Driver Madness

Driver developer Ubisoft Reflections has rewarded four students in north east England with six-month contracts, following a competition run by Teesside University.

The third annual Vis (Visualisation) Awards saw Ole Kristian Homelien win the games programming award, Justin Lim the games design award, Wei Xing Yong the character animation prize and Peter Adamson the modelling award.

Lindsey Hinton also won the "Life's a Pitch" award sponsored by Children's BBC, while Sara Ross won the digital music award. Ross will receive a work experience placement at digital music studio Loft Music.

"We were very pleased that the University of Teesside invited us to sponsor these awards; we were able to spot some new creative talent to further our success as a developer of successful driving games," said Reflections general manager Giselle Stewart. "We were particularly excited about the calibre of students who won the internships and we hope it will be the start of an exciting career within Ubisoft for them."

The Vis Awards were also sponsored by Codeworks, North East England's centre for digital innovation. The organisation attempts to retain talent within the region, with its own placement schemes and liaisons with local universities.

Scottish minister on charm offensive after Realtime Worlds threatens to leave

Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy has pledged to support the Scottish videogame sector, just days after Dundee-based Realtime Worlds suggested it would leave Britain unless tax relief is introduced.

Murphy made his pledge to support the industry after talks with Realtime Worlds owner Dave Jones.

“We have had a discussion about tax breaks and ways to support the industry,” said Murphy, speaking to The Evening Telegraph.

“France have introduced tax breaks and we want to talk more about that and we will listen to any strong case being made; we want to do whatever we can to help.”

Murphy added that Brown’s Government wants Scotland to be a world centre of excellence.


“Dundee is the Scottish centre of excellence in this industry — I want to be very clear about that,” added Murphy.

“The games industry has a big future and Dundee has a big future to play in that, in Scotland, in the UK and wider.

Description
A fantastic opportunity for an experienced Physics Programmer to work with an award winning studio based in the North of England. My client is one of the world’s leading developers of Driving Games and has been established for over 19 years. It is a great location with a mix of the modern and historic, renowned for its excellent shopping and amazing nightlife it is a great place to live. What you must be aware of: - How to optimize existing / future rendering code - A wide variety of graphics algorithms - Optimization techniques, how to identify bottlenecks and memory issues - How to develop the entire graphics pipeline, from plugins, exporters and asset conditioning through to the runtime systems - A variety of special FX techniques What you must know: - C/C++ programming languages to a high level - 3D graphics APIs (Direct3D 9+ and/or OpenGL) to a high standard - Strong 3D maths and application within computer graphics - Mathematics to A-Level or Degree Level - Multithreaded/SPU programming

Description
A fantastic opportunity for an experienced Physics Programmer to work with an award winning studio based in the North of England. My client is one of the world’s leading developers of Driving Games and has been established for over 19 years. It is a great location with a mix of the modern and historic, renowned for its excellent shopping and amazing nightlife it is a great place to live. What you must be aware of: - How to simulate both Tyres and Suspension to a high level - How to optimize existing / future rendering code - A wide variety of graphics algorithms - Optimization techniques, how to identify bottlenecks and memory issues - How to develop the entire graphics pipeline, from plugins, exporters and asset conditioning through to the runtime systems What you must know: - C/C++ programming languages to a high level - 3D graphics APIs (Direct3D 9+ and/or OpenGL) - 3D Math and application within computer graphics - You will have a degree/postgraduate in physics, maths, engineering or similar vehicle dynamics knowledge: suspension setup / drivetrain / control systems - You will be competent in Console Programming / AI / Python / Excel VBA

Description
A fantastic opportunity for an experienced Physics Programmer to work with an award winning studio based in the North of England. My client is one of the world’s leading developers of Driving Games and has been established for over 19 years. It is a great location with a mix of the modern and historic, renowned for its excellent shopping and amazing nightlife it is a great place to live. Main duties include: - Commercial game physics packages - Various optimization techniques What you must be able to do: - Support and interface with the game project team to solve physics - Maintain and enhance the stability, quality and variety of game physics elements - Optimize the existing physics code - Implement physics solutions using physics middleware - Provide support for existing physics systems What you must know: - C/C++ programming languages to a high standard - Superior 3D maths to a high level - How to write simulation code for components such as collisions, contact force calculation, fluid dynamics - Multithreaded/SPU programming - Development of next-gen consoles including Xbox 360 and PS3 - Physics APIs including Havok or PhysX