GDC 2012 Roundup

By Donna Bulford

The 2012 iteration of the Game Developers Conference, presented each spring in San Francisco, kicked off on Monday, marking another great year for creators, publishers, technology developers and consumers alike.

Marvel executives revealed new details on the Amazing Spider-Man and Avengers games during a chat with The Hollywood Reporter [1], including what the future holds for such Marvel characters as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man now that Disney has taken the reins of the company.

Major technology players are showcasing the latest versions of their technology solutions, including an enhanced solution for mobile game development and an expanded artificial intelligence (AI) toolset from Autodesk [2], as well as NVIDIA [3]’s Parallel Nsight 2.0 and new Tegra performance tools.

Can’t make it to GDC? Read the AWN GDC Round Up to learn about all the highlights from the show.

Sony Online Entertainment
PlanetSide 2, the sequel to the ever-popular massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS) PlanetSide, will feature massive multiplayer battles, three distinctive empires and enormous continents to support ground and air combat. PlanetSide 2 will utilize SOE's next-generation, powerful Forgelight MMO engine to support the massive, vibrant worlds and intense, immersive online battles. 

For more info on the game and to sign up for Beta, visit: http://www.planetside2.com/ [4].

Stop by the NOS Lounge for some gaming competition and refreshment!

Karen Yaipen, Mariah Longo, Bryant Kirchner, Joshua Drake and Byron Ludd at the NOS Lounge at GDC 2012.

Luxology
The Mountain View-based software developer unveiled modo 601 [5]-- the brand new version of its award-winning 3D content creation software with the new Topology Pen tool and a specialized environment for retopology modeling. Some of the big new features include character animation, deformers and built-in dynamics.

OptiTrack
The motion-capture technology developer announced the launch of its new Flex 13 [6] camera, boasting an impressive 1.3 million pixels of resolution, a 120 FPS sample rate, and an immense 56° field of view for under $1K. This new tool will open the doors to mocap wide open for small studios requiring flexible devices and AAA graphics.

Caustic Professional
Caustic Graphics has realized its new Brazil SDK 1.0 [7], a ray traced rendering toolkit built from the ground up to fully utilize Imagination Technologies OpenRL™ platform. It enables 3D graphics software developers to easily add high-level ray tracing components to their applications.

Trion Rift
The popular MMORPG celebrates its first anniversary with the most extravagant World Event yet, Carnival of the Ascended [8], including hours of new solo, group, raid, PvP, and crafting gameplay, and more event quests than ever before!

React Entertainment
The game developer previewed a new interactive game, The Act [9], with Electronic Arts on Wednesday, featuring traditional Disney-style animation hand-drawn by old-school Disney animators.