Fluid Simulation for Video Games, part 3

Third in a series (of 7) became available this week:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/fluid-simulation-for-video-games-part-3/

Final Game Presentation Videos

Whew! It's been a busy 3 weeks for FIEA between the celebration of 2 more amazing games to add to our repertoire, SIGGRAPH, and then our well-deserved 2-week semester break.

The final presentations went extremely well - The Bridge was packed well beyond capacity (don't tell the fire marshal!) with every chair filled and the stairs crowded with standing guests. Members of the media, distinguished representatives from local game companies, and friends and family of FIEA were all there to witness the first full presentation of Drifters and Sultans of Scratch.

Drifters began the event with a display of their "Devices of Death" museum exhibits on the front stage. Team lead Steve Durst kicked things off with the opening cinematic and then launched into an explanation of the game and an overview of their game's life, from the original pitched concept to surviving the cut and all the way through production. After the crowd was well acquainted with the world of Drifters, the three monitors on the stage flickered to life as a 4-way match went live on the big screen. After two rounds, Steve paused to allow the credits to roll and began the question and answer portion. A standing ovation closed out the presentation and Sultans of Scratch began to set the stage for their turn.

After a brief intermission, the neon lights and hip-hop sounds of the Sultans opening cinematic brought the crowd into the world of the DJ dance battle game. The team came out in a flash of blue lights sporting custom basketball jerseys with the SoS logo on the front and their team nickname on the back. Team lead Tom Galdi took the stage to present the life and times of the Sultans of Scratch game, touching on the original switch of IPs from Resonance to SoS, surviving the cut, and their glory of being the first DJ game completed before "DJ Hero" or "Scratch: The Ultimate DJ" could hit the retail shelves. Once the crowd was pumped, the dance pads and turntables were broken out and the dance-off began! When the teams were thoroughly tired out, Tom let them take a break for the question and answer session. Another standing ovation for the SoS team and then closing remarks by FIEA faculty ended the Cohort 5 presentations with a final round of applause for all the amazing work.

If these words weren't enough, check out the videos!

Drifters:

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5q7E-L0Cig
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycfoe02j5n4
Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjqPFHxmZYc
Part 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfooQ5pRbeY

Sultans of Scratch:

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4eL5cIw20s
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irqsXmGqlwo
Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuSSFM9LmNo
Part 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ9RRGWtlnw
Part 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvB-usaiXo4

Fluid Simulation for Video Games, part 2: Fluid Simulation Techniques

The second in a series of articles I wrote for Intel:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/fluid-simulation-for-video-games-part-2/

...and related videos:

Atomic vortex ring

Cannonball through smoke

Dragons, bunnies and magic

Make sure to watch them in HD!

The third article will include the source code for a complete real-time fluid simulation with two-way fluid-body interaction.

Future articles will refine and speed up that simulation.

Teaser Trailers!

In less than 6 hours the Final Presentations will take place. Can't wait? Can't make it? Whet your appetite for Drifters and Sultans of Scratch with these shiny game trailers!

Final Game Presentation Event

With the Siggraph materials completed and shipped off to the bayou, the teams are focused back on their last bits of polish for the big event!

After months of reading about the incredible development of these two unique games, FIEA is proud to announce the first complete look at the Cohort 5 games. This is your chance to get a first-hand look at the stealth multiplayer game, Drifters, and the hip-hop dance crew and DJ game, Sultans of Scratch.

Space is limited, so to RSVP please send an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 407-823-2121 for more information.

The presentations will take place from 4 - 6PM at the Center for Emerging Media at 500 W. Livingston Street in downtown Orlando. For directions, click here.

Of course, if you can't make it in person, we'll have a full report complete with video highlights right here on the blog!

Fluid Simulation for Video Games, part 1: Introduction to Fluid Dynamics

The first in a series of articles I wrote for Intel:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/fluid-simulation-for-video-games-part-1/

...and some delicious videos:

Atomic vortex ring

Cannonball through smoke

Dragons, bunnies and magic

Make sure to watch them in HD!

FIEA's a hot spot for visitors this week!

The cohort is in a constant state of flux right now as the games are being polished and bugs are being fixed, but more importantly a slew of special guests have been making their way through the FIEA halls. Just this week representatives from 360ed, Bethesda Softworks, Monster Media, and EA Tiburon are coming through for interviews with 2K Boston also attending virtually through webcam for their interviews. Added to that is the normal facility tours that take place ever so often for new and prospective students, and also a very prestigious visit from the Florida Governor, Charlie Crist...FIEA is certainly the place to be this week!

While the companies attending the events this week are mainly interested in personal interviews with our students, they've also been touring around the cohort space and taking place in game demos of Drifters and Sultans of Scratch. This not only lets them see the games that their interviewees are touting on their resume, but also shows them what kind of amazing work our program churns out in just a few months!

During his visit to our area, Governor Crist visited the FIEA campus as well as EA Tiburon to see how game development is flourishing in the Central Florida area. Both teams had the opportunity to demonstrate their games for the Governor and he also toured the cohort space to see where the next generation of game developers were honing their skills. He believed both Sultans and Drifters were very creative and he was impressed with the talent that is coming out of Florida today.

Drifters Team: BEARD-OFF FINALE!

Each contestant went up and told the story of their beard experience. Some were mistaken for homeless while walking around the FIEA area, many had tales of angry girlfriends and scolding mothers, while some bemoaned the fact that they just couldn't seem to grow a decent facial landscape. However, there were some stories of happiness among them, such as the welcome reunion of man and facial hair after years in the army where being clean shaven was a must. Once the stories were over, the judges surveyed the vast plains of hair...

And now, the winners of the 2009 Cohort 5 Drifters Team Beard-Off!

The "Billy Mays Memorial Award"

The "Colonel Sanders Award"

The "Ron Jeremy Award"

The "Chameleon Award"

The "Patch Adams Award"

Once all the awards were awarded, those who were interested headed to the bathroom for some "Man-Scaping" and put a creative twist to the end of their beards. As each contestant headed back in...

The judges did one more analysis...

and announced...

The "Man Scape Award"

Congratulations to our beard growers and the entire Drifters team for their hard work! It's a great end to a great production run, and now the whole team is revving up for the final polish and testing.

It's Beta Time!

This week marks the end of production for both games as they push on to alpha/beta stage. Only minor assets are being loaded in when needed to fix bugs, and the majority of the work for the rest of this month is testing, testing and testing. The only new things being developed now are the game manuals and box art, as well as finishing touches on the websites.

The museum environment got a much deserved facelift with a new lighting setup, making it easier to see and to cast shadows with the characters. The lighting is now baked in to the geometry, allowing the dynamic lights to be focused on characters so they now have shadows as they wander through the museum floors. The Sovereign has been seated on her throne and is being rigged for animations. She currently provides commentary on the match, commending or berating her Drifters on their performance against each other. Other sound additions include the announcement of the selected Drifter's name on the player select screen, more random comments from the NPCs as they stop at various exhibits, and the Drifters have more sounds including taunts, victory comments, and attack sounds.

The Drifter Vision no longer snaps from glowing character to Drifter form, rather a new light burst transition activates to reveal the Drifter form, letting players know they're now visible as a Drifter. While attacking, there's better response time, so a missed strike no longer makes you as vulnerable to your target. To better assist the player in learning to make better use of Drifter Vision and attacking, the video tutorial which was in progress is being updated with the latest assets and controls.

On the technical side, DevTrack is being used to track the bugs that come up during playtesting. As a bug is identified, a log is created by the player that tells when it occurred, under what conditions, and what the steps are to reproduce it. The bug is assigned a category, and then the QA lead reviews the report, determines who should handle the bug, and assigns it to a team member to work on it. The team is also busy testing on multiple machine setups, including 3 versions of Windows (XP, Vista and 7 beta), various video card configurations, and multiple processor speeds. The goal is to optimize it so the game can run on virtually any current generation machine capable of playing games like Half-Life2.

To kick off their last normal status report, the Sultans team revealed their final peripheral, a Turntable Lite if you will...

It's about 1/3 of the previous peripheral, isn't it adorable?!

The game is down to the addition of a few minor art assets in the menu screen and the DJ models in the crew transition modes. The new peripheral integrated perfectly in with the control scheme, so the game is playable with either the DDR pad and turntable, or the keyboard and mouse schemes. Now that the environments are finalized for lighting, the cinematic crew is placing the final assets for the final cinematic clips.

The last bits of the menu are coming together to complete the experience and this week some background music sets the mood for the record shop. The announcer can now be heard on the selection screens and once inside, he'll direct you to choose your crew, your turntable, venue, and song. Menu overlays are being placed and the animations on character select are being polished as well with each pair having a unique interaction animation set.

In-game the digital screen on the turntable finally gets its moment to shine and now displays the multiplier for the current crew, as well as the difference between the scores of your crew and the opposing crew. This lets you know at a glance whether you need to step up your game or if you're dominating the round. The crowds are fully placed, textured, randomized, and animated to create a real dance club experience, completed with animated props like the warehouse's traffic light speakers or the club's neon glow furniture. At the end of the level, a new chalkboard-style score screen shows off the winner and loser of the round:

Probably the biggest reveal of this report was the tutorial option, which guides players through the various controls of the game, plus introduces the combo system and how to activate "Pass the Spotlight". There's still some adjusting to do so the steps flow easier, and talk of splitting it into a normal and advanced tutorial set, but so far it's a great feature!

These next two weeks, Cohort 5 will be conducting interviews with many companies within the video game, simulation and digital media industries. With so many interviews and companies to coordinate among the 49 students, the teams will not be holding their weekly status reports. The final game presentations will take place on July 30th and that will most likely be the final development blog post for Cohort 5. We'll try to dig up some beta stage info for you in the meantime!

Drifters Team: BEARD-OFF! Final Week

No photo yet, because tomorrow (Thursday) ends the Beard-off!

Here's the latest update to the contest:

Hey All,

Just wanted to pass along the official Beard Off Update. The Beard Off will end on Thursday July 2nd so that everyone can be clean shaven by Monday when industry interviews start. Beard Off ceremonies will take place in the bridge directly following the Sultan’s presentation. I also encourage participants to bring in clippers, shaving cream, and razors, to shave some fun into this mess following the festivities. Rick, Shawnna, and Donald have agreed to be the three judges for the competition and will be deciding the winners of the following categories:

• The Billy Mays Memorial Award (formerly the Grizzly Adams) – Grizzliest beard in honor of the greatest pitch man ever
• The Patch Adams Award – Given to the participant with the saddest and patchiest beard
• The Colonel Sanders Award – Given to the participant who looks most like this guy

• The Ron Jeremy Award – Given to the participant who most resembles a 70’s adult film star
• The Chameleon Award – Given to the participant who you cant tell is a participant
• The Man Scaping Award – For whoever shaves the most creative design into their beard after the initial judging

Each Beard Off participant will briefly tell the story of their beard and their five week journey.

If anyone can think of additional awards, please reply to this thread and we will add them to the list.

We’ll buy some pizza and soda and prizes will be awarded to the winner.

Thanks,
AD