De Game Developers Conference (GDC) zal van 14 tot 18 maart gehouden worden in San Francisco, Verenigde Staten. Het duurt dus nog ruim een maand tot deze conferentie van start zal gaan, maar inmiddels is al wel bekendgemaakt wat er dan zoal besproken zal gaan worden. Sony is bij de GDC uiteraard ook van de partij en zal hier onder andere een presentatie gaan geven die over PlayStation VR en over virtual reality in het algemeen zal gaan.

Zo is onder andere James Answer, Principal Technical Artist van Sony Londen Studio, hier ook aanwezig. Deze studio heeft de PS VR games The Deep en The London Heist in ontwikkeling, beide games zijn ook al eerder getoond op de E3 van vorig jaar alsook tijdens een eerdere editie van de GDC.

Verder zullen er nog een aantal interessante presentaties namens Sony worden gegeven. Die hebben we hieronder allemaal onder elkaar gezet voor je. Uiteraard zullen wij de GDC in San Francisco op de voet volgen. Als daar interessante aankondigingen worden gedaan komen we er hier uiteraard bij je op terug.

De GDC is ook waar Sony ooit PlayStation VR (toen nog Project Morpheus) onthulde. Mogelijk komen we dus ook meer te weten over de beschikbaarheid en releasedatum van de accessoire.

PlayStation VR: Development and Innovations (presented by Sony)

Chris Norden | Senior Staff Developer Support Engineer, Sony Computer Entertainment America

Join us as we enter the world of PlayStation VR and explore various development concepts and design innovations. It will be an exciting journey that you surely won’t want to miss. We will be updating the online session description with more details to come.

Audio for AAA Virtual Reality Experiences”>Audio for AAA Virtual Reality Experiences

Simon Gumbleton | Technical Sound Designer, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

Virtual Reality is changing the way we think about game audio. It changes the way we listen to, design and deliver our audio vision. We now have a significant opportunity for audio to be at the forefront of the experience, driving emotion and increasing immersion.
This talk will focus on the challenges, lessons learned and some best practices when building audio for AAA Virtual Reality experiences. Using Sony Computer Entertainment London Studio’s PlayStation VR content as a framework, this lecture discusses our experiences with relation to the high level audio vision, content creation, technical implementation and mixing; equipping attendees with a deeper understanding of VR audio and effective tactics to maximise results, as well as arming them against some of the pitfalls we’ve uncovered along the way.

Intended Audience
The primary audience will be audio professionals in the game industry, either currently working on VR projects or looking towards to a VR project in the near future. It should also be of interest to students and indies are looking to create immersive audio for a VR projects.

Fast and Flexible: Technical Art and Rendering For The Unknown

James Answer | Principal Technical Artist, Sony London Studio

Sony London Studio has recently developed a number of virtual reality experiences for Sony’s Morpheus, including “The Deep”, “VR Luge” and “The London Heist” that have been showcased at GDC, E3 and other events to great acclaim.
In this talk you’ll find out how London Studio has focused its rendering technology and tools to plan for the unknown, including a look at our flexible forward renderer and tooling.The technical and artistic challenges that were overcome in making great quality within the demands of VR and the optimization strategies employed will also be discussed.
The techniques that will be shared can help studios producing VR content improve the quality of their visuals, but many are also applicable to traditional games.

Maths to Mechanics: Using Mathematical logic to Implement Intuitive Gameplay

Virtual Reality games have, more than any other type of video game before, raised the bar on player immersion and sense of presence. At Sony’s London Studio we have been at the forefront of this with our Playstation VR demos such as The London Heist, The Deep, and VR Luge. Whereas traditional games often apply a significant amount of abstraction in implementing the gameplay mechanics, immersion in Virtual Reality is generally best served by making the player interactions as intuitive and natural as possible. In this presentation I will discuss the core underlying concepts of the acclaimed physical interaction mechanics of The London Heist as well as the mathematical principles used to implement them. Aimed at gameplay programmers and technical designers this presentation will show you how to implement intuitive and effective motion based gameplay mechanics for your games.

How to Grow your Online Community on PS4 (presented by Sony)

Zev Solomon | Senior Engineer, Playform Services, Sony Computer Entertainment America
Jon Webb | Senior Manager, Product Strategy, Sony Computer Entertainment America

PlayStation®4 provides many features that developers can use to communicate and engage with players on the platform. In this talk, be taking a look at the key features including the new Events system and Official Verified Accounts that you can use to get the word out to players about what’s going on in your game.