Graphics meets Games Competition

Sponsored by

The challenge in the Graphics meets Games competition is to create a cool new graphics effect that could be useful for a computer game, and showcase it in a small 3D demo game. A special emphasis lies on interaction: If the player can interact with the effect or if it interacts with the environment (i.e., it is more than eye candy), maybe in some kind of physically based way (such as low-gravity, magical physics, zero-friction liquids, balls that multiply on collision, etc.), then all the better.

In response to the call, we received a total of 17 submissions. The overall quality was very high, and the technical jury was faced with the tough decision to select a limited number of ``contestants'' for the final round of the competition. According to the call, the main selection criterion was the novelty and the interactivity of the shown effect(s). As a result, 8 contestants showing outstanding novelty were chosen to be showcased on a large screen on the games showfloor.

Out of the 8 contestants, the audience chose the games that show the coolest graphical effects and, most importantly, were fun to play around with. The winners were awarded with prizes sponsored by NVIDIA and the EU GameTools project!

Coperspective    [ zip ]

Kam Wong, Hector Rodriguez

This work takes the simultaneous juxtaposition of multiple points of view one step further by enabling two users interactively and jointly to determine the perspective of an image in real time. Each user interactively moves a separate virtual character inside a virtual room. The system then calculates an average of the points of view of the two individual characters and produces an image that combines both perspectives into one. In this work, vision is not merely an individual achievement. It is a joint, collaborative accomplishment produced in real time.

Cubophobia    [ zip, homepage ]

Anton Frühstück, Heinrich Fink

You are a ball - you are trapped in a cube - you do not remember when and why this happened. Strange things happen in this cube, so you decide to escape...

pingK    [ zip, homepage ]

Alexander Kusternig, Chris Chiu, Georg Semanek

This game takes Pong and creates a different gameplay experience by adding rotational physics that might not be realistic, but they are fun! Various powerups also add a slight twist to the classical Pong gameplay! Enjoy new matches that were never possible in the original Pong!

Raytrace Effects Car Driving Game    [ zip ]

Tamás Umenhoffer, László Szirmay-Kalos, Balázs Tóth, László Szécsi

This is a small demo program showing raytrace-like effects such as reflections, refractions, caustics and diffuse reflections. The program uses the OGRE 3D graphics engine and the PhysX physics engine.

"RealMatter" Soft Body Character Dynamics    [ zip, homepage ]

Alec Rivers, David Rosen, Aubrey Serr

This is a demo of a soft body physics engine that can simulate bending, twisting, tearing and breaking soft materials, such as rubber and flesh. The first two scenes included in the demo show off the high speed of our system, and are mostly non-interactive. The third demo lets the user slice, dice, and rip apart a zombie with full gore effects, and demonstrates how this technology might look in future video games.

Realtime Radiosity Bugs    [ zip, homepage ]

Stepan Hrbek, Petr Stastny

Bugs sneak in dark corners. Hunt them! (In fact, they are Space Invaders!) The presented effect is global illumination computed in real time. Think about bug behaviour, it's possible only with realtime radiosity.

Robot Dancer    [ zip, homepage ]

Jorik Blaas, Edwin Jakobs

This highly interactive game contains a playful combination of rigid body dynamics and musical synchronization. The user can experiment by linking the instruments from a musical score directly to forces and torques on the bodyparts of a 3D model. Robot dancer uses an innovative user interface to present the wealth of information generated by the music clearly.

Shell Shock    [ zip ]

Alistair Brown

Shell Shock is a demo game to showcase a new method of visualising explosions in real-time. The user aims and fires an artillery turret that upon impact creates a massive explosion. The explosions are physically simulated using smoothed particle hydrodynamics, and are visualised using a new technique, semi-screen space iso-surface rendering. Other effecs such as volumetric glow and a shockwave that refracts light also add to the realism.