quote: Original post by Tacit
BTW Graham, do you fall into the Physics stream at ARA or engineering?

That''s a hard to answer. We actually don''t do traditional engineering, so I couldn''t really say I fall into that stream. We do quite a hell of a lot of physics, and I occasionally get involved in that, mostly when we need rapid computational fluid dynamics for computing loads on airplanes. We also develop software technologies that hopefully are going to advance the way engineers work in the future, and that has primarily been my area of focus and expertise here. I''ve been involved in quite a lot of NASA-sponsored work since about 1995, and most of it has involved visualization and graphics. I was the lead developer of the Next Generation Revolutionary Analysis and Design Environment (NextGRADE) prototype GUI (aka SAM or "Smart Assembly Modeler"), which is a 3D modeling and analysis system for PC''s and virtual reality CAVE''s. (The folks we work with at NASA Langley have two 4-wall CAVE''s from FakeSpace, one 1-wall Immersadesk, a 3.75-meter VisionDome from eLumens, and some other new 1-wall system that we saw a couple of weeks ago. Our software runs in the CAVE''s and on the Immersadesk.)

(This is related to the 3D engine discussion in a way. The NextGRADE GUI s/w uses both Open Inventor and IRIS Performer, both 3D engines developed by SGI.)

I''ve been a gamer all my life, even started programming games on my old Commodore VIC-20 in high school. I''ve programmed 3D since around 1988 (on old VAX mini computers and SGI personal IRIS''s). A year or so ago I convinced my company to invest some money to try and enter the game industry. Its slow going, but we''ve developed some physics technology for advanced water simulation, and have made a start on a game demo (an action/adventure game). My primary goal for future work is to focus on building a game studio within my group here in Raleigh. Its in my blood. But the other engineering-related programming pays the bills while we build the game studio and wait for the economy to recover a bit.


Graham Rhodes
Senior Scientist
Applied Research Associates, Inc.

Ahh....CAVE. Wasn''t there a version of Quake running on a CAVE system a couple of years ago? Not that I''m a huge fan of Quake, but it seemed like a cool idea.

Well, you''re certainly well located in terms of finding technical talent. If I remember correctly, the Raleigh - Durham -Chapel Hill area is one of the most densely populated areas of tech research in NA. I believe I read that in Wired.

Sounds like your projects are ambitious and interesting. Best of luck.

R.

Tacit,

Thanks for your kind comments and interest. There is a CAVE version of Quake. I''ve actually played it (briefly) on one of NASA''s CAVE''s. I''m not a FPS fan myself either. You know what could potentially be amazing in a CAVE...Ico for PS/2. That is just the best game I''ve played lately and the large expansive environments would make for an unbelievable stereoscopic full field-of-view experience. The change from 3rd person to first person would be tricky, though.

The Research Triangle area here in NC is actually a hotbed of game development activities. At one time I counted nearly 15 game industry companies within a roughly 15 mile radius, mostly studios. We had an ex-Red Storm guy here for a while working on terrain rendering. (He went back to Red Storm to work on Ghost Recon.) We have someone who worked on flight sims at Interactive Magic before they died, and someone who worked for Random Games. Sinister Games is here (an Ubi Soft studio like Red Storm but more budget game oriented. They''re working on Loose Cannon for Xbox). The Virtus studios Timeline (which may be dead now) and iRock are here. NDL is 20 miles away. Lipsinc is here. The Octagon game agency is in Chapel Hill. And of course, Epic Games is less than 10 miles away from my office. We did visit Epic in September (actually, September 11) to discuss the possibility of using their engine for a big DoD project. Met Tim Sweeney and Cliff Bleszinski and took at Tim''s bright orange Lambourghini Diablo. Just amazing. At 5''7", I stand something like 2 feet taller than that car. Cliff drives a mere Dodge Viper. Enough name dropping!

Graham Rhodes
Senior Scientist
Applied Research Associates, Inc.

Ah yes...the rock stars of game development. One wonders if that era is dead or dying, and if so, whether it''s something to be lamented.

Certainly nice to be at the nexus of such a rich talent pool. It''s amazing how much of a difference that can make for both employee and employer.

Best of luck with your projects!

R.