Maya 2009 (and all Autodesk products) are adding 3D Stereoscopic tools - report from SIGGRAPH

Monday, I caught the end of the Autodesk event and got to see a little bit about the new Maya 2009! The first thing I saw was the new particle system. It was really easy to recreate fluid effects, smoke, explosions. Everything done in the demo was created without writing expressions. To me this was the one of the best parts. They also demonstrated some real-time collision detection. But the good parts were the new Stereoscopic tools that are coming out for all of Autodesk's products. I'll focus on Maya since I'm a Maya user. The best thing was Maya 2009 has a built in stereo camera rig. Some really cool options for this camera rig are real-time 3D so that you can animate and model and do everything you want to do while wearing your 3D glasses! That way you don't actually have to render you scene just to see if you stereo is working properly. The next cool thing is the camera can actaully project a red color and a blue color right onto the screen. What this does is gives you a reference for the 3D. Meaning that everything in front of the red plane is going to look like it's coming out at you and everything behind blue is going to be in the background. This also will increase your work flow by allowing you to get a good idea of what your scene will look like before you even render your first scene. As it is now you had to make your own rig and continually render a scene just to see how far the depth is and if you need to tweek more. The whole Autodesk pipeline got a stereo upgrade to help make stereoscopy an easier thing to do.

The industry right now looks like it is getting behind theses 3D/stereo technologies 100%. Dreamworks reps claim that their moving to it and ALL of their upcoming 3D movies are going to be in stereo. These tools just make that transition a whole lot easier for pro's and students alike. If your a 3D student today then you can't afford to not be working on stereo projects in school. It's doesn't matter if you like it or not, from what I've seen the industry if moving at full steam with stereoscopy.

Froblins and dynamically-generated LOD - report from Siggraph

Tuesday, the full Expo opened, and what a sight it was!  Pat and I went over to the AMD/ATI booth and met with Bill Shane, AMD’s Senior Business Development Rep.  We were given the full rundown of ATI’s new FirePro line, being demonstrated at SIGGRAPH this year.  The line, set for release this fall, offers many new additions including DisplayPort technology, Firestream (GPGPU) solutions, multi-display support, and extremely stable Vista and Linux drivers.  One of the demonstration pieces, “Froblins”, using the Radeon 4000 series, boasted dynamically-generated level-of-detail, over 30,000 agents in a crowd simulation, and real-time ambient occlusion.  Finally, we were also given a peek at the result of AMD’s partnership with HP and Dreamworks: the new HP DreamColor display.  All in all, it was a very informative and exciting.  I’ll give y’all some more information after I talk with HP more about the DreamColors tomorrow.

Stereoscopic 3D is here to stay - report from SIGGRAPH

Just about everyone loves to watch 3D movies since it’s such an incredibly different experience from a normal viewing. From the distinct visual differences to the feeling that a character is about to reach out and touch you, 3D films make for a truly unique viewing experience. Now imagine playing your favorite computer game, watching live television, or experiencing a theme park ride all in 3D. Monday afternoon, 3D for Gaming and Alternative Media: How 3D is Altering Our Concept of Entertainment presented exactly that. Neil Schneider, President and CEO of Meant to Be Seen and Mark Rein, Vice President and Co-Founder of Epic Games presented The Power of 3: An Insider’s Look at Stereoscopic 3D Gaming; Mark Mine, Director Technical Concept Design at Walt Disney Imagineering presented Designing Theme Parks in the Virtual World; and Steve Schklair, Founder and CEO of 3ality Digital Systems presented Production of Live 3D Content for Broadcast. Stereoscopic 3D is here to stay, so why isn’t there a bigger buzz?

What exactly is Stereoscopic 3D (S-3D) and how does it work? S-3D “is the ability to display visible depth through two dimensional media” (http://www.mtbs3d.com/). More specifically, S-3D achieves the illusion of visual depth on-screen by flashing two identical images at the same time (one left eye and one right eye image) at different positions. If you look at the on-screen image with only one eye at a time, you will see a slightly different perspective through each eye. When both images are combined at the same time, the viewer witnesses an amazing 3D experience. There are, like all things, a few hurdles that need to be overcome in order to have an S-3D experience - the hardware solution that is capable of filtering a unique image for each eye, and a software driver that will take the game’s visual information and translate it into both left and right eye views.

Right now, NVIDIA has the distinction of having the recommended stereoscopic driver of choice. The driver is supported by most newer NVIDIA graphics cards and works with mostly all of the hardware solutions on the market. The driver “works by intercepting DirectX and OpenGL programming calls, and translates the virtual 3D information into a practical stereoscopic result.” While NVIDIA has the most supported driver, Meant to Be Seen says there are driver solutions which support other NVIDIA and AMD/ATI products. Thankfully, most current DirectX and OpenGL games are S-3D compatible to some extent with a bit of tweaking.

As for hardware, there are many solutions on the market now which support S-3D, and the good news is that they are reasonably priced (based on the type of gamer that is already investing in the game hardware). The only draw-back, for now, is that S-3D games are PC based only, though there was a rumor which Neil mentioned that suggests the technology is on the way for console games. Most of the speakers seem to agree, however, that the technology most likely won’t make it to console gaming until the next generation of systems due to the processing power it takes to render two gaming streams simultaneously (systems currently just don’t seem to have that kind of power onboard). More on the impact S-3D could have on the entertainment industry later.

Rapid Prototypers - report from SIGGRAPH

Monday - Well, it's finally started! This being my first SIGGRAPH, I wasn't prepared for exactly how huge it really is! There wasn't very much to see today, since the Expo doesn't fully open until tomorrow. I started working as a "roamer" for FJORG!, (pronounced Forge) which is a student animation competition. It's viking themed, so there was a lot of dressing up in fur vests and helmets and yelling, of course. It really was pretty fun, but as soon as that was over with, it was back to business. I worked my second shift down in the Studio, where people can come by appointment to print or otherwise produce their work. The rapid-prototypers were really cool, producing structures that could only be expressed with the aid of digital 3D printing technology. Anyway, I ended up being extra help with a hands-on Photoshop workshop by professional Wacom artist and author, Steven Burns. It was really exciting to help out, but I'm excited to see more technical presentations tomorrow, when the Expo opens. I'll definitely have more information for y'all after the AMD booth tour, tomorrow.

Top 5 things I would like to see at SIGGRAPH based on what I know so far

I'm not one of the lucky ones going to SIGGRAPH this year, but I've heard about a few things already that have drawn my attention! Aside from the talks on real-time rendering and shaders, there are a number of hot topics, demos and products that have been announced - here are my top 5 based on what I have read.

• Stereoscopic 3D
  There will be autostereoscopic displays (i.e. no glasses required), talks dedicated to stereoscopic 3D, screenings of 3D shorts, etc. 3D stereo imaging is finally going mainstream.
• HP EliteBook Mobile Workstation
  Kind of ugly, but featuring FireGL V5725 or Quadro FX 3700M graphics with an Intel Core 2 Quadcore Extreme with 8GB of RAM. Also interesting and certainly sleeker, but doubt they are showing at SIGGRAPH, are the new line of Dell Precision mobile workstations.
• HP DreamColor Display
  30-bit color LED backlit widescreen driven by FireGL or FirePros with Display Port - can you really tell the difference with 1 billion colors?
• Radeon 4870 X2
  Yeah, it's a gaming card, but it is the first dual-GPU card that scales up or down, and while not certified for CAD, will do well in less rigorous markets
• OpenGL BOF with a discussion of OpenCL
  Lots of controversy from game developers about OpenGL 3, although it appears to me to be a sound evolutionary step for the professional markets. The clamor at the BOF will be interesting. Of more interest to me though will be any news about the OpenCL working group - the new platform-neutral standard for GPGPU computing (presumably subsuming Nvidia CUDA and AMD Stream)

SIGGRAPH 2008 Student Volunteers report from the conference

FireUser.com is working with the the SIGGRAPH 2008 Student Volunteer program to bring our readers daily news from the SIGGRAPH 2008 Conference and Exhibition. We are also working with OpenGL.org to published relevant summaries for their readership.

These student volunteers get an inside look at SIGGRAPH 2008. They will be sending daily reports about what they have seen that is professionally and visually interesting. Below is a brief description from each of our on-scene reporters:

Pat Howk - Indiana State University

I am a Student seeking an M.F.A. at Indiana State University. Graduated with a B.S. in New Media at IUPUI. I fell in love with animation towards the middle of my career at IUPUI and decided that I wanted to be an animator. I'm currently working on multiple animation projects in both CG and Stop-Motion.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/phowk

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Timothy Chrismer - Savannah College of Art and Design

I started as a Computer Science major at Texas A&M University, but soon realized I was interested in more than just the technical end of CG. I found the need to tackle both my technical and artistic sides together and transferred to the Savannah College of Art and Design. Now I'm focusing in lighting and surfacing, using my programming background to augment my artistic skills. I'll finish my studies in March of 2009 with a BFA in Game Development, and a minor in Technical Direction.
http://www.timchrismer.com

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Ted Isla - Full Sail University

Currently, I am attending Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Computer Animation. My focus is in Compositing and Motion Graphics. Outside of my academic activities I am the University Apple Campus representative, TOMS Shoes campus intern, and serve as my university's SIGGRAPH chapter President.
http://3dcompositor.com

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Josh Fincher - Art Institute in Pittsburgh

I am in my senior year of the Game Art and Design Bachelor's program at the Art Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Being an artist all my life, as well as an avid lover of video games, I found my place at AiP in 2004 after beginning college in pursuit of a degree in Computer Science. In my time at school I have been a part of many great projects including a contest through The Sci-Fi Channel, and one currently for the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.
http://www.jivefincher.com

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