3DVIA Tech

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GDC 2011 : PlatformInsider Guide

Romain SIDIDRIS

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Automatic mode

Camera Follow the helicopter from the island to the platform

( 1 m 50) Camera orbits around the platform then follow the current operator

( 40 s )

Camera switches between different fixed point of view with a text highlighting the different

effects( 10s per effect x 5 )

Automatic mode starts after 30 seconds without user inputs or using Y

Pressing the Y button , will skip to the next step

Pressing the Y button , will skip to the next step

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Interaction mode ( B to change between each camera )

ORBITControl the orbit

camera around the platform

FREEFlying camera

CharacterFollow each character

on the platform

-The demo is made to be control with an X360 controller-If the Gamepad is manipulated the automatic mode stops to switch to the current camera

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Orbit Camera Controls

Orbit the Camera Zoom IN / OUT ( Page Up / page Down)Back to automatic Mode (Backspace )

Next Camera Mode ( C )

Day / Night Cycle ( N)

Help ( H)

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Free Camera Controls

Forward/Strafe Move UP/Down ( Page Up / Page Down )Back to automatic mode

Next Camera Mode (C )

Look around

Day / Night Cycle ( N)

Help ( H)

Turbo

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Characters Camera Controls

Back to automatic mode

Next Camera Mode (C )

Next/Previous characters

Help ( H)

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Data / Stats

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Triangles stats

On average Between 3 – 4 Millions triangles drawn per frame

Reflection / refraction induce multiple rendering

Platform800 K triangles

Opertors 10 K Triangle

TerrainBetween 65K – 1 M triangles depending on LOD

Water500 K Triangles ( Projective Grid computed on CPU )

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Profiling stats on different configuration

1920x1200 resolutionZ800 + 2x Quadro 6000 SLI mode : Stable 60 fps when synced ( 70-90 )

Z800 + single NVIDIA GTX 460 : Stable 30 fps when synced ( 30–40 )

1280x1024 resolution DELL T3500 + 2xQuadro 5800 SLI mode : Stable 45 fps when synced ( 50 – 80 )

Z800 + single NVIDIA GTX 460 : average 45 – 60

DELL T3500 + single Quadro 1800 : average 18 fps

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Technical Highlights

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Highlighted Effects

HDR ( high Dynamic Range ) / Tonemapping

Bloom ( leaking lights )

DOF ( Depth Of Field )

Deferred Shading ( Lights on platform )

Sky ( Sun + atmospheric effect / scattering )

Day Cycle

Water EffectShore Effect / Foam

Reflection/Refraction

Soft Particles ( Landing Helicopter )

Path Finding ( Operators moving around )

Terrain

Soft Shadows

MLAA ( antialising for deferred rendering )

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HDR / ToneMap / Bloom

Tonemapping to adapt to different lighting conditions

Directly configurable on the viewport inside Studio

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Shadows

Soft Shadows ( Omni , spot , directional )

Directly configurable per light / per object

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Path Finding

Navigation mesh generated from the raw structure of the platform

Behaviors to move operators between keep points using the NavEngine

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Soft Particles

Prevent hard lines between particles and objects

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DOF

Autofocus on main camera to adapt depth of field

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SKY

Sun and atmospheric rendering

Simple item from the library to drop in a Studio project

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Deferred Shading

During light ~200 lights are switched on

Deferred shading allow for many light without performance impact

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Terrain

Dedicated editor available in Studio

Multiple material layers.

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Water

FFT to compute heightmap & normalmap on CPU using SSE

Projective grid computed on GPU

Shore effects ( foam near the shore and soft blending )

Reflection & refraction