Visibility in a real-world cross-platform game engine

Stefan Reinalter
Visibility in a real-world cross-platform game engine
[ poster] [ Thesis]
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Abstract

With hardware capabilities and customer expectations rising every new game console generation, ecient visibility algorithms become a more and more crucial part of every modern rendering engine. Although GPUs built into the consoles become better each generation, game developers are always striving to get more performance and better quality out of a game console. Therefore it is a must to employ powerful visibility algorithms which allow the developers to render more complex scenes while maintaining smooth framerates. This thesis explores whether current state-of-the-art visibility algorithms can be used on game consoles, and describes the layers of abstraction needed in developing a multi-platform rendering engine. Therefore, the rst part of the thesis focuses on the design and implementation of a rendering engine for major current-gen platforms, such as Microsoft Windows, the Microsoft XBox360, Sony's PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii, dealing with the vastly di erent platform architectures. Furthermore, solutions to engine design problems related to both hardware capabilities as well as software engineering practices are explored. Concluding the rst part, prerequisites and building blocks for implementing visibility algorithms are developed. The second part of the thesis concentrates on developing and integrating visibility algorithms into the aforementioned engine, building upon the components introduced in the rst part. The used visibility algorithms are enhanced and tailored to speci c hardware needs and capabilities, getting the most performance out of game consoles. Finally, results and possible improvements and future enhancements for current state-of-the-art algorithms conclude this thesis.

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@mastersthesis{REINALTER_2010_VIS,
  title =      "Visibility in a real-world cross-platform game engine",
  author =     "Stefan Reinalter",
  year =       "2010",
  abstract =   "With hardware capabilities and customer expectations rising
               every new game console generation, ecient visibility
               algorithms become a more and more crucial part of every
               modern rendering engine. Although GPUs built into the
               consoles become better each generation, game developers are
               always striving to get more performance and better quality
               out of a game console. Therefore it is a must to employ
               powerful visibility algorithms which allow the developers to
               render more complex scenes while maintaining smooth
               framerates. This thesis explores whether current
               state-of-the-art visibility algorithms can be used on game
               consoles, and describes the layers of abstraction needed in
               developing a multi-platform rendering engine. Therefore, the
               rst part of the thesis focuses on the design and
               implementation of a rendering engine for major current-gen
               platforms, such as Microsoft Windows, the Microsoft XBox360,
               Sony's PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii, dealing with the
               vastly dierent platform architectures. Furthermore,
               solutions to engine design problems related to both hardware
               capabilities as well as software engineering practices are
               explored. Concluding the rst part, prerequisites and
               building blocks for implementing visibility algorithms are
               developed. The second part of the thesis concentrates on
               developing and integrating visibility algorithms into the
               aforementioned engine, building upon the components
               introduced in the rst part. The used visibility algorithms
               are enhanced and tailored to specic hardware needs and
               capabilities, getting the most performance out of game
               consoles. Finally, results and possible improvements and
               future enhancements for current state-of-the-art algorithms
               conclude this thesis.",
  address =    "Favoritenstrasse 9-11/186, A-1040 Vienna, Austria",
  school =     "Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms, Vienna
               University of Technology",
  keywords =   "Cross-Platform, Real-Time Rendering, Visibility",
  URL =        "http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2010/REINALTER_2010_VIS/",
}