CompuServe Messages

Hello Everyone, Just got back from Vegas (after 2 aborted landings in a fogged-in San Diego Airport and an extra night back in Sin City <g>) and the CES show and wanted to share a few thoughts and observations. For those of you who may be wondering, CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is a major event for video game developers. Because I have been primarily doing game graphics, I make it a point to show up, do a little networking, and check the latest stuff on the game scene. MartinF, RalphF and I met early Sunday morning at the Hilton and made our way to the main building, which would eventually lead us to the games section, which has grown by leaps and bounds in the past 3 years. It's so big that the main building is augmented by three large temporary pavilions to hold all the exhibitors! We were extremely pleased to see that 3D graphics were everywhere! Where 3D was an oddity 3 years ago, it now seems that a game without 3D is the rarity. From Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country to Trilobyte's 11th hour, from DOOM and all it's offspring to the latest LucasArts offerings, 3D has never been better represented in the world of video games. And it's not stopping here. Everyone we talked to was excited about including 3D in their future titles. In fact, many games are going through a 3D/2D stage in which it's obvious that things are moving in a 3D direction. By next year, I'd imagine that 3D will be used even more, providing much work for creative 3DSer's everywhere. And 3DS certainly seems to be the 3D package of choice for the overwhelming majority of developers. If a game company can install multiple seats of an extremely popular (read: less training time and money) 3D package that does nearly anything that the SGI boys are doing for WAY less money, they're gonna do it. And they are. And speaking of SGI, Micro/Soft/Image was there along with Alias and Wavefront again, extolling the virtues of their products regarding game development. Alias wowed us with a wonderful hair routine. It worked with dynamics and the animation of a running "Yeti" whose hair bounced with the footfalls was quite impresive (IPAS developers take note!). Wavefront has dedicated software for game development that is supposed to allow designers to fully design, author and branch a complete game for easy porting to almost any platform. Although I didn't get a technical description of it, I can't imagine it could include *everything* a developer needs for *any* kind of game they may want to design (most folks I've worked with need to design their own engine for their own reasons), and I seriously doubt that most game developers would work very well under the limited scope that a pre-engineered gaming engine would seemingly have to employ. The bottom line, though, is that 3DS certainly seems to be the standard for 3D graphics in game production. And if recent history is any indication, The Yost Group's dedication to making 3DS the best possible program it can be should help ensure that next year's report is just as glowing. I expect to see many more of you at next year's show! Thanks for listening, -Alan