James Battersby

February 2010 Update

Posted: 26th February 2010

I thought I should post an article based on what I am currently involved in which individually don't amount to a separate article themselves. This will cover what I am currently studying, my climbing activities and anything else that springs to mind.

University: Management of Entertainment Software

This is quite an interesting module where we look at the typical Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC) including pre-production, production and post-production, understanding the various different roles in the gaming industry. We are currently looking at the pre-production stage and on Monday we are required to present a revised schedule for a case study of a struggling studio. I find it interesting because amongst my many dreamy ambitions in life is to set up a gaming studio of sorts but since I have no entrepreneurial experience this has been always been a major concern for me: where do I start and how does it work? Who knows, this may be the ammunition I need!

University: Special Techniques for Graphics and Animation

This has been a bit of peculiar module so far. We have been tasked to submit an application that covers any one of the following: static and interactive ray tracing, shadow mapping, motion hierarchy and flocking techniques. I have opted for the latter as this closely resembles a form of emergent behaviour, a small part of Artificial Intelligence (which I am interested in) and it also provides a good amount of research to be done. I'm not aware of anybody else on my course attempting this so I should hopefully provide something new!

University: Multiprocessing and Parallel Systems

Possibly one of the most confusing modules so far where we look at ways of optimizing applications by making use of multiple cores on any machine. So far we have covered the use OpenMP and Intel SSE and we have been given an assignment which looks at the way we can compare different techniques of parallelism, specifically the use of parallel sections and fors in OpenMP. Probably my least favourite module but given that almost all gaming platforms have multiple cores it is certainly not one to be ignored!

Dare To Be Digital

We were all sent an e-mail recently notifying us about the Dare To Be Digital competition being held by the University of Dundee where teams of gaming students get together to develop and "launch" a game over a 10 week period. This definitely looks like a lot of fun and a good change to gain some valuable experience. If it allows me to submit the final product (provided we're picked) for upcoming group module (Integrated Design) then I'd be more than keen to apply. Just need to get a team together to do it!

Climbing

I have finally learned to lead climb and I thoroughly enjoy it. It seems to have improved my technique dramatically (probably because I have to concentrate more). I've also spent a session at the climbing works which is an amazing bouldering (only) venue and I have even been on outdoor trip to Bamford which was enjoyable despite the cold weather (we were quite lucky in retrospect as it snowed heavily the following day). I am also enrolled on a 2 day course that will teach me how to set up ropes outside that should hopefully grant the freedom to climb anywhere (provided I have the equipment).

Birthday

It was my birthday a couple of days ago which I will be celebrating tomorrow (due to the fact I had a 9am lecture on the 25th). Thank you all for the well wishes and the presents I received, including the Band of Brothers Blu-ray boxset!

Returned from Les Arcs

Posted: 31st January 2010

I have now returned from Les Arcs, thankfully with only a strong cold which I seemed to have picked up from someone. Its certainly pleasant that my legs aren't aching likely they normally do after this kind of holiday, my technique must be improving. I apologise for not updating via Twitter but there were crossed wires between Barclays and Vodafone meaning that I couldn't top up my phone at all during my stay in France (well, I could have bought an international top-up card but I thought it wou'dn't be worth it). I have uploaded the best photos from the holiday (taken with my new Panasonic Lumix F515 (which is very good by the way)).

As for whats coming up next - I need to catch up on the lectures I missed from the last week, finish a report and will probably be going climbing at Stanage Edge next Sunday. Looking forward to it all!

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