Brooke Routh Observation Report

Post date: Apr 09, 2018 3:54:58 AM

I went to several casual talks that were open on the floor since I missed going to the Summit events. I participated in several optimization panels, a Nividia FF XV talk, and discussed new technologies at several booths.

The optimization panels (for Fortnite) were mainly of interest because I had to optimize my thesis so much. Most of the talk was discussing draw calls and texture sizes, but a main point of interest was the LOD settings for point lights. Lights being one of the more expensive aspects of my portion of thesis, it was exciting to learn there’s a mode to turn off the light from a paramatable distance and that knowledge could be ground breaking for the way I use Unreal. Another talk I went to that also involved the Fortnite developers mainly covered optimization for a multiplayer. Most of the discussion wasn’t applicable to my woes, so I tuned out for this one and planned the course for the rest of the trip...

While I don’t plan on going back to thesis to optimize, it was beneficial to be able to hold a conversation about optimization while in several interviews after GDC. My pool of knowledge has grown exponentially due to attending these panels.

Another point of interest for me was the practically real-time photoscanning software that would be available through Allegorithmic and the eye tracking technologies. These were methods of creation and interactive mechanics that I haven’t used or seen before, so it opened my eyes to another world of possibilities. The eye tracking software was incredible when demoing FF XV, because the mechanics require you to aim at certain objects to interact with them and I was interacting less with the controller and more with the “feeling” of eye tracking.

I feel like what I benefited from the most was from attending the parties and mixers. At the Ringling Alumni party I was able to meet up with Matt and discuss his work at Certain Affinity and was also able to get a portfolio review from him. Later I emailed him and had a good contact before I was interviewed by him and his coworkers. He even gave me a cheat-sheet for the interview process and a huge help before flying in. I also was able to talk with several other past students who I didn’t know well before, and it was an eye-opening experience. I was also invited to an “exclusive” (I say that because I wasn’t allowed to bring my friends in) mixer where it was just the company employees attending. There I got a good feel of the attitude of the studio and the employees behind it. Afterwards I was contacted by several of the people I mingled with on Linkedin and had the chance to email most of them. Since the industry is small and the employees I talked to were experienced, I feel like I made several good contacts and have people to reference when applying to new jobs.