Session 1: 9:00-10:45

09:00-09:30 Anthony Steed: Overview & Introduction

09:30-10.00 Anthony Steed: Requirements and Constraints

10.00–10.45 Anthony Steed: Latency

Session 2: 11:00-12:45

11:00-11:45 Anthony Steed: Bandwidth Management & Scalability

11:45-12:15 Anthony Steed: Application Support & Recent Research

12:15-12:45 Anthony Steed: Conclusion, Q & A, More Demos

There are five parts to the material:

Part 1: Overview (pptx | pdf)

Part 2: Requirements and Constraints (pptx | pdf)

Part 3: Latency (pptx | pdf)

Part 4: Bandwidth Management and Scalability (pptx | pdf)

Part 5: Application Support and Recent Research (pptx | pdf)

Abstract

Our course will introduce attendees to best practice and recent advances in the networking of graphics applications. We take a broad view of networked graphics, including the domains of network games, virtual reality and networked simulations. We start by demonstrating why networked graphics applications have different requirements on the network compared to “normal” applications. We then pay particular attention to the issues of latency and scalability. We include some more detailed case studies including EA’s BurnoutTM Paradise, Linden Labs’ Second Life and the DIS standard.

Target Audience

The audience will be doctoral students, engineers and others interested in developing or exploiting networked graphics, ranging from computer games through to collaborative immersive virtual reality. They will have some awareness of networking, such as what the Internet Protocols are. The expected value is that the audience will be much better placed to access the enormous, but diverse, resources that can support their own experiments. This is not a boilerplate coding course, but we will make available some example code that tutees can use immediately if they wish.

Materials

The materials are copyright the authors. Please let us know if you plan to use them.

• Slides Part 1 (pptx, pdf)
• Slides Part 2 (pptx, pdf)
• Slides Part 3 (pptx, pdf)
• Slides Part 4 (pptx, pdf)
• Timetable & Overview (docx, pdf)

We prepared too much material for the course and had to adapt the later slide sets as the day carried on. Part 1 took approximately 2.5 hours to cover, partly because the early material is material that AS knows extremely well. Thus Part 2,3 and 4 were shortened. Lots of the slides are hidden in the pptx files as we couldn’t envisage covering it. We went fast through some of the sections on dead-reckoning, playout delays. There was not time for the case studies of DIS, Second Life or Burnout Paradise. We did spend some time with Wireshark, and looking at Quake 3 network traffic.

The material is thus suitable for a 9-12 hour course depending on the level of the audience. We don’t cover a lot of areas of the book. Let us know if any particular area is of great interest.

We would be happy to hear from anyone who would be interested in having us give this course at their university or company.

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13