SIGGRAPH 2000
Course 39

Games Research:
the Science of Interactive Entertainment

Welcome to the home of the SIGGRAPH 2000 Course on Games Research. Included below are some materials for the course that have been updated since the deadline for conference publications (April 7, 2000) as well as links to some related topics which were mentioned in the panel discussions at the course (on July 25, 2000). Having this page at a (we hope!) stable URL should make it possible to provide updated contact information as the Course speakers inevitably change affiliations. Please feel free to suggest any additions or changes.


Abstract:

 

As the computational power of game platforms rapidly increase, the sophistication of software for interactive entertainment expands in response. Once there was a huge gulf between high end graphics and game content. Now they seem headed for convergence. This course attempts to build a bridge between the SIGGRAPH research community and the game development research community. It will present both the application of recent research to specific games and platforms, as well as novel research specifically targeted at future games. It will showcase cutting-edge game technology, and demonstrate that interactive entertainment is an exciting and important application for future research by the SIGGRAPH community.

 

Speaker contact information:

  Jonathan Blow   jon@bolt-action.com  
  John Funge      
  Robin Green   robin_green@playstation.sony.com  
  Chris Hecker   checker@d6.com  
  Robert Huebner   innerloop@nihilistic.com  
  Craig Reynolds   cwr@red3d.com  

Course schedule:

  8:30am   Reynolds   Introduction  
  9:00am   Blow   Terrain Rendering Research for Games  
  10:00am       break  
  10:15am   Huebner   Continuous Level-of-Detail for Games  
  11:15am   all   Continuous LOD: Is it a Good Idea for Games?  
  12:00pm       lunch  
  1:30pm   Hecker   Physics in Games  
  2:00pm   Green   Steering Behaviors  
  3:00pm       break  
  3:15pm   Funge   Cognitive Modeling for Computer Games  
  4:15pm   all   Panel Discussion -- Questions & Answers  

Updated course materials:

  Slides: Other:
  • A compressed file (ZIP, 0.36 MB) containing Robin Green's paper and executable steering behavior demos (Win9x, 16bit screen, DirectX5 or later).
 

Links to topics mentioned during the course:

 

Work by John Laird et al. on applying classical rule-based AI systems to real time games. See also their list of Game AI Resources.

Ken Kahn's ToonTalk system that makes object-oriented programming into a game-like toy for kids.

Work by Craig Reynolds on real time interactive flocking and steering behaviors.

Papers by Jonathan Blow and others at Bolt Action's download page for papers.

 

Other related links:

 

This course was mentioned on flipCode in A Game Developer's Review of SIGGRAPH 2000 by Morgan McGuire

 



Send comments to Craig Reynolds <cwr@red3d.com>
Page created: April 6, 2000
Last update: September 1, 2000