1. How can the Alembic format be useful in production of AAA games
Alexandra Cunetchi

2. High quality game assets
Big budget
Several software's
Realism
Interchange file formats

3. Formats supported by game engines
Unity 3D
Unreal Engine
Cry Engine
FBX, Collada, 3DS, Maya, Obj, Cinema4D, Modo, Lightwave, Cheetah 3D
FBX
Custom tools for 3D software’s
~~ Collada, FBX, obj

4. Interchange file formats
FBX
Collada
Obj
Alembic
Filmbox
Recording motion capture data
Autodesk
.dae
Collaborative Design Activity
Sony Computer Entertainment + Khronos Group
Open source
Just nope
.abc
Sony Picture Imageworks + Lucasfilms
Open source

5. Alembic Movies Games The Avengers Man in black 3 Hotel Transylvania
Custom plugins
M?t=1m10s

6. Evaluation and Comparison: Mesh
FBX
Collada
Alembic
Vertices
Indices
Edges
Polygons (quads, triangles, etc.)
submeshes
same
same

7. Evaluation and Comparison: Materials
FBX
Collada
Alembic
Basic level (phong, blin)
Custom materials
same
Same
But the custom materials are platform intended

8. Evaluation and Comparison: Animation
FBX
Collada
Alembic
Skeletal animation
Vertex animation
Baked animation
same
No prebaked
Geometry cache almost baking but not really
Don’t expect to keep the skeleton and skin
Does not interpolate
Very useful for simulations (particle fluids, cloths, etc.)

9. Evaluation and Comparison: File Structure
FBX
Collada
Alembic
ASCII and binary (custom)
ASCII (XML)
Binary (HDF5 and Ogawa)
Debug, documentation problems => ASCII
Custom tools => ASCII
Version control => ASCII
Smaller size => Binary
Faster IO => Binary
Secret => Binary

10. Evaluation and Comparison: File Size
First need to convert the files 
3ds MAX
KATANA
Houdini
RenderMan
Arnold
Modo
NUKE
RealFlow
Cinema 4D
V-Ray
Guerilla Render
Maxwell Render
Clarisse iFX
LightWave 3D
Keyshot Pro
Octane Render

11. Evaluation and Comparison: File Size (MB)
File Name
FBX (binary)
FBX (ASCII)
Collada
Alembic
Gears
3.61
24.0
22.5
4.86
Private Place
2.86
15.2
9.46
6.39
Sci-fi Girls
7.12
30.7
35.8
83.1

12. Evaluation and Comparison: File reading speed
Unity !!!
Unreal Engine?
????????????
Custom Plugin ?
Maya Scripting?

13. Evaluation and Comparison: File reading speed (seconds)
File Name
FBX (binary)
FBX (ASCII)
Collada
Alembic
Gears
2.3
4.3
3.5
0.94
Private Place
1.1
2.4
0.96
0.44
Sci-fi Girls
4.4
7.2
5.1
2.2

14. Evaluation and Comparison: Size vs Speed

15. Evaluation and Comparison: Size vs Speed

16. Conclusion Alembic is pretty awesome
Don’t use if you need skeleton or skin data
Use for everything else
If you want to continue my research:
textures
file size difference mystery