Travel grants for UK engineering scientists

Having just been awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering travel grant to visit this years HCI International conference at California, US, I thought I'd post some information for all other UK scientists in computer science/engineering discipline looking to fund conference travel from external sources.

The Royal Academy of Engineering International Travel Grant Scheme is intended to help Engineering Researchers in the UK make study visits overseas. This enables them to remain at the forefront of new developments and be aware of corresponding activity overseas. The scheme is intended to benefit individuals with their current work and ultimately engineering in the country as a whole by facilitating technology transfer opportunities. It is also a means of maintaining the prestige of the nation’s engineering overseas. I've been personally awarded this travel grant for the second year in a row now and can heartily recommend applying for it.

http://www.raeng.org.uk/research/researcher/travelgrant/default.htm

Also, there's the Royal Society's new International Travel Grants scheme which runs with fixed deadlines (next one's 16th of March). Royal Society's objectives include strengthening of UK science by providing support to excellent individuals to engage with the best science around the world as well as supporting science communication. The International Travel Grant scheme aims to contribute to fulfilling this objective by supporting international collaborations and the participation of UK scientists in overseas conferences.

http://royalsociety.org/funding.asp?id=2348

New non-photorealistic game, Madworld

Carrying on my research in non-photorealistic graphics, it is exciting to see new real-time games utilising the medium. The new and very impressive newcomer is MADWORLD an inventive third-person action game exclusively for Wii. Produced by Atsushi Inaba, MADWORLD has a unique black and white style (similar to Sin City in some ways), depicting an incredibly sharp backdrop that straddles graphic novels and 3D worlds.

As players battle opponents, they must master the use of various weapons and items found within their environment, such as chainsaws and street signs, while entertaining sports commentary adds to the third-person gameplay. With its irreverent humour and over-the-top violence, MADWORLD promises to deliver a unique core gaming experience currently missing on the Wii system. Time to invest in one for us not equipped with the Nintendo console?!

Southwark council using 3D urban model of London

Southwark Council has licensed a 3D digital model of London from architectural visualisation consultancy GMJ, to create a virtual skyline into which proposed buildings of the Elephant and Castle regeneration area will be positioned for assessment.

Forming part of their long term planning strategy, Southwark’s professional team along with planning consultants Tibbalds and architects Make, will use GMJ’s digital model to examine a range of scenarios for proposed buildings including the impact of height and density along with the affect on residential buildings, public places and the urban mix.

Jon Abbott, Elephant & Castle Project Director, commented, “There are always a lot of concerns to be taken into consideration when working on a project of this size and GMJ’s model will allow us to look at the impact from every angle to ensure the optimum design and position is achieved for all stakeholders including local residents.”

Accurate to within centimetres, GMJ’s extended model covers 44 sq km of central London and is detailed to the level of chimney stacks, parapet walls and tree canopies. Developers and architects can drop their proposed buildings into the model to help speed up planning applications.

London CityModel was selected by renowned architect Sir Terry Farrell as an exhibit in his prestigious Digital Cities: London’s Future exhibition which opened on November 21st at The Building Centre.

The exhibition examines how the latest technology will affect the future of architecture in cities, including digital building planning, pedestrian movement studies, congestion management and the adoption of digital city models to aid long term strategic skyline plans.

The Animator’s Survival Kit: Animated

A book I've got on my reading list for all of the games-related units I am teaching at Bournemouth University is Richard Williams’ The Animator’s Survival Kit, widely accepted as a must-have resource for animators.

After its publication in 2001, lecturers quickly added the title to required reading lists for students, while studio professionals began to keep a copy close at hand. So what could be done to improve on this established classic? Simple: add animation.

The book’s content originated from masterclasses that Williams gave to major studios such as Pixar, Dreamworks and ILM. His new 16-DVD box set, The Animator’s Survival Kit: Animated, amalgamates footage from one of these masterclasses, filmed at Blue Sky Studios, with the original content of the book.

The training starts by exploring how animators learn, explaining the importance of life drawing, how to think about animation, how to animate and how not to. Walk cycles, accents, vibrates, anticipation, eases, overlapping action and weight are among the many topics covered. Although the discs can be studied in any order, Williams suggests that “you swallow the whole pill: start from the basics and move on layer by layer through to [more] sophisticated uses”. The more you learn from the basics, the more sophisticated your work can become.

Aimed at both students and professionals, the discs excel in revealing the fundamental principles behind animation, making it suitable for animators working in any field, including classical, digital, games, stop-motion and online animation. During the course of the videos, Williams frequently reaches for a marker pen and illustrates his points with drawings.

In addition to between 30 and 50 minutes of video footage, each DVD includes up to 30 minutes of animation, running to hundreds of individual animated example over the course of the box set. Each can be viewed and analysed frame by frame, making this an invaluable resource.

Check this out at (pricing is steep, but it should be well worth it!) http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/

New Google Earth update, version 5

Google has just released a new version of Google Earth (version 5) with some new and very interesting features added. Those are the abilities to use the Google Earth environment to;

- See global changes with decades of historic imagery
If you've ever wondered how your neighborhood has changed throughout time, Google Earth now gives you access to the past. With a simple click, check out suburban sprawl, melting ice caps, coastal erosion and more
- Dive beneath the surface of the ocean
In the new ocean layer, you can plunge all the way to the floor of the sea, view exclusive content from partners like BBC and National Geographic, and explore 3D shipwrecks like the Titanic.
- Track and share your paths with others
Take placemarks a step further and record a free-form tour in Google Earth. Simply turn on the touring feature, press record, and see the world. You can even add a soundtrack or narration to personalize the journey

All three new features are well worth checking out for Google Earth enthusiasts and offer potential for a lot of new research concepts and ideas for people into LBS and urban modelling.

Games-based Learning 2009 Conference

An interesting event for those based in London and researching serious games; the Game Based Learning Conference 2009. This is the only event of its kind currently in existence that deals with all aspects of games in learning.

Game Based Learning provides a discussion forum via various invited talks on stimulating, challenging and provocative dialogue spaces at the intersection between the education, gaming, social media and consumer electronics sectors. Speakers for the 2009 version, taking place on the 19th and 20th of March are;

- Tom Watson, MP, UK Cabinet Minister for Transformational Government
- Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari, father of the video game industry
- Alice Taylor, Commissioning Editor, Education, Channel 4
- Dr Richard Graham, Clinical Director of Adolescent Directorate, Tavistock Centre
- Marco Minoli, Director, Slitherine
- Sean Dromgoole, CEO, Some Research & GameVision
- Derek Robertson, Learning & Teaching Scotland
- Terry Deary, Author, Horrible Histories

Game Based Learning 2009 will focus on:
- Examining practical examples of how games and other entertainment software are being embraced in schools, universities and other establishments.
- Presenting and discussing latest market data, trends and behaviors.
- Debating the implications of video game and Internet rating systems in the context of learning and teaching.
- Providing valuable social and networking opportunities for all delegates.
- Creating, capturing and making available unique reference material for the interactive entertainment industry, policy makers, education professionals and the public.

http://www.gamebasedlearning2009.com/home

First 3D virtual city based game on iPhone?

Fastlane Street Racing, with 8 routes to race, is possibly the first 3D virtual city-based game on the iPhone. It comes with an impressive 3D rendition of a city and showcases in the best possible way why the iPhone is becoming increasingly important in the mobile game market but also how cool some simple 3D urban modelling on a device like that can be.

The movie above details Fastlane Street Racing with attention to the particularly impressive rendering of the cityscape.

The game itself can be bought from iTunes (via http://www.fastlanestreetracing.com/) and includes 8 city routes, 2 speed racetracks, 6 challenge tracks, 5 game modes and save and review replays amongst other things. It also runs on iPod Touch.

Google Earth's Monster Milk Truck!

One very cool little application latched onto Google Earth which I've just been made aware of is the Monster Milk Truck, an application born during the sessions of a recent Google I/O developers conference where discussions led to how applications can be developed to take advantage of the new Google Earth Plugin API.

One of the examples provided is a little game that really shows the possibilities of Google Earth plugin mashups. The game is called Monster Milktruck and can be accessed here.

Once loaded, simply use the cursor keys to drive the little 3D truck around while looking at the bottom of the page for alternate locations where you can place the truck. While it is very simple in nature it does in my opinion demonstrate in the best possible way the potential of using Google Earth (and also how far the concept has come since first being introduced), well worth checking out!

Unity engine comes to the PC

I've hinted at this a couple of times with posts in the past but Unity Technologies has today lifted the veil on the latest update to its popular Unity engine, including the long-awaited and expected ability to develop games on Windows machines. The free update adds support for both Vista and XP, featuring 100 per cent feature parity and interoperability with the Mac version. Games developed will function on both operating systems automatically.

Also coming in the new 2.5 update are significant improvements to the user interface, including a new tabbed layout, redesigned components for more intuitive development and 130 new script hooks for tailoring your own authoring tools.

The update is currently in beta, with Unity hoping to release it soon. More information about the update can be found at the official Unity website.

Dare to be Digital 2009 competition

Dare to be Digital is a video games development competition for extremely talented students at Universities and Colleges of Art. Teams of 5 students, usually a mix of artists, programmers and audio, assemble in a development hothouse for 10 weeks to develop a prototype video game, receiving daily support and weekly training sessions from industry specialists.

At the end of the competition, the prototypes are displayed at a special talent showcasing event in Edinburgh, Dare ProtoPlay, alongside the Edinburgh Interactive Festival in August. The general public as well as industry experts get to play and vote for the games. Prizes are then awarded to the winning teams at a special awards ceremony. Later in the year the winning teams attend the BAFTA Video Games Awards to compete for the coveted "Ones to Watch Award".

Deadline for submissions this year is 15th of March, check out the official site at http://www.daretobedigital.com/

Nintendo in exploration of automated gaming

A patent application by Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto from mid-2008 has come to light that reveals the company’s interest in the development of an automated gaming system to help players. The ‘Kind Code’ technique effectively acts as an optional autopilot system that players can turn on, essentially making every element of a given game a cut-scene.

It is unclear as to whether the automated system would make use of a full length recorded play-through or an edited down, true cut-scene. As well as providing a less automated text-based hint system, Kind Code’s full ‘Digest’ option will allow players to jump back into the gameplay section being shown at any time, returning to a point dictated by a save-point downloaded automatically through a network.

The proposed technology would allow less seasoned gamers to complete titles aimed at the traditional and hardcore markets, but may be difficult to implement as open-ended and free-roaming titles become more commonplace. This piece of news is very important since it showcases the trend to converge hardcore and casual games by downlaying the level of complexity in the first, without compromising the more dedicated player.

A smartphone locked in a console?

What with the recession and the Nintendo/Microsoft/Sony machines with plenty of shelf life left no consoles are launching in 2009, right? Not so. Brazilian manufacturer Tectoy, most notable outside of South America for its long partnership with Sega and official distribution of its consoles in Brazil, will be releasing an entirely original product called Zeebo.

While that on its own is hardly staggering news what piqued my interest in this case is that the concept is centered around downloadable games distributed only over a 3G wireless network, with the console exclusively designed for emerging markets (Latin America/India/China). Looking at the specs it looks like a smartphone locked in a console box! It already has high-profile partners and games including Electronic Arts's FIFA, Id Software's Quake and Namco Bandai's Tekken. It will save its small, standard definition titles, many of which will initially be BREW mobile game ports, to the system's internal flash memory. This is intended to sidestep the issues of piracy, home internet availability and retail distribution of game titles.

The company is 57 percent owned by Tectoy and 43 percent owned by mobile tech company and BREW creator Qualcomm. As well as the above-mentioned larger companies who will release games for the console, Zeebo is hoping to attract independent developers as well. English info on the console is exceptionally rare so far, with no launch yet slated for North America. But there is opportunity here; the firm feels there's potential for a repeat of the indie-led App Store boom Apple is currently seeing with iPhone.

Nvidia offers new true 3D gaming hardware

3D (vision) gaming seems to be an area with a lot of movement lately... Another company jumping on that bandwage is Nvidia. The company announced at the recent CES event 3DVision for GeForce, a product that claims to be "the world’s first high-definition 3D stereo solution for the home."

The system, designed for PC, uses a pair of glasses, a USB-based IR emitter and software to generate a 3D effect. Nvidia said 3D Vision works with Samsung and ViewSonic 120 Hz LCD monitors, Mitsubishi DLP HDTVs and the DepthQ HD 3D Projector by Lightspeed Design. The product works with 3D gaming, 3D movies and 3D photography, Nvidia said, and has "out of the box" compatibility with over 300 games. The company added, "In addition, NVIDIA’s 'The Way It’s Meant to Be Played' program ensures that future games will support 3D Vision."

A "3D Vision Viewer" also allows users to take in-game screens and view them later in 3D stereo, "or import and view stereoscopic pictures and movies from a variety of different capture sources and online Web photo galleries." The product is available now from U.S. e-tailers.

Craft Animations and Gamescaster announce the release of Craft Camera Tools for GCS3

An interesting technology I have just come across; Craft Camera Tools for GCS3 offers users a superior and cost-effective solution for virtual cinematography, completely eliminating the time-consuming and costly process of traditional keyframing of virtual cameras in 3D animated scenes. This revolutionary development draws from two pioneering technologies: Craft Animation’s Craft Camera Tools and Gamecaster’s patented GCS3 virtual camera control hardware.

Together, this custom bundle forms a completely new way of directing animation -- through the viewfinder of the GCS3 virtual camera controller itself, with start-to-finish hands-on control over the virtual camera of 3D animation, visual effects and previsualization scenes. Craft Animations and Gamecaster have also developed an exclusive line of camera tools for use with the GCS3 virtual camera control hardware.

Via the GCS3 hardware, the GCS3 FreeCam™ and GCS3 TripodCam™ provide real-time physical control of the virtual camera’s pan, tilt, zoom, crane and dolly, walk-cycle and explosion motion, as well as spline control motion. Professional users of Craft Camera Tools for 3ds Max and Maya have reported reduced production times by up to 90 percent during the creation of natural motion paths for 3D vehicles and cameras on-the-fly through autopilot functions, or a variety of input devices such as gamepads, joysticks and keyboards.

The custom Craft Camera Tools for CGS3 software and hardware bundle is now available. Craft Director Tools, including Craft Camera Tools, Craft Vehicle Tools and Craft Accessories; are available now for 3ds Max and Maya, Mac and Windows platforms, and are individually priced between US$129 and $1,199.

A new visual programming language for creating games

Microsoft has unveiled Kodu, a new game creation tool for Xbox 360 and PC set for launch on the Xbox Live Community Games channel. Kodu, originally called Boku, was developed by Microsoft research as a game building tool for kids, and allows people to create 'playgrounds' with programmed actors using just the Xbox 360 controller.

The visual, event-based programming system is based on real-world primitives such as vision, hearing and time to control behaviours. Programs are broken down into pages, which are further broken down into simultaneously-evaluated condition and action pairs. According to Microsoft, the tool has been evaluated 'for hundreds of hours by people from ages five to 45,' to ensure that it remains accessible while providing enough flexibility for extended use.

“We’ve done everything possible to make sure that creating a Kodu playground is not only easy, but that it is also fun and engaging for people of all ages and backgrounds,” said Matt MacLaurin, principal program manager for Microsoft Research and lead Kodu designer. “Since Kodu's interface is intuitive and prevents common programming mistakes, we’re making it easy for everyone to enjoy the magic of game creation.”

CityEngine now available for Mac and 64-bit Windows

An urban modelling tool which I have discussed several times in this blog, CityEngine, has now received a few more very important updates. Procedural Inc. announced that their 3D city generation software CityEngine is now also available for Mac OS X. In addition, the free 30-day trial version of the CityEngine comes now with stunning example cities such as a spectacular future New York City.

Procedural Inc., an innovative software company located in Zurich, is home to the world’s foremost procedural modeling technology. With the CityEngine, Procedural Inc.’s graphics experts have created a radically different 3D application that allows professional users in entertainment, architecture and urban planning to efficiently model 3D cities.

“We are happy that our Mac friends are now able to benefit from the huge advantages of the CityEngine.” says Pascal Mueller, CEO Procedural Inc. “To celebrate it, we created Apple City consisting of thousands of Cupertino headquarters. So in case Mr. Jobs intends to rebuild Cupertino, he has now the tool to plan it on his new MacBook”. The video of Apple City can be watched at http://www.procedural.com/

More good news for CityEngine users dreaming of infinite cities: the CityEngine includes now full 64-bit support on the Windows platform. That means no more memory constraints due to 32-bit. In addition, the CityEngine comes now also with extensive example scenes which allow architects and designers to quickly create detailed cities via parametric modeling only. Other highlights of the upgrade include:
#1: ATI graphics cards are now also fully supported
#2: Introduction of city layer editing functionalities
#3: Several minor improvements such as 100x faster street growth

Elsevier's Entertainment Computing journal, new computer games research journal

A new journal starting out in 2009 for everyone in computer games technology research, from the very reputable Elsevier publisher, is Entertainment Computing.

Entertainment Computing publishes original, peer-reviewed research articles and serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating innovative research ideas, emerging technologies, empirical investigations, state-of-the-art methods and tools in all aspects of digital entertainment, new media, entertainment computing, gaming, robotics, toys and applications among researchers, engineers, social scientists, artists and practitioners.

Theoretical, technical, empirical, survey articles and case studies are all appropriate to the journal. Specific areas of interest include:

• Computer, video, console and internet games

• Digital new media for entertainment

• Entertainment robots

• Entertainment technology, applications, application program interfaces, and entertainment system architectures

• Human factors of entertainment technology

• Impact of entertainment technology on users and society

• Integration of interaction and multimedia capabilities in entertainment systems• Interactive television and broadcasting

• Methodologies, paradigms, tools, and software/hardware architectures for supporting entertainment applications

• New genres of entertainment technology

• Simulation/gaming methodologies used in education, training, and research

In the area of empirical and experimental studies the journal is looking for contributions which are very well documented, innovative, and tested or evaluated in a particular entertainment domain.

http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/717010/description#description

Poster accepted at 1st IEEE VS Games 2009 conference

I have just received confirmation that a publication I have co-authored has been accepted as a poster for the upcoming 1st IEEE International conference in Games And Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications, to take place at Coventry, UK between the 23rd and 24th of March 2009 (http://www.vs-games.org.uk/). The paper is titled "Framework for the Development of Online, Location-Specific, Expressive 3D Social Worlds".

The first IEEE International Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications 2009 aims to meet the significant challenges of the cross-disciplinary community that work around these serious application areas by bringing the community together to share case studies of practice, to present new frameworks, methodologies and theories and to begin the process of developing shared cross-disciplinary outputs.

http://www.vs-games.org.uk/

Paper accepted at 1st IEEE VS Games 2009 conference

I have just received confirmation that a publication I have written has been accepted as a short paper for the upcoming 1st IEEE International conference in Games And Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications, to take place at Coventry, UK between the 23rd and 24th of March 2009 (http://www.vs-games.org.uk/). The paper is titled "Towards the Development of an Interactive 3D Coach Training Serious Game".

The first IEEE International Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications 2009 aims to meet the significant challenges of the cross-disciplinary community that work around serious games application areas by bringing the community together to share case studies of practice, to present new frameworks, methodologies and theories and to begin the process of developing shared cross-disciplinary outputs.

In order to achieve this main aim the conference will pioneer new methods for bringing together and supporting communities of practice emerging in themed areas beyond the duration of the conference. Using the conference as an ignition to support a wider aspiration to form and sustain a community of practice around the field. To achieve this, the team at the SGI will use innovative software called Intronetworks, which allows conference participants to create their own profile allowing them to identify like-minded and complementary skilled colleagues.

Cityscape, automatic 3D urban modelling application

A new kid on the block in urban modelling to rival the likes of CityEngine? PixelActive is pleased to announce the latest release of CityScape, their high speed, intelligent world editor. CityScape enables users to create complex urban-themed virtual landscapes 10x faster than traditional modeling tools, while maintaining a high level of quality.

The product is ideal for video game and virtual world developers who need to build large worlds that are optimized for real time engines. CityScape has been shipping to game developers for two years and the latest version adds support for multiple users, allowing several artists and designers to work on the same environment simultaneously. Other new features include support for astrometrics (accurate solar and lunar entities based on geography, time and date), larger worlds, and optimizations for faster performance. Current clients include Volition, Inc. (creators of the Red Faction® and Saints Row® franchises), Bunkspeed, Inc. (creators of visualization technology for design and marketing) and others.

CityScape was built from the ground up to solve the problem of creating cities quickly and efficiently. "For game developers, CityScape allows designers to get in their world sooner to test out design ideas and iterate, iterate, iterate," says Steve Rotenberg, CEO of PixelActive. "But serious game and simulation developers can also benefit from CityScape's support for importing GIS data, allowing geospecific modeling of real world locations."

Most studios currently use a general purpose 3D modeling package to create these cities, but the process is tedious and expensive due to the high labor involved. CityScape gives designers and artists the power to interactively create complex road networks, shape the landscape, place props and buildings, and place application-specific data, all in a single application that works with their entire asset pipeline.

CityScape integrates into most workflows seamlessly via COLLADA, an open standard for digital assets. More about the application (and a demo download!) at http://pixelactive3d.com/