Unite 2011 Conference

Greetings Assassins and Assassinettes!

So at the end of September I was sent to the Unite 2011 Conference in San Francisco. I was to scope the place out and look for any potential polygons that needed assassinating. Instead, I was assaulted with a level of awesome that I rarely experience. Below is my tale and a summary of the event. Hope you enjoy!

Day 1 - Sept 28th - Arrival
I had a specialist assigned to me for this mission, he goes by the name MajorFX but don't let that fool you, he can throw down against some polygons if need be. We flew into Oakland, snagging a rental car so it would be more difficult to track us, and drove to Frisco making it to the conference with just enough time to catch the Key Note and see what was coming for Unity3D 3.5. Let me tell you, this set the mood for the rest of the trip. The LOD Technology that is super intuitive, fully integrated AI tech (this really blew my mind!), the rewritten Occlusion Culling system, the directional lightmaps, crazy new particle system and so much more! Here is a link to the Key Note speech video. Watch it and come back... or I will find you!
http://unity3d.com/unite/keynote

After the keynote, MajorFX and I split up to cover more ground. I went to a lecture titled: Substance in Unity. Mind Blown. Substance is a stand alone application that has also been integrated into several 3d softwares and now Unity that deals with shaders and the creation of materials. The company responsible for Substance is Allegorithmic (http://www.allegorithmic.com/) a bunch of super intelligent guys that are revolutionizing how shaders work. Just to illustrate this, watch this video: http://youtu.be/wNrKjhO5tHg?t=4m26s

Is that not insanity? I thought some polygons were messing with me. Nope, just awesome techniques!

Their Bitmap2Material software is worth it alone to automatically generate intelligent Normal Maps, Specular Maps, Height Maps, and so many more!

The conference went a little off of schedule after this lecture, things got shifted around and lectures got pushed back. This was fine by me because I had found a polygon that needed dealing with. I just didn't want to disturb the guests there so I went stealth mode. I managed to catch the polygon slurping down the drinks that Unity3d provided for the attendees. A quick flash of my weld tool and that polygon vanished without a sound.

Drinks for everyone!

I attempted to go to an AI in Unity lecture... I don't think I have ever experienced something like this. I wrote a ton of notes, yet, as I read them now, they make no sense to me. I showed the notes to my programmer and he nodded thoughtfully and went back to programming. I still have no idea what I wrote. I must have channeled an inner spirit and wrote something I could never grasp in my conscious form...

OKAY!

Next was the last lecture of the night. I don't even want to say which lecture it was because it was horrible. Polygons were all over the place messing with cameras, changing the subject matter completely from the title. The presenter changed his mind about what he wanted to talk about 3 times while lecturing. It was just bad. The polygons definitely destroyed this one. I went on a cutting spree. I even detached polygons a few times just to outright delete them. I rarely pull that skill out.

This left a sour taste in my mouth. Ah well, dinner outta clear that up and then Day Two made up for it!

Day two coming soon with some other great info and also some very cool people. Keep your eyes out for it.

-POOF-