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From the introduction: "Three dimensional graphics hardware is fast becoming, not merely a staple of computer systems, but an indispensable component. Many operating systems directly use and even require some degree of 3D rendering hardware. Even in the increasingly relevant mobile computing space, 3D graphics hardware is a standard feature of all but the lowest power devices. Understanding how to make the most of that hardware is a difficult challenge, particularly for someone new to graphics and rendering."

Abstract: "The video games industry develops ever more advanced technologies to improve rendering, image quality, ergonomics and user experience of their creations providing very simple to use tools to design new games. In the molecular sciences, only a small number of experts with specialized know-how are able to design interactive visualization applications, typically static computer programs that cannot easily be modified. Are there lessons to be learned from video games? Could their technology help us explore new molecular graphics ideas and render graphics developments accessible to non-specialists? This approach points to an extension of open computer programs, not only providing access to the source code, but also delivering an easily modifiable and extensible scientific research tool. In this work, we will explore these questions using the Unity3D game engine to develop and prototype a biological network and molecular visualization application for subsequent use in research or education. We have compared several routines to represent spheres and links between them, using either built-in Unity3D features or our own implementation. These developments resulted in a stand-alone viewer capable of displaying molecular structures, surfaces, animated electrostatic field lines and biological networks with powerful, artistic and illustrative rendering methods. We consider this work as a proof of principle demonstrating that the functionalities of classical viewers and more advanced novel features could be implemented in substantially less time and with less development effort. Our prototype is easily modifiable and extensible and may serve others as starting point and platform for their developments. A webserver example, standalone versions for MacOS X, Linux and Windows, source code, screen shots, videos and documentation are available at the address: http://unitymol.sourceforge.net/."

Abstract: "We present the Brigade renderer: an efficient system that uses the path tracing algorithm to produce images for real-time games. We describe the architecture of the Brigade renderer, and provide implementation details. We describe two games that have been created using Brigade."

Abstract: "We present a method for simulating the melting and owing of material in burning objects fast enough to be of use in video games where most of the graphical and computational resources are needed elsewhere. The standard practice of us- ing particle engines or uid dynamics for melting are far too costly for use in this environment. We demonstrate that our method, which is based on systematic polygonal expanding and folding, uses only a fraction of the computational power avail- able by implementing the computation on a very modest GPU using CUDA"

"Objects in 3D games are typically shell models, a polygon mesh representing the shell or skin of the object. While emulation of the behaviour of shell models under combustion is sucient for many game applications and is fairly well studied, solid objects do in fact burn rather dierently than shell objects. We show how to manipulate shell models so that they appear to burn as solid models. Since our burning objects will be only a small part of a video game, computation speed is of the essence. We demonstrate that our method uses only a fraction of the computational power available by implementing the computation on a modest GPU using CUDA."

Abstract: "Cloud gaming now makes any computer game playable on a thin client without the previous worries and frustrations about the hardware requirements. It frees players from the need to frequently upgrade their computers as they can now play games that are hosted on remote servers with a broadband Internet connection and a thin client. However, cloud games are intrinsically more susceptible to latency than online games because game graphics are rendered on cloud servers and thin clients do not possess game state information that is required by delay compensation techniques. In this paper, we investigate how the response latency in cloud gaming would affect users' experience and how the impact of latency on players' experience varies among different games. We show that not all games are equally friendly to cloud gaming. That is, the same degree of latency may have very different impacts on a game's quality of experience depending on the game's real-time strictness. We thus develop a model that can predict a game's real-time strictness based on the rate of players' inputs and the game screen dynamics. The model can be used to simultaneously enhance players' gaming and optimize the operation cost of data centers."

Abstract: "Scalability, fast response time, and low cost are of utmost importance in designing a successful massively multiplayer online game. The underlying architecture plays an important role in meeting these conditions. Peer-to-peer architectures, due to their distributed and collaborative nature, have low infrastructure costs and can achieve high scalability. They can also achieve fast response times by creating direct connections between players. However, these architectures face many challenges. Distributing a game among peers makes maintaining control over the game more complex. Peer-to-peer architectures also tend to be vulnerable to churn and cheating. Moreover, different genres of games have different requirements that should be met by the underlying architecture, rendering the task of designing a general purpose architecture harder. Many peer-to-peer gaming solutions have been proposed that utilize a range of techniques while using somewhat different and confusing terminologies. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of current peer-to-peer solutions for massively multiplayer games using a uniform terminology"

Abstract: "Cinematography is a key aspect in the development of mod- ern computer games. The quality of the visuals depends, not only on the accuracy of the rendering, but on the way that the scene is presented to the player. Which element should be included in the frame, from which point of view and in which positions are all aspects that have been widely stud- ied in classical cinematography. However, it is still unclear how the principles developed for the lm medium are ap- plicable to an interactive medium such as computer games. This article presents a study, which explores the interplay between cinematography and player experience. The results of the experiment demonstrate the existence of an impact of the cinematographic behaviour of camera on both player's aect and her in-game behaviour. Furthermore, this impact is dependent on the game mechanics highlighting once more the dierence between classic cinematography and game cin- ematography"

"A Slower Speed of Light is a first-person game prototype in which players navigate a 3D space while picking up orbs that reduce the speed of light in increments. Custom-built, open-source relativistic graphics code allows the speed of light in the game to approach the player's own maximum walking speed. Visual effects of special relativity gradually become apparent to the player, increasing the challenge of gameplay. These effects, rendered in realtime to vertex accuracy, include the Doppler effect (red- and blue-shifting of visible light, and the shifting of infrared and ultraviolet light into the visible spectrum); the searchlight effect (increased brightness in the direction of travel); time dilation (differences in the perceived passage of time from the player and the outside world); Lorentz transformation (warping of space at near-light speeds); and the runtime effect (the ability to see objects as they were in the past, due to the travel time of light). Players can choose to share their mastery and experience of the game through Twitter. A Slower Speed of Light combines accessible gameplay and a fantasy setting with theoretical and computational physics research to deliver an engaging and pedagogically rich experience."

Abstract: "Cloud gaming provides game-on-demand (GoD) services over the Internet cloud. The goal is to achieve faster response time and higher QoS. The video game is rendered remotely on the game cloud and decoded on thin client devices such as tablet computer or smartphone. We design a game cloud with a virtualized cluster of CPU/GPU servers at USC GamePipe Laboratory. We enable interactive gaming by taking full advantage of the cloud and local resources for high quality of experience (QoE) gaming. We report preliminary performance results on the game latency and frame rate. We find 109 ~ 131 ms latency in using the game cloud, which is 14% ~ 38% lower than 200 ms latency experienced on a thin local computer. Moreover, the frame rate from the cloud is 25% ~ 35% higher than that of using a client computer alone. Base on these findings, we anticipate game cloud to have a performance gain or QoS improvement of 14% ~ 38% over video gaming on a thin client device such as a smartphone or a tablet computer."

"User centric gaming experiences with organic movement"

From the abstract: "A serious game for construction planning and scheduling education must provide an authentic environment for gameplay. To achieve this requirement, the game environment must be created from CAD drawings of a real project. The game engine must have components for providing timely scaffolding and support to the user. Storing the vast amount of data for a real project requires data structures optimized for fast rendering at the same time easily accessing and manipulating building elements and element data. This paper discusses a game engine developed for creating construction planning and scheduling educational games. The game engine is designed from scratch for performance and flexibility. It includes a component for directly importing data from a Revit model for building the game environment, interfaces Microsoft Project for scheduling, includes a feedback module, and a scoring system for measuring user performance."