SIGGRAPH Asia was back in Singapore in 2012, from 28 Nov to 1 Dec 2012. Being in close proximity meant that I was able to attend the conference without too much of a hassle. This is the third SIGGRAPH conference that I have attended. It was the usual mix of technical papers, courses, art gallery, electronic theatre, exhibition etc, for yet another great year of computer graphics advancement showcase.

At the SIGGRAPH Asia 2012 Houdini booth

What really impressed me this time were the Nvidia tech talks. There were many sessions on a variety of topics, mostly revolving round how to fully utilize their new Tegra mobile technology and their Maximus technology (Tesla + Quadro). The Tegra chip, being on a mobile device, is great for augmented reality and computer vision tasks because of all the different sensors that typically come with these devices. Nvidia has created several demos that demonstrate these capabilities, including an OpenCV demo. As for their Maximus technology, there was a talk on how to develop an optimized Maya plugin using CUDA to perform real-time simulation and OpenGL to draw in the viewport interactively. There were a lot of other related GPU talks. What’s truly great about these Nvidia talks was that they were absolutely free to attend – anyone could just register for a free exhibitors-only pass and attend these Nvidia tech talks at no cost. Talk about willingness to share knowledge with the general audience!

One of the excellent Nvidia tech talks

Other than the Nvidia talks, I also attended the “Color and Photos” technical paper presentation, the “GPU Compute for Graphics” course, Pixar’s overview of their latest RenderMan technology, walked around the exhibition area and surveyed the Art Gallery where an old friend of mine had a showcase – amazing!

All in all, I have learnt a lot of new knowledge, got a few new implementation ideas, met up with several old friends and colleagues, and even grabbed a Houdini t-shirt during the Houdini Tips and Tricks session (oh, such a fanboy!):

The SideFX 25th Anniversary baseball-style t-shirt

It was another great SIGGRAPH conference. More to come in the future!