I spoke on the subject of "Unsolved Problems in Digital Game Development" at a recent meeting of the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society in Dallas. The talk laid out the current state of game technology, then outlined some problems that remain unsolved. I focused on three problems: Atmospheric Rendering (i.e. fog), Realtime Radiosity (i.e. indirect lighting), and Simulating People (thinking here mainly of the complexity of integrating AI, animation, and physics). I focused on these three because solving them would make such a great difference in the video game experience.

In truth, interesting possible solutions for all three of these problems have appeared in recent years, so they're not entirely unsolved. I showed several videos of these early solutions in action. The group seemed to enjoy the talk, and I enjoyed giving it. A PDF version of the talk, with links to the videos I showed, is now available.

Labels: games, technology