In case you missed it, or want to see it again, we have some highlights from our booth in the following video, and some important links:

Learn more about 3DVIA’s Publishing Products:

• 3DVIA Virtools – Build Rich 3D Applications Fast
• 3DVIA Composer - 3D Technical Documentation Made Easy
• 3DVIA Shape - Free 3D Modeling for the Rest of Us
• 3DVIA.com - The Top Interactive 3D Community & Model Sharing Database

Learn More about our Presenters:

• “Snow World” by Howard Rose and Ari Hollander:  http://www.firsthand.com
• “RealTime Music Visualization: A study in the Visual Extension of Music” by Matt Bain.
• “SCOPE: an Innovative Augmented Reality Game” by Frantz Lasorne.

Learn to use 3DVIA Virtools and see how it helps small teams build games like Subsurface in no time with our free online tutorial series. Every other week watch Little Chicken Game Company, the studio responsible for Subsurface, go over the 3DVIA Virtools basics to get you started.

This week Little Chicken demonstrates how to import and use blend shapes.

Tutorial 5: Blend Shapes
Learn how to import blend shapes straight from your DCC software and use them for animations.

Enjoy!

Take 30 minutes on Thursday, August 13 to learn new skills with 3DVIA Virtools and have the chance to WIN a $100 Apple® Gift Card*

How to Use Shaders in 3DVIA Virtools
Thursday August 13, from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EDT

Shaders allow programmers to circumvent traditional graphic routines. They offer ways to operate on every vertex—to morph or bend objects—and on every pixel—to color, texture, light or change material properties. Shaders speed up graphic-intensive programs, allowing graphic processing units to handle more computation, while leveraging more CPU for other tasks or commands. This presentation will cover pixel and vertex shader implementation, as well as supported shader languages in 3DVIA Virtools.

*One participant from each webinar will receive one $100 Apple Gift Card. The winner’s name will be drawn and announced at the end of the webinar. Apple Gift Cards will be mailed directly to winning participants. To qualify as a potential winner, participants must be present for the duration of the webinar. Apple is not a participant in or sponsor of this promotion.

Learn to use 3DVIA Virtools and see how it helps small teams build games like Subsurface in no time with our free online tutorial series. Every other week watch Little Chicken Game Company, the studio responsible for Subsurface, go over the 3DVIA Virtools basics to get you started. This week Little Chicken demonstrates how to create simple movement and import an animated character with 3DVIA Virtools.

Tutorial 3: Creating Simple Movement
Learn how to use simple scripting and pre-packaged behaviors to move objects in a scene.

Tutorial 4: Importing an Animated Character
Discover how to import an animated character and create secondary animations in engine.

Enjoy!

• Why virtual training?
• Advantages of virtual training
• Examples of a successful virtual application
• LIVE virtual training demo

• How 3DVIA Virtools bridges the gap between artists and engineers
• Key Concepts and references of 3DVIA Virtools
• Myths about 3DVIA Virtools
• Tips and tricks for building games with 3DVIA Virtools
  

Virtools Webinar 1 from 3DVIA on Vimeo.

Take 30 minutes on Wednesday, July 29 at 11:00 a.m. to learn new skills with 3DVIA Virtools.

The Benefits of Virtual Versus Classic Training
Wednesday July 29, from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EDT

Discover how on-demand virtual training with 3DVIA Virtools enables users to learn any time, anywhere in a safe and forgiving environment. Using multiple, real-life examples, you will understand how 3DVIA Virtools can be used to create 3D training applications quickly, affordably and with a variety of scenarios that would be expensive and difficult to recreate in a classic training environment.

Learn to use 3DVIA Virtools and see how it helps small teams build games like Subsurface in no time with our free online tutorial series. Every other week watch Little Chicken Game Company, the studio responsible for Subsurface, go over the 3DVIA Virtools basics to get you started. This week Little Chicken demonstrates how to create a scene using 3DVIA Virtools in two tutorial videos.

Tutorial 1: 3DVIA Virtools Basics Part 1
Learn how to import models, adjust lighting, set up views and alter scene properties, including fog.

Tutorial 2: 3DVIA Virtools Basics Part 2
Discover scripting essentials to set up any scene in 3DVIA Virtools.

Play Subsurface online! The first game built on 3DVIA Virtools 5 by 6 people in just 60 days is up and running on the official Subsurface Web site.

Help Dr. Valerie Toulé navigate through an underwater field of depth charges and missiles as she tries to prevent the evil narco-terrorist Ian McClusky from discovering a power capable of destroying the world. But don’t let the story end there…discover the 3DVIA story behind the Subsurface story.

Meet Little Chicken Game Company, the development shop responsible for the creation of Subsurface, and learn how with a team of just 6 people, Little Chicken was able to turn out Subsurface in only 60 days. Watch the team discuss the making of the game in this video.

Enjoy!

Take 30 minutes on Wednesday, July 22 at 11:00 a.m. to learn new skills with 3DVIA Virtools 5.

Rapid Game Prototyping and Development with 3DVIA Virtools 5
Wednesday July 22, from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EDT
“Build a multiplatform game in weeks / months instead of years!”

Understand how gaming companies benefit from using 3DVIA Virtools for rapid development, whether for internal use or consumer products on the PC or console platforms. Learn from concrete examples of projects (including development of the Subsurface game, which was completed in 60 days) and a development pipeline description. You will be exposed to tips and tricks on how to best take advantage of the latest release of 3DVIA Virtools.

Smashing Toys is a racing game like no other! Toys play with their own rules and now you can be one of the toys!  The game features solo and multiplayer action with the ability to customize your toy through points won by winning races.  You can customize your vehicle or character stats. Blast your opposition and unlock secret levels that change your race car into other tools of racing mayhem, like Boats!

Story

An old toys factory…   
Suddenly a terrible storm comes up and enchants the toys on the production line, bringing them to life. The magic however is short-term. The toys necessarily have to join a frenzied race to a magic island where, as it is said:  they can stay alive eternally.
They will have to cross a lot of territories, the industrial parks, a funfair, a forest, mines, sawmills…
Places are limited, only the best can aspire for their survival. Now toys play by their own rules… and believe me… they are not joking !

 The Developers behind the game

I had the opportunity to ask  Erik Geslin, one of the brains behind Leon Brothers Studio,  a few questions.  Read on to learn more about Smashing Toys:
 
Smashing Toys was founded in January of 2008, and your first game was completed in about a year.  Considering the amount of racetracks and art assets in each level plus the programming involved in the game play and interface, that’s pretty fast.  Was 3DVIA Virtools one of the main reasons behind this quick development schedule?

Absolutely Juan, I think Virtools is the only reason we have been able to create our games so fast.  We have 6 years of experience with Virtools, with the bulk of the work done in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality projects. The work on Smashing Toys actually began before Leon Brothers was founded, so the development time is more in the range of 18 months.

From the credits I gather that the development team for Smashing Toys was 7 people, with Erik Geslin playing the triple roles of Project Management/Design Director/3D Character and Environment Modeling Lead.  How was collaboration managed during production?

Yes, I can also cook and do many of the house chores :)
There were only 3 of during 9 months of the development of Smashing Toys, Marc Douzon (Programmer), Romain Lecherbault (Artist) and I, playing multiple roles.  Near the end of the development we were joined by Claire Noël, a talented young lady as well as two junior CG Artists from the ESCIN School who joined us for the last 2 months of production.

Describe a day in the production cycle of Smashing Toys.

As soon as the day starts, every team member is aware his daily tasks thanks to an online project management software called PlanZone.  It helps us manage, share and verify all the work. We combined PlanZone with the Gantt Tools set to provide us with a robust content and project management software that is web based. Marc Douzon worked very hard to develop the race tracks and we used these programs to help us integrate each track into Virtools and test them easily and quickly.

What were some of the challenges encountered during production and how were they resolved?

One of our biggest hurdles we faced was in the racetrack loading times.  We never noticed the problem because of our specific personal computer configurations and as our first product we never though to look at the loading screens as a problem.  Our customers noticed though, so we changed the entire loading strategy of the game in only one week.  This would not have been possible without Virtools, and the update was released to the public in record time.

We also spent a lot of time developing special shaders like Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, PPSM Dynamic Shadows and Bloom effects, and the results were amazing but we ended up not using them in favor of keeping the frame rate consistently high.

The biggest problem for an Indie developer is funding.  It was a challenge to find the funds to continue development. In the end we ended up supplementing our funding with personal bank credit.  Even though we had to release the game a little earlier than planned we were able to update and we continue to update it, fixing minor bugs whenever they are found.

I see in the game that you can connect to a server for multiplayer games and that you can even create your own server. What has been your experience with networking through Virtools?

That was really a fantastic experience, it was difficult and trying at times but definitely fulfilling.  Marc and I spent many long nights figuring out the multiplayer platform, and specifically solutions to our TCP/IP problems.  Finally we discovered that TCP/IP was the problem, and today I can clearly state, that if your plan is to make a multiplayer game, TCP/IP is the devil!  Choose UDP! :)   Our resulting Multiplayer mode is really the best experience in the game, its very fun to drop some mines in front of your best friend and enjoy their reactions.    Our next update will add tools to allow people to see others in the waiting room, and thanks to Virtools and Steam it will be uploaded and distributed very quickly :)

What has been your experience with Valve’s Steam, in the communications, advertising and distribution of your game?

We had an excellent relationship with Steam.  They even advised us on how to list the game and for how much to sell it for.  This wasn’t as easy as saying Smashing Toys is a “Racing Game”.  Created by an Indie developer but with graphics on par with AAA published games, we mutually decided to list the game under Indie developer category as well as the Racing Game Group, along games like Grid and Burn Out Paradise.
All of our advertising has been through word of mouth, and there has been a lot of positive feedback from the community, which has been growing at a steady pace.  That’s successful advertising :)

Fantastic work on Smashing Toys guys, I enjoyed the art direction, the game play and all the little details you guys added to create a completely fun game.  

Check out the vidoe trailer of Smashing toys in our Studio Section!

Play the Demo or just Buy the game ASAP from Steam.

As you all know, 3DVIA Virtools 5, the newest version of our 3D engine for rapid game and 3D application development, has been released. It debuted at this year’s Game Developers Conference and was well received.

The video above was produced for the show to demonstrate 3DVIA Virtool 5’s key new features, including:

• New 3D Asset Libraries
• Easy Object Manipulation: Smart Drag and Drop
• Lua Support
• Project Source Code Protection
• Blend Shape Support
• New Wii™ & Xbox 360™ Libraries
• New Virtual Reality Displays Support

About Superfluidity (From the Electronic Shadow website):

Superfluidity is an interactive multi-user in the form of a virtual interactive 3D real-time, visible online or through one or more physical(s) installation(s), all operating in a network. The visual environment is proposed to create a kind of sentence sound that will overlap with others in a collective space in perpetual construction.

Superfluidity is a collective that can be seen in real time by all visitors who log on. Logging in, visitors can both go and influence the space and seeing the changes made by other visitors. The physical installation is connected to the same environment and receive real-time interaction of all the visitors online.

About Electronic Shadow:

Established in Paris in 2000, Electronic Shadow is a hybrid design platform whose activity is based on research and innovation on both the artistic and technological point of view (patented system based on space/image projection). This pluridisciplinary approach allows original propositions which merge both space and image, material and light in the most diverse contexts from art to architecture, design, scenography,

For about five years, Electronic Shadow multiplies exhibitions (NY MoMA, Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris, La Villette, KunstlerHaus, Japan Media Art Festival Etc.) and creates applications from this artistic research in many different fields: design (Giorgio Armani, Cassina, Boffi, Etc.), museum scenography (Palais de la découverte, Cézanne 2006).

Thank you rgaidot via Twitter for the link.

More great material has rolled in from this years very successful GDC 2009 for 3DVIA.  Here is an excellent video covering how Little Chicken game company produced the Subsurface demo game in 60 days with a team of only 6!  Subsurface is the evaluation and demo game produced with 3DVIA Virtools.

The camera guy and source for the video is our very own Virgile.

Those of you who went to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and stopped by the 3DVIA booth may have seen us demo a game called Subsurface. Many of you played this game (three players won a Wii) and asked whether there were plans to post a playable version online. After hearing the overwhelming requests for a playable online version, we decided it was a must.

As of this week, you can now play Subsurface online.

UPDATE: Our servers are temporarily offline, which means Subsurface is also temporarily offline. We’re working out the kinks right now and should be back up and running soon. My appologies to those who have tried to play and got error messages. I will post an update as soon as we’re back in business. 

For those of you who weren’t at show, but want to learn about Subsurface, don’t feel left out! The next couple of paragraphs in this post are devoted to summarizing the game and its importance to 3DVIA. If you want even more details, you can always visit the official Subsurface website.

The Story Behind the Game

Subsurface is the first game built on 3DVIA Virtools 5, the latest version of our game engine devoted to rapid prototyping and game development. Designed with the idea of drastically decreasing development time without sacrificing quality in mind, we put 3DVIA Virtools 5 to the test with the development of Subsurface. We collaborated with long time 3DVIA Virtools partner Little Chicken Game Company and gave them what would normally be seen as an impossible challenge: develop a game in 60 days with 6 people that’s not only engaging, but serves as a learning tool for other 3D application developers. The result was Subsurface.

The Subsurface Narrative and Gameplay

The year is 2041 and the world is in peril. With our natural resources nearly depleted, world powers are frantic to find new forms of energy. In the midst of this tension, a deep sea species capable of generating massive amounts of inexhaustible energy, known as the “Glowspheres,” is been discovered. Theoretically, this unharnessed power could be used to solve the world’s energy crisis or, if discovered by the wrong people, could generate a weapon far greater than any ever before conceived.

You are Dr. Valerie Toulè, a marine biologist specializing in deep sea ecosystems and aquatic species. The G20 has brought you back from sabbatical to investigate and retrieve the Glowspheres before Ian McClusky, the world’s most wanted narco-terrorist, uses them for evil purposes.

Enjoy!