We all know there's a huge disparity between games based on movies and vice versa. A movie based on a game (or the other way round) inevitably falls short of expectations because it was only riding on the success of the first. In the last SIGGRAPH, this is the gap that LucasArts and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) are aiming to bridge.

In a panel between the two companies, the discussion held shows that there's been huge progress in that area.

Film and game collaboration is a commitment they have stuck to for years and has increased in speed ever since the two have moved into the same building in San Francisco two years ago.

The panel in SIGGRAPH discussed a number of things, including a huge advance in the tech they use for the collaboration between film and games. The programs stem back from years ago and have evolved to cater to the collaborative process, so it's exciting to see how this would affect The Force Unleashed.

They also emphasized a move on simulation-based gameplay. They have expressed that a number of future games will be based on NaturalMotion's engine "Euphoria," the same engine that powers the Rockstar Games. They also demonstrated Pixelux, a program that simulates the manipulation of objects according to the material it's made of, allowing for 3D effects even more faithful to its real-world counterpart.

We can expect a lot more from the collaboration of these two giants. We should see more solid proof of their progress once Star Wars: Force Unleashed (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PS2, DS) comes out so watch out for that one.

Remember Glenn Entis? Academy-Award-winning senior VP and chief visual and technical officer for EA Games? Made that little remark a while ago about Final Fantasy? He was invited as one of three keynote speakers for SIGGRAPH and his speech had some interesting insights to offer.

Basically his points were a much more lucid and detailed version of the thoughts he had always expressed about the gaming industry, and this time he also compares it to the film industry. He also brought up the same point he made when he cited FF as an example, that graphics with more polygons lose their realism when their motions wasn't as realistic.

It's when a character's visual appearance suggests a certain experience of life, but when their movement falls short of that expectation, the character feels like the undead. [...] Just adding polygons makes it worse. We must be able to believe what characters do, think and feel, but we must also believe how they response to unpredictable input.

He explained his point by citing the less-than-fluid motions of muppets and characters from "Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within." Basically his point is that the 3D modelling is stunning, but it loses its realism when it starts to move because the motions look fake.

He also compares this with graphics in film and has high hopes for graphics in video games. He says that while "graphics in film are nearing the plateau but the best thrill moments are yet to come in gaming." He says this in light of the fact that graphics in films aren't real time. It's pre-rendered and doesn't need any processing once it's being shown. Video games, on the other hand, demand control from gamers: control of their character, control of their environment, and control of tools.

While he believes that it's impossible for real-time graphics that video games thrive on to match the pre-rendered beauty of graphics in films, there will come a time where the differences will be so small it will be imperceptible. Imagine controlling the "Transformers" as beautifully rendered and fluid as they appeared in the movie. Now that's the future of graphics.

He sums up his thoughts best as he says "Gaming has made the fastest improvements in graphics, but what is exciting is that we still have the furthest way to go. That's phenomenally exciting."

A collaboration between three giants in the hardware industry, IBM Corp., Sony (and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.,) and Toshiba Corp., has given life to a new prototype computer board. The board, powered by the PS3's powerful graphics processor, will be presented at SIGGRAPH in the US next week.

The "Cell Computing Board" can do up to 230G Flops and

is small enough to be mounted into a 1U-size server for a 19-inch rack mount, combines the Cell Broadband Engine microprocessor and RSX graphics processor. This pairing results in a high-power computing platform that goes beyond the power of the Cell chip alone, said Sony. The company did not disclose precise performance data for the board.

SIGGRAPH will be held from August 7 to 9 at the San Diego Convention Center.

SIGGRAPH 2007 has just received an update on its expected list of visitors, as Electronic Art's Glenn Entis has been announced to be the first of the event's three featured speakers.

Glenn's speech is expected to discuss recent accomplishments and upcoming challenges for interactive graphics in video games. As a backgrounder, Glenn had served as DreamWorks Interactive's CEO, before making it to EA as their current Chief Visual Officer.

In past conventions, SIGGRAPH invited just one keynote speaker to the event. This year's event is planned to invite three feature speakers as a means of helping expand the experience for the event's attendees. Expect more details to arrive in the near future, hopefully on the next two speakers the event will carry. This year's SIGGRAPH event is expected to take place this August 5 to 9, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California.

 

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the organizers of SIGGRAPH, has announced that they will gain hose the two-day Sandbox videogame symposium on August 4-5, alongside SIGGRAPH 2007 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego California.

Gamasutra informs that the symposium will consist of keynotes, panels, and papers. A "Hot Games" session is also set to be run and in it unreleased titles from major game companies and independent developers will be previewed.

The goal of the event is pose these questions to attendees and participating organizers: What are the creative, technological and commercial challenges facing this medium in the future? How do we relate great stories that leverage advances in technology? What is the continuing impact of this medium on individuals and society?

For more information on Sandbox: An ACM Videogame Symposium and other events scheduled to take place alongside SIGGRAPH 2007, feel free to check out the official website via our "read" link below.

The most recent entry on Matthias Worch's blog revealed that he'll be giving a presentation on a "certain game" at the Siggraph 2006. To those who don't know him, Worch is a Game Designer and Technical Art Director over at Factor 5, the company that's working on the PS3 action game Lair. Having said that, it's most likely that he's talking about a Lair demo, though Factor 5 is rumored to be working on two other PS3 titles.

Those who left comments on his blog assumed it's going be a Lair demo at the Siggraph 2006. Worch has this to say, "We'll see. This will be a 'private engagement,' not a company event. There isn't a big mystery here, I just don't want to preempt the official announcement."