Scaleform Corporation, one of the industry leaders in hardware-accelerated UI and scalable vector graphics engines for games, announced today that Scaleform GFx SDK tools and middleware have been released for both the Sony PS3 and the PSP.

"We are excited to provide the Scaleform GFx SDK for user interface development on PS3 PSP," said Brendan Iribe, President and CEO of Scaleform. "The Scaleform GFx architecture delivers on SCEI's vision for cinematic rich media on the RSX-based computer entertainment system. Using Scaleform GFx on PS3, developers can have the best of both worlds: artist-driven content created in Flash and hardware-accelerated high performance vector graphics delivered via RSX."

Using Scaleform GFx with Nvidia and SCEI's RSX graphics chip, game development artists will be able to rapidly create and deploy compelling and immersive user interface content. It will enable game developers to move from a programmer-centric static UI development environment to an artist-driven dynamic UI and animated texture production pipeline.

Nvidia's VP of content Roy Taylor recently granted an interview with the folks from Next-Gen, and when asked about what he thought of the notion that "graphics don’t matter" in games, he replies that it's all "nonsense." (Hmm... we could have sworn that he was quoted for having said "bollocks" instead, but perhaps Next-Gen has toned it down?)

According to Taylor, it is "ridiculous to say that graphics don't matter," and that it may be the equivalent of somebody saying that "the quality of my TV screen doesn't matter." He went on to say that if graphics truly were unimportant, then you should "watch '24' in black-and-white on a seven-inch screen."

Of course, this doesn't mean that Taylor is a detractor of quality gameplay. He said that "sometimes graphics have been applied, not at the expense of gameplay, but without equal consideration to [gameplay]." Instead, what he tried to point out is that both are important.

He stressed that having quality graphics is the best way for a game to elicit emotions from the player. According to him, these emotions are the basis for emotional attachment towards a game, and these emotions can reach the player more effectively if you have detailed facial expressions and character animations.

Lastly, he expressed his sentiments regarding the necessary balance between graphics and gameplay. "I think we can do a lot better, but I think we'd like to see graphics encompassing the gameplay."

At the moment, Nvidia has still got some job postings up on the web. And upon inspection, one would note that they are now looking for eDRAM engineers. Considering the fact that NVidia is confirmed to have the contract for Sony's PSP2, which is expected to make its appearance in 2009, plus the unlikeliness that anyone else in the industry is planning to use eDRAM any time soon, speculations are flying left and right if the people who will be filling the job vacancies will be the same team to work on the fabled PSP2.

With the current version of the PSP (which we know and love) already using plenty of eDRAM, the possibility may not be too far off. Well, unless Ken Kutaragi has got something to say about the matter. Again.

Early registration to the Game Developers Conference and the London Games Summit, which will follow GDC in London this year, has been extended from September 15th to September 22nd. The two gaming meetings will begin on  October 2nd and carry on through to the 4th for GDC London and branch out to October 4th through 5th for the following Games Summit.

Both the GDC and the Games Summit in London will take place at the world-famous BAFTA Headquarters (Yes, the same place that gives out the TV awards) at 195 Piccadilly. You can register for the fee of £75, versus the £100 charge for registration through October 2nd so get your registration in early if you wish to attend!

GDC London focuses heavily on techniques for game development, so unless you are a game developer then joining the conference probably won't be that beneficial to you. However, if you plan to go into game development or programming it could be worth a try if you can cough up the cash. The registration fee includes two days of tutorials sponsored by IBM and NVIDIA, with the IBM tutorial covering Cell Broadband Engine application processing and the NVIDIA tutorial covering DirectX10 programming.

Visit: [London Games Summit Website]