SIGGRAPH 2022 Levels Up Immersive and Transformative Technology With Exciting Demonstrations and Presentations in Gaming Through Real-Time Live!, Appy Hour, and Courses Programs

From Machine Learning to Augmented Reality Mobile Apps, Top Creators and Innovators Will Share Their Latest Research and Breakthroughs

CHICAGO, July 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SIGGRAPH 2022 is showcasing the latest gaming innovations with the Appy Hour, Courses, and Real-Time Live! programs. With more than 100 selected projects as part of these programs, SIGGRAPH offers a platform to emphasize breakthrough presentations and demonstrations in next-generation technology. The projects cover exciting research, design, and animation in gaming and live demonstrations. The 49th annual conference will run 8–11 August in person, with on-demand sessions from researchers available virtually 25 July–31 October 2022.

With games and gaming, innovation is key. These programs explore the latest in computer graphics and immersion technologies, and offer presentations and sessions from visionaries and creators from the game industry.

"I'm thrilled to share various innovations that will be a part of the games focus area at SIGGRAPH 2022," said SIGGRAPH 2022 Games Chair Elizabeth Baumel. "This year's works show how gaming can spread across multiple programs and allow technological exploration beyond the usual applications. The SIGGRAPH Games platform continues to generate excitement in the gaming market by providing opportunities to discover the advancements made in the industry."

Real-Time Live! focuses on real-time technology demonstrations from scientific visualization to augmented reality. If projects feature transformative technology, the Real-Time Live! Program is the place to discover it all.

"The unique and fun part of the Real-Time Live! program is that anything can happen," stated SIGGRAPH 2022 Real-Time Live! Chair Yibing Jiang. "Participants and attendees will experience demonstrations of technologies live and in person. We get to experience both the excitement and apprehension of demos being held live, from real-time rendering and facial rigging technology to photorealistic 3D reconstruction, and more."

The Courses program is where experts are invited to share their knowledge of the computer graphics industry, whether they are researchers, academics, or practitioners. The Courses program covers a wide variety of topics, from foundational skills to next-generation technology developments.

"We have a number of topics being covered this year, as well as fan-favorite Natalya Tatarchuk presenting Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games Pt. 1 & 2, and a new two-part course on the Metaverse," said SIGGRAPH 2022 Courses Chair Tamar Shinar. "Courses is the opportunity to learn key concepts and expand horizons either in person in Vancouver or virtually."

Through the Appy Hour program, participants can discover the creative and innovative applications that a mobile device can do. Attendees interact with developers and experience the future of mobile media. Appy Hour at SIGGRAPH 2022 will feature everything from education to machine learning to augmented reality.

"We're excited to provide attendees with a fun, festive atmosphere now that we're back in person," said SIGGRAPH 2022 General Submissions Chair Chris Redmann. "Participants can interact with developers and discover all the various innovations from this year's astonishing submissions."

Game highlights from these three programs at SIGGRAPH 2022 include:

FUTURE.STAGE by Evil Eye Pictures & Patrick Osborne
Contributors: Dan Rosen, Yovel Schwartz, Alastair Macleod, Justin Schubert, Brian Smith, Ben Peck, Andrew Angulo, Evil Eye Pictures LLC; Patrick Osborne, Paid Time Off, Inc. and Evil Eye Pictures LLC; James Ritts, Evil Eye Pictures LLC and Haiba LLC
This improvised comedy show asks audience members to submit suggestions using a web portal. The collaboration tools will coordinate the distributed components to help the remote performers act out the live "rideshare" performance that incorporates the suggestion.

Real Time Technologies for Realistic Digital Humans: Facial Performance and Hair Simulation
Contributors: Krasimir Nechevski, Daniel Gagiu, Unity Technologies
This presentation demonstrates how Ziva's proprietary machine-learning processes can improve the overall quality of RT3D faces for all productions while simplifying and accelerating the overall production workflow and enabling mass production of high-performance real-time characters.

Instant Neural Radiance Fields
Contributors: Thomas Müller, Alex Evans, Isaac Deutsch, András Bódis-Szomorú, Michael Shelley, Christoph Schied, Marco Foco, Alexander Keller, NVIDIA
This demonstration showcases a pipeline that begins with a SLAM implementation that tracks and fuses frames from an RGB-Depth camera; this computes the camera pose by dense frame-to-model tracking and streams both the images and the computed camera poses to the NeRF algorithm in real time.

A Showcase of Decima Engine in Horizon Forbidden West
Contributors: Hugh Malan, Guerrilla; Maarten van der Gaag, Guerrilla-Games
Get a behind-the-scenes look at some of the real-time systems that drive the rich dynamism of the world of Horizon. This presentation showcases a number of features of the Decima Engine that power the visuals and gameplay in Horizon Forbidden West.

AI and Physics Assisted Character Pose Authoring^© 2022 Unity Technologies
Contributors: Florent Bocquelet, Boris Oreshkin, Dominic Laflamme, Felix Harvey, Louis-Simon Ménard, Jeremy Cowles, Bay Raitt, Unity Technologies
To make authoring character poses easier on users, this tool leverages both machine learning and a physics engine to enable users with no artistic experience to author natural-looking poses in a few seconds.

Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games: Pt. 1 & 2
Contributors: Natalya Tatarchuk, Unity Technologies
This research brings state-of-the-art and production-proven rendering techniques for fast, interactive rendering of complex and engaging virtual worlds of video games. Learn how to push the visual boundaries by employing a variety of sophisticated algorithms to produce groundbreaking 3D rendering during this two-part course.

Rosita's Cocina
Contributors: Charles Reitcheck, Estela Antunez; University of Idaho
This project brings you on a journey of immigrants finding it hard to maintain their culture after being removed from their homes. Rosita's Cocina is designed to help kids learn about their family's history, language, and traditional food.

Light & Shadow AR App
Contributors: Paulo Majano, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
The Light & Shadow Augmented Reality app allows you to step into a full-size portrait lighting studio workshop from anywhere in the world. Learn all about studio lighting setups in 3D, plus gain more knowledge on light placement for portrait photography.

Trios: Stylistic Rendering of 3D Photos
Contributors: Ulrike Bath, Sumit Shekhar, Jürgen Döllner, Matthias Trapp, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam; Hendrik Tjabben, Adobe Systems Engineering GmbH and Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam; Amir Semmo, Digital Masterpieces GmbH; Sebastian Pasewaldt, Digital Masterpieces GmbH and Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam
This mobile app enables users to render and stylize 3D photos. The user interface provides interactive control over a variety of artistic filters, both classical and neural, as well as rendering aspects of 3D photos.

Access to SIGGRAPH 2022 Appy Hour, Courses, Games, and Real-Time Live! programming is available at varying registration levels. Learn more and register for the conference at s2022.SIGGRAPH.org/register.

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field's challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world's leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2022, the 49th annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place as a hybrid event, with live events 8–11 August at the Vancouver Contention Centre and virtual content available starting 25 July through 31 October. Click here for news from the conference and its partners.

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