Village Gamer

SIGGRAPH announces the 2011 Call for Submissions for contributors and volunteers for the 38th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, Sunday 7 August through Thursday, 11 August 2011 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. This marks the first time that SIGGRAPH (North America) will be held outside of the United States.

From students to studio executives, from scientists to researchers, SIGGRAPH is home to the best and brightest minds in computer graphics. The theme behind SIGGRAPH 2011 is to “Make it Home” based along the philosophical idea that “home” is a positive place where everyone gathers, and they are free to exchange ideas and different outlooks. Home is a place where bonds are made or strengthened and sharing is a core belief.

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“We are excited to call such a world-class city home for SIGGRAPH 2011, the first time in our history to be outside the United States: furthermore, we are encouraging our community to feel comfortable submitting and discussing wide-ranging ideas or concepts just as they would in their homes,” says Pete Braccio, SIGGRAPH 2011 Conference Chair from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. “Vancouver already has a broad and fertile computer graphics atmosphere, and it is our goal to enrich it even further with your help, ideas, and inspirations.”

All work submitted to SIGGRAPH 2011 through the Call for Submissions is reviewed by a highly qualified jury composed of top practitioners in the relevant field. Because each jury needs time to review each piece carefully, submission deadlines generally are several months before the conference. All submission deadlines are 22:00 UTC/GMT and are strictly enforced.

The latest submission deadlines are:

Art Gallery and Art Papers: Friday, 14 January 2011
Game Papers: Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Technical Papers: Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Student Volunteer Applications: Monday, 14 February 2011
General Submission (Courses, Emerging Technologies, Panels, Posters , Talks, The Studio): Friday, 18 February 2011
SIGGRAPH Dailies!: Friday, 18 February 2011
Real-Time Live!: Friday, 15 April 2011
Computer Animation Festival – Films: Friday, 15 April 2011
Late-Breaking Work (Late-Breaking Posters, Late-Breaking Talks): Friday, 6 May 2011
Computer Animation Festival – Animation Clinic: Tuesday, 10 May 2011

In 2011, Make It Home – To Vancouver

According to my Twitterfeed this morning, congratulations are due to David Lightbown, Senior Artistic Technical Director at Behaviour Interactive for being named as the winner of the Autodesk® Maya® Master Award. Check out his Autodesk interview on the Autodesk interview.

The Waldorf Hotel in Vancouver will be holding a Comic and Zine Fair on Sunday, December 19th from 11:30am – 7:00pm. The event will feature American artist Dame Darcy, who will be signing books and performing with her band, Death by Doll. Other comic artists and zine makers who will be in attendance include Ed Brisson, Robin Bougin, Cloudscape Comic Collective among others. Check out the event’s Facebook page for more information and table space availability.

The first nominees for the 2011 Canadian Video Game Awards have been announced: Dead Rising 2, Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, EA Sports Active 2, Trainyard, Lil Pirates and Top Bar. Make sure your favourite Canadian-made games of 2010 are nominated, submit your choices today. Please note that the nomination process does require Facebook Connect – I’ve noticed that a few people have stated that they will not send in their nominations due to that fact, and while it’s a step that I too could do without, I hope that it will not deter too many of you from nominating games to the awards process. We also use Facebook Connect on this site, as we thought it would make it more convenient for readers to comment on articles if they wanted – is this not the case? Do you find Facebook Connect to be an intrusion?

Webnames.ca President and Co-Founder Cybele Negris will be participating in the launch of Momcafé in the Fraser Valley on January 13th, 2011 (9:00 – 11:00a.m.). Join Cybele and Chillwack mayor Sharon Gaetz at the Clayburn Gourmet Gallery as they discuss how they have navigated their way through different career paths to find their passion while balancing the responsibilities of family. Childcare is available during this event, and a portion of ticket sales will be donated to Matthew’s House. Please see the registration page for complete list of ticket prices and options.

EA Sports has released two new videos for Fight Night Champion featuring boxer Andre Bishop. You can view Part One here, Part Two is also posted on our YouTube channel. Fight Night Champion takes the boxing experience one giant step forward by delivering an experience never before seen in an EA Sports video game. Fighting as contender Andre Bishop in an all-new story-based Champion Mode or as one of more than 50 legends or future champions, battle your way to the top in the boxing revolution that builds upon the best-in-class gameplay and physics engine of the critically acclaimed Fight Night Round 4.

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Indie studio SillySoft has released v1.12 of their board game-inspired title Castle Vox for the PC. The developers offer a free demo download which includes a Tutorial map, a Hex Barons medieval kings map, and a World War 2 – Axis vs Allies modern map.

The reasonable purchase price of $14.00 allows players to access  over 40 more hand-crafted maps including the American Civil War, the Hundred Years War, Napoleon, the Roman Empire and a Map Editor that can be used to create even more Geographic and Hex maps.

Play online multi-player games with once-a-day moves, or fast online skirmishes. Team-chat lets you collaborate in team scenarios. Achievements track your progress through the different wars. Impressive rank titles accompany your advances.

Rogers Communications Inc. has unveiled the company’s vision for tablet and mini tablet devices. Anchored by growing customer demand to be connected on multiple devices any time, any place, Rogers announced three new initiatives including new data sharing plans, the upcoming launch of Rogers On Demand Online for tablets and plans to introduce remote PVR capabilities on tablets and smartphones for its Rogers Digital Cable customers.

“The tablet is the command centre – a mobile hub through which our customers will be able to access everything in their world – from reading email for work to looking at photos, programming their televisions to turning on lights at home, checking on friends on Facebook and even updating their personal finances,” says John Boynton, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Rogers Communications. “Our role is to enable these experiences seamlessly and reliably across all devices. Our announcement today reflects our commitment to ensuring we continue to meet the evolving needs of our customers.”

Rogers also unveiled the results of a recent poll of tablet and non-tablet owners, conducted by the Strategic Counsel. Close to 60 per cent of those surveyed who currently do not own a tablet agree that tablets will transform the way we live, work and play, and 42 per cent say they plan to purchase a tablet within the next year. Of those surveyed who have already purchased a tablet, the vast majority (69 per cent) claim they take their tablet everywhere they go and 58 per cent state their tablet is typically the first device they turn on in the morning.

“What we are seeing is a shift from one device to many devices connected together, anytime, anyplace,” Boynton continues. “The tablet is the dashboard for the highways of tomorrow, where people can easily access the same personalized experiences at work, in the home or on the go. We will provide the best tablet selection, integrate Rogers content on devices and build new pricing structures to make it easy for customers to make tablets part of their work, home and personal lives.”

Boynton made the remarks in a keynote speech at Rogers TabLife TO, an event Rogers organized to showcase the way tablets are changing the way we live work and play. The event brought industry leaders, manufacturers and experts to share experiences with tablets in communications, healthcare, business, media and entertainment. More information on Rogers TabLife TO conference can be found at www.tablife.ca.

A tablet-optimized version of Rogers On Demand Online will feature hours of primetime TV, movies, sports, music and will adapt perfectly to a variety of tablet screen sizes and operating systems. In 2011, customers will be able to go online on any tablet free of charge (standard data rates apply) to access Rogers On Demand as well as Rogers’ new Remote PVR service to set and manage recordings from any tablet, and smartphone anywhere, anytime. Rogers On Demand Online and Remote PVR for tablets will be available in early 2011. Read the rest of this entry »

The Q4 Canada Information Technology Report from Research and Markets, which provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, information technology associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Canada’s information technology industry is now available for purchase for approximately $780.00 (581.00 EUR). Here is a summary of what is contained in the report, but you can receive a sample of the actual report by registering on the Research and Markets site.

Market Overview

The Canadian addressable domestic market for IT products and services is projected by BMI to reach US$41.4bn in 2010 and US$47.5bn by 2014. Canada PC sales grew strongly in H110, with unit sales estimated by BMI at more than 3mn units, and new outsourcing and IT services contracts in the public and private sectors pointed to underlying demand potential.

In our core IT forecast scenario, market growth will be around 10% in 2010 and advance at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.6% over our five-year forecast period. Government spending in 2010 will be constrained by a focus on cutting costs, but a stimulus measure allowing business taxpayers to expense all of the value of their investment in computers and systems in one year is forecast to provide a boost to the IT market over the next two years.

The government’s digital economic strategy provides a framework for IT market growth, with a number of two-year programmes having been confirmed in the federal 2010 budget. Meanwhile, the consumer segment remains a bright spot, with a steadily improving unemployment situation supportive of consumer confidence.

Industry Developments

In its 2010 budget, delivered in March, the Canadian government confirmed plans to launch a digital economy strategy. In the 2009 budget, the government announced several two-year programmes, and much of the budget this year was focused on the roll-out of these existing plans rather than new funding initiatives. Among the initiatives confirmed from 2009 was Broadband Canada, which received US$225mn of funding over three years.

In the 2009 budget, the government introduced a subsidy for business computer hardware purchase, which is expected to have a major impact on the IT market. The measure proposed a 100% capital cost allowance rate for computer hardware and systems software acquired between January 27 2009 and February 1 2011. It has been estimated the measure could provide a US$700mn boost to the information and communication technology (ICT) market.

Competitive Landscape

International vendors dominate the Canadian PC market. HP, Acer and Dell were the leading vendors in Q210, ahead of rivals such as Toshiba and Lenovo. Telecoms operators have emerged as one significant channel for PC sales. This year, Canadian telecoms companies competed to offer bundling deals involving Apple’s iPad. Rogers and Bell both offered plans that gave users 250MB of data for CAD15 per month, as well as a high-end plan of 5GB of data for CAD35 per month.
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