GDC Online 2012 adds programming talks on CityVille, HTML5, more

In the latest update for GDC Online 2012, show organizers have revealed three new programming-focused talks, covering Zynga's CityVille, the realities of HTML5, and tips for improving rendering pipelines. These talks all fall within the Programming track in GDC Online's Main Conference, which offers attendees the world's leading content on persistent and online games. The event will be held Tuesday, October 9 to Thursday, October 11 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. The full details on these newly announced sessions are as follows: - When it comes to the Facebook space, there aren't many games as popular as Zynga's CityVille, and at GDC Online, engineer Kartik Ayyar will offer an inside look at the tools, infrastructure, and strategies Zynga employs to keep the large-scale title up and running. Ayyar's talk, "CityVille: Lessons Learned & Tools Used to Run a Large Social Game," will showcase what it takes to maintain one of the web's most popular titles, and attendees will walk away understanding how to operate large-scale web games, and ensure that content updates remain both frequent and efficient. - Elsewhere, Jiri Kupiainen, the VP of Disney Interactive's HTML5 specialist studio Rocket Pack, will pick apart the realities of working on the web with the technology in his talk, "HTML5 Reality Check." Over the past several months, developers all over the industry have sung the praises of HTML5, claiming it could revolutionize the way developers approach multiplatform games. Here, Kupiainen will reassess those claims, noting the common pitfalls of the emerging web standard, its recent developments and trends, and what developers can expect if they use HTML5 themselves. - Finally, Intel graphics software engineer Omar Rodriguez will set out to improve developers' rendering pipelines in "Dynamic Resolution Rendering for OpenGL ES 2.0 and WebGL." As Rodriguez notes, "pixel shading work is one of the most expensive stages in games' rendering pipelines due to lighting, post processing, and other image space effects," and in his talk he'll share a technique to help programmers "reduce pixel shader load by dynamically modifying the rendering resolution." His technique is widely applicable, but Rodriguez says it's particularly suited to web and mobile development. These talks join a number of other previously announced sessions for GDC Online, including a breakdown of EA's multiplatform strategy, as well as numerous sessions in the ever-popular Game Narrative Summit. For more information on any of the sessions announced thus far, check out the main conference track pages on the show's official website. Keep an eye out for even more exciting keynotes and sessions, as GDC Online organizers have plenty more in store before the event opens its doors this October. Those interested in attending GDC Online can secure their pass now, as online registration is now open. For more information of GDC Online, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.