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Remembering Lost Devs

As we approach the release of Saints Row, we here at Volition would like to honor those we’ve lost during development. Remembering Mike “IdolNinja” Watson Mike Watson was Volition’s Community Manager since 2014 until his passing in August 2021. One of the most caring and passionate humans…

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Rendering Technology in Agents of Mayhem

This talk, presented at GDC 2018, covers some of the main rendering technologies used on Volition’s ‘Agents of Mayhem’. The presentation includes Volition’s adaptation of Weighted Blended Order-Independent Transparency for use with additive as well as non-additive alpha. Also covered is Volition’s approach to tile-based deferred shading, which breaks shading…

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Volition sponsors the GAAM 2014 Charity Auction

Volition is proud to have sponsored the 2014 GAAM Summer Invitational Charity Auction last month which raised over $3000 for First Coast No More Homeless Pets and the Wounded Warrior Project. We also donated a unique piece of Saints Row IV concept art that had never been seen outside the studio,…

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Color Management 101

Lecture by Alex Mejia Alex Mejia, Senior Video Editor and Producer at Volition, gives an introductory overview about color management geared towards video game artists.  Key take away: Color management is so that two artists can see the same image when working across multiple displays, or mediums. Color…

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Physics of Fun

Lecture by Dave Bianchi at GDC 2014. One designer, 90+ vehicles, and only 6 months to go: that was the scenario David Bianchi, Designer at Volition, had coming onto Saints Row: The Third.  This talk is about taking on an overabundance of especially difficult system design work and turning…

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Free Range AI

Lecture by Aaron Canary at GDC 2014. When game worlds were simply linear presentations of rooms and corridors, it was acceptable to create AI that existed solely in those confined spaces.  As the industry moved to more open world games, static set-piece characters quickly broke the intended immersion of…

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Defining a Project Vision

Lecture by Greg Donovan at GDC 2014. Volition has experienced challenges when it comes to establishing a strong and clear project vision. Greg Donovan, Senior Producer, uses specific examples from the Saints Row franchise as well as a post-apocalyptic game that was ultimately cancelled to illustrate Volition’s history and…

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Audio Trip: Discovering Dolby ATMOS Theatre

Monday, July 2, the audio department went on a field trip to hear the launch of the new Dolby ATMOS theatre in Chicago.  Here is how this sound compares to other surround sound options (click image to learn more):

Movies which take advantage of the ATMOS system are developed with some similarities to games in that:

Individual sounds — like the debris hurling out of an explosion, or a voice booming ominously from the sky — are mapped to “objects,” which can be controlled dynamically and manipulated around the theater. There are two sides to the system — the rendering tool in the theater, and the tool that’s provided to the sound mixer, to create the objects and tag them with metadata.

This is the first time this kind of technology has been used in movies, and you can read lots more about it here:  http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/06/dolby-atmos-brave/all/

 

What did the audio guys think of it?

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Tuesday, August 16, 2022
As we approach the release of Saints Row, we here at Volition would like to honor those we’ve lost during development. Remembering Mi...
Monday, March 26, 2018
This talk, presented at GDC 2018, covers some of the main rendering technologies used on Volition’s ‘Agents of Mayhem’. The prese...
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Presented at GDC 2018 Volition has created a new and powerful spline-based modeling system. This system has enabled their developers to build a cit...
Monday, August 18, 2014
Volition is proud to have sponsored the 2014 GAAM Summer Invitational Charity Auction last month which raised over $3000 for First Coast No More Ho...
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Lecture by Alex Mejia Alex Mejia, Senior Video Editor and Producer at Volition, gives an introductory overview about color management geared toward...
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Lecture by Dave Bianchi at GDC 2014. One designer, 90+ vehicles, and only 6 months to go: that was the scenario David Bianchi, Designer at Volition...