The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) is one of the only UK universities to incorporate 3D technology into its games development and teaching through a unique industry partnership with the Stereoscopic 3D group at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE).

Three recent UCLan games development graduates included 3D stereoscopic rendering in their final year project, which is a technique used to create the illusion of depth in an image, and returned to the University to present their work to senior developers from the technology giant.

They worked closely with the PlayStation® 3D technology experts to incorporate the latest gaming developments into their work with resounding success.

All of the projects used stereoscopic techniques to enhance the realism of graphics within a game. The graduates’ work included a project focused on 3D environments with complex lighting effects, another using component based entities, which allows the ‘world’ inside a game to be as realistic as possible such as a fire spreading in a similar way that it would in real life and also the important subject of optimisation: researching ways to make 3D stereoscopic games run faster.

“It’s been great working with UCLan because the staff are keen to move with developments and have taken on board a vision of 3D gaming. They are providing their students with industry informed skills that are very much needed in the future of gaming.”

Simon Benson, Senior Development Manager SCEE, commented: “I’ve been extremely impressed with the graduates’ work and it shows what potential they have going into the gaming industry.

“It’s been great working with UCLan because the staff are keen to move with developments and have taken on board a vision of 3D gaming. They are providing their students with industry informed skills that are very much needed in the future of gaming.”

Ian Bickerstaff, a Senior Engineer at SCEE, said: “The work we’ve seen is high quality and at the cutting edge of games development. The industry is in the early stages of 3D gaming and these students are already pushing the boundaries and finding ways to improve the standard of what is the next generation of gaming.”

Stuart Brown has just graduated with a first-class degree in games development from UCLan. He said: “Being able to work with a company like Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and draw on their expertise has been really beneficial to me. I’ve had a real insight to what it’s like working in the games development industry.”

Fellow graduate Tom Russell has also received a first-class Games Development degree. He commented: “I’ve received some positive feedback from Simon and Ian today as well as help with the various techniques available to improve my work. To have such knowledgeable industry experts on hand for advice is invaluable.”

“The industry is in the early stages of 3D gaming and these students are already pushing the boundaries and finding ways to improve the standard of what is the next generation of gaming.”

UCLan’s relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has also enabled 40 games development students from the University to take part in a stereoscopic user trial looking into the 3D gaming experience. SCEE will present the students’ findings at the 3D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles.

The UCLan students conducted research to assess the competitive advantage provided by 3D stereoscopic gaming. This involved an experiment to test a player’s performance in a game, with and without the 3D stereoscopic effect, to measure success.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe provided UCLan with two 60 inch 3D televisions, 3D stereoscopic glasses, a Playstation®3 and all the 3D stereoscopic titles available to establish a 3D research laboratory.

UCLan Senior Lecturer in software engineering, Laurent Noel, said: “This collaboration in the field of Stereoscopic research has proved of immeasurable benefit to our BSc Games Development students.

“UCLan is already well known for the technical strength of its games degree. Now it is far ahead in the field in providing undergraduates experience of working with a major company on a cutting edge technical topic. Having stereoscopic skills and experience gives our students an incredible edge when it comes to employment prospects.”

The University aims to work with SCEE to support larger scale trials in the future and is already in talks with the company to incorporate 3D research into its TV Production courses to provide students with experience of filming and producing footage in 3D.

www.uclan.ac.uk