You've been logged out of GDC Vault since the maximum users allowed for this account has been reached. To access Members Only content on GDC Vault, please log out of GDC Vault from the computer which last accessed this account.

Click here to find out about GDC Vault Membership options for more users.

close

The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: Census: The Systemic Backbone Behind Play As Anyone in 'Watch Dogs: Legion'
Speaker(s): Christopher Dragert, Ph.D.
Company Name(s): Ubisoft Toronto
Track / Format: Programming

Did you know free users get access to 30% of content from the last 2 years?


Get your team full access to the most up to date GDC content

Overview: Watch Dogs: Legion's highly systemic "Play as Anyone" feature allows players to recruit any character and make them the star of the game. This talk is a technical deep-dive into Census, the backbone procedural system which generates characters, simulates their lives, and inserts them into gameplay.nnCensus generates highly realized individuals with detailed demographics and social profiles. These profiles form the basis of dynamically-generated schedules that span the entire open world, including meetings with friends, relations, and adversaries. With this strong foundation, it becomes possible to add functionality such as character memories and recasting, along with the highly systemic recruitment process found in Watch Dogs: Legion.nnHighlighted topics will include how consistency was maintained with assets such as character models, optimizing the runtime performance of the relational database, core generation algorithms, and the challenges of large-scale tagging and data integration across content teams.

Game Developers Conference 2021

Christopher Dragert, Ph.D.

Ubisoft Toronto

free content

Programming

Programming