Ford Hall ' s third floor is home to SMU Guildhall ' s GameLab , which best personifies working in a commercial game studio . There are spaces for professional meetings , pitching games to publishers , usability testing , and game testing . GameLab collaborates with industry partners to ensure teams have the most current development techniques , software , and hardware . Our cutting-edge Games User Research Lab features a dozen stations that record player input , realtime body language and player comments , eye tracking as they play the game and allowing teams to better understand and adapt their designs to better accommodate real-world players . GameLab also supports real-time high-definition recording and broadcasting equipment for game trailers and even offers a two-person dedicated streaming booth just inside the entrance on the first floor of Ford Hall .
SMU Guildhall utilizes shared student spaces and resources around campus as well , including the Hughes-
Trigg Student Center , Fondren Library , and Doolin Gallery in the Meadows School of the Arts . In such spaces , we host special events , speaker presentations , and regularly scheduled game user research testing .
Our students can also access one of the fastest academic supercomputers in the nation , ManeFrame II , located in the SMU Data Center . ManeFrame II is a cluster of 350 + Nvidia SuperPod nodes , 275,000 + cores , 120 terabytes of memory , more than 2.8 petabytes of storage , and peak processing of 870 Teraflops .
Our new building is next door to the Deason Innovation Gym ( DIG ) and the SMU Teacher Development Studio ( TDS ). The DIG features multiple 3D printers , a CNC carving machine , laser cutters , vinyl cutters , various power tools , and electronic equipment , including oscilloscopes , multimeters , function generators , and power supplies . The TDS includes three additional labs with over 3,000 square feet of space focused on the creation of instructional software and materials . The design lab contains writable walls and tables for collaboration and four high-end computer workstations , mobile devices , interactive projectors , 3D printers , Glowforge 3D laser printers , scanners , and software for the design and creation of instructional resources . The teaching simulation lab includes virtual reality stations for the implementation and testing of software and instructional systems locally and at a distance , including an Oculus Rift VR station and a Mursion simulation station that is licensed by SMU for customized use in education . The assessment lab includes equipment and software for evaluation and assessment of the software and instructional materials developed in the design lab .
24