This paper describes our game engine written in C++, using the DirectX libraries for graphics, sound and input. Since the engine is written using DirectX, an introduction to this system is given. The report gives a description of the structure of the game and the game kernel. Following this is a description of the graphics engine and its core components. The main focus of the engine is on the physics and how it is used in the game to simulate reality. Input is discussed briefly, with examples to show how it relates to the physics engine. Implementation of audio in the game engine is not described, but a general description of how sound is used in games is given. A theory for the basics of how artificial intelligence can be used in the engine is presented. The system for the architecture of the levels is described as is its connection to the graphics engine. The last section of the report is an evaluation and suggestions for what to do in the future. A user manual for the level editor is included as an appendix.

This essay serves to illustrate the main practical differences between the popular medium-level programming language C++ (C Plus Plus), and the newer high-level language C# (C Sharp). It will focus on the aspects that are readily apparent to the application programmer, such as differing syntax, constraints and capabilities. It will also feature a similar comparison between the open source OpenGL graphics library, and the proprietary Direct3D graphics library owned by Microsoft Corporation. It will not go into the differences in ”under the hood” mechanics that the application programmer seldom have to consider after having chosen his programming language or graphics API, such as C# being compiled into an intermediate language and is run on a virtual machine where C++ is compiled directly to machine code, or the differing principles of rendering in OpenGL and Direct3D. This is by no means comprehensive, many things have been left out or overlooked.

This master's thesis deals with terrain rendering using a modern algorithm for adaptive level of detail. It describes two currently most used graphical application interfaces and high-level libraries that use them and summarizes principles and features of several level-of-detail algorithms for terrain rendering. In more detail it then describes the implementation of Seamless patches for GPU-based terrain rendering algorithm.

Diploma thesis is focused on real-time 4K video encoding using NVENC technology. First chapter describes the most used video codecs H.264 and HEVC. There is an explanation of the principle of graphic cards and their programmable units. Analysis of the solution of open source Video Codec SDK is also part of the thesis. The main focus of the thesis is an implementation of an application which can handle 4K video encoding from multiple cameras in real time. Performance and qualitative tests were performed for application. Results of these tests were analyzed and discussed.

This work discusses shadowing methods, analyses them and describes implementation in DirectX 11 API. Theoretical part describes historical evolution of shadow usage in 3D applications and also analyzes shadowing algorithms. This work compares 2 variants of shadow mapping algorithm for omnidirectional lights, based on cube mapping and paraboloid projection, on demo application using quality, performance and implementation aspects.

Ever since we were children the phrase "In case of an emergency, walk, DON'T run, to the nearest exit" has been drilled into our heads. How to evacuate a large number of people from a given area as quickly and safely as possible has been a question of great importance since the first congregation of man; a question that has yet to be optimally answered. There have been many attempts at finding an answer and many more yet to be made. In light of recent world events, 9/11 for instance, the need for a better answer is apparent. While finding a solution to this problem is the end objective, the goal of this thesis is to develop an application or tool that will aid in the search of an answer to this problem. There are several aspects of traditional evacuation plans that make them inherently suboptimal. First among these is that they are static by nature. When a building is designed, there is some care taken in analyzing its floor plan and finding an optimal evacuation route for everyone. These plans are made under several assumptions and with the obvious constant that they cannot be modified during the actual emergency. Yes, it is possible for such a plan to actually end up being the optimal plan during any given evacuation, but the likelihood of this being the case is most definitely less then 100%. There are many reasons for this. The most obvious is this: the situation that the plan is trying to solve is a very dynamic one. People will not be where they should be or in the quantities that the static plan was prepared for. Many of them will probably not know what they should do in an emergency and so most likely will follow any large group of people, like lemmings. Finally, most situations that require the evacuation of a building or area occur because all or part of the building has become, or is becoming, unsafe. It is impossible for a static evacuation plan to take into account the way a fire or poisonous gas is spreading, or the state of the structural stability of the building. What is needed during a crisis is an artificially intelligent and dynamic evacuation system that is capable of (1) analyzing the state of the building and its occupants, (2) coming up with a plan to get everyone out as fast as possible, and (3) directing all occupants along the best exit routes. Furthermore, the system should be able to modify its plan as the evacuation progresses. This application is intended to provide researchers in this area the means to quickly and accurately simulate different evacuation theories and ideas. That being the case, it will have powerful graphical capabilities, thus allowing the researchers to easily see the real-time results of their work. It will be able to use diverse modeling techniques in order to handle the many different ways of approaching this problem. It will provide a simple way for equations and mathematical models to be entered which can affect the behavior of most aspects of the world being simulated. This work is in conjunction with, and closely tied to, Dr Pushkin Kachroo's research on this same topic. The application is designed so that future developers can quickly add to and modify its design to meet their specifications. It is not the goal of this work to provide an application that directly solves the optimal evacuation problem, or one that inherently simulates everything perfectly. It is the job of the researchers using this application to define the specific physics equations and models for each component of the simulation. This application provides an easy way to add these definitions into the simulation calculations. In brief, this Escape Simulator is a client server application. All of the graphics and human interaction are handled client side using Win32 and Direct3D. The actual simulation world calculations are handled server side, and both the client and server communicate via DirectPlay. The algorithm being used to model the objects and world by the server will be completely configurable. In fact, everything in the world, including the world physics, will be completely modifiable. Though the researchers will need to write the necessary pluggins that to define the actual models and algorithms used by the agents, objects, and world, ultimately this will give them much more power and flexibility. It will also allow for third parties to develop libraries of commonly used algorithms and resources that the researchers can use. This research was supported in part from the National Science Foundation through grant no. CMS-0428196 with Dr. S. C. Liu as the Program Director. This support is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this study are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. / Master of Science

Bakgrund . Moderna spel blir mer krävande på hårdvaran och för att motverka detta utvecklas nya tekniker för att lätta på dessa krav. En sådan optimeringsteknik är Variable Rate Shading (VRS), som ingår i DirectX 12 API. Det tillåter utvecklare att variera kvaliteten på delar av ramen för att förbättra prestanda. Hur effektiv VRS är, verkar variera eftersom olika benchmark-testare får olika resultat. Detta beror med största sannolikhet på de olika scenmiljöer som används i testerna. Mål . För att ytterligare utöka de miljöer som används VRS bench-tester kommer denna studie att fokusera på att mäta och utvärdera hos VRS i en lätt miljö som skiljer sig från andra. Metoder . Metoden består av att utveckla en lättviktig Direct3D 12-applikation, implementera VRS-tekniken och mäta prestanda. För en tydlig utvärdering genomförs flera tester som mäter bildrutetid, bildhastighet och ritar samtalshastighet vid de olika inställningarna med hjälp av VRS-tekniken vid olika upplösningar över 1000 iterationer. Resultat . Genom att mäta bildrutetid, bildfrekvens och dragsamtalshastighet med VRS var det möjligt att samla in prestationsdata som visa i denna studie. Studien visar den genomsnittliga prestandan med 1x1, 2x2 och 4x4 skugghastigheter vid 480p, 1080p och 2160p upplösning. Medeldata jämfördes mellan skuggningshastigheter och upplösningar för att undersöka korrelationen och avvikelsen. Som förväntat visas generella prestandaförbättringar vid användning av VRS. Vissa inställningar visade dock inkonsekvens i avvikelser mellan skuggningshastigheter, och andra visade försämrad prestanda. Slutsatser . Slutsatsen från denna studie tider på att VRS förbättrar prestanda även i lätta applikationer, inom rimliga gränser. Prestandavinsten var dock av lägre grad vid jämförelse med andra benchmarktester. Detta tyder på att VRS är mer användbar i mer krävande miljöer.

This thesis presents an interface for effectively teleoperating robots that combines an ecological display of range and video information with quickening based on dead-reckoning prediction. This display is built by viewing range and video information from a virtual camera trailing the robot. This is rendered in 3-D by using standard hardware acceleration and 3-D graphics software. Our studies demonstrate that this interface improves performance for most people, including those that do not have much previous experience with robotics. These studies involved 32 test subjects in a simulated environment and 8 in the real world. Subjects were required to drive the robot through several mazes while remembering a sequence of items. People took less time using the ecological interface and experienced fewer collisions, with a much lower workload as measured by joystick entropy. People preferred the interface over a standard interface with side-by-side range and video information and no prediction. Participants tended to rate the interface as more learn-able and more intuitive; participants also felt more confident in the robot's expected behavior.

Comparison between GPU and CPU particle systems.Computer games have used particle systems for visualeffects such as weather, smoke, fog, etc and it’s relatively low costto implement. There are a mixture of different techniques usedto render particle systems, usually CPU heavy implementationsor a GPU based one.In this study we developed two rendering techniques for aparticle system, instancing and stream-out, and compare theirperformance. As almost as expected we saw that the stream-outtechnique that is GPU based outperformed instancing when wetested using none intractable particle systems. We have furthereddiscussed both advantages and disadvantages in other scenarios.

<p>This is a report that describes the implementation of a computer technical examination project at Örebro University. More specifically it is about how two students have developed a computer game as an entry for Swedish Game Awards, a competition for games developed without interaction from commercial companies. The game, titled “Winds of Kahlara”, is written for PC and lets the participants compete against each other over a network in a 3D environment. The graphical theme is fantasy and the players utilize among other things magical attacks to kill their opponents. The development itself has taken more than a year since the complexity of the game has required extensive technical research and graphical designing.</p> / <p>Detta är en rapport som beskriver utförandet av ett datortekniskt examensarbete på Örebro universitet. Mer specifikt handlar den om hur två studenter utvecklat ett datorspel som ett bidrag till Swedish Game Awards, en tävling för spel utvecklade utan inblandning av kommersiella företag. Spelet, titulerat ”Winds of Kahlara”, är skrivet för PC och låter deltagarna spela mot varandra över nätverk i en 3D-värld. Det grafiska temat är fantasy och spelarna använder sig av bland annat magiska attacker för att döda sina motståndare. Själva utvecklingen har tagit mer än ett år då spelets komplexitet har krävt omfattande teknisk efterforskning och grafisk formgivning.</p>