topical media & game development
[] readme course(s) preface I 1 2 II 3 4 III 5 6 7 IV 8 9 10 V 11 12 afterthought(s) appendix reference(s) example(s) resource(s) _

talk show tell print

print / present / tag(s)

part ii. delivery & presentation

if you linger for a long time in one place you'd almost think there must be something there

wittgenstein

delivery & presentation


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2

reading directives

 In this part we will look at the issues involved in delivery and presentation, primarily from a technical perspective. We will argue the importance of codecs (read compression), and we will discuss the criteria for selecting a particular codec, as well as the standards that have been developed for packaging multimedia content in an effective way. In chapter 4, we will discuss multimedia presentation platforms, and we will look at the Microsoft DirectX 9 platform in somewhat greater detail.

Essential sections are section 3.1, which introduces codecs, 3.2, which discusses the MPEG-4 and SMIL standards and section 4.1, with puts the development of high-end multimedia platforms in a historical perspective. Sections 3.3 and 4.3 can safely be skipped on first reading.

perspectives

As you can see below, the topics introduced in this part are not only relevant from a technical perspective. Other perspectives are equally valid:

perspectives -- delivery & presentation


  • technical -- codec selection
  • political -- market vs. consortium
  • sociological -- digital services
  • legal -- copyright protection
  • scientific -- experience design
  • computer science -- computational support
  • futuristic -- global & personal information
  • commercial -- WMV, Quicktime, RealONE
For example, the issues of copyrights and copyright protection are hot topics, since the rise of the internet is obviously a threat to the tradional industries of music and film distribution.

essay topics

Since many of the interesting topics will only be hinted, you may select on or more topics for further investigation and study. As essay titles I would suggest:
  • multimedia standards -- MPEG4
  • XML-based multimedia -- SMIL
  • multimedia technology -- the DirectX 9 toolbox
When you write the essay, then assess first from which perspective you will tackle the subject. When you approach the material from a technical perspective, then make sure that you do understand the technical issues in sufficient detail.

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3

the artwork

  1. logo -- a drawing by Soutine, it is (almost) my personal logo, and also decorates the cover of  [OO].
  2. signs -- property marks,  [Signs], p. 76, 77.
  3. photographs -- Jaap Stahlie, commissioned work.
[] readme course(s) preface I 1 2 II 3 4 III 5 6 7 IV 8 9 10 V 11 12 afterthought(s) appendix reference(s) example(s) resource(s) _

(C) Æliens 04/09/2009

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