Personal information Experience Education

D a n i e l
Personal
information
Name
Daniel Pohl
Address
Saarbrücken, Germany
E-Mail: daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
Experience
Since 03/2007
Research Scientist
Intel Deutschland GmbH / Intel Corporation
Innovating in computer graphics, especially
virtual reality
real-time ray tracing for games
in-home streaming
cloud gaming
Since 05/2011: Saarbrücken
01/2008 – 04/2011: Santa Clara, California
Intel Headquarter “Silicon Valley”
03/2007 – 12/2007: Erlangen
(home office)
Since 03/2005
Freelancing journalist
Gamestar (IDG Verlag), Munich
Writing articles about games and technology
Education
10/2000 – 09/2006
Master’s degree Computer Science
University Erlangen-Nürnberg
Main topics
Computer graphics
Network technologies
Software engineering
Master Thesis
Interactive ray tracing for large, dynamic
game scenarios
Degree
Master's degree (“Diplom-Informatiker“)
Grade (German system): 1.5 (very good)
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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P o h l
D a n i e l
Skills
Virtual reality, Ray tracing, OpenGL,
distributed rendering
Graphics
C, C++, HTML and others as required
Programming
languages
OS-independent programming with libSDL,
network programming, multi-threading
Other tech
Creating and presenting impressive demos.
Speaker or exhibitor at various venues (e.g. Intel
Developer Forum keynote, GDC, Siggraph)
Tech evangelism
Patents
US Patent
Distortion Meshes Against Chromatic Aberrations
Patent pending - (filing number 14/316,322)
Others
Several patent ideas at Intel-internal committee
Peer-reviewed
publications
IEEE VR 2016
(accepted)
See what I see: concepts to improve the social
acceptance of HMDs
Daniel Pohl and Carlos Fernandez de Tejada
IEEE VR 2016
(accepted)
Combining Eye Tracking with Optimizations for Lens
Astigmatism in modern wide-angle HMDs
Daniel Pohl, Xucong Zhang and Andreas Bulling
IEEE VR 2015
Using Astigmatism in Wide Angle HMDs to
Improve Rendering
Daniel Pohl, Timo Bolkart, Stefan Nickels and
Oliver Grau
International Journal of
Computer Science and
Applications (IJCSA)
2015
Advanced in-home streaming to mobile devices
and wearables
Daniel Pohl, Bartosz Taudul, Richard Membarth,
Stefan Nickels and Oliver Grau
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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D a n i e l
Federated Conference
on Computer Science
and Information Systems
(FedCSIS) 2014
High quality, low latency in-home streaming of
multimedia applications for mobile devices
Daniel Pohl, Stefan Nickels and Oliver Grau
Best Paper Award
ACM Virtual Reality
Software and
Technology (VRST)
2013
Improved Pre-Warping for Wide Angle, Head
Mounted Displays
Daniel Pohl, Gregory S. Johnson and Timo Bolkart
34. Jahrestagung der
Gesellschaft für
Informatik 2004
Ray Tracing For Current And Future Games
Jörg Schmittler, Daniel Pohl, Tim Dahmen, Christian
Vogelgesang and Philipp Slusallek
Technical
articles
Intel Developer Zone
2012
Tracing Rays Through the Cloud
Intel Developer Zone
2011
Experimental Cloud-based Ray Tracing Using Intel®
MIC Architecture for Highly Parallel Visual Processing
Intel Developer Zone
2009
Quake Wars Gets Ray Traced
PC Perspective 2008
Ray Tracing and Gaming - One Year Later
PC Perspective 2006
Ray Tracing and Gaming
Saarbrücken, April 2016
Daniel Pohl
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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P o h l
D a n i e l
Appendix:
Virtual Reality
(2013-2016)
Projects
Researched rendering improvements for image
quality and performance regarding lens
distortions in head-mounted displays like the
Oculus Rift.
•
• Implemented
renderer with eye tracking
calibration procedure and foveated rendering to
save performance in the Oculus Rift DK2.
Advanced
in-home streaming
(2012-2014)
•
Innovating in the area of in-home streaming to
reduce latency by a factor of 2 plus increased
image quality.
•
•
•
Streamed app feels like running locally.
Open-sourced the frame work.
Android NDK app. Server: Windows, Linux, Mac.
(Left: Streamed ray tracing on a smartwatch.
Right: Driving an HMD wireless from a PC.)
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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D a n i e l
Wolfenstein:
Ray Traced
(2010 – 2011)
Enhancing the new Wolfenstein game with ray tracing
• Created vision and founded the project to
demonstrate benefits of Intel’s Xeon Phi
hardware.
• Developed cloud-based rendering setup for realtime performance from servers towards thin
clients.
• Programmed the cloud setup with server and
client code in C++ to run under Windows and
Linux, added basic game code, support for new
model formats, animations etc. in C++;
implemented all shaders in self-created shading
language, orientated at HLSL
• Enhanced original content with high detail
chandelier model, car with reflections, a multiscreen surveillance station etc.
• Modified the game content to deliver best
performance using ray tracing (e.g. modifications
to handle 250 light sources, removing two-sided
geometry etc.)
• Implemented particle system with scripting
language
• Achieved close to linear performance scaling in
the cloud
• Support for notebooks and netbooks as thin
clients to run (streamed) fully ray traced games
• Support for up to eight Xeon Phi cards in a single
machine to combine their calculation power
(comparable to SLI/CrossFireX, but better scaling)
• Showing demos at various venues like Intel
Developer Forum
• Huge press feedback on almost all major tech
sites
• Received various Intel-internal awards
Webpage with screenshots and video: www.wolfrt.de
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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D a n i e l
Quake Wars:
Ray Traced
(2008 – 2009)
Enhancing “Enemy Territory: Quake Wars” with ray
tracing.
• Created vision and founded the project to
demonstrate benefits of modern multi-core
architectures, to highlight technology leadership
and find research topics for ray tracing in games
• Support for new model formats, animations, multithreaded skinning etc. in C++; implemented all
shaders in HLSL-like language
• Worked with ray tracing library team on
requirements,
APIs,
bug
fixes,
tutorials,
performance optimizations etc.
• Enhanced and modified original game content to
deliver the best experience in a ray tracer.
Examples are adding a reflecting scope to a
sniper rifle, a physically correct simulated dome
made of glass, various implementations for water
with reflections and refractions.
• Runs on Windows (32 and 64 bit) and Linux
• Worked with the team on porting the demo to
Larrabee
• Showing the work around the world (CeBIT,
SIGGRAPH, Games Convention, Research@Intel
Day) and in an Intel Developer Forum keynote as
the only Intel Larrabee graphics demo ever
• Huge press feedback on almost all major tech
sites.
“The game itself was vastly expanded when
compared to original title” - TGDaily
• Received various Intel-internal awards
Web page with screenshots and video: www.qwrt.de
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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D a n i e l
Quake 4:
Ray Traced
(2007)
Continuation of the Quake 4: Ray Traced university project
at Intel.
• Porting to the Intel-internal ray tracer
• Performance optimizations
• Working on a new ray tracing API
• Showing the work around the world, including a
keynote at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) with
Intel CTO Justin Rattner
Quake 4:
Ray Traced
(2006)
Master thesis. New effects include...
... optical special effects
• Support for Quake 4 shader scripting language
• Bumpmapping, specular mapping
• Texture filtering techniques
... for gaming
• New algorithms for collision detection through rays
• Loading Quake 4 maps
• Support for md5 model format
• Support for lwo model format
Web page with screenshots and video: www.q4rt.de
Pocket-Schafkopf
(2004)
Card game for Pocket PC (Windows CE).
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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Quake 3:
Ray Traced
(2004)
Student research
implemented…
project.
Several
features
were
… visually:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Real-time ray tracing engine (through OpenRT)
Per-pixel shadows, optionally colored
Soft shadows
Realistic glass with reflection and refraction
Mirror in mirror effects
Ground fog
Water shader with reflections and refractions
Camera portals
Shading support including texture animation,
blending, scaling
Bezier patches with high tessellation
... game-wise:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Loading Quake 3 maps
Support for md3 model format
Quake 3 like console
Integrated benchmark system
Offline rendering for saved demos
Realistic physics for weapons (e.g. grenades)
Collision detection for players and weapons
Player animations
Basic AI
HUD
Sounds
Web page with screenshots and video: www.q3rt.de
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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D a n i e l
Appendix:
Excerpt
of
press
articles
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1042436/intel-hires-quake-4-ray-trace-guy
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1001006/intel-raytraced-quake
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1036466/quake-ray-traced
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1006336/intel-pushes-raytracing-again
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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D a n i e l
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1018306/yorkfield-is-a-ray-trace-monster
http://www.tgdaily.com/business/36606-inside-intels-ray-tracing-research
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Rendering-Games-Raytracing-Will-Revolutionize-Graphics/Otherray-tracing-bene
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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D a n i e l
http://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/His-futures-so-bright-hes-gotta-ray-trace-shade
http://www.roadtovr.com/intel-claims-can-improve-image-quality-hmds-daniel-pohl-tells-us/
http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow_viewer/0,3253,l=254483&a=254472&po=1,00.asp
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/graphics/11602-intel-pushes-on-raytracing
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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http://tech.slashdot.org/story/08/01/18/0927230/ray-tracing-for-gaming-explored
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Intel-forscht-Schoene-Theorien-zum-Cloud-Streaming-undernuechternde-Zahlen-1708722.html
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Intel-entwickelt-Raytracing-Engine-fuer-Computerspiele-165122.html
http://www.golem.de/1102/81663.html
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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D a n i e l
http://www.golem.de/0808/61949.html
http://www.golem.de/0611/48766.html
http://www.golem.de/1109/86606.html
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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D a n i e l
http://www.golem.de/1107/84818.html
http://www.golem.de/1009/77900.html
http://www.golem.de/1103/81879.html
http://www.golem.de/0905/67053.html
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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D a n i e l
http://www.computerbase.de/2011-06/cloud-raytracing-wolfenstein-auf-dem-tablet
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Intel-entwickelt-Raytracing-Engine-fuer-Computerspiele-165122.html
[…]
E-Mail:
daniel.pohl@qwrt.de
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