Interview with Corrinne Yu, Principal Engine Architect at Halo Team

[green.pixel]

http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/Insi...incipal-Engine-Architect-Halo-Team-Microsoft/

• Almost 20 years of programming experience in large companies
  
• Programmed games and engines since the beginning of the 3D game industry and was an early pioneer of game engine development.
  
• Worked as Director of Technology of several 3D game companies like ION Storm and Gearbox
  
• Lead Programmer of an early version of the Prey engine.
  
• Founding member of Microsoft's Direct 3D Advisory Board and Graphics Advisory Board
  
• Programmed on the Space Shuttle Project at Rockwell International California
  
• Designed and conducted accelerator experiments at LINAC in California and the accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory
  
• Won a national award from the U.S. Department of Energy on nuclear physics research
  
• Volunteered time in the past to advise on CUDA, visual computer and GPU simulation at NVidia.
  
• Remains active on the GAB and continues to volunteer time to review the designs of new Direct 3Ds

Very very impressive resume! And she's a girl.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Married to Kenneth Scott, ex-artist at id Software, now the head art director of the MS Halo team. Makes you kinda wonder about what their future kids are going to accomplish

 

[Richard]

I remember when she was one of the first people to ask Carmack specific technical (3D) engine questions back in the early QuakeCon keynotes (unofficially in 1996, officially starting from 1997 onwards).

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I recognised her name straight off from the days when she was writing the Prey Engine. I think she was brought in after the first mass walkout, but of course that work came to nothing in the end.

 

[repi]

Corrinne is awesome

 

[Grall]

No wonder 3DRealms managed to bankrupt themselves, firing a person like Corrinne Yu. Idiots...

While gender really plays no part in it (or shouldn't anyway), it really is fun to see successful women in this business even though there aren't nearly as many as there should be. It shows that gaming is starting to grow up after all and become a more mainstream form of entertainment.

 

[assen]

She should stick to email interviews, maybe then someone will actually discuss what she said, not here chromosome configuration.

 

[Florin]

She should stick to email interviews, maybe then someone will actually discuss what she said, not here chromosome configuration.

Is she hot, btw?

 

[NRP]

She should stick to email interviews, maybe then someone will actually discuss what she said, not here chromosome configuration.

It seemed to me that all she basically said was "Game development is hard".






But I may have been distracted by the . . . er . . chromosome configuration.

 

[green.pixel]

Is she hot, btw?

What say you?

 

[BadTB25]

I just finished watching the interview...brains and beauty for sure.
Even though I didn't understand most of it, she seems to be very intelligent and has some interesting takes on the future of graphics, language and game development.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Yeesh, I remember when she got hired on by ION Storm. Couldn't help thinking it was unfortunate at the time that she got hooked up with Romero and company. Glad to see that didn't end up dragging her down.

She's very smart and was an excellant technology director at the time, well I suppose still is.

Regards,
SB

 

[archie4oz]

Is she hot, btw?

Yes. Had a blast hanging out w/her @E3 this year, recanting memories of the epic "Corrine vs. Everybody discussion on shadow volumes vs. shadow maps."

 

[L. Scofield]

Really fun and interesting interview. My favorite part is when she says gamers need levels to know when to stop playing

Also, I wonder if some of the stuff she talks about is actually going to be used (or it's already in use) on Halo Reach. For example, sub surface scattering, soft body physics (via finite element analysis), tesselation, etc...

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Also her comments about excitement about doing stuff with Dx11. I'm wondering if that's in reference of just personal interest, a PC project shock, or an engine for the next Xbox... She seemed really genuinely excited to start working on Dx11 stuff though.

And yeah, caught the mention of volume texture maps which I can only assume might be used with tesselation (not a 3D programmer, so don't be shy to clue me in if I'm waaaay off base. ).

Regards,
SB

 

[NRP]

What is her academic background? Physicist? Software Engineer? Mathematics? All? None?

Seems like she is well versed in multiple disciplines. Also seems like she's been around for a while, given that she once programmed Fortran code on punch cards.

Finally, she said she is programming for the 360, so I guess that could mean her team will release a 360 game? Or does she just work on technologies for other devs?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I'm not sure how much hands on she is with actual engine developement. I remember she used to be quite heavy into theoretical algorhythms and rendering schemes. Hence, why she was generally the technical director...

I'm not sure she's in the same area as Tim Sweeney or Carmack with regards to investigating, researching, and implementing new rendering techniques, but if she isn't, she's pretty darn close. She just doesn't code her own engines as far as I'm aware.

Regards,
SB

 

[Acert93]

With millions of lines of code, none of these guys is coding the entire engine anymore.

 

[makattack]

Good grief. When she started talking about projection transforms, integrals, finite element analysis, and geometric algorithms (?? what is this? My background is mostly with cryptographic algorithms, so my first thought is: elliptic curve crypto) I nearly felt like raising my hands and saying "Professor, can you please slow down and repeat what you just said..."

She's my age... her husband is one lucky fellow.

 

[Richard]

geometric algorithms (?? what is this? My background is mostly with cryptographic algorithms, so my first thought is: elliptic curve crypto)

I haven't watched the interview yet so I don't know the context but on first blush it appears she is talking about asymptotic complexity. Hmm maybe I'll find time to watch this.