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Track
Descriptions
System Programming for Windows and Xbox
360
Graphics
Quality Assurance and Certification
Producer and Business Development
Audio
LIVE
XNA Game Studio
Games for
Everyone
Visual Arts
See
Talk Abstracts for more details.
System
Programming for Windows and Xbox 360
Making today’s
multi-core architectures work effectively is becoming more interesting
with each generation. This track focuses on getting the most out of
profiling and performance tools, exciting new features of the Xbox
360 SDK, lessons we’ve learned over the last two years of real world
title development for Xbox 360, and tips and tricks for making sure
your Windows Vista title is ready for prime time.
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Profiling Tools and Techniques: New Guidelines for Finding Where
Your Time is Going
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Performance Update and Optimization Case Studies
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Effective Game Disc Usage: Compression & Caching
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Just Make Windows Work
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VMX Optimization: Taking it up a Level
-
Multicore Programming, Two Years Later
-
Building High-Performance Data Pipelines Using the .NET
Framework
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Static Code Analysis on Game Code
-
Practical Steps in Game Security
-
Why Your Windows Game Won't Run In 2,147,352,576 Bytes
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Visual
C++ 2008: A Game Developer’s Perspective
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Magic and
Technology: Migrating from One to Many Cores in
Shadowrun
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Graphics
Are you dedicated
to taking full advantage of the graphics processing power available
on Xbox 360 and/or Windows/D3D10? Would you like to know more about
how to squeeze every last ounce of performance out of your graphics
engine? Are you interested in hearing war stories about real-world
development on both Xbox 360 and Windows Vista (D3D10) – and finding
out what really works (and of course what doesn’t)? Learn
all this and more in graphics talks running the full range from deep
exploration of platform technologies to real-world experience from
other graphics experts in the field.
-
Picture Perfect: Gamma through the Rendering Pipeline
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Xbox 360 GPU Utilization: Past, Present, and Future
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GPU
Font/Vector Rendering and Approximating Catmull-Clark
Subdivision Surfaces with Bicubic Patches
-
GPU Data
Structures and Advanced Lighting: State-of-the-Art Techniques
from Microsoft Research
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From the
Trenches: Xbox 360 Development War Stories
-
Performance Considerations for Graphics on Windows
-
Windows
to Reality: Getting the Most out of Direct3D 10 Graphics in Your
Games
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Mapping
the Dark Corners: Creating a Flexible Framework for Dynamic
Shadowing
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Windows
Vista Graphics Development Drilldown: Direct3D 10 and 10.1
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Xbox 360
GPU Performance Update
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Advanced
Xbox 360 Graphics Techniques Using Command Buffers and
Predicated Tiling
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Graphics
Futures: Direct3D 11 and Beyond
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Quality Assurance
and Certification
As the complexity of games increases, so does
the complexity of game testing and certification. Quality Assurance
professionals, it’s time to arm yourself for the next generation!
Learn about a variety of advanced technologies and testing
techniques that will improve game quality and reduce the
certification costs of both Xbox 360 and Windows game titles.
Explore unique approaches to address the significant challenges
teams face today in TCR compliance, security testing, test
automation, and more.
-
How to Break Game Security
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Five Hundred City Blocks of Pure Destruction: Adventures in
Testing Crackdown
-
Serving Multiple Masters with Build Instrumentation
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The Xbox
360 Diaries: A Collection of Test Solutions Utilizing the XDK
-
XSim – How to Find Bugs with Simulation of XInput
-
Passing the First Time: How Activision Successfully Navigates
the Submission and Certification Process
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Better, Faster, Smarter: Using Tools for Certification Testing
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TCR Failures, Taxes, or Death: Which One Can You Prevent?
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Submission Pitfalls and How to Avoid the Crocodiles
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Are Your Games “Games for Windows” Ready?
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What Is Games for Windows – LIVE?
-
Medic!!! First aid for games hemorrhaging packets
(and other common-networking problems)
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Producer and
Business Development
Learn everything a
producer or business development attendee needs to know for
Microsoft gaming platforms. Learn about recent developments in the
Games for Windows and Games for Windows – LIVE program. Hear
about our marketing and retail efforts. Get updates on Xbox LIVE,
DirectX 10, Marketplace, Dashboard updates, in-game advertising, and
much more! You’ll leave the conference with a solid understanding of
how to be successful building games for all Microsoft gaming platforms.
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Games for
Windows: A Deep-Dive into the Program, Process and Technical
Requirements
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Third-Party Marketing: Process, Priorities, Partnership
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PANEL: How
to Engage the Community, Without Outraging Them
-
Bend Microsoft
Project to Your Will
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A
Producer’s Guide to Games for Windows – LIVE
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The World
Beyond Retail: Maximizing Your Game with Connected Consumers
-
The 10
Things You Should Be Thinking About for Your Next Game
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Developing Games for Xbox LIVE Arcade
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A
Producer’s Guide to Xbox 360 Certification
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Bringing
Games to Everyone
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Audio
Making noise on
Microsoft platforms is more dynamic and powerful than ever!
Presentations will cover the array of tools, libraries, and services
provided for adding sound to your title, including the Microsoft
Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT) for Windows, Xbox 360, and
XNA Game Studio Express. Other topics include case studies of titles
that have pushed the envelope for audio innovations, audio
middleware technologies, programming the native low-level audio
layer, developing cross-platform audio strategies, using real-time
effects and audio compression formats, and working with
multi-channel audio. This track is intended for audio programmers,
composers, sound designers, and audio directors, and will offer
applicable content for both expert and novice game developers.
-
XACT to the Extreme: Game
Audio Building Blocks for Programmers and Content Creators
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A Field Guide to the XACT
Authoring Tool
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Power to the Core: Audio
Foundations on Microsoft Platforms
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XAudio 2 Goes Green: Making
Game Audio a Sustainable Resource
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Learn to Speak XAudio 2 Like
a Pro: Translating from DirectSound and XAudio
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XMA: Ndrstndg Prseptul Adyo
Cmprshn
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Positioning Yourself for 3D:
X3DAudio and Sound Spatialization
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Paint-by-Noise: Practical
DSP Implementation Techniques
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xAPOs Mark the Spot: The DSP
Implementation Framework for XAudio 2
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Case Study:
Shadowrun:
Magic, Tech, and Guns, Oh My! Audio at the Service of Gameplay
within the Constraints of a Multiplayer-only Title
-
Dolby Digital 5.1: Taking it
Back to the Basics
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Audio Tools Summit: A Panel
Discussion
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LIVE
The Xbox LIVE
service has continued to grow and evolve, from Xbox to Xbox 360, and
now Games for Windows – LIVE. With new features ranging from party-based
matchmaking
and host migration, to XLSP and server-based gaming, the LIVE
service is
more committed than ever to enabling the most dynamic platform for
online gaming. Get the latest details on integrating LIVE with your
Xbox 360 and Windows games, learn how to use these technologies to
drive innovation and excitement in your games and online player
communities, and have a peek at what's coming next.
-
Don’t Interrupt, Don’t Detract: Using Massive to Incorporate
Non-Invasive In-Game Advertising
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Ranking and Matchmaking: TrueSkill Revealed
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Let’s Get This
Party Started! (Matchmaking and Parties)
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Learning to Share: User-Generated Content
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Developing Server-Based Games on LIVE (I'm Looking at You, MMO)
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Bringing the Best of Xbox LIVE to Windows
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Connecting Worlds: Cross-Platform Game Creation Using Games for
Windows – LIVE
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Keeping it Secret, Keeping it Safe: Top Security Lessons from
Xbox LIVE
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Online Features of Forza Motorsport 2: The Rewarding World of
Community Gaming
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Donnybrook: Making Networked Games More Fun
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Adding Creamy Nougat and a Crisp Candy Coating to the Network:
XRNM and QNet
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XNA Game Studio
XNA Game Studio
continues to lower the barrier to entry for a new generation of Xbox
360 and Windows developers. Presentations in this track cover
exciting new XNA Game Studio Express features that enable developers
to create games faster and on a smaller budget than ever before. The XNA Game Studio line of products and services are covered in
both high- and low-level detail with focus on new APIs, managed
runtime performance, and partners.
-
Extending the XNA Framework Content Pipeline
-
Creating Content the Softimage|XSI Way for XNA Game Studio
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Understanding XNA Framework Performance
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The Costs of Managed Code: The Avoidable and the Unavoidable
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Pre-Mortem: Torpex Games' Schizoid
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Developing 3D Games on the XNA Framework Using TorqueX
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What’s New in XNA Game Studio 2.0
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Networking with the XNA Framework
-
XNA Game Studio for Fun and Profit
-
Advanced Debugging in Managed Code
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Games For
Everyone
The core gaming
audience that drove the initial growth of the games industry
represents only a fragment of the worldwide consumer audience for
games. Learn about Microsoft Casual Gaming services, including MSN
Games, Xbox LIVE Arcade and Windows LIVE Messenger, as
well as lessons that casual games teach us about making big budget
games accessible to a much broader audience. Hear about Microsoft’s
upcoming efforts to broaden the audience for Xbox 360, and for games
across all platforms, and what these efforts mean to developers who want to
drive the next growth of the entire games industry to include
“Everyone Else.”
-
Getting Your Game on Xbox LIVE Arcade
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Everything You Need to Know About Developing for MSN Games
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The Quarter-Billion-User Game Platform: Developing Games for
Windows LIVE Messenger
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Clues in the Puzzles: What Casual Games Can Teach About
Accessibility
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LIVE as Design Tool
-
Microsoft Casual Games APIs for MSN Games and Messenger
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Windows Vista and Casual Games
-
Building Games for Windows
Mobile
-
Making Social Games that
Are Fun for Everyone: Lessons Learned from Consumer Testing
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Bringing
Games to Everyone
-
Developing
for Arcade: The Developers View
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Visual Arts
The demand for
talented technical artists in the game industry is greater than ever
before. The visual fidelity expected in the current generation of
Xbox 360 and Windows titles demands even more sophisticated
techniques, requiring wider and deeper usage of the key tools
available to artists. Hear about the latest and greatest from some
of the best companies in the industry you know best, and learn how to
boost the power of your art pipeline.
-
Building Lifelike 3D Game Characters Cost-Effectively
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Tools-Based
Game Animation Systems
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The Art and Technology of
Whiteout
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Improving Static Lighting: Experiences from DICE
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Integrating High-Level Shading Effects into Autodesk 3ds Max and
Maya
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Play It Forever: Designing Game Art for Today and Tomorrow
-
Athletic Performance: Creating Believable
Interactive Character Motion
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Natural Outdoor Lighting in Games
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Track Environment Creation from Real-World Reference
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Introduction to Human IK Middleware: Complementing Your FK
Animation
-
Future of
an Illusion: Game Animation for the 7th Generation
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Click here to access 2006 Conference Details
Click here to access the 2006 conference slide presentations and
audio recordings
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