Sponge Bob Truth or Square for the PSP. Please see the game called Incoming!!

Snakes Subsonic
Now Playing: Indiana Jones Legos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snakes Subsonic is out for the N-Gage.  I did the state machine for all the menus and HUD.  I also participated in some engine level integration.

Panzer Command Is the Best Threaded Game
Now Playing: Galaga DS- High Score: 172, 590
Panzer Command IS the best threaded game.

See it here:

http://www.intel.com/cd/ids/developer/asmo-na/eng/264351.htm

Panzer Command: Operation Winter Storm
Now Playing: Hide and Seek


Well our current game is wrapping up. It's a tactical turn based game set on the eastern front of WWII. You play as either Russia or Germany using units simulated with historical data from a real operation. The game is meant to appeal to both Grognards and mainstream gamers. I'm not officially a Grognard, so I tried to add as many juicy effects MDX would allow. I left the Grognarding to my co-workers; this means the game is chock full of simulation data that makes a T34 from 1941 work like a T34 from 1941. On the other hand, when I pop your T34 with my armor piercing high explosive round, it errupts in an Arnold-Swarzeneger-Would-Be-Proud fireball and continues to burn with a billowing black smoke cloud. We also have graphic technologies including perspective shadow mapping, normal mapping, particles, animation.

Panzer Command Video

Current Game Credits


Tin Soldiers: Julius Caesar - Due out spring 2005

Tin Soldiers: Julius Caesar is the second of a series that adds a revamped graphics engine as well as a completely fierce AI.

My contribution: I upgraded the Tin Soldiers' 2D engine to an entirely 3D graphics implementation complete with pixel shaded shadows and effects. I provided the art team with a scene graph editor so that their levels generated within 3D Studio Max are smoothly transitioned into the game.



Tin Soldiers: Alexander the Great - Released October 2004

Alexander requires deep strategy rather than twitch finger ability. The game is met with great reviews including an 89% from PC Gamer Magazine.

My contribution: I implemented the 2D graphics engine using Direct3D orthogonal projection. I provided the art department tools for viewing sprites, generating maps, and mixing video. I also completely implemented the two player networking component.

Tools



This is a snapshot of the scene graph editor. It reads and writes to an XML file describing scene object hierarchy. The artist can insert objects into the game and drag them around and place them. This tool supports painting the path finding map directly to the terrain in 3D. The tree view to the left of the main window allows the artist to adjust individual object materials.

Project History


My current personal project I'm naming Super Zoomer Racer III Turbo. It is a game similar to the ancient SNAFU or Light Cycles from the movie Tron. The game is written in C++ using DirectX 9.

So far, the game has an embryonic engine including a messaging system, shadow volumes, and scene graph hierarchy. There is a collision detection system using the Thick Line Test Algorithm for static geometry.

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Game Development Certification

I have always been interested in writing games. I was 9 when I first started programming on my Commodore 64. When I was an undergraduate , I taught myself how to use DirectX 6. While teaching yourself is noble, I always felt like I needed a more structured introduction into game programming. The Game Development Certification is a one year, four semester program at the University of Washington.

I'm going to list some of the more important assigments including screen shots. All assignments were written in C++ using DirectX 8.

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This is a snapshot of a collision detection scheme called the Thick Line Algorithm. Gravity is making the little blue guy slide slowly down the ramp. My understanding is the original Quake engine used this method. Quake used a cylinder to represent the avatar, but I'm using a simple sphere.

The idea is that the static level geometry is extruded along the normal at a distance equivalent to the radius of the avatar. This takes collision tests down from sphere+triangle to line+triangle. The line is generated from the previous and current position of the avater. I actually go a step farther and early out at a line+plane test and proceed to a line+triangle test when a plane collides.

Collision detection is the first step, collision resolution is the second step. My method resolves a collision by repositioning the avatar some distance along the normal of the geometry it is colliding against. This keeps the player from being stuck to walls.

This is a spatial partitioning method known as an Octant Tree. The static geometry of the level is split into octants. When testing for collisions between geometry, we can exclude everything that is not in the current octant. Here the collision is a mouse picking scheme where a picked triangle is highlighted white.

Honk three times if you know what Honey Bucket is.

Shadow volumes was one of my favorite homework assignments. My algorithm for generating the shadow volume is loosely based on the stencil demo that comes with DirectX 8. However, the Microsoft demo generates the volume every frame and uses an algorithm that is O(n^2). YIKES! My algorithm does a lot of the generation upon level load. I use the adjacency matrix that is exposed by DirectX's mesh to find lit and unlit faces. The result is a really fast stencil buffer shadow volume that is easily applied to any complex mesh.

Hey! I'm in wired magazine!

The new X-Men (that's me on the left)

Evidently, I'm "a pale, clean-cut Texan". Maybe I need to get out more.

Here's some other links you might find me mentioned:

The Z-Buffer
Z Buffer interview

Microsoft
Managed DirectX Case Study