Bio

I graduated Magna Cum Laude with my B.S. in computer science with a focus in games and simulation from University of the Pacific in the winter of 2013. Upon being accepted into the Graduate Assistantship program at Pacific, I proceeded to work on my M.S.E.S with a focus in computer science. In my time at Pacific, I took a broad range of classes from many different areas of computer science, so that I have a working knowledge of many different technologies. I graduated with my master's in May of 2015.

I am most interested in and passionate about applications of virtual reality in the serious games field. I believe that with the correct use of immersive technologies, computer games can be used to greatly augment the teaching of various subjects. Imagine, for example, taking a class of children on a virtual tour of ancient Rome, or using immersive technologies to let surgeons practice procedures before performing them in real life. These are the kinds of applications of virtual reality and serious games that really get me excited.

Professional History

FormFactor, Inc.

Relevant Undergraduate Coursework

Relevant Graduate Coursework

Projects

Pacific Motion Capture Workflow

In order to complete my master's degree, I worked on a project to take motion capture data from OptiTrack Motive and prepare it for use in Unity3D. I also wrote a considerable amount of documentation on how to use the motion from Motive with Mecanim, Unity's character animation system.

Obsidian Skies

In order to complete my bachelor's degree, I worked on a video game with a friend that we called Obsidian Skies. It is a 6 degree-of-freedom multiplayer space shooter. At our final presentation, our faculty advisor said "I've never had a 3 player game demoed at a final presentation before!" We then proceeded to play for about 20 minutes. Try it out! (Unity WebPlayer required.)

Azure Boulevards

Before working on Obsidian Skies, my Senior project was a remake of the classic game SkyRoads. Try it here! (Unity WebPlayer required.)

Conquest General

In order to complete my Computer Game Technology class, we were required to work in teams of 4 to develop a video game, following the scrum development cycle. My team developed a turn-based strategy game played on a hex grid. We were aiming for a combination of Total War's single player campaign, where troops travel with a general, and a Magic: The Gathering style of combat, where players select which troops they want to battle.

Pacific Traffic Simulator

In order to complete my Computer Simulation course, we were required to simulate something from the real world. As I commuted from Modesto to Stockton throughout my time at Pacific, I decided to try and simulate the traffic on Highway 99, Highway 4, and Interstate 5 by creating blocks of traffic densities that affected travel time. After 100 runs of the software, it was within 10% of Google Maps' estimated travel time. The software was written in C++ with graphics powered by the Simple DirectMedia Layer library (SDL).

Knights of the Hash Table

This was my first foray into application development at Pacific, and was the course project for my application development class. Knights of the Hash Table is a 2D side-scrolling game engine and game written in C++ and using SDL to handle the graphics. The project was never completed, but does support tilesets, sprite sheets, and multiple levels. It also supports many bugs!

Contact

@pjhodson

GitHub

Network with me

peter [at] thehodsons.org