Wade Brainerd

Summary

  I am a technology architect, team leader and firefighter with a track record
  of high quality, commercially successful products.


Experience

- C/C++, Assembly (x64/PPC/Cell/AMD GCN), Python, Perl, PHP, JavaScript, C#,
  Objective C, LaTeX

- PlayStation 1/2/3/4/4.5, XBox 1/360/One, N64/GC/Wii/WiiU, PSP/Vita, 
  Dreamcast, Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, Oculus, Arduino

- Software architecture, Team management, Computer graphics, Performance 
  optimization, User interface design, Parallel programming, Embedded systems, 
  Linux server administration, Asset pipelines


Activision - Santa Monica, CA - 1998-Present - Principal Technical Director

- ACME Technology Studio: Co-founder, 2008-Present

  Founded a small studio in Portland, ME with another technical director.

  Working remotely, we initiate technology collaboration and community 
  building efforts, host an internship program, perform independent research & 
  development, and provide direct firefighting services to studios.

  In particular, we hold significant technical responsibilities in the
  development of the annual Call of Duty franchise.

  + Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, shipping Fall 2016

  Participated in technical direction & planning for the project.
  Researched & implemented realtime volumetric fog based on [Wronski2014].
  Overhauled editor live-update feature, improving reliability & usability.
  Coordinated ACME's rescue of the stalled Xbox D3D12 port.

  + TedFS: Hierarchal storage management for Perforce, 2016 research project

  Conceived and developed a NT kernel driver which defers downloads of
  files onto the client workspace until they are accessed through the 
  filesystem. Drops sync+storage requirement to build & run COD:IW from ~900GB
  to ~40GB. Deployed across the studio ecosystem.

  + Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, shipped Fall 2015

  Led the graphics portion of the firefighting effort to ship the PS3/360
  SKU after a troubled initial development process. Secured and managed
  programming resources, set technical priorities, participated in creative
  problem solving at the executive level.
  Both SKUs shipped on time and the PS3 received a Players' Choice award.

- Studio Central: Principal Technical Director, 2001-2008

  Managed the development of a graphics library and other technology
  initiatives shared between internal and external Activision studios. 

  Provided programming services for various teams, often alternating between
  research & development and firefighting roles.

- Treyarch: Programmer, 1998-2001
  
  Hired to start the Dreamcast version of Treyarch's internal ArchEngine,
  designed and implemented various engine systems, held graphics programming
  positions on various titles.

JVC Digital Arts Studio - Torrance, CA - 1996-1998 - Lead Programmer

- Iron John Hawk: shipped June 1998, Lead Programmer

  Hired as a 17-year-old high school graduate, promoted to lead.
  Managed a 7 programmer team through the creation of this 2D isometric action 
  game for Windows 95. Published by Capcom.


Credits

  Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016)  Call of Duty 3                     
  Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare         Shrek SuperSlam                    
  Call of Duty: Black Ops III            Call of Duty 2: Big Red One        
  Call of Duty: Ghosts                   Tony Hawk's Underground 2: Remix   
  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3         Ultimate Spider-Man                
  Call of Duty: Black Ops II             Spider-Man 2                       
  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2         Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer          
  Call of Duty: Black Ops                Minority Report                    
  Blur                                   Sega Sports NHL 2K3                
  Cabela's Big Game Hunter               Spider-Man: The Movie              
  Tony Hawk Ride                         Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (Dreamcast) 
  Transformers: War for Cybertron        Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm         
  Marvel Ultimate Alliance               Triple Play 2001                   
  Call of Duty: World at War             Triple Play 2000 (N64)             
  Spider-Man 3                           Iron John Hawk: The Shards of Power


Selected publications

Efficient GPU Rendering of Subdivision Surfaces using Adaptive Quadtrees
ACM Transactions on Graphics 2016 (TOG)

  Co-first author on a novel approach to rendering Catmull-Clark subdivision 
  surfaces using GPU tessellation hardware.


Selected volunteer work

One Laptop Per Child - Game & Activity Development

  Won second prize in the OLPC 2007 Game Jam with a wireframe 3D Pong.
  Ported the homebrew Nintendo DS painting application Colors! to XO.
  Wrote additional activities and coordinated activity development.

Design That Matters - Incubator Project

  Developed PIC microcode for a $200 infant isolation unit targeted at 
  developing nations. Assisted with the design of the user interface and 
  electronics.


Education

  Santa Monica College - Santa Monica, CA - Individual classes.

  Orono High School - Orono, ME - Graduated 1996.


Contact

  Email:   wadeb@wadeb.com                  Mobile: (310) 498-3750
  GitHub:  https://github.com/wadetb        Blog:   http://wadeb.com/blog 
  Twitter: @wadetb