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June 30, 2004

June 2004 Meeting Report

Nearly 20 strong, the members of the chapter got together once again in June, this time in the awesome Videoconference Suite at UofM in Ann Arbor. As usual we chatted about games, our plans for the summer, and whatever else. Then the pizza and pop arrived so we grabbed a bite to eat and got on with the show.

We started out with Al Yang from the Michigan Gamers Association, who, along with Jay Semerad, gave us a summary on their E3 experiences. They had an extensive slide show from the event, along with a few mpeg movies of some of the cool sights. Along with the many, many new games they talked about and the upcoming handheld systems from Sony and Nintendo, they also covered the classic gaming expo and the video game music orchestra.

Jay & Al - E3 Wrap Up

Next, Jay talked a bit about the new mentorship program we are implementing for the chapter. He briefly covered the details of the program and showed the online web page for signing up for the program. For details on the mentorship program, go to http://www.igda.org/smichigan/mentor/mentor_guidelines.htm or click on the Mentorship Program link on the IGDA Southern Michigan Chapter homepage. Finally, Jay did a brief discussion about the G4 gaming network.

After that, Ed Chung from iSeeSoft Studios gave the main presentation for the evening. He talked about the motion capture services offered by iSeeSoft. He gave us an introductory overview to the field of motion capture and talked about the different technologies (optical, magnetic, electo-mechanical, etc) and their strengths and weaknesses. He then went on to talk about the difficulties of motion capture and how they deal with problems like capture noise, popping, interpolation errors, and disappearing markers. He talked about the services they offer, ranging from custom motion capture using your own actors, to the motion capture library that you can purchase pre-made capture sequences from, to their Motion To Go services where you send them a description or video of the capture sequence you would like and they'll do their best to meet your needs.

Ed Chung talks about Motion Capture

After Ed's presentation, we moved to our Made in Michigan game demos. Pete Knepley returned once again to show us the latest work on the space fighter he demoed for us in March. The major change was that Pete had ported his game to the XBOX game development kit. He showed us all the improvements he had made concerning the AI and multi-player aspects of the game. He talked a bit about the process of porting, how long it took him, and what he found to be the easiest methods for development on the XBOX. He also demoed a quick and dirty FPS-like project he had developed on the XBOX. You can get more details on Pete's projects at http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~knepleyp/

Pete's space fighter goes to the XBOX

Finally, we had our usual giveaway. This time we were giving away 2 books from New Riders Games and Peachpit Press, a magazine/CD that Jay picked up from E3, and 3 T-Shirts from iSeeSoft Studios. Congratulations to the 6 winners (our most yet), and thanks to those who donated the prizes. We finished off with more socializing, and then we cleared out to make room for the next group that needed the room.

We'd like to thank everyone for coming out to the meeting. Our meetings continue to be a success. Until next time...(which should be sometime around the beginning of August, we'll keep you informed)...

The chapter coordinators:

Rich Elswick
Ron Frazier
Jay Semerad
Brian Winn

Posted by BrianWinn at 04:56 PM | Comments (0)