MAYA USED TO CREATE GAMECUBE "STAR WARS ROGUE SQUADRON II".Alias/Wavefront(TM), an SGI (SGI, Sunnyvale, CA, www.sgi.com) A manufacturer of workstations and servers, founded in 1982 by Jim Clark. The company was founded as Silicon Graphics, Inc., but changed to its acronym in 1999. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :SGI) company, Toronto, has announced that its Maya(R) software package played a pivotal role in the development of the NINTENDO GAMECUBE The Nintendo GameCube (GCN) is Nintendo's fourth home video game console, belonging to the sixth generation era. The system itself is the most compact and least expensive, next to the Dreamcast, of the sixth generation era consoles. (TM) title "Star Wars(R) Rogue Squadron(R) II: Rogue Leader(R)." The game, published by LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control and developed by Factor 5 LLC, is one of eighteen GAMECUBE(TM) launch titles set to come to market in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. for the holidays. Early media previews are highlighting "Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader" as the title most likely to influence console buyers to invest in NINTENDO's next generation console. About the Game In 1997 LucasArts and Factor 5 embarked on a mission to capture the essence of the original Star Wars movies in a console flight-action game. In 1998 they released "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron" for Nintendo 64(R). The game, which featured detailed graphics, soon became a favorite of both Star Wars and Nintendo 64 fans. Both these groups have been eagerly anticipating the day a follow-up title would be released. Early reviews of the game claim that it has been worth the wait. Says online game magazine GameSpot(R): "Factor 5 has brought 'Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader' to the GAMECUBE in a flurry of blaster fire that sets an impressive standard for both Star Wars games and GAMECUBE titles at large." Gaming Age concurs, stating: "'Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader' is definitely the best GAMECUBE game hitting at launch." The Role of Maya When it came to creating "Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader," the task facing Factor 5 contained two considerable hurdles. First, the target console was still in development. Secondly, at nine months, the deadline was looming very near. Therefore Factor 5's main challenge was to quickly estimate what types of content the hardware would be able to accommodate. Said Thomas Engel, director of technology at Factor 5: "Because we were developing for a new target platform we had little foreknowledge fore·knowl·edge n. Knowledge or awareness of something before its existence or occurrence; prescience. foreknowledge Noun knowledge of something before it actually happens Noun 1. of what would be required and so we needed a product that could expand with our evolving project requirements. Our pipeline had to be constructed in real time and Maya let us adapt our software tools quickly." At Factor 5, a team of three modelers and seven animators used Maya's polygonal modeling In 3D computer graphics, polygonal modeling is an approach for modeling objects by representing or approximating their surfaces using polygons. Polygonal modeling is well suited to scanline rendering and is therefore the method of choice for real-time computer graphics. and character animation Character animation is a specialized process of the animation process, concerning the animation of one or more characters featured in an animated work. It is usually as one aspect of a larger production, and often to complement voice acting. tools to create the game's deadly walkers, attacking fighter ships -- both Imperial and Rebel -- and the behemoth behemoth (bē`hĭmŏth, bĭhē`–) [Heb.,=plural of beast], large, fanciful primeval monster, like Leviathan, evoking the hippopotamus mentioned in the Book of Job. Death Star itself. Maya's MEL (Maya Embedded Language) See Maya. Mel - The story of Mel scripting language A high-level programming, or command, language that is interpreted (translated on the fly) rather than compiled ahead of time. A scripting, or script, language may be a general-purpose programming language or it may be limited to specific functions used to augment the running of an made the pipeline more efficient by enabling programmers to create scripts for repetitive tasks as well as by allowing them to take control of the Maya interface and extend it for their purposes. "The games industry is so dynamic that you need tools that can morph controllably under your feet while games are in production," explains Factor 5 president and "Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader" Director, Julian Eggebrecht. "No software can have all the answers up front. Maya gives you the extendibility to create the tools you need that will allow your team to finish the task at hand." About Alias/Wavefront As the world's leading innovator of 3D graphics technology, Alias/Wavefront develops software for the film and video, games, web, interactive media, industrial design, and visualization markets. Games customers include Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., Core Design Limited, Electronic Arts Inc., Factor 5 LLC, Kodiak Interactive Software Studios Inc., LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC, Midway Home Entertainment Inc., Naughty Dog, Inc., Nihilistic Software, Inc., Nintendo, RareLtd., Retro Studios Inc., Sega Corporation, Single Trac, Sony Computer Entertainment, Square Co., Ltd., Timeline Studios, Relic Entertainment and Westwood Studios. Alias/Wavefront is a wholly owned, independent software company of SGI(TM) with headquarters in Toronto and technical centers in Seattle and Santa Barbara. For more information, visit http://www.aliaswavefront.com or call 1-800-447-2542 or call 416/874-8592. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion