Game Developer - August_2000.pdf

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AUGUST 2000
G A M E
D E V E L O P E R
M A G A Z I N E
ON THE FRONT LINE OF GAME INNOVATION
GAME PLAN
L E T T E R
F R O M
T H E
E D I TO R
DEVELOPER
600 Harrison Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
t:
415.905.2200
f:
415.905.2228
w:
www.gdmag.com
Publisher
Jennifer Pahlka
jpahlka@cmp.com
✎
Fun & Games With
Cell Phones
EDITORIAL
Editorial Director
Alex Dunne
adunne@sirius.com
Managing Editor
Kimberley Van Hooser
kvanhoos@sirius.com
Departments Editor
Jennifer Olsen
jolsen@sirius.com
News & Reviews Editor
Daniel Huebner
dan@gamasutra.com
Art Director
Laura Pool
lpool@cmp.com
Editor-At-Large
Chris Hecker
checker@d6.com
Contributing Editors
Jeff Lander
jeffl@darwin3d.com
Lisa Washburn
article@vectorg.com
Advisory Board
Hal Barwood
LucasArts
Noah Falstein
The Inspiracy
Brian Hook
Verant Interactive
Susan Lee-Merrow
Lucas Learning
Mark Miller
Group Process Consulting
Paul Steed
Dan Teven
Teven Consulting
Rob Wyatt
Microsoft
ADVERTISING SALES
National Sales Manager
Jennifer Orvik
e:
jorvik@cmp.com
t:
415.905.2156
Account Executive, Western Region & Asia
Mike Colligan
e:
mcolligan@cmp.com
t:
415.356.3486
Account Executive, Northern California
Susan Kirby
e:
skirby@cmp.com
t:
415.356.3406
Account Executive, Eastern Region & Europe
Afton Thatcher
e:
athatcher@cmp.com
t:
415.905.2323
Sales Associate/Recruitment
Morgan Browning
e:
mbrowning@cmp.com
t:
415.905.2788
ADVERTISING PRODUCTION
Senior Vice President/Production
Andrew A. Mickus
Advertising Production Coordinator
Kevin Chanel
Reprints
Stella Valdez
t:
916.983.6971
CMP GAME MEDIA GROUP MARKETING
Marketing Manager
Susan McDonald
Product Marketing Manager
Darrielle Sadle
Field Marketing Manager
Jennifer McLean
Marketing Coordinator
Scott Lyon
CIRCULATION
Vice President/Circulation
Jerry M. Okabe
Assistant Circulation Director
Kathy Henry
Circulation Manager
Stephanie Blake
Game Developer
magazine is
BPA approved
A
t E3, it’s typical to gravitate
toward the glitzy titles on
display. But in a relatively
subdued booth in the lobby
of the Los Angeles Conven-
tion Center, I found Nokia quietly telling
people about their plans to bring more
games to wireless devices.
Nokia has huge plans for cell phones
and games. The company estimates that by
2002 more than a billion people will have
mobile phones, and by 2003 more people
will access the Internet through wireless
devices than by PCs. Those are some huge
numbers, and it puts the companies who
control cellular networks in the catbird
seat. Nokia, for one, plans to make games
a central application on cell phones. Of
course, access to a large installed base of
customers doesn’t ensure the viability of a
platform. (I think the slow progress of
interactive television indicates what a well-
coordinated effort it takes to bring a new
interactive platform to market and make it
succeed.) But Nokia is quietly moving for-
ward into the games market, and I like the
company’s vision for the future.
With the launch of the Nokia Mobile
Entertainment service (a one-stop shop that
will let mobile network operators serve
games to their mobile subscribers), the com-
pany is positioning itself as a provider of an
online server platform in the world of wire-
less gaming devices. In theory, someday
your cell phone will have an “always on”
GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) con-
nection to your network operator, and when
you want to play a game, you will select a
game from among those currently offered
and begin playing. There will be no num-
bers to dial and billing will be automatic.
As a developer, you would approach a
Nokia Mobile Entertainment game publish-
er to get your game up on the service. (If
you’re a publisher, you would contact
Nokia directly.) In this revenue model, the
network operators would take their cut,
Nokia would take its cut, and you the game
developer would get your share, too, all
based upon the revenue the game generated
from users. Whether consumers would pay
a flat fee or some kind of hourly charge
based on usage would probably be up to the
network operators.
Of course, there are hurdles to contend
with. The most graphically impressive
demo that I saw on the Nokia booth was a
2D chess game, and the whole chessboard
couldn’t fit onto the small cell phone dis-
play. So improving the graphics capability
of cell phones is critical. One tool that
might help in this regard is n3D, a graphics
API that 3D Pipeline of La Jolla, Calif., is
creating for use in cell phones, PDAs, and
set-top boxes. According to Greg Passmore
of 3D Pipeline, n3D is very modular and
fits in a tight memory space. It will include
a sample game engine, a 3D API, a 2D API,
support for multiple colored lights, anti-
aliasing, and a scene graphics manager that
handles BSP culling, progressive transmis-
sion, collision detection, and more.
Nokia must also work with other com-
panies to make the Wireless Application
Protocol (WAP) the standard way for
mobile phones in the U.S. to communicate
with servers installed in the mobile phone
networks. Unlike Europe (which has
embraced WAP), there is no dominant pro-
tocol for this in the U.S., and until that
changes, support for any given wireless
application will be spotty and market
growth will suffer.
If and when games for cell phones take
off, small (even single-developer) game
development companies could benefit.
Because of their limited capabilities as
gaming devices, cell phone games them-
selves will have to be fairly simple (the
potential of n3D and its implications for
the platform notwithstanding), and as such
solo game developers might face a more
level playing field against deep-pocketed
game companies.
For more information about Nokia’s
plans, check out
www.nokia.com/wap/
entertainment.html.
Circulation Assistant
Kausha Jackson-Crain
Newsstand Analyst
Pam Santoro
INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INFORMATION
Robert J. Abramson and Associates Inc.
t:
914.723.4700
f:
914.723.4722
e:
abramson@prodigy.com
CORPORATE
President & CEO
Gary Marshall
COO/Corp. President, Business Tech & Channel
John Russell
President, Business Technology Group
Adam Marder
President, Specialized Technology Group
Regina Ridley
President, Channel Group
Pam Watkins
President, Electronics Group
Steve Weitzner
General Counsel
Sandra L. Grayson
Vice President, Creative Technologies
Johanna Kleppe
General Manager, CMP Game Media Group
Greg Kerwin
C
Let us know what you think. Send
e-mail to editors@gdmag.com, or write
to
Game Developer,
600 Harrison St.,
San Francisco, CA 94107
w w w. g d m a g . c o m
WWW.CMPGAME.COM
Z
S
WHAT’S NEW IN THE WORLD OF GAME DEVELOPMENT
|
daniel huebner
FRONT LINE TOOLS
RAD TOOLS FOR MAC
limitations; the machine
won’t run on batteries and
will need to be plugged
into an AC outlet or car
lighter. Also, a four-inch
LCD screen will be sold as
an optional
accessory
rather than
being includ-
ed with the
machine.
The PS One
will land in
North Amer-
ica this September.
AD Game Tools is
doing its part to
make the Macintosh a
more friendly place for
game development.
The company start-
ed its new Mac cru-
sade with MacOS
versions of its
immensely popular
Bink and Smacker 4
video codecs, and is now widening its
offerings by bringing the Miles Sound
System and Granny 3D animation system
to the Macintosh as well. For its part,
Alias|Wavefront is also jumping on the
Mac bandwagon and has a MacOS version
of Maya in the works.
PLAYSTATION GETS SMALL
ony is entering the portable game sys-
tem fray with a remarkably cute
miniature version of the venerable 32-bit
Playstation. The new machine, cleverly
called PS One, comes in at just one-third
the size of the original system but with all
the original functionality. In addition,
the PS One will add network con-
nectivity in the form
of a cell
phone con-
nection
capability.
As a chal-
lenger to
Nintendo’s
Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance,
however, the PS One faces some serious
R
PS ONE
|
Sony
|
www.sony.com
RAD GAME TOOLS
|
www.radgametools.com
VOODOO 5 ARRIVES
dfx has finally pushed its Voodoo 5 out the
door after a brief delay and recall to iron
out some last-minute problems. Offering appli-
cation-independent real-time full-scene hard-
ware antialiasing compatible with all major
APIs, the Voodoo 5 5500 AGP is
based on dual 3dfx VSA-100
processors with the T-Buffer
digital cinematic effects engine and 64MB of total graphics memory.
3dfx is pricing the Voodoo 5 5500 AGP at an aggressive $299.99.
3
SGI ROLLS OUT NEW
VISUAL WORKSTATIONS
S
processor-based workstations, offer-
ing not only the Windows NT operating
system but also Linux. SGI says its
230, 330, and 550 Visual Work-
stations are the industry’s
first workstations ever
built from the ground
up to accelerate
OpenGL in hardware
on the Linux operat-
ing system. They
include
either
single
or dual
Pentium III
or Pentium III Xeon
processors, a 133MHz front-side bus, up
to 2GB of main memory, and up to 90GB
of internal hard-disk space. Intel’s Vpro
cross-platform graphics family, delivering
up to 64MB of DDR graphics memory, is
making its first appearance in these
machines. Prices for the new workstations
start at $2,725 for the SGI 230.
GI is introducing a new line of Intel
VOODOO 5
|
3dfx
|
www.3dfx.com
REALVIZ ANNOUNCES RETIMER 2
ealviz is releasing a new version of its
image sequencing timer, ReTimer.
ReTimer 2, which allows users to speed up,
slow down, or adjust the timing of an
image sequence, offers several new features,
including a new engine. Whereas version 1
used a vector grid, each pixel now has its
own computed motion (dense flow) where
the user can define the density of the
motion field displayed for better con-
trol over output quality.
R
ReTimer 2 is avail-
able for Windows
NT, IRIX, and
Linux, and is priced at
$3,500, which includes one
ReTimer license, one batch license, and
three months of free maintenance (support
plus upgrades). One year of maintenance
costs an additional $525.
RETIMER 2
|
Realviz
|
www.realviz.com
SGI 230, 330, AND 550 VISUAL
WORKSTATIONS
|
SGI
|
www.sgi.com
5
w w w. g d m a g . c o m
J
T H E
B U Z Z
A B O U T
I N D U S T R Y WAT C H
T H E
G A M E
B I Z
|
d a n i e l
h u e b n e r
Dreamcast technology to allow fast down-
loads of games, images, and other data.
Motorola hopes to use the technology to
enhance its phones’ data processing capaci-
ty as it looks to create next-generation
applications including mobile video
phones, while Sega is looking to diversify
its product set by both producing games
for the platform and collecting API license
fees from Motorola. Sega’s aggressive
moves come in the wake of the company’s
third annual loss in a row, a loss that
resulted in the resignation of Sega presi-
dent Shoichiro Irimajiri. CSK chairman
Isao Ohkawa has since taken on the job.
Looking Glass Through.
T
HIEF
developer
Looking Glass Studios has closed its doors.
The decision was made in a company
meeting, resulting in the cessation of oper-
ations and the cancellation of ongoing
projects. Despite strong sales of T
HIEF
and
T
HIEF
2: T
HE
M
ETAL
A
GE
, Looking Glass
had been struggling financially. The com-
pany’s hopes for an infusion of capital
from publisher Eidos apparently fell victim
of Eidos’s own financial problems. Among
the cancelled titles is T
HIEF
3. Though that
game may hold interest for another pub-
lisher, designer Randy Smith expressed
doubts in an open letter to fans that the
game would ever see the light of day.
The sequel to Looking Glass’s dark-themed
T
HIEF
2 may not be seeing the light of day.
Nasdaq Cracks Down.
The current
malaise in the game industry is putting a
number of publicly traded game companies
in an uncomfortable situation. Nasdaq has
threatened Interplay, Acclaim, and Info-
grames with delisting. In all three cases, the
companies have fallen below the require-
ments set by the exchange’s Listing Qualifi-
cations Board, and appeals have been filed
by all of the affected companies. Info-
grames, which has enjoyed healthy returns
despite recent unfavorable market condi-
tions, contends that its failure to meet the
$5 minimum bid requirement is simply the
result of a stock split which is distorting its
share price. Acclaim, meanwhile, is consid-
ering a stock consolidation to push its price
back above the market’s listing criteria.
E
VER
Q
UEST
developer Verant Interactive.
The privately held developer will become
the new core of Sony Online Entertainment,
with Sony phasing out its existing Los
Angeles operations in order to consolidate
its activities around Verant’s San Diego
headquarters. Sony has tapped Kelly Flock,
who worked closely with Verant while
heading up Sony’s 989 Studios, as CEO of
the new-look SOE. Sony is also preparing
itself for the North American launch of
Playstation 2 by investing more than a bil-
lion dollars to bolster Playstation 2 chip
production. Some of the additional chips
could find their way into machines other
than the Playstation 2, as Sony has
announced its intent to sell the new con-
sole’s component chip to other manufac-
tures in order to spread the platform’s mar-
ket share beyond home game machines.
Nintendo Keeps Quiet.
As Sony and
Sega continue to fight for mindshare, Nin-
tendo is still maintaining its low profile.
The company has confirmed that it is
delaying its next-generation Dolphin con-
sole until 2001, but Nintendo has still not
been forthcoming about the console’s
specifics. Though Game Boy Advance will
make its debut at Nintendo’s Space World
in Japan in August, Nintendo’s E3 pres-
ence focused exclusively on existing prod-
ucts and platforms. It is hard to argue with
the company’s current success: though
Nintendo’s annual net profit fell 35 per-
cent from last year, due largely to a overly
strong yen, it still reached a healthy $521
million for the year.
q
Sega Keeps Up.
Sega is keeping pace
Steed Ousted.
Internal strife at id Soft-
ware has led to the dismissal of modeler
and animator Paul Steed. Commenting on
the matter in his .plan file, id co-owner
John Carmack suggested that his fellow
co-owners Kevin Cloud and Adrian Car-
mack (no relation) fired Steed in direct
retaliation over losing an internal dispute
about the company’s next title. Though a
decision was made in favor of John Car-
mack’s desire to create a third installment
in the hit D
OOM
series, the fallout of the
battle appears to be the loss of Steed.
Cloud has disputed John Carmack’s asser-
tion, however, saying only that the impetus
for Steed’s dismissal went beyond any dis-
putes over projects.
with Sony move for move as it prepares
the Dreamcast to compete in the post–
Playstation 2 console world. Sega has
announced that it will beat Sony to the
broadband punch by offering cable modem
service to Dreamcast owners in Japan next
month. The service will start in conjunc-
tion with 40 domestic cable television
providers, and will eventually grow to
include 200 providers. Sega will sell an
adapter to connect the Dreamcast to cable
line Internet systems. Sega also has plans
in the works to sell game software directly
to broadband users in the future.
In addition, he company is seeking ways
to extend its platform beyond console
gaming, and has teamed up with Motorola
to create a Dreamcast-based cell phone.
The two companies will jointly develop an
API for the Internet-enabled phone using
UPCOMING EVENTS
CALENDAR
ECTS
G
RAND
H
ALL
O
LYMPIA
C
ONVENTION
C
ENTRE
London, England
September 3–5, 2000
Cost: variable
www.ects.com
FUN EXPO
S
ANDS
E
XPO AND
C
ONVENTION
C
ENTER
Las Vegas, Nev.
September 20–22, 2000
Cost: $10 and up
www.funexpo.com
Sony Gears Up.
Sony has clarified its
online gaming goals with its acquisition of
6
august 2000
|
g a m e
d e v e l o p e r
jeff lander
GRAPHIC CONTENT
Return to Cartoon Central
Adding Texture to a
Nonphotorealistic Renderer
The ink lines come
in several types.
There is the silhou-
ette edge, which
defines the outline of
the object. This is the
most complicated to
create as it is view-
dependent and must
be recalculated any
time the camera or
the object moves.
The silhouette edge
for this character
was done easily using
the hardware render-
er, but it could still
use some work. I will
come back to that in a minute.
The second type of ink line commonly
used in cartoon rendering is the material
line. These lines separate materials in the
object, making them stand out more.
Material lines are easy to deal with. They
are not view-dependent, which means I
can calculate the material lines once and
store them for rendering. The material
lines can be detected using a preprocess
pass through the mesh which finds adja-
s I write this, I’m fresh
back from E3, getting
ready for Siggraph, and
taking a week to go to the
first international confer-
ence on nonphotorealistic rendering
(NPR). I mean, how often do you get to
take a trip through Burgundy to the
French Alps and call it work?
It all has me pretty energized for the
advances I expect to happen in the game
industry this year. While I didn’t see many
big surprises at E3, there was a lot to fuel
my enthusiasm. Since my mind has been
on NPR, I noticed several games that have
embraced their limitations and gone for a
more stylized look. There was certainly no
shortage of racing games that are inspired
by cartoons or license them directly. These
titles traded realism for a 3D vision of the
cartoon world. Games such as Sega’s J
ET
G
RIND
R
ADIO
, Red Storm’s R
OSWELL
C
ON
-
SPIRACIES
, and Kronos’s F
EAR
E
FFECT
showed that you could use cartoon render-
ing techniques on detailed characters to
achieve a very stylized look without sacri-
ficing performance.
So this month I’m going to take another
look at real-time 3D cartoon rendering
and see how I can improve the look of my
characters. So open up a nice bottle of
Burgundy and let’s journey...
A
cent triangles that use different materials.
The edge that the triangles share is marked
as a material edge to be rendered later.
The final type of ink line is known as
the “hard” edge. This defines sharp creases
in the model which give an object its dis-
tinctive look. The hard edge is also view-
independent and, like the material line, can
be calculated in a preprocess. In this case,
the angle between two adjacent triangles is
determined and if the angle is greater than
Back to Toon Town
ou may want to look back at my
March 2000 column (“Shades of Dis-
ney: Opaquing in a 3D World”) for a
refresher. When we last left our flat-shaded
friends, they were looking pretty toony
with their 1D texture lookup table for
shading and silhouette edge. You can see
an example in Figure 1.
There are quite a few ways I can
improve the quality of this character. The
problem of cartoon rendering on a com-
puter is very similar to that of traditional
cartooning. There are two steps: generate
the ink lines and paint the shade colors.
Y
FIGURE 1 (top).
A star from Toon Town, shaded with a 1D texture lookup table.
FIGURE 2A (bottom left).
A car from Toon Town, sporting a view-dependent silhouette edge.
FIGURE 2B (bottom right).
Here, the material edges are shown in red, the hard edges in blue. Both are
view-independent and generally need to be calculated only once.
A U T H O R ’ S B I O
|
Since Jeff has spent so much time thinking about stylized computer art
we have started to wonder why he just doesn’t pick up a pencil and start sketching instead. Let
him know it’s art not algorithms at jeffl@darwin3d.com.
w w w. g d m a g . c o m
9

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