Introduction to Gamebryo

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Introduction to Gamebryo
Michael Callaghan University of Ulster
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Presentation overview

• Emergent technologies academic programme
• Gamebryo overview
• Samples/teaching resources
• Art pipeline
• Gamebryo101 website

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Emergent Gamebryo

• Over 200 titles shipped
• 50 more in production

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Gamebryo Academic Version

• Free to use for non commercial activities!
• High level of integration with 3DS Max, Maya, XSI
• Ships with extensive set of assets and examples
• Full art assets (Max/Maya)
• Mini technology specific demos
• Full game demos
• Code samples
• Online company supported forum

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Emergent Academic Program
Details here
http//www.emergent.net/Programs/Academic/
Apply here
http//www.emergent.net/en/Programs/Academic/Acade
micForm/
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Emergent Academic Workshop
Free 3 Days onsite training June 2008 Chapel
Hill, North Carolina
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Future Workshops

• June 2009 Chapel Hill
• Possible workshop in 2009 here

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Introduction to Gamebryo

• Tools/Utilities
• File formats
• Shipped samples

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Development platforms

• Supports cross platform development for all major
  gaming platforms
• PC (Direct3D 9 and Direct3D 10)
• Xbox 360
• PS3
• Wii
• Floodgate simplifies multicore programming

Require access to dev kits
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Gamebryo core features

• Hierarchical scene graph representation
• Integration with major 3D modeling tools
• Powerful art tool chain integration
• Efficient visible object culling
• Support for advanced 3D hardware acceleration on
  all platforms
• High-end texturing and rendering effects
• Dynamic collision detection
• Support for 3D audio
• Level-of-detail representations
• Flexible rendering, sorting, and culling methods

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Gamebryo Tools and Utilities

• AssetViewer
• AnimationTool
• SceneDesigner

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Asset Viewer
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Animation Tool
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Animation Tool

• Allows you to fine tune and group transitions
  e.g. blending (delayed vs immediate),
  cross-fading, morph or chain.

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Using Animation in Gamebryo

• Sequence IDs

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Scene Designer

• Framework for level editing
• Placement of .nif, .kfm assets
• Assigning arbitrary properties
• Preview including lights, shaders, particles

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Scene Designer
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Gamebryo File Formats NIF File

• Main Gamebryo file format is the NIF file
• Can contain geometric, embedded texture
  embedded animation data
• Default viewer is the Asset viewer

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File Formats kf kfm files

• KF file or key frame file
• Allows you to extract animations into separate
  files, (usually character animations)
• Kfm or key frame manager file
• Mainly used by animation tool to set how
  individual kf blend together

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File formats gsa

• Gsa format
• Scene designer file format
• Xml style format
• Giving information about placement of multiple
  nif files in a scene using ascii file format e.g.
  transformation, rotation and scale

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Samples

• Tutorials
• Introduce functionality in a step-by-step manner,
  going hand in hand with documentation
• Demos
• Demonstrates a single feature or technology in a
  concise manner
• Full Demos
• Makes reasonably full use of Gamebryo to deliver
  a compelling demonstration (historically GDC
  demos)

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Gamebryo structure/samples

• Ships with a lot of samples

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Samples Demos

• Small applications that show how to do one type
  of thing e.g. picking and cube maps

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Samples Artist examples

• Models (3DS Max and Maya)
• Very specific examples showing how to do things
  e.g. decal maps

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Samples Animation samples

• Shows how to set up animations and how to use kf
  and kfm files

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Samples Scene Designer

• Scene designer examples

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Samples Scene Designer Assets
Great resource!
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Gamebryo Art Pipeline

• Overview of the art pipeline

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Gamebryo Art Pipeline

• The Gamebryo Max Plug-in
• The Gamebryo Tool Plug-in Framework
• Pipeline Automation

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Overview of the art pipeline

• Pipeline Input
• 3D models and animations created in Max/Maya/XSI
• Pipeline Output
• Files that are compatible with Gamebryo
• .NIF Art (models, textures, etc)
• .KF Animation key frame data
• .KFM Animation blending data
• .GSA Scene Designer XML file

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Art pipeline

• Take Max or Maya files (Photoshop files)
• Run scripts to convert Max scene into Gamebryo
  scenegraph
• Plugins optimise and analyse scenegraph
• Exported to nif format or iteratively viewed
  (Target viewer)
• Nif to game or scene designer
• nif file with kf/kfm formats (typically
  characters) can go to animation tool
• Keep source files (e.g. max and maya, hard to
  change nif files)

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The Gamebryo Max Plug-in
The plug-in consists of several parts

• Exporter
• MaxScript Utilities
• Texture Conversion Custom Attributes
• Gamebryo Cross-Platform Material
• Gamebryo Shader

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The Gamebryo Max Plug-in

• Converts 3DS Max scene graph to Gamebryo scene
  graph
• Starting point for launching the Gamebryo Tool
  Plug-in Framework
• The Tool Plug-in Framework is responsible for
  modifying scene graph (optimizing or adding
  information) and saving scene to NIF file

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Gamebryo Tool Plug-in Framework Exporter dialogue

• Select cameras and lights. Choice of exporting
  cameras and lights in a scene or
• not e.g. character
• Include textures inside nif or as an external.
  Makes it flexible to edit later. E.g.
• export textures as nifs, then change.
• Script selection, decides whether to run scripts
  (process) and plugins to do stuff
• Choice of embedding animations into nif file or
  extracts animations into kf files

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Gamebryo Tool Plug-in Framework
Process Scripts
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Processing Plug-ins
Animation Analyzer
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Processing Plug-ins
Asset Analyzer
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Processing Plug-ins
Create ABV
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Export Plug-ins

• NIF Exporter
• Save the scene graph out to a NIF file
• Multi-NIF Exporter
• Can save parts of the scene graph as individual
  NIF files
• Used to streamline the art creation process
• Typical use prop creation

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Pipeline Automation

• Command Line Operation
• Automation starts with being able to run tools
  non-interactively
• Both exporters and tool plug-ins support a silent
  option
• Max can be run from command line specifying a
  script to execute
• Gamebryo Max Plug-in ships with sample batch
  export script
• The Asset Analyzer plug-in can be used to ensure
  assets created by multiple artists adheres to
  studio-specified criteria.

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Pipeline Automation

• Remember NIFs are immutable !!!!!!
• NIFs are considered to be immutable by the rest
  of the Gamebryo art pipeline
• Downstream data changes cannot be reliably
  reproduced unless the change exists in the source
  (E.g., Max or Maya)

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Summary

• Gamebryo Art Pipeline is largely composed of
• The Gamebryo Max/Maya/XSI Plug-in
• The Gamebryo Tool Plug-in Framework

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Summary

• The purpose of the Gamebryo Art Pipeline is to
• Convert art tool models into Gamebryo assets
• Provide a consistent mechanism for individual
  artists and studios
• Allow art assets to be tuned and configured for
  the Gamebryo rendering engine

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Gamebryo 101 Website

• Creation of website for academic community
• Available now
• All material available online and free

http//www.gamebryo101.com
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Gamebryo 101 Website

• Community based approach

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Gamebryo 101 Website
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Gamebryo 101 Website
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Gamebryo 2.6

• Gamebryo 2.6 shipped 31st October
• New functionality/enhanced performance for Wii
• Additional cross-platform capabilities through
  DirectX 10 and Games for Windows
• New SoftimageXSI 6.5 exporter
• Improvements to Animation System
• Usability/productivity upgrades to Scene Designer
  
• Updated support for NVIDIA PhysX 2.8.1,
  integrated with Emergent Terrain

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Gamebryo Labs/Kick start

• Gamebryo labs setup
• Focus on creating content to allow evaluators to
  get up to speed quickly.

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Introduction to Gamebryo
Michael Callaghan University of Ulster