored in memory. This feature can especially be very useful for sport games.
* Footplant IK Solver: A new inverse kinematics solver has been added, making it easier to plant feet on uneven terrain.
* Jiggle Controller: This new controller allows simple physics to be applied on bones. This is very useful to simulate things like hair, small pieces of cloth, breasts, and other fatty tissue. This controller uses its own internal physics, so no external physics system is required.
* 64-bit support: We now officially support the x64 platform. New libraries are included as well as 64-bit plugins for 3D Studio Max and Maya.
* DLL support: EMotion FX and MCore can now be used as a DLL on both x86 and x64 platforms. Note that this is not available in the evaluation version.
* iPhone support: we now also officially support the iPhone platform.
* Performance improvements: Major performance improvements for the Wii platform, and the performance of the PC build has also been improved.
* FBX motion loading support inside EMotion Studio: This can be used to directly test mocap data without having to export motions first.
* Exporter improvements: Several improvements and fixes have been made to the exporters.
* FX Material improvements: Boolean and vector parameters are now also being supported, as well as the active technique name.
* Updated console builds: All supporting the latest SDK’s and compilers.
Wii Example: We added an example that shows how to render on the Wii, using GPU skinning where possible.
* Distributable Exporters: You can now license special exporters that you can then ship with your game, allowing your end-users to create their own content.
* To see more about EMotion FX, please visit the product website.
* Movies demonstrating some of the most important features are available online.
You can find EMotion FX at http://www.emotionfx.com.
About MysticGD
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, MysticGD is a leader in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as EA, Ubisoft, Sony Online, Tilted Mill, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co. and DragonFly GF Co.
For more information visit http://www.mysticgd.com.
Pixel Mine Joins Epic Games Unreal Engine 3 Integrated Partners Program
Recognized as a Best Tool winner in Epic’s $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest, nFringe includes the first UnrealScript source-level debugger to successfully tie into the familiar Visual Studio experience. It includes support for breakpoints, stepping, locals, user watches, the Immediate window, and the Quick Watch window. It is available from Pixel Mine under a dual end-user license for commercial users and for non-commercial academic or modding purposes.
Sam Harwell, lead programmer on nFringe, said, “A core requirement in the development of nFringe was seamless integration. nFringe ties into existing Visual Studio commands, menu options, and keyboard shortcuts so developers can focus on developing great UE3 titles.” To that end, nFringe works with little or no modifications to most of Epic Games’ code drops in the last 18 months.
“We are excited to join the Unreal Engine partners program,” remarked David Reese, president of Pixel Mine. “This program will give us the opportunity to realize powerful new features in nFringe that would otherwise be impossible.”
“Unreal Engine 3’s successful adoption by the industry has been driven by our award-winning development tools and content pipeline,” said Dr. Michael Capps, president of Epic Games. “Pixel Mine licensed our engine and developed a great set of internal tools to help their programmers leverage the power of UnrealScript. Integrated debuggers can have a major impact on iteration times, and we’re glad to see nFringe packaged for use by other game teams.”
Epic Games’ Integrated Partners Program (IPP) establishes a formal business relationship with exceptional companies making cross-platform technologies which integrate with, and are complementary to, UE3. Under the IPP, Epic provides continuous UE3 source code access and full technical support to IPP members. Companies who join the IPP agree to provide a high level of technical support for UE3 licensees through Epic’s established support channels, keep their implementations up-to-date with the latest engine versions and collaborate with Epic on potential promotional and co-marketing efforts.
Big Stage Entertainment announces GGL Global Gaming as first videogame promotion partner
LOS ANGELES, CA – Dec. 11, 2008 - Big Stage Entertainment, Inc., a media technology company that lets consumers project themselves photo-realistically into the digital realm, is partnering with videogame social networking company GGL Global Gaming (GGL) to promote free game content on BigStage.com. The first promotion rollout with a major video game publisher is scheduled for early 2009. Members of the BigStage.com and GGL communities will soon be able to insert their 3-D @ctor, a realistically animated digital clone quickly created for free from a few photos, into game cinematics, still images and animatics. Users can then share this content with friends and post to GGL community pages and other social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace.
“GGL members love great video games as well as new technology that enhances their gaming experience,” said Ted Owen, Owner/Chairman of GGL. “The @ctor creation technology offered on BigStage.com is a great benefit to our members who are constantly seeking creative new ways to express themselves and their love of videogames to the community. Unlike anything gamers have seen before, putting your own realistically animated face onto videogame characters is an innovation that players will be eager to embrace.”
With 26 million unique visitors per month, the GGL Network serves as a hub for videogame fans worldwide. The vast network of GGL gamers visit the site to find news, information and communities, in addition to competing in online gaming competitions and tournaments.
“The popularity of GGL demonstrates how playing videogames online with a community of friends has transformed gaming into a highly social activity,” said Phil Ressler, Big Stage Entertainment CEO. “With the promotional experiences offered on BigStage.com through this partnership, gamers will be able to take their affinity for games one giant step forward by turning themselves into the characters they love to play, with the ability to share these unique experiences with friends, whether they are on MySpace, Facebook or GGL. Until BigStage.com, seeing yourself appear in 3-D animation alongside your favorite game characters would have required the help of an army of developers. BigStage.com is breaking down that barrier for gamers.”
About Big Stage Entertainment, Inc.
Big Stage Entertainment, Inc. is a media technology company that enables the projection of self into the digital realm. With Big Stage Entertainment products and services, accessible at BigStage.com, consumers can create a fully photorealistic, 3-D, animated @ctor to represent themselves in online communities and insert themselves in digital media, including video clips, flip movies and still images. Big Stage @ctors can also participate in games and entertainment on the Web and mobile handsets. At BigStage.com, anyone can generate a free, animated 3-D @ctor by uploading digital photos of their face for instant placement throughout the digital landscape. It’s The Digital You™.
Using Big Stage Entertainment’s BackStage product, business clients and partners can create interactive experiences under their own brands that allow consumers to create @ctors and engage with those brands through personalization of creative content and messaging via video games, mobile devices and on-location kiosks. Big Stage Entertainment’s B2B solutions are the premier vehicles for powering personalized, participative media. Headquartered in South Pasadena, CA, Big Stage Entertainment investors include Mission Ventures, Selby Ventures and Tech Coast Angels. For more information, please visit www.bigstage.com.
Trion World Network appoints two industry vetrans to executive positions
Redwood City, CA, December 10 – Trion World Network (Trion), the publisher and developer of connected games and entertainment, today announced the appointment of two gaming industry veterans to executive leadership positions. Malcolm Dunne will serve as the Senior Vice President of Finance and Dorothy Ferguson will serve as Vice President of Sales. Both Dunne and Ferguson bring many years of experience from their respective fields to Trion, where they will immediately contribute to the company’s growth as members of the executive team.
Malcolm Dunne joins Trion as the Senior Vice President of Finance. A chartered accountant with over ten years of industry experience, Dunne has worked in some of the industry’s biggest publishers across three continents, including Electronic Arts and Capcom. At Capcom, Dunne served as European Finance Director and also as Director of Capcom Germany. Dunne joined Eidos in 2004 as a Group Financial Controller before becoming Chief Financial Officer for Eidos’ United States publishing operations. Most recently, Dunne was named the Interim Group CFO for Eidos’ parent company, SCiEntertainment Group, where he assisted the company in raising GBP 60 million to recapitalize the business.
Dorothy Ferguson brings her expertise to Trion as the newly appointed Vice President of Sales. A seasoned executive with more than two decades of experience in interactive entertainment, both in consumer products and e-business, Ferguson has worked with a variety of gaming companies including Maxis, NCsoft, and LucasArts where she served as the Senior Director of Global Sales. Ferguson recently served as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at NCsoft where she oversaw the company’s retail/distribution channel organization in North America, and worked to bring a number of prominent titles to market including City of Heroes, Lineage II, Guild Wars and City of Villains. In 2007 Ferguson was named one of the Top 100 Women in Gaming by Women In Games International. At Trion, Ferguson will oversee Trion’s worldwide sales strategy and work to expand new business opportunities.
“Dunne and Ferguson are both experts in their respective fields with years of outstanding experience,” said Lars Buttler, founder and CEO of Trion World Network. “These new executive hires represent Trion’s continued growth and dedication to attracting the best talent in the industry at all levels.”
Softkinetic Named in Top Three of Best Overall Companies at The European Venture Summit
3D Gesture Recognition Provider Honored at Prestigious Summit
Softkinetic S.A., the leading 3D gesture recognition software provider, today announced that it has been named one of the three best overall companies by Europe Unlimited’s European Venture Summit. Softkinetic was invited to participate based on its previous honor of being named best overall company at the Benelux Venture Forum this past March.
“Softkinetic was evaluated twice to be amongst the top three ICT companies in the past nine months,” said William Stevens, CEO, Europe Unlimited. “In March 2008 at the Benelux Venture Forum where 50 high-tech Benelux companies competed and now on December 1, 2008 at the European Venture Summit where it was selected in the top three amongst 50 of the best IC technology companies from across Europe. We heard great feedback from investors on the company and its technology.”
Europe Unlimited was founded in 1998 and over the past 10 years has been dedicated to giving resources to technology entrepreneurs, corporations, investors and researches so they can sustain their businesses. EVS formed from Europe Unlimited’s desire to increase the presence of European start-ups and began offering them the important introductions to international investors and corporations.
“EVS gave us the opportunity to network with venture firms, business analysts and other entrepreneurs, all critical to our growth and development as a young company,” said Michel Tombroff, CEO, Softkinetic S.A. “As a rapidly growing high-technology company, the recognition of our recent achievements from the international venture community help us reach our goal of creating new immersive and intuitive applications for the public.”
Along with their recent participation at EVS, Softkinetic will be attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas January 8-11, 2009. At CES they will be demonstrating their advanced gesture recognition applications based on their iisuTM technology.
BioWare Using Simutronics’ HeroEngine for Star Wars: The Old Republic
Collaborative Tool Significantly Aids Game Development
Simutronics, a leading creator of online game development platforms and interactive entertainment, and BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced that Star Wars®: The Old Republic™, a story-driven massively multiplayer online PC game set in the timeframe of the Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™ franchise that is being developed and published by BioWare and LucasArts, is being built using Simutronics’ HeroEngine™.
“Our goal was to partner with a platform developer that knows online gaming and virtual world development, and the team at Simutronics has an excellent track record in that respect,” said Gordon Walton, Co-Studio Director at BioWare. “Their HeroEngine was specifically created for building MMOGs and it allows for a great amount of flexibility in the way our entire team collaborates.”
The unique collaborative design platform of the HeroEngine allows for development in real-time, enabling teams in different geographic locales to build the world and play the game live on the server simultaneously. Updates and changes to the game environment are instantaneous, negating the need for nightly builds and code crunching, which significantly reduces the notoriously long MMOG development cycle.
“The team at BioWare is creating an incredible experience, and we’re honored that they’ve selected our tool to help them build this epic world,” said David Whatley, Simutronics’ Chief Executive Office and HeroEngine Chief Designer. “We’ve invested years of experience and our passion for virtual world entertainment into developing HeroEngine, and we’re confident that fans and online gaming enthusiasts alike will be happy with the finished product.”
For more HeroEngine information, visit www.heroengine.com
For more information on BioWare, visit www.bioware.com
For more information on Star Wars: The Old Republic, visit www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com
amBX LAUNCHES SDK IN JANUARY 2009
The amBX SDK enables developers across the whole of the entertainment industry to get up and running quickly with test tools and example applications to guide the way to enhance games with immersive amBX effects. A support forum provides advice and best practice information as well as a complete tool box that will unlock the most advanced features of amBX. Up to now the amBX SDK has been available on a project by project basis but the new developer programme has opened it up to the development community free of charge.
“The amBX SDK provides developers with everything they need to get quickly up to speed and at no charge. It makes amBX very approachable and this will be a major step forward for us as we take the amBX proposition to wider markets and sectors. The whole point of amBX is to immerse the player deeper into the game and the amBX SDK now makes a rather complex operation very simple and extremely low cost.” commented Neil MacDonald, CEO of amBX.
Developers can register their interest and receive an email alert when the SDK is launched athttp://developer.ambx.com.
amBX is a technology that delivers full ‘sensory surround’ entertainment experiences. It enables content creators to add real world effects using light, colour, rumble and even air flow, through licensed amBX devices, to the virtual worlds of computers, games, music, movies and TV entertainment. With amBX the entertainment world can be brought into the real world to create incredible immersive experiences.
amBX has already licensed the technology to many content developers and publishers in the gaming sector. The SDK developer programme will enable many more companies creating both hardware and content to add this innovative technology to their products.
Havok Celebrates 10 Years of Physics in Games and Film
Started in 1998 when 3D graphics accelerators were rising in popularity and computing power was approximately 1/10th of what it is now, this Dublin-based company set out to change the way computer and video games looked and felt. Launching first with their physics simulation software tools SDK for games at the 2000 Game Developers Conference, Havok now offers a complete modular suite of products that help visual and interactive content developers create more realistic games and special effects for film.
“Havok was born from the idea that the emergence of realistic real-time 3D graphics created the need for realistic physical simulation,” said David O’Meara, Managing Director of Havok. Back then we were motivated by such a difficult challenge and each other’s energy. I’m happy to say the majority of the original Havok team is still with us 10 years later, still sharing the drive to provide solutions to the biggest challenging facing developers, and empowering them to create realistic and visually stunning entertainment.”
Over the last decade, Havok has partnered with more than 70 of today’s top game developers, and their industry-leading technology has been included in an excess of 200 game titles by the end of 2008 including the award-winning “Age of Empires III”, “Halo 2”, and this year’s smash hit “Fallout3”. Additionally, Havok products have been used to drive the special effects in such films as “The Matrix”, “10,000 B.C.”, and “Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix”.
“Technology has progressed a great deal since we first conceived of dynamical simulation in games,’ commented O’Meara. Computing power and the adoption of graphics cards has reached the point where many of the things we imagined back then are not only feasible, but high definition 3D visuals and real-time physics are now mainstream and expected across games, film and the Web.”
Havok’s technologies are multi-platform, enabling development across today’s leading game consoles and computers. It’s this agnostic approach that has lead to the adoption of Havok products by the majority of today’s leading publishers and developers including Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, UbiSoft, Eidos, LucasArts, Sierra, Blizzard, Bethesda, Bungie, Valve, Neversoft, Relic, Lionhead and Pandemic Studios.
Some of the highly-anticipated games currently under development or slated for release in 2009 are Microsoft’s “Fable 2”, Namco Bandi’s classic remake “Splatterhouse”, Pandemic’s “Saboteur”, “HaloWars” from Ensemble Studios, and the new “Indiana Jones” game from LucasArts.
Havok recently expanded its software lineup with the release of Havok 6.0. As the company’s most broad suite of games middleware components to date, Havok 6.0 marks the addition of Havok Cloth™ and Havok Destruction™ to the award winning Havok Physics™, Havok Behavior™ and Havok Animation™ products. Each product forms part of an integrated suite of runtime SDKs and tools, representing the most comprehensive set of cross-platform modular tools available today, enabling game studios to deliver more compelling gameplay, character interaction and physical effects in less time.
With more than 100 games utilizing Havok’s technology slated for release over the coming year, details on Havok’s current lineup follow:
Havok Animation™
Havok Animation is a fast, flexible animation SDK that provides a rich set of general purpose animation capabilities, tight integration with Havok’s award-winning Physics SDK, and incorporates easily into existing game engines.
Havok Behavior™
Havok Behavior is a system of software tools for developing event-driven character behaviors in a game. The Havok Behavior product is comprised of an intuitive composition tool for artists and designers, and a run-time SDK for game programmers, resulting in “what you see is what you get” results.
Havok Cloth™
Havok Cloth is a new platform-optimized runtime SDK and toolset that significantly increases the realism of game characters and environments by enabling character designers to add realistic, physically-based drape and motion to garments, environmental objects and other deformable items like hair, bellies or tails.
Havok Destruction™
Havok Destruction is the cross-platform tool for the simulation of rigid body destruction. In addition to drastically reducing the production time and cost of creating large numbers of realistic destructible game objects, Havok Destruction provides more realism to structural mechanics, graphical effects and level design for a new game play experience
Havok Physics™
Based upon the award winning Havok Physics 2 SDK, the recently released Continuous Physics™ is an innovative technology that adds an extra level of integrity to games, and frees up production time by eliminating design limitations that stem from high-velocity game objects. Havok Physics also incorporates robust memory optimizations crucial for simulating physics in complex game environments on next-generation platforms.
About Havok
Havok, an Intel company, was founded in Dublin, Ireland in 1998, and is the premier provider of interactive software and services for digital media creators in the games and movie industries.
Havok works in partnership with the world’s best known game developers, including: Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, 2K Games and Pandemic Studios. Havok’s cross-platform, professionally supported technology is available for the Xbox360™, PLAYSTATION®3, PlayStation®2, PSP™, Wii™, and the PC. Havok’s combination of superior technology and dedication to delivering for its customers has led to the company’s technology being used in more than 200 of the world’s best known game titles, including: “BioShock”, “Halo 3”, “MotorStorm”, “Stranglehold”, “Crackdown” and “Age of Empires III”.
Havok products have been used to drive special effects in movies such as “Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix”, “10,000 BC”, “Poseidon”, “The Matrix”, “Troy”, “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.
Havok has offices in Dublin, San Francisco, San Antonio, Calcutta, Munich, and Tokyo. For more information on Havok, visit www.havok.com.
New Global Crisis Developer Diary Reveals “Hot Relations” Modification
Paradox Interactive today unveiled the fourth entry in an ongoing series of Supreme Ruler 2020: Global Crisis developer diaries. In the newest installment from David Thompson, Lead Designer and Co-Founder at BattleGoat Studios, the new “Hot Relations” modification is revealed.
In the following excerpt, David elaborates on what exactly the “Hot Relations” modification is and how it affects gameplay in Global Crisis:
“When we released Supreme Ruler 2020 we included two versions of the two original sandbox campaigns. World 2020 in Crisis was a “Hot Relations” modification of World 2020 in which both good and bad relationships were amplified. Similarly, Melting Point was a “Hot Relations” modification of the Shattered World sandbox campaign. The reason we did this was to appeal to different styles of gameplay. Some players wanted plenty of time at the beginning of the game to get their nation set just the way they wanted before it could be affected by changes in international relations. Others believe the game moved too slowly at the start and wanted more action from AI regions right from the word go. So, essentially these two distinct versions of the same campaign provided the player a choice of how quickly AI controlled international relationships would develop into either war declarations or into formal alliances… “
Read the complete developer diary for the expansion Global Crisis at:
http://www.gamesxtreme.net/pc/game/supreme-ruler-2020-global-crisis/diary-2871.shtml
Global Crisis is scheduled for a digital download release via GamersGate during the latter half of Q4 2008 and will require Supreme Ruler 2020 to play. Supreme Ruler 2020 was released in June 2008.
Blitz Games Studios Debut True 3D TV Games in World First
1st December 2008 – Leamington Spa, UK. Blitz Games Studios achieves a world-first with the public unveiling of its ground breaking, proprietary technology showing true stereoscopic 3D games running on Xbox® 360 and PlayStation® 3 game consoles at the 3D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles.
Andrew Oliver, co-founder and CTO of Blitz Games Studios, is the only game developer to be talking at the summit alongside movie industry luminaries from Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group, DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Dolby Laboratories and Real-D at the prestigious event.
Blitz Games Studios’ in-house technology demonstrates that current generation consoles can replicate the full HD 3D experience seen in 3D movie theatres with the 3D images ‘popping’ out of 3DTV screens and into living rooms for the first time.
Andrew Oliver, CTO of Blitz Games Studios said, “This is an incredibly exciting and huge step forward for videogames. Our BlitzTech technology will prove beyond all doubt that we are already doing what some industry experts have said is impossible on today’s game consoles. Our highly tuned engine is capable of producing real-time interactive graphics that are close to offline rendered CG movie quality.”
He continued, “Many TV manufacturers are already selling sets capable of displaying 3D imagery and we envisage that these sets will rapidly gain popularity as content in the form of movies and games becomes available. Our technology allows for our games to run in both 2D and 3D in one version – by simply flicking a ’switch’ between them. It really has to be seen to be believed.”
Oliver states that games are already arguably more immersive than films, but when created in true 3D will be even more immersive. Although accepts that the games industry still needs to understand design issues and learn lessons from Hollywood studios which are now producing 3D movies in volume for release in 2009 onwards.
The 3D Summit runs 1st – 2nd December, opening with a keynote from Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chief Executive Officer and President of DreamWorks Animation Inc.
GRAND DESIGNS 3D, BRING IDEAS TO LIFE
“We are delighted to be partnering with Koch Media to make Grand Designs 3D available to enthusiastic home improvers and self builders throughout the UK. Koch Media have already secured a retail deal with PC World one of the largest UK retailers of software. Grand Designs 3D is an innovative, easy to use and highly capable range of software, as excellent reviews in the UK PC press confirm. We are sure Grand Designs 3D will also be a big hit with homeowners everywhere.” Dan Naylor, CEO, Eleco Visualisation Software.
“We’re immensely excited to be launching the Grand Design 3D range,” said Joanna Kemp, Head of Sales – Software at Koch Media. “There is a huge market for 3D home designer software, particularly in the current housing climate and this software enables you to re design and renovate key areas of the home, from the Kitchen to the Bathroom and even adding on an extension! “
The Grand Designs 3D software range consists of Grand Designs 3D Self Build & Development (£199.99), Renovations & Interiors (£49.99) & Kitchens & Bathrooms (£24.99). Grand Designs 3D is for anyone inspired by Grand Designs who wishes to communicate their own ideas. Grand Designs 3D allows users to bring these ideas to life before seeking professional advice, whether changing existing homes or contemplating a self build project.
The user can utilise 2D drawing tools before breathing life into their ideas by visualising them in a 3D environment. A database of fixtures and fittings allows each project to be furnished and decorated with rendered images demonstrating the effects of texturing, lighting and even shadows. Finally, the 3D walk through feature allows each project to be examined in close-up detail and provides a genuine impression of moving in to the finished home or room.
The software includes some content from the Grand Designs TV programme, such as 2D interior and exterior plans from TV projects and 3D models. You can even base your ideas on your favourite Grand Design from the show. The larger programs will also allow users to export industry standard drawings, in formats used by professional architects and planning authorities.
To complement the software there is a support site [www.3Darchitect.co.uk], which will enable users to download additional content .
The Grand Designs 3D home design software range will run on Windows XP/Vista.
New blog update on Wolfire development
Early Glimpse At How Characters In Overgrowth Will Interact With The Environment
Video: http://blog.wolfire.com/2008/11/procedural-animation-redux/
Despite focusing mainly on the Phoenix Engine’s realistic terrain system (http://blog.wolfire.com/2008/11/high-detail-terrain-shadows/), Wolfire lead programmer David Rosen has still found time to lay the foundation for Overgrowth’s procedural character animation system. Though the animation system is still in early development, fans were glad to see a character model hopping around on the terrain.
Catch up on other exciting Wolfire news at the wolfire blog: http://blog.wolfire.com/
