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Using Gigapixel Landscape Textures in Dragon Commander: Lessons Learned
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Description

Using Gigapixel Landscape Textures in Dragon Commander: Lessons Learned
Charles Hollemeersch | CTO, Graphine
Swen Vincke | CEO, Larian

Location: Congress Saal 1
Date: Wednesday, August 21
Time: 9:30-10:30
Tracks: Programming, Visual Arts
Format: Session
Vault Recording: Video

Dragon Commander is more than 'just another' strategy game - Dragon Commander seamlessly blends different gameplay genres into a single, grand adventure. This freedom also has its repercussions in the landscape rendering. Landscapes have to look good, from dragon dogfights up in the clouds all the way down to commanding ground-based combat units. Instead of using traditional mask-based techniques (which lack unique detail and have difficulty hiding visible tiling), we adopted a technique based on texture streaming that covers the whole landscape with unique texture data. In this talk, we'll describe both our production pipeline as well as the technical lessons learned when trying to adopt such a technique.

Takeaway
Attendees will learn how Larian used texture streaming technology in cooperation with an in-house developed content pipeline to create the detailed landscapes of Dragon Commander, how large texture datasets can be manipulated using current tools, and how such datasets can be used in practical games while staying within platform constraints.

Intended Audience
Technical directors, graphics programmers, environment art directors and technical artists.

Speakers
Swen Vincke | CEO, Larian
Swen Vincke (38) is the CEO and founder of Larian Studios, the largest game developer in Belgium. He's been in the games industry since 1997 and was the lead software engineer and designer on all of Larian Studios' projects up until 2005. His most important credits as a programmer include the multiple award-winning Divine Divinity (2002), LMK (1999), Beyond Divinity (2004), The L.E.D. Wars (1997), as well as a series of arcade games. In addition to designing all of the previous games, Swen also designed KetnetKick, the world's first online creative community for broadcasters, which went on to break all kinds of records in Belgium and received the kids awards for best game twice (2004, 2005). KetnetKick has since been licensed by various broadcasters including the BBC. Since 2005, he's focused more on managing his teams that at peak consist of over 100 people and doing the business development for Larian Studios. He is actively involved as game director in all of Larian Studios' projects. His recent work includes the award-winning and critically acclaimed Divinity II series of games, including Divinity II

Charles Hollemeersch | CTO, Graphine
Charles Hollemeersch (31) is Graphine's technology octopus. Having worked in games, avionics and research, Charles knows what it takes to deliver rock solid software that finishes on time, while incorporating the latest and greatest technology evolutions. Charles started in the games industry by releasing the popular Tenebrae mod on the web. Tenebrae was first to feature fully real-time lighting and shadows in a game. After slowing down Belgian's biggest internet service provider due to its popularity, it was only a matter of time until he got headhunted for a job in games. As a graphics programmer at Splash Damage, he helped to co-develop the MegaTexture technology in cooperation with id Software. Charles then went on to work at Barco, where he developed graphics monitoring units for plane cockpits - crashes or graphics glitches were simply not an option. Having finished his PhD in real-time graphics and large image dataset processing, Charles joined Graphine as a co-founder and CTO. Graphine is a new Belgian startup that develops graphics middleware for game developers by combining far-reaching knowhow with a continuous strive for innovation. The company applies these strengths to realize its mission: delivering HD texture technology that enables game developers to focus on their creative core challenges. Every day, Graphine raises the bar in texture streaming and compression with rock solid, stable technology that requires shorter loading time and storage space.

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