Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman
After all the awards were handed out at the closing ceremony, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, as seen on TV's MythBusters, came on stage to give a demonstration of how a GPU differs from a CPU. And in true MythBuster's style they did it with a combination of robotics, devices that would make Rube Goldberg envious, and things that go "boom" (in this case, paintball guns).First up was their concept of the serial processing of a CPU. They devised a robot, which they dubbed "Leonardo," that rapid-fired paintballs at a target, creating the image of a smiley face. It was a pretty impressive sight, at least until the audience saw what came next. Leonardo did a good job, but wasn't up the challenge of creating a more complex work of art.
Then they unveiled their machine to simultaneously fired 1102 paint balls, a metaphor for the parallel processing power of a GPU, producing a copy of that most famous smile of all, the Mona Lisa.
It was an original, entertaining, and insightful end to a great conference.
Updated: See the full video of their demonstration in HD and Slow-Motion here!
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NVScene Winners
The NVScene program at NVISION 08 comprised the art, Demoscene, and Machinima programs. Demoscene is a community of artists, coders, and musicians who gather to create real-time, animated art. Machinima (machine + cinema) is the art of using game engines to create animation.The winners of the NVArt competition were:
1. Fusion, by Heiko Klug (seen below)
2. Cock and the Centipede, by Jason Lynch
3. When Tliali Calls You, by Carlos Ortega Elizalde
The Best Demoscene Demos were:
1. Stargazer, by Andromeda & Orb
2. Into the Pink, by Plastic
The Best Demoscene 4K Demos were:
1. Texas, by Keyboarders
2. Receptor, by TBC
The Machinima award went to Server Side, by Cyphermind
And the NVISION 08 Judge's Award went to The Ship, by Mednios
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Emerging Companies Summit
One of the most exciting events of NVISION was part of the professional track. The Emerging Companies Summit gathered together 350 people from 60 up-and-coming visual companies to collaborate and learn from one another.These companies have produced some of the most exciting innovations in visual computing that have been seen in years, many of which were on display in the Exhibit Hall or demonstrated during various presentations during NVISION 08.
Two companies in particular were called out during the NVISION 08 closing ceremony as deserving of special notice.
The award for Best Application of Visual Computing went to Total Immersion for their concept of "augmented reality," which combines features of the real world with a virtual environment.
And the award for Most Promising Emerging Company went to Nurien Software, for their work in combining graphics, virtual worlds, and social networking.
Emerging Companies Summit Keynote Video
Click here to download as 196MB 720P Quicktime movie
ESWC Winners
The finals of the Electronic Sports World Cup were held in conjunction with NVISION. Teams of professional gamers from 53 countries battled it out for the title of best in the world in five games. The winners of the tournaments were as follows:Counterstrike: PGS.MYM, Poland
Counterstrike Women: SK-GAMING, USA
Quake 3: CYPHER, Belarus
DOTA: ZENITH, Singapore
Warcraft 3: WHO, Korea
Trackmania: FROST BUELE, Sweden
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Guinness World Record
The Guinness World Record for the longest continuous LAN party with over 100 participants was set today at NVISION 08. 203 hardcore gamers kept going for 36 straight hours!Congratulations to all who participated!
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See you all at NVISION 09.
Also be sure head on over to the official NVISION Blog, but also remember to check back here often as we continue to add to the list of the day's highlights.
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