In my final semester my favorite class was, of course, the one involving game development. Handheld Augmented Reality Game... what a mouthful. So what the heck are they? The handheld part is simple, you play them using a handheld device that has a camera built-in, like an iPhone. In our case we used the Gizmondo.

An example of Augmented Reality that is most familiar to people is in televised football games. Remember the virtual lines drawn across the field? Augmented Reality combines video feed from the real world with virtual objects overlaid on top to do various things. In our case, to make games. Actually, there are other things that can be used for AR tracking besides video feeds but that is the most common.

AR for our games involves tracking software that can determine the position and 3D orientation of fiducial markers. These are typically small, square paper (or other material) markers with unique patterns of squares printed on them. Each individual pattern corresponds to a numerical ID to differentiate the various tracked markers. In the end you get a transformation matrix for each marker relative to the camera (so in view space). With a little extra math you can determine the orientation of markers relative to other markers, vectors between them, distance from camera, etc. Also, our software supported what are called multi-markers. In the video below, you see a box covered in individual markers... but to the application this is tracked as a single marker, so as long as you can see at least one of the individual markers with the camera the tracking software can give you the transformation matrix (with multimarker's origin for us always being the same corner of the box). Another common configuration is a flat board made up of many markers for some types of games.

We made a total of three games over the semester. There were only a few weeks for each, and since I was balancing five other classes these games didn't exactly get my full attention. But most of them turned out pretty cool.

Joe Warpin

Our final game involves flying around in a helicopter and sniping terrorists. Players maneuver themselves and their Gizmondo around a physical box that contains a virtual city which can be seen on the Gizmondo's screen in order to find vantage points to line up shots. Players must locate and accurately dispatch all the terrorists in the city before they run out of ammo or time. Rather than try to manipulate at least two analog sticks or other non-intuitive controls to those new to 3D games, players simply move the device and themselves to change their position.

Here's the short teaser trailer for our final game, Joe Warpin:

This video is a longer one that explains pretty much everything in the prototype game.

Collateral Damage

Our first game is like Augmented Reality Beer Pong. First, players arrange a number of target markers on a table to create a level. Next, players take turns throwing a "bomb" target at the targets. Players try to get the bomb to land so that many positive targets are within the blast radius, yet few negative ones. Some targets have special effects such as doubling points for anything else hit in the blast radius. Players use the Gizmondo's camera to score their throw, as it can determine which targets were in the blast radius of the bomb target that was thrown. Video coming soon.

Friggin' Lasers

Our second game is a board game, card game fusion. Players arrange target tiles on the board. Players then take turns drawing and playing cards, which can be used to place mirrors, blockers, and other special tiles. The goal is to use laser cards to destroy all of your opponent's targets, often taking advantage of the mirror's to reflect your beams or defend your targets.

Out of the game development I've done, this perhaps feels the most unique and new. It's sort of new the way Wii is new, although we tried to do more than just use the AR as a new kind of controller for otherwise previously existing gameplay. Groups in the class such as ours came up with some really cool games. If, say, Apple opens up the camera/video in their APIs on iPhone there's good money to be made in the App Store. It also marked my first time developing on a handheld device, which brought its own challenges such as no FPU for floating point arithmetic, and only fixed point in hardware instead.

There's really a lot more to write about this and I'd like to come back to it. I think that in the future AR games may go mainstream and be a hit much like the Wii.

Being done with Georgia Tech brings mixed feelings. It feels great to have accomplished so much and to have done so well there, but I'll also miss my school. Then there are a number of courses I wish I could've taken, but you can only fit so many in with the hours needed for a BS in CS. At least I got to take some great courses in my last semester and did very well in all of them, I'll post videos from Handheld Augmented Reality Game Design soon.

It's a shame I didn't hear about this earlier, could have saved some money. Back when I dumped evil Comcast for Bellsouth DSL they told me I had to pay about $20 for a landline voice phone line in addition to what internet service cost. Bills were about $67.50 (this is in Atlanta), which at the time was competitive to what Comcast's internet service was when bundled with cable.

Flash forward to now when I'll soon be moving out, and I'm transferring the DSL account to a roommate. Apparently AT&T has something called AT&T High Speed Internet Direct now, which is something like $45 for 6Mbit DSL without the landline. I remember hearing about them being legally obligated to offer something like that. Of course, they wouldn't tell me about that and I had to discover it myself.

So if you're still paying for a landline, call up and change your service to save some $$$. Actually, they even convinced my roommate to keep the landline so he could use fax as that ended up being $18 for the landline and $35 (permanently) for the Internet service, which is just like $2 more than the $45 Internet only service.

Graduation is almost here, Saturday morning... these years at Tech went by so fast.

Getting "pwned" a bit too often lately? Maybe you need some liquid 1337. Guaranteed to keep those 0mg h34dsh0tz coming!

Yes, I actually did buy it just because of the name. I'm that much of a geek. But there's money to be made here!

What's the first thing you should do when you are robbed? Post about it on the Internets. Ok, maybe I did a lot of other things since this happened, but...

Protip: Don't leave even the slightest hint that anything of value is in your car. Better yet, don't even leave anything valuable in your car. Even if you think you are parked in what seems to be a safe area.

I woke up on Thursday to my roommate telling me that someone broke into my car. I go out there, and indeed my window is smashed. Of course, the iPod is gone, the GPS, the car stereo, and some chargers/FM transmitter for the iPod. About $700 total to replace it all including the window. Yet somehow I wasn't furious at seeing this. Guess I quickly realized the stuff was gone and there was nothing to do except get the window fixed right away and move on.

This isn't the first time I was a victim of cowardly crime in Atlanta. Though others I've talked to have faced more of the gun-in-your-face variety. The area around my school is pretty rough. Crime spreads onto campus too, there's even violent carjackings and assaults... you name it. It seems to have gotten a lot worse in the last year or so. I'm not sure if it's the economy, gangs getting bigger, kids doing some of it for kicks, addicts, or what. I'm just glad I'm getting the hell out of the area when I graduate. I think this and my talks with others who've suffered far worse have convinced me to live somewhere quieter and safer. I can just drive downtown if I want to do something.

The neighborhood I live in doesn't *seem* really rough like say Home Park right next to campus. Loring Heights is pretty quiet. But unfortunately criminals can move around, and the ghetto isn't far off. Looks like they make their rounds through various neighborhoods looking for any opportunity.

I usually make a point of hiding all my valuables in my glovebox and always locking all the doors. Especially if I'm parked in an unfamiliar or rough area. At my house I got a little lazy, but even when it happened everything was in the glove box except the plastic (empty) mount for the GPS and the faceplate to the car stereo. Big mistake. It's a pain in the ass to try to move everything around to protect your crap though. I've been here for three years without issue, but I guess it's only a matter of time.

Another factor that made it easier for this to happen was that I was parked on the street in front of my house. Lots of people on my street do this. But I'd have been safer up my driveway (and thus near my windows). Theives can just walk or drive down the street to case targets. There are other roommates here with their own cars now, and I don't use mine much since I ride my bike to campus. Where it was parked the thief actually had a decent hiding spot that was somewhat hidden from the road by my car and a bush, though there's a streetlight right there.

A whole lot of good locking the doors did. Just cost me $190 to fix the window thanks to that. I guess it might deter slightly less determined crooks, but if they really want to get in, they will. I think even with a car alarm they could empty your glovebox or grab that bag they see and be gone before you get there (if you're even nearby).

Trying to file a police report is pretty funny too. I find the Atlanta PD's own number, and then they tell me that to file a police report I have to dial 911. Wait, what? It's not an emergency! So I end up dialing them, and quickly explain that I just want to report a crime. The operator takes down some info, then says they're sending out an officer. Only problem is, I've gotta head to class and nobody can be at the house to talk to him. I ask if he can come in the evening, but they don't set up appointments. What a pain... and I'm sure tons of crimes go unreported because of how convoluted it can be to try to report them. Obviously this wouldn't get my stuff back, but at least they should know what goes on in this neighborhood.

It's been relatively painless to replace things. I got the window fixed for $191 at Brian Diamond Glass. They were able to take care of things within a few hours, including cleaning up all the broken glass bits. I went to Fry's today and put in a new car stereo, which ran me $174 including parts and labor. They all come with front aux inputs for MP3 players which will be nice, the FM transmitter worked but the sound quality could be better and interference was an issue especially on long trips where previously clear frequencies become used by radio stations. I found the same GPS I had for $130 on ebay. My new roommate has the same generation ipod (but 60GB) that he doesn't use anymore since he got an iPhone, he's looking to sell it and may sell it for cheap to me.

But you can't buy back your false sense of security. I came home the next day expecting the back door to be kicked in and all of my stuff missing. It would be difficult to lose my computers. I have stuff backed up, but reinstalling/reconfiguring so much software would be rough.

Could have been far worse I guess... so there's an expensive lesson and story to tell. If only I could have a German Shepherd that lived in my car. This does make me likely to get renter's insurance or a security system once I move somewhere upon graduation though.

Time to finally get around to posting about how the internship at Mythic went. So, what's it like to work in the games industry? Which stereotypes are more true? That it's the incredibly fun dream job for any gamer nerd? Or that the working conditions are crazy and people are constantly working late nights and weekends? There's some truth to both sides, but overall it's a great place for anyone that loves games and really wants to be challenged. Games, and of course MMOs, have a lot of tough technical problems to solve if they are to be successful. I got to see the pros and cons of working in the industry firsthand, and I think for me the pros far outweigh the cons.

Warhammer Online was very close to launch in my time at Mythic, so as with many games, perhaps this could be called "crunch" time. Yes, many worked more than the 40 hour workweek. But nobody was forcing them to do it or trying to get them to do more hours without pay. They (we) just really wanted to make WAR the best game it could be without delaying it anymore. The games industry is not staffed with people who want the typical 9-5 then get out of there job. It's full of very driven people who want their game to kick ass. And that often means extraordinary effort. They do help out with anyone staying late though, such as with free catered dinners. At least one senior developer said that Mythic's crunch didn't really feel like crunch at all compared to when he was working on Xbox games at another studio.

There's an enormous amount to learn from the people and the codebase. It was great to work with excellent and very experienced programmers. There's at least one guy who worked for the NSA for a number of years, another from Microsoft, someone who was literally a rocket scientist at NASA, of course many who were industry vets and worked at other studios, and so on. Be it tips about Visual Studio, graphics knowledge, C++ help, and so many other things they can teach you a lot. Now, many of them are of course very busy, but I was definitely able to talk to someone when I needed to. Getting to see the technology, the code, was of course fascinating. C++ is a very different beast from .NET. I also got to pick up some Lua experience and some more XML experience too.

Perhaps I'll write more later, but here are a few pictures. There are more on my facebook profile. I ran out of space on my CoC account, so I'm going to try using flickr for these. Click the links to get to bigger versions (click "all sizes").

The animated Halloween torches rock.

Sometimes fans give the studio different gifts. Someone made this amazing Squig.

There's plenty of art on the walls.

One of the many walls of concept art. I think this stuff was mostly Dwarf related.

Conference room with a fantasy twist.

Paul's office! There are plenty of pairs of red shoes within.

Intern's office

Perhaps one day I too shall have a cube this awesome.

Anyhow, buy Warhammer! September 18th!

Vanity license plates in Virginia only cost $10 a year, so I seem to see a lot more of them than in Georgia. That or people up here just really like to show off. Anyhow, some of the people at work have some nice ones. The one above isn't one of them, probably not a good idea to snap actual shots of someone's plates without permission.

But a few I have seen...

DIAF NUB

OMG MOVE

DYE NUB

LOL WTF

I have to get around to posting some great quotes from around the studio sometime! "If I made the classes balanced to begin with, what would I get paid for later?"

The general hysteria and ignorance of many gamers about a recent announcement about content in our game that won't make it at launch is a bit ridiculous. Luckily some are a bit more reasonable. Others seem to take the news and twist it into headlines and summaries making us look bad while leaving out so many important details. Those who know what the game is like know that having six capital cities with the level of content/polish desired would be about equivalent to WoW launching with every single pre-BC raid instance (without any feedback from how previous raids worked out for the playerbase). Our cities are a great deal of the endgame encounters/content, with tons of quests, bosses, pvp and such inside. Not just the cool looking place where the auction house is. This stuff isn't a secret to anyone who looks around to actually read about the game. It's interesting to be on the inside though and see how the public watching your game reacts to what info is released.

I picked up a book and started reading for fun, it's probably been way too long. Fascinating stuff so far. Good to know what your own special part of Hell will be like and what your punishment will be, right?

Argh, someone's posted a video with me in it on the interwebs. The Creative Director on Warhammer Online, Paul Barnett, is this crazy Briton who occasionally likes to post clips of stuff around the studio on his "video blog". He's kind of also the public face of Mythic and the game in many cases, appearing on shows like G4TV'S X-Play and explaining/hyping things in the game on videos on the website. He's definitely a fun personality, though he claims he took us out to dinner in the video... it was lunch. But it was good times.

Paul's Video Blog Click "Interns"

Work goes well on WAR, I've moved on to some stuff in the client after wrapping up some art tools work. And there are definitely people there to make me feel kinda dumb, from the ex-Microsofties to the guy who was literally a rocket scientist. But it seems like they're happy with some work I've done so far!

Check out the Spore Creature Creator (free demo!).

For some reason the first thing I wanted to make was Diablo. I did what I could with the limited parts in the free demo. Though this is definitely a good enough distraction to spend the $10 on. Or maybe I can get it free working for EA... who knows.

It's almost more fun just to look at what others have made, just like with the Check Mii Out channel on the Wii for Miis. There are some pretty incredible creations already. Like what this guy has done.

Or this guy with his turtle:

I tried to keep my site going on the PC in Atlanta... but that only lasted so long. Despite the UPS, at some point the guy living there unplugged the LAN cable going to my room. I was able to walk through what was up on the phone. I thought it was something else, but when we couldn't even ping my PC even though it was on... Anyhow, it's plugged in again!

I'd migrated stuff over to the new desktop I brought to DC. However, Verizon took two+ weeks to get us set up with FIOS. I figured I'd be fine running this site off the new desktop then, but Verizon blocks port 80 inbound. Migrating the webserver wasn't as easy as I was hoping, but it went to a new version of everything... OS, webserver, ASP.NET, database.

So Mythic is a pretty cool place. Game developers eat a lot of junk food. They may scream "I'M GONNA NERF YOU!" when they lose to another designer in a duel. They claim to not be intimidating, but may carry axes or shoot you with a nerf gun. It's pretty funny to overhear discussions about which classes need to be nerfed, buffed, changed to be more fun, etc. And to hear people in the WAR beta complain about stuff while you're sitting in the studio. Best to keep quiet I suppose and just seem like another regular old tester.

Last week some elementary school kids were on a field trip to see the studio. Why didn't I get to do something that cool back then? Beats the crap out of field trips I remember. I also got to sign a poster. I've never signed anything. I guess they didn't know I was just an intern. But apparently someone in customer support knew a kid in the hospital that really liked WAR and wanted something special. So she got the devs to sign a poster for him. Including the interns!

Coming soon, pictures of the studio (if they let me) and capitol hill. And more stuff when I have time. There's tons of game art all over the walls here, and some pretty cool things fans/guilds gave the studio like a large battle standard when one guild "captured" our studio, a great big Squiq statue, etc.