Building on the incredible success of last year's sell-out event, AiGameDev.com is proud to announce the program of the third annual Game AI Conference in Paris, co-organized with the CNAM where the event is held. This year's conference takes place on June 23rd and 24th 2010, following a workshop about character animation on June 22nd. The schedule blends invited sessions from top AI developers from industry as well as tutorials, reviews and R&D oriented sessions.
The organizing committee consists of Petra & Alex Champandard from AiGameDev.com, Stephane Natkin from the CEDRIC lab, and Axel Buendia of the Paris-based middleware company Spir.Ops. The program committee includes Phil Carlisle, Mikko Mononen, and William van der Sterren. We'd also like to thank our three most recent sponsors, Game Talents, Havok and MASA Group for making this event possible.
Thanks again also to our early sponsors Autodesk and PathEngine and all other sponsors for their support and encouragement.
Animation Workshop Date & Location
Duration: 1 full day.
Date: Tuesday 22nd, June 2010.
Time: 9:00 to 18:00.
Location: CNAM — Paris 3ème (map)
Price: €270 to €370.
Extras: Lunch and coffee breaks included.
Details: See the official workshop page.
Photo 1: Discussions at the Paris Game AI Workshop ‘08.
Agenda for the Animation Workshop
The day is split into four parts, each covering an important aspect of creating believable characters. While the focus is on specific behaviors & features that you can integrate into your game, you'll also learn about the low-level details of the animation blend tree and how it all fits together.
Observing: Looking Around, Gazing
Interacting: Picking Up, Touching
Locomoting: Moving Around, Taking Steps
Reacting: Being Pushed & Hit Reactions
In each part, you'll hear the most important things you need to know from multiple experts, including practical tips and simple tricks that can make the difference without a huge amount of work! You'll then go over examples and problems in small groups, under the guidance and supervision of industry veterans.
Game AI Conference Dates & Location
Duration: 2 days.
Dates: Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th, June 2010.
Time: 9:00 to 18:00.
Location: CNAM, Amphi C “Abbé Grégoire” — Paris 3ème (map)
Price: From €77 to €97, 50% discounts available.
Event: Party on the evening of the 23rd; to be announced.
Registration: See the official conference site.
Confirmed Speakers & Sessions
Ken Perlin – Modern Procedural Animation
Ken Perlin is a leading expert in the field of character animation who received numerous awards for his invention of multi-layered noise. He has consulted for companies like Valve on HALF-LIFE 2 to help them improve their facial and body animations. In this invited talk, Ken will discuss how procedural techniques can complement traditional animation or motion capture in your game.
Mikael Hedberg – BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2
The most recent FPS from EA's acclaimed DICE studio certainly has its fair share of AI challenges with destructible environments, physics vehicles, and class-based gameplay. Lead AI Programmer Mikael Hedberg will share some insights about the AI for the BAD COMPANY series, what changed this time around, and how it affected the overall experience.
Bruce Blumberg – WORLD OF ZOO
How do you make a virtual lion fun to interact with? Bruce Blumberg was a key member of the WORLD OF ZOO team that developed compelling AI animals for the players to observe and interact with. Previously, Bruce was a Professor at the MIT Media Lab and director of the Synthetic Characters Group. His research focuses on creating believable characters using better cognitive models, such as spatial awareness and reinforcement learning.
Mikko Mononen – Local Navigation
Mikko Mononen was Lead AI on CRYSIS and programmer at Crytek. Last year, he gave the highest rated presentation, about navigation mesh generation and pathfinding. We've invited him back by popular demand! Mikko will talk about the challenges of local navigation, demonstrating existing algorithms in the field, and discussing solutions...
Gwaredd Mountain – Personality Profiling in SILENT HILL
The most recent game in the survival horror series, SILENT HILL: SHATTERED MEMORIES uses a clever form of player modelling to infer which of the Big Five personality profile is dominant. Listen to Gwaredd, technical director at Climax, explain how it works and how it affects the content in the game to deliver a customized experience to the player. Think of it as another step for AI Director technology like LEFT 4 DEAD!
Paolo Maninetti – Physics-based Driving in SUPERBIKE 2010
Milestone is famous among racing fans for delivering a hyper realistic driving simulation, both in V8 racing cars and superbikes. But how is the AI built to cope with such physically-accurate vehicles? Senior Programmer Paolo Maninetti will explain the basics of racing AI, in particular the low-level details like steering control and maneuvers such as overtaking and avoidance.
Claudio Pedica – Social Interactions for EVE ONLINE
The makers of EVE ONLINE (CCP Games) are collaborating with Reykjavik University to build the character technology that will populate the inside of spaceships and hubs. Listen to Claudio present the motivations for the research, and discover the technology that powers these social interactions and inter-personal behaviors that help bring life tomorrow's indoor environments in space.
Sponsors – The Best of AI Middleware
Discover what's new in leading AI middleware solutions thanks to this series of short microtalks. Each company is given 6 minutes to impress you by showing off an aspect of their technology. A fast pace and highly informative way to stay up-to-date with the top middleware companies!
Panel – Tales & Advices from the Design Trenches
Based on last year's most popular panel with stories from the programming trenches, we've invited some designers with decades of experience to give their perspectives on the development of gameplay and AI. You'll hear from Stephane Bura, Noah Falstein, Jurie Horneman and stories from their respective game projects and careers.
Alex J. Champandard – Multi-threading AI in Practice
From one to eight threads in a few months! Find out exactly how AiGameDev.com went through the process of parallelizing all aspects of the AI Sandbox, in particular the pathfinding, sensory calculations, reasoning, and animation. You'll learn about the practical challenges in each part of the code and the dirty secrets about modern computer hardware. (Warning: No Theory Included!)
Further Information
If you'd like more details about the conference or the workshop, be sure to visit the official site. You can also find more details here:
Accommodation will become increasingly harder to book as the conference gets closer, and our special offer with two hotels will end on May 10th. Be sure to move quickly as Paris gets extremely busy at this time of year!
Conference Sponsors
Game Talents is an agency specialized in selecting and recruiting talents exclusively for the videogame industry. We cover all positions, and all levels of experience. Game Talents is the first European videogame recruitment agency, and benefits from an international network. Game Talents brings new business models to the industry, that offer studios and candidates a win-win configuration.
Havok is the premier provider of interactive software and services for the games industry. With world leading expertise in physics, animation, and artificial intelligence, Havok’s business is to turn customers’ creative aspirations into technical realities. Havok’s modular suite of tools making sure that clients can reach new standards of realism and interactivity while mitigating the cost and risks associated with creating today’s leading video games.
MASA Group is a leading provider of advanced software solutions using Artificial Intelligence technologies for modelling, simulation, games and virtual worlds. MASA products enable integrators to develop complete turn-key simulation solutions for the modelling and simulation market. MASA services and technologies help automate systems, reduce operator workload, increase fidelity and improve the "suspension of disbelief" of virtual reality simulations.
Win a Conference Ticket!
There aren't that many seats left in the amphi-theatre and we'll most likely sell out, but we've made three tickets available for you to win in this contest. The first ticket was kindly donated by Phil Carlisle (resident expert at AiGameDev.com and Program Committee member), and we're providing two more... This should help you realize how committed we are to make sure anyone can attend the conference!
All you have to do to win is login and post a comment (or email <events at AiGameDev.com>) to tell us why you want to attend the conference, and what it will do for you... The winners will be picked on April 22nd, 2010. Best of luck!
