Evolution of Graphics

Graphics Evolution is an arcade platform game that shows you how the gameplay will evolve as you play. And it will evolve as follows. The game starts in its simplest form. There is one block in front of the player, which must be overcome and get to the door. On the second level, there will be more platformer blocks and they will be located at different levels. Then, obstacles and traps will appear, for example, in the form of sharp thorns, into which you cannot fall. So, step by step, you will notice that the graphics, scenery and gameplay will change.

With each level, it becomes more difficult to overcome obstacles. There are 20 levels in the game "Evolution of Graphics", which can be passed by reaching the secret door at the end. In terms of controls, the game is pretty simple, you only need a mouse. And in terms of passing it is quite difficult. Some blocks are too small - one wrong move will send you straight onto sharp spikes. Show dexterity and accuracy to successfully complete each level.

the site presents to your attention a visual representation of scientific progress on the example of computer graphics, which is used in games.

Deus: EX

Near future, 2052, the whole planet is mired in chaos as a consequence of an economic disaster. World the government fell, almost the entire planet is ruled by terrorist organizations... In addition to this, people die from epidemics of the "Gray Death". You play from your perspective specialist. agent representing the remnant of reason on Earth. Your main task is fight this chaos... The game is full conspiracy theories such as the Illuminati plans to rule the world, experiments in Area 51, etc.

Tomb raider

Exciting adventure young archaeologist Lara Croft... You have to play as gentle girl(this is what Lara may seem like), ready to apply at any time death blow to your opponent. The heroine relies more on agility and stealth rather than brute force. Crowds of evil bandits, huge bases, incredibly beautiful views, and, of course, gorgeous Lara.

DOOM

Dedicated to mesilov lovers! You play as a stormtrooper savior who went in search of his missing squad... All the action of the game takes place on the planet Phobos... Shortly after arrival, you will find out that the entire planet populated some strange creatures after which it begins fun… Shotguns, machine guns, even a chainsaw- all this is at your disposal.

Fallout

Post apocalyptic world filled with mutants and bandits. Our hero is one of the few who survived nuclear war in the shelter. Decades later, you come to the surface, but everything is not the same as it was before. Now the world is filled with open violence and only those who survive better armed.

Mafia

One big family, gangster showdowns, money, girls, weapons, luxurious cars and great music, betrayal. The game that showed it all charms and all nightmares last century in USA.

Mortal kombat

Most likely, everyone at least once heard about greatest fighting game of all time. Choose your hero, use special abilities, destroy the enemy in a 1v1 battle, and do not forget to finish everything beautifully with fatality!

Call of duty

From World War II before technological future the essence does not change, we - soldiers, who are commanded to defend their home at the cost of life! Great series that brought up a whole generation of guys.

Resident evil

The series of games is based on fight against evil as zombie. Heroes change from series to series, as well as the origin and capabilities of zombies. Perfect for amateurs horror stories with shooter elements.

Starcraft

Great War Protoss(over race), Zergov(monsters) and Terran ( of people). An excellent strategy for lovers of variability. This series of games provides us almost endless possibilities in the conduct of the war. Who will win this mortal combat?

Need for speed

Cars, tuning, girls, speed, great music, extraordinary plot- this is what will definitely delight you in the evening after work. Perennial series simulator street racing continues to delight its fans to this day.

Space Race (1973)

This is the second game after Pong developed by Atari. For two or one player. It was necessary to fly on rockets, dodging obstacles. Those who did not have time to dodge lost. It was produced in the form of a set-top box and a slot machine.

TV Basketball (1974)

This game was the first in three "nominations" at once:

• the first ever basketball game;
• the first game to use sprites;
• the first game in which the image of people appeared.

Purpose of the game: by moving the "basketball players" to hit the ball so that it gets into the basket.

Gun Fight (1975)

A western game in which you had to defeat your opponent in a duel with pistols. The first game, which depicts a man-to-man battle. Each player had two joysticks: one was controlled by the character, and the second was aimed at the pistol. The number of cartridges was limited - 6 per drum.

Death Race (1976)

In the 1970s, people were not yet so spoiled, so after its release, the game was subjected to massive criticism for promoting violence. One or two players controlled the cars with rudders and pedals, and crushed the so-called "gremlins". The more you crush, the more points you earn. A cross appeared in the place of the innocent murdered, and soon the screen turned into a cemetery. At the same time, it was necessary to avoid run-ins on the graves. In 20 years, the game idea will form the basis of the epoch-making Carmageddon.

Canyon Bomber (1977)

One or two players enthusiastically flew over a certain canyon filled with spherical stones. They had to be bombed, and the more accurate the hit was, the more points you earned.

Space Invaders (1978)

An era game that has gained immense popularity and has been ported to many platforms. When these slot machines appeared in Japan, initially there was even a shortage of coins of a suitable denomination, there were so many people who wanted to play Space Invaders. The goal was simple: you had to shoot the hordes of invading aliens, gradually sinking to the ground and also shooting at you. At the same time, the player's cannon moved behind a row of four protective shelters, which were gradually destroyed by alien hits. As the levels progressed, the enemies maneuvered and descended faster and faster.

Despite the primitiveness of the graphics, the developer Tomohiro Nishikado had to create his own hardware platform based on the Intel 8080 processor. But he still did a poor job, and the speed of rendering sprites significantly slowed down when there were still a lot of aliens on the screen. The author turned this drawback into a feature - the fewer enemies remained on the screen, the faster they became and the more difficult it was to hit them.

The rise of racing simulators

Speed ​​Freak (1979)

One of the first first person racing games, and the world's first vector racing game. The goal is to reach the finish line without crashing into obstacles and oncoming traffic, without flying off the road.

Pac-Man (1980)

In terms of the degree and duration of its influence on popular culture, this game can be compared to a megaton explosion in the middle of a metropolis. The player had to control an ever-hungry kolobok crawling into dungeons teeming with unfriendly fauna. There are 255 levels in total in the game, and sometimes useful nishtyaks are thrown into the kolobok, which increase the speed and even make it temporarily invulnerable to ghosts.

Pac-Man became the founder of a new genre - "maze chase". As one of the game designers, Toru Iwatani later admitted, they wanted to make humorous game without any violence, so that the widest possible audience would be comfortable playing it. Although initially in his native Japan, Pac-man - then he was called PUCK MAN - was met with complete indifference. But in the US, the game broke all templates, charts and sales records. As a result, Pac-Man began its triumphant march around the world.

The era of platformers begins

Donkey Kong (1981)

One of the earliest representatives of the platformer genre. A character in a cap named Mario had to save a certain mumzel named Pauline from the aggressive gorilla Donkey Kong. Mario would later become one of the most popular characters in video games, if not the most popular. And he started out as a fighter with monkeys.

Pole Position (1982)

Formula 1 races: you had to first pass the qualifying race, and then participate in the competition. The configuration of the racing tracks was the same as the real tracks. This game set the standard for displaying racing games for many years to come: sprite graphics, third person view.

Tapper (1983)

Bartender simulator: you need to throw full mugs to hungry visitors in time, and grab the empty ones. If one of the unfinished customers got to the end of the counter, the bartender was thrown out the window. By the way, check out the caption: "Most Innovative Slot Machine Game 1984".

Duck Hunt (1984)

Another iconic game. Duck Hunt slot machines and Nintendo Entertainment System consoles (produced until 1995) were equipped with pistols that worked on the principle of a "light pen". On the screen, ducks flew up from the thickets, which had to be shot with a minimum number of misses. And the dog happily grabbed the prey. If desired, it was possible to switch to the plate shooting mode. In terms of sales, the game ranks second on the NES platform with 28 million copies.

Super Mario Bros. (1985)

Four years after the release of Donkey Kong, the Italian plumber, unafraid of vicious primates, began to conquer the world. In this arcade, you had to manage a mustachioed peasant plumber Mario in overalls and a cap and his brother Luji. When traveling the world, you had to dodge enemies or defeat them by jumping on their heads, as well as collect hidden coins along the way. The goal is to reach the end and save the princess.

This game entered the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling game in history - 40 million copies. Actually, few other playable characters can compete with Mario in recognition. Echoes of the war of Mario's popularity still float in popular culture.

The Legend of Zelda (1986)

This game marked the beginning of the eponymous, very popular series of games produced long years... The main character - someone Link - must save the kingdom from the invading army of the Prince of Darkness. He travels the world in search of magic Artifact, fights enemies, pumps up characteristics and uses inventory: hello RPG!

The rise of fighting games

Street Fighter (1987)

And this game spawned a whole era of fighting games - games in which you had to fight hand-to-hand with each other or with enemies. Combo attacks and six-button character control appeared here. IN Street fighter it was necessary to win in fights, each round lasted 30 seconds (if none of the fighters had time to knock out by that time, the winner was the one who had more health).

Galaxy Force (1988)

A third-person shooter in which you have to control a futuristic space fighter, fighting the forces of the evil Fourth Empire. The battles were fought both in space and on six planets.

Prince of Persia (1989)

Another legend of the gaming world. Making your way through the labyrinth of dungeons, you had to save the princess with the help of the blond Persian prince. You only had one hour to do this. On the way, traps, puzzles and enemies lay in wait. The game has been incredibly popular and has been ported to many platforms. For the technology of the time, the character had amazingly realistic movements, and the game itself was very atmospheric. The MS-DOS version soon found its way to the USSR and quickly spread throughout institutes and factories, often paralyzing the work of entire departments. I got acquainted with this game in 1993, and it made an indelible impression on me. I still remember that Shift was responsible for the sword strike.

Castle of Illusion (1990)

A platformer for SEGA consoles, in which Mickey Mouse rescued his mouse passion, Minnie Mouse, who was kidnapped by an evil witch and imprisoned in a castle. The game was distinguished by a variety of opponents, for each type of which it was necessary to find its own approach in terms of destruction, although in general the gameplay was similar to the games about Mario.

Sonic The Hedgehog (1991)

In the early 1990s, this game was the face and icon of Sega consoles in post-Soviet Russia. A piece gameplay was shown in TV commercials, and it was very cool and colorful, where the Chinese clones of Dendy go. Still: 16-bit Sega was a cut above the quality of graphics and special effects than 8-bit Dendy. The main character of the game is Sonic the jet hedgehog, charged with incredible adrenaline, driven by the desire to find the villain named Dr. Eggman, the scientist who trapped animals inside robots and kidnapped the magical Chaos Emeralds.

Mortal Kombat (1992)

This is one of the best in the history of fighting games, which actually set a new bar for the quality of animation, a variety of combo attacks, and at the same time poured tons of blood on players. The game was originally developed for slot machines, but was ported to both set-top boxes and personal computers (the graphics were better there). Mortal Kombat had many game characters, between which fights took place. Each character had their own cunning techniques, their own strong and weaknesses... The game turned out to be incredibly entertaining, playable and bloody. During our fights, so much adrenaline was splashed out, as if we ourselves were fighting each other in the ring. Directly epic mochilov, you cannot say otherwise. An excellent way to relax after a hard day, like all games in the Mortal Kombat series. By the way, you will be surprised, but this fighting game even has a storyline.

Victory March 3D

Doom (1993)

Once upon a time there was no need to explain to anyone what Doom was. Everyone knew about this game. There was even a meme “I’ll go on doom Ayu ". Doom set the standard for first-person shooters for many years. The plot is primitive, and is not revealed in the game itself. In fact, you play as a certain special forces on Mars, who shoots with particular cruelty hordes of monsters that have fallen to the planet in connection with an unsuccessful teleportation experiment that opened a portal to hell.

Compared to Wolfenstein 3D, released from the pen of the same id Software just a year earlier, Doom looked like an expensive foreign car next to an unprepossessing Zhiguli (although they both seem to be twenty years old):

Tekken (1994)

A bright representative of Japanese fighting games, with a specific character design. However, unlike other fighting games, in Tekken, players could control each of the fighter's arms and legs separately. Curiously, the game was originally created as an internal project by Namco, designed to test 3D animation. But in the end it turned into a full-fledged hand-to-hand combat simulator.

Time Crisis (1995)

A first-person shooter that had to be played with a pistol (which is a "light pen"). The game itself controlled the movements of the camera, and the player had to shoot all opponents on the screen.

Quake (1996)

The heir to Doom, far superior to his ancestor. The first truly three-dimensional shooter in which you could approach the corpse of the enemy and examine it from different angles - in the same Doom, these were just sprites that were displayed on the screen in the same way from any angle. It was with the release of Quake that such a concept as esports arose, because this game was released on new level realistic graphics and demands on the reaction of players. The people affectionately called him "quack". And there's also a Rocket Jump in Quake! This is when the player, while running, jumped up and shot at his feet with a rocket launcher, so that the explosion would raise him higher and throw him further, albeit at the cost of reducing his health. So it was possible to move much faster and jump to heights inaccessible in the usual way.

The plot is even more primitive than in Doom: you are some kind of abstract soldier destroying the monsters that are swarming at your military base. But Quake was originally created with multiplayer in mind. True, at first only in local area networks, since in those years the Internet was still a curiosity, and modems and telephone lines did not provide the right level delays.

Gran Turismo (1997)

This game marked the beginning of a whole series of racing games. Here, real models of cars were modeled quite carefully for that time, the features of their behavior on the track were imitated. The current tuning system was implemented, which made it possible to change the behavior of the car by adjusting / replacing various components.

Final Fantasy VII (1997)

Fantastic Japanese RPG, one of the many games of the very popular series Final Fantasy... By the way, this is still the best-selling part of the saga.

The first shooter in which the story is told in the game engine

Half Life (1998)

Another landmark first-person shooter game. In the course of an unsuccessful scientific experiment in the top-secret research complex "Black Mesa", aggressive aliens enter our world. You - the scientist Gordon Freeman, an employee of the complex, begin to fight with the creatures, in the hope of rectifying the situation.

The game was innovative in that the story was told as the game progressed, through characters' conversations and other scripted scenes, rather than through cutscenes or text blocks. Half life became one of the first games where the player has characters-allies as he progresses. Moreover, the AI ​​that controlled them acted surprisingly sensibly, which was one of the breakthroughs in computer games. The plot and its quirky presentation were so gripping that Half Life is considered by many to be one of the pivotal games in history. And the gameplay itself was very cheerful.

Unreal Tournament (1999)

Continuation Unreal games released in 1998. In Unreal Tournament, the multiplayer mode was perfected, and for several years this series of games became a serious competitor to the Quake series.

Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (2000)

Perhaps one of the most harmonious in terms of playability in the series Need for Speed. It was also the first of the NFS to be entirely dedicated to a single car brand - Porsche.

First time bullet time applied

Max Payne (2001)

Third person shooter. You are Drug Enforcement Agent Max Payne, forced into hiding from arrest on false charges. This game was the first to implement a bullet time mode, which, combined with all sorts of tricks during the firefights, created a kind of cinematic storytelling effect. By the way, the authors of the game did not borrow the slowdown feature from the "Matrix", the game began to be developed before the release of the film, and its gameplay was originally built on this effect.

Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven (2002)

Beginning of the series Mafia games... The name speaks: you start from the bottom up to build a career for an Italian organized crime group. The authors perfectly convey the atmosphere of the Great Depression in the United States. Thanks to this, as well as the excellent storyline and good playability, the first Mafia is still considered by many to be the best game in the series.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2003)

Stealth action, promoting the difficult craft of the American NSA special forces, who must prevent a war between the United States and China, as well as complete another delicate task related to the president of Georgia and some secret weapon.

A new level of physics simulation

Half Life 2 (2004)

Continuation of the first Half Life. You are still the same Gordon Freeman, fighting a totalitarian government appointed by aliens who have enslaved the Earth. Main feature the game had the Source engine, which provided unprecedented graphics realism at that time. Also among the advantages of the game were excellent character animation, powerful AI, shader rendering. Thanks to the physics engine Havok Physics provided a very natural interaction of the player with the world.

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (2005)

Continuation of the series GTA games... In fact, the plot remains the same - you play as a character whose life circumstances and / or character and upbringing deficiencies force him to wander around the city and do all sorts of lewdness, constantly breaking the law. TO strong game was a huge open game world filled with numerous NPCs to chat with, which was good for the atmosphere. The main character learned to swim, dive and climb over the fence here. In addition to cars, it was now possible to dissect on bicycles, tractors, tow trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, airplanes, combines, trains, and even with a jetpack. In general, in San andreas sold about 200 types of transport.

The next generation of RPG graphics

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)

Epic continuation of the series The elder Scrolls. This RPG is set in an alternate world where magic and dragons are as real as swords and arrows. The main character fights representatives of a cruel cult that wants to conquer the empire. One of the strongest sides of the whole The series Elder Scrolls there remained a completely open world in which you could move freely, carry out side storylines, conduct a free hunt for monsters and bandits, acquire houses in different towns, and generally do whatever comes into your head. At the same time, the game boasted an excellent physics engine, an advanced AI system and beautiful graphics... For example, tutorial generators were used to generate landscapes to provide more realism to the Oblivion world.

Halo 3 (2007)

The first-person shooter series Halo has big army fans thanks to the very bouncy gameplay and good graphics. The story takes place in the 26th century, you are an elite fighter, a genetically modified soldier in an exoskeleton suit, fight against aliens invading Earth.

Now you can play as a zombie

Left 4 Dead (2008)

A multiplayer shooter with an interesting idea. According to the plot, a pandemic arose on Earth, during which almost the entire population turned into Infected. A group of four surviving people is trying to break through the hordes and find a place of salvation. So, the idea is that in multiplayer, random players are assembled into a team of four, and the rest play for the Infected. And thanks to the advanced AI, the game adapts to the tactics and style of the game, changing the parameters of the levels, the location of the respawns, and so on.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)

The Call of Duty series has been competing with the Battlefield series for many years. Each brand has its own vast army of fans. In the Call of Duty campaign: Modern warfare 2, you can try yourself in the role of fighters of different special forces, and in the multiplayer mode there will be a hurricane action, many types of weapons and military gadgets, as well as an interesting system of perks.

BioShock 2 (2010)

Fantastic first-person shooter that follows the storyline of the first game. You are in an underwater city built by a mad scientist and you play as one of the Big Daddies: a guy in a huge diving suit.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)

Epochal and, perhaps, today Best game in the RPG genre. The plot is almost unrelated to Oblivion, so beginners can safely play it. The game set new heights in terms of the realism of the generated landscapes, graphics and physics. Although over the years it has become obsolete, many fans still do not let Skyrim fall into oblivion: they riveted a huge number of updates, thanks to which the game continues to look very modern and rich today. Actually, it was fan updates that formed the basis for the recent re-release of Skyrim.

Far Cry 3 (2012)

Continuation of the famous series of action games Far cry... This time you play as an American tourist who went with friends to a tropical island and became the victim of a bandit attack. The tourist turned out to be not a miss, ran away and began to rescue friends and create retribution for the scumbags.

Tomb Raider (2013)

If in previous decades you managed not to play the adventures of Lara Croft, then the penultimate Tomb Raider is a great chance to catch up, as the game of 2013 is the relaunch of the series. This is a third person action game. The main character, a curvy young anthropologist, finds herself on a ship with her fellow scientists on a secluded island ruled by a mysterious and ancient cult. To save herself and her comrades, Lara shows the wonders of acrobatics and weaponry.

The most "lively" gaming city

Grand Theft Auto V (2014)

For the first time in one of the most popular games there are three main characters in the world at once, and you can switch between their storylines... At the same time, each character has its own unique capabilities: slowing down time when driving, when shooting, berserk mode. Game world of gta V is 3.5 times more than in GTA San Andreas. There is a very detailed underwater world that can be explored with scuba diving or in a bathyscaphe, you can even find a UFO on the seabed. The variety of activities in the city has been greatly expanded, sports facilities and facilities have appeared, there is an opportunity to trade on the in-game exchange, visit entertainment venues, and so on. The total budget for the development of the game was $ 270 million. Two hundred seventy million dollars, Karl!

Skyforge (2015)

MMORPG created on the engine developed by Mail.Ru Group. The game was sawing for quite a long time, about 5 years. Here you can act on the side of the gods and immortal heroes, jointly destroying the invading mythical and alien creatures. One of the main features of the engine was the huge range of the rendered space - 40 km: this was necessary in order to convey the vastness of the world, the "divine" capabilities of the players, the scope of tasks. Today it is one of the most "long-range" engines in gaming industry.

Horizon Zero Dawn (2017)

A very fresh RPG with open world... In connection with some kind of apocalypse of civilization, the end has almost come, the world has been enslaved by robots, people have slipped to the level of primitive times. You play as a young hunter who explores the world, finds a livelihood, fights - in general, she lives a rich prehistoric life.

Here is such an excursion into the history of the development of graphics in computer games. The progress is not just impressive, it is like the evolution of life in miniature: from primitive graphic forms to the most complex models of the world with the highest level of graphic and physical simulations. So much so that even processors and video cards are no longer showing the same performance growth rates. Of course, this is partly due to the difficulties faced by engineers, but also due to a decrease in demand from the gaming industry. Indeed, until now, not all games use at least 90% of the capabilities of modern hardware.

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Nature as a model

Gamers usually notice major improvements in 3D graphics every two or three years. When Microsoft binds new version DirectX to Windows, or when AMD / Nvidia announce cool new GPU features (of course, if developers find them just as interesting), new effects can be expected over time.

Iconic games such as Morrowind, Doom 3 and Far Cry are renowned for their iconic water reflections, stunning lighting effects and the authentic world of the island. The most significant breakthrough is the development of pixel shaders, which today provide water wave motion, lighting effects on surfaces, and cinematic effects such as motion blur. Today's most advanced effects are provided with DirectX 10.1 and Shader 4; DirectX 11 and Shader Model 5 have also been announced, and should bring the next level of realism to games.

High Dynamic Range Rendering (HDR-R) is responsible for vivid lighting effects; artificial 3D light sources that create lifelike reflections on surfaces; as well as glare and glare when looking directly into the sun. Shader Model 3 graphics card users were amazed at the sparkling silver swords and the sun-drenched white-stone temples in Oblivion. HDR-R with DirectX 10 today allows for long beams of light that are visible in Crysis or Stalker: Clear sky; they cut through branches and leaves and create wonderful game shadows.

Hollywood began to exploit this potential much earlier, often using special cameras that better capture the intensity of light to get closer to the perception of the human eyes and brain. On the following pages, we will provide many visual comparisons between 3D graphics and natural effects, all of which will help us visually demonstrate the development and current state of PC gaming.

The article is divided into two parts. In the first, we will discuss the development of games and characters, and also pay attention to an overview of modern lighting and depth effects of surfaces. The second part concentrates on the elements of fire and water, in it we will compare Hollywood monsters and special effects, talk about physics, and also make some predictions for the future.

Evolution of games

Real Time Strategy (RTS) has gone through impressive development. The graphics have undoubtedly progressed the most, although the controls have also improved steadily. But in recent years, ideas and opportunities have been marking time, giving many gamers the impression that it used to be better.

Warcraft swept the world victoriously in 1994. Used simple graphics single angle, to which fixed painted shadows were added, making objects appear plastic. In the sequel, released in 1995, the graphics were slightly improved, but the most significant change was the increase in resolution, which made the pixels less visible. This was a necessary step forward, in particular, in terms of the readability of the text. Real 3D graphics were not yet in use. She first appeared in the third part of the series, which was released in 2002 - you immediately notice that the environment and characters seem to have fallen into a box of paints. Everything was overly colored and saturated, and every effect was visually demonstrated. The magic and special abilities were accompanied by lighting effects, the game shone and glowed everywhere.

Further advances in real-time strategy have reduced the vibrant colors a little, increased the level of detail of objects and, in general, led to a more natural look. It became possible to distinguish individual characters by their uniforms, you can zoom in and out of the camera, and the number of troops has increased significantly. However, this required a powerful CPU. Distribution of characters on the map, calculation artificial intelligence and managing the growing number of individual units required a considerable amount of computing power. And modern video cards must provide enough resources to render shader effects with an acceptable speed. Modern games like World in Conflict put more emphasis on lighting effects, massive explosions, realistic smoke, sunrays, and massive water surfaces.

3D games need to improve faster, they need to get closer to nature. Graphics change quite quickly thanks to new shader effects. The water looks very realistic, the effects of weather and sunlight become more natural. Movie filter in Mass effect rather controversial - somewhat coarse grain creates a blur that will slightly defocus edges and colors. This leads to a more realistic display of the environment and people, but not everyone likes this blur.

Lighting and glare

HDR rendering has become the most important step in ambient lighting; it is almost impossible to create reflections on silver and gold without the effect of shine. HDR rendering blurs illuminated surfaces and strong light sources. The sun illuminates the clouds in the sky, metal objects reflect the light. Hollywood also uses similar effects, for example, when the operator points the camera directly at a light source, computer graphics blind the viewer or create special effects. The potential of this has long been understood, and the new cameras capture natural HDR effects much better than before.

The shine effect can look completely different from one game to the next. In Oblivion, the developers got the best results with gold and silver. Rainbow Six Las Vegas uses UT3 Engine with DirectX 10. Light sources and neon lamps are rather unpleasant dazzling, scenes look milky and overly bright. Blacksite Area 51 (UT3 Engine) also dazzles with light quite actively, although in the game you will spend more time traveling through the desert, where there are practically no excessive light sources. Only Mass Effect seems to have taken control of the UT3 Engine. Blinding effect has been reduced to an acceptable level. Assassins creed(DirectX 10) also gave convincing results. The sun and candles give off a golden yellow glow, and the graphics are almost photographic.

A side effect of direct sunlight is lens flare, which is tiny circles of light in your field of view. In older games, the sun and glare effects were drawn and simulated, just like the background graphics. In new games, circles of light can move around the field of view, and even appear when a light source is slowly revealed by an object.

Light 2.0

Another effect of HDR rendering is the display of rays that literally pierce the dark environment. In Hollywood movies, you can probably remember the bullet holes in the plywood walls through which the light pierces the room. New generation DirectX games 10 use this effect, in particular, to enhance the setting of the sun. If a shining solar circle is hidden behind trees or a window, then light penetrates through them in the form of clear rays.

Feature Crysis and Stalker: Clear Sky is a realistic change of day and night, lighting conditions change depending on the location of the sun and the player. However, this kind of computer effect still falls short of the intensity of photographs or Hollywood films; the situation should improve with the new generation of GPUs.

Shadows

Where there is light, there is shadow. To make objects in a lit environment look more realistic, shadows are needed, and they must move with the light source. But enabling shadows almost always costs a lot of valuable 3D performance, so the faster the graphics card, the more sophisticated effects it can produce without over-hitting performance. In Oblivion, it was possible to invest up to 30% of the graphics performance in shadows on faces, grass shadows, and foliage only.

Older games with standard shadows often displayed shadows as a darkened circle; the subject was always centered regardless of the lighting. In next-generation games, the character was stenciled to the surface, often using a simplified model. This can be clearly seen in Morrowind, since clothes are completely ignored, a naked body is superimposed on the surface.

Doom 3 was a small revolution. All of a sudden, multiple light sources appeared in the game, such as ceiling lights or spotlights that cast shadows on the walls, floor and ceiling at the same time. As the player and monsters move, the shadows move, following fixed light sources, getting longer or shorter. To tickle your nerves even more, the game features hanging, flashing and rotating lamps that create twitching and dancing shadows on the walls.

IN modern games soft shadows are used that completely overlay the character template with good detail. Depending on the position of the sun, the shadows of the character and the environment become sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. In Stalker or Crysis, you can even see a shadowy image of individual branches or leaves on the floor. Even if this sounds like a simple graphical trick, it is very important for perception in real-time games, as it allows you to react more quickly to movements.

Character development

The following illustrations show the development of the characters with whom you shared computer time behind the screen. Let's start from 1997; Diablo can be considered an iconic game because it appearance the character changed depending on the used armor or weapons. In 3D, Morrowind is also an important step forward. A naked character looks ugly, but once you put on complex and multi-piece armor, the level of detail changes dramatically. There are shoes, shirts, trousers, raincoats, jackets, oversleeves, bibs, shoulder pads, helmets, weapons and shields.

The level of detail of real-time or adventure games could not be matched for a long time. In 2004, Half Life 2 installed new standard facial expressions and character animations. At that time, NVIDIA launched a campaign to promote shaders that allowed for realistic skin tones and personalized facial expressions. In 2006, strategy and RPG / adventure games became so detailed that even zooming in close to the camera, you can hardly tell the difference between them and real 3D games.

As a sequel to Morrowind, Oblivion has also become a landmark event in the graphics world. For the first time in the game, HDR rendering (Shader Model 3) was used, and armor and swords began to really shine. The complexity of drawing the character's faces was very impressive; many adjustment sliders additionally included an individual cut and eye color, the shape of the lips, chin, mouth and head, as a result of which the hero could become distinguishable, with his own face. However, such a wide adjustment of the options in the game did not lead to any effect. In Oblivion, you can only play for yourself alone, and computer characters (NPCs) do not care about your appearance and face at all.

New games like Hellgate London should benefit from this complication, since characters can meet over the Internet, and personal appearances are welcome. The difference is limited to figure size, hair, skin color, and various outfits that allow the character to stand out from the crowd. If you look at the development that took place between Oblivion and Drakensang, you will surely notice the current stagnation situation. The environment effects evolve, but the hero detail remains the same.

The following illustration shows additional characters and the differences that the lighting model used gives. Doom 3 uses a lot of light and shadows to make the graphics look more detailed. Gothic 3 and Oblivion hit the market in 2006. But while Gothic 3 continued to use the old bloom lighting effects, Oblivion was based on a new HDR rendering that highlights shiny areas and highlights colored surfaces more gently and accurately. The transition to DirectX 10 can be seen in Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect games. Improved HDR rendering (Shader 4) allows graphics to look more realistic.

Depth Effects and Bump Mapping

The first games had to be content with a global light source, and shadows and structures were simply added to the scene. The evolution of 3D graphics has given objects more detail, and various light sources have given additional shadows. Since many objects were still made from large surfaces, structures like glass, leaves, or sand were simply superimposed as a flat texture. If something, for example, rails or a stone, needed to go beyond the plane, then they had to be set on the stage as full-fledged 3D objects.

The simplest form of this technique was called bump mapping, where the bump information was simply simulated. The surface remained smooth, the geometry of the object did not actually change.

In modern games, the parallax mapping effect is even better developed. If you look at the surface, the structure is very detailed. However, the detail of the texture depends on the lighting and the angle of view. The smaller the angle, the less the depth effect will be noticeable.

The next generation of technology is displacement mapping. With this technique, the surface gets an appropriate texture that even generates shadows; irregularities also change the geometry of the object. The angle of view is no longer important as the effect of depth is always visible.

Ball with bump mapping (left) and displacement mapping (right).

Vegetation, trees and forest

With the advent of the GeForce 256, the transformation and lighting tasks came under the responsibility of the graphics chip. Prior to this, calculations were performed on the CPU. Faster graphics cards were supposed to increase the level of detail and the number of 3D objects.

A 3D game requires a lot more than one tree of actual leaves, although even the most modern games continue to use tricks. To keep the computational load as low as possible, only coarse structures such as a tree trunk, thick branches, or the main bush frame are created as real objects. Grass, reeds, leaves and branches are textures, that is, painted surfaces that simulate lush vegetation. This allows you to draw a full-fledged forest, but neither leaves nor branches will react to touch - the player will walk through them as if they did not exist. If the game is not so difficult, then foliage and bushes do not even provide an opportunity to hide behind them from the enemy, although you cannot see anything through them.

In the old games, the forest consisted of several trees in an array. Only recently, in Far Cry and Crysis, it has become possible to create the impression of an impenetrable jungle with lush vegetation, located without any order. Oblivion can be upgraded with the Qarls Texture Pack, which transforms a monotonous landscape into a richer, richer and more vibrant landscape. 3D games still can't reach the level of detail in nature; even in Hollywood, stunt results are better. In the left picture, you can see the trees after digital processing, you can see this by the slightly lighter shades.

Could it be better?

Several screenshots of Crysis and Far Cry 2 are quite interesting. The top left picture from Crysis is standard - in DirectX 10 mode, the lighting is a little blinding, the colors are not so well developed. The top right picture was most likely taken with Natural Mod: colors and lighting are better matched, the overall impression is much stronger. Below right is the official screenshot from the manufacturer. Even if it was taken with motion blur effect, color intensity and saturated green color transparent leaves in real game not observed, even on HD 4870 or GTX 280 video cards.

As far as Far Cry 2 is concerned, there are different versions of the same game. The largest picture was probably taken on the Xbox, the 3D graphics are quite accurate. The small picture in the middle corresponds to the PC version: there is a slight defocusing, lighting effects create a slight fog. The two pictures on the right are, again, official screenshots of the manufacturer. You can see from them that the intensity of the light rays is very deep, the details on the ground look better, the structure of the rocks is realistic, and the complex trees and shrubs are simply impressive.

Evolution of buildings

Thanks to faster graphics cards and better textures, the level of detail of buildings has improved significantly. In the first 3D games, houses, stone walls and tunnels looked flat, and uneven structures were created by simple rendering. As computing power increased, more and more built-in structures appeared in games; interiors and architecture became more complex, the number of niches, corners, pillars, ledges and columns increased rapidly. In modern games, you can see more complex structures that look more and more realistic. Of course, PC games still can't compete with Hollywood. Even the computer generated structures in the movies are much more detailed.

Cities are a completely different matter. Game developers today are quite capable of creating the illusion of a small town. However, most of the buildings will be just a screen - a house with four walls and a roof, but no interior. To prevent the gamer from getting lost, there are two methods: Morrowind, Gothic and Oblivion allow the gamer to enter almost all houses, but the number of buildings is small, even in cities. GTA, Assassin's Creed and Half Life 2 simulate a big city, but you can only enter the buildings that are important for the game. Everything else is just a screen.

Not high enough

Cracked paint and rusty areas can also be simulated well, but with scale it is not so easy. Game developers do not think big, so it is rare for buildings that you can enter to reach three stories in height. There is always a fear of distance: in multiplayer shooters, people get lost, the range of weapons is too short, and the visible area on a PC is limited by either 3D performance or other limitations of the video card.

Technique

The realism of racing has long depended on computing power. Tricks such as reduced detail of the environment were often used, blurry texture and limited visibility with fog. IN recent times such tricks have already become unnecessary, since the 3D performance of computer systems is already quite sufficient to display the street along which the track passes, with the same detail as the car itself. Races now have speed, reflection, and various damage models. It is hardly surprising that artists will concentrate more on cars that look more realistic than ever.

in the second part of the article, we will talk about fire, water, Hollywood monsters, special effects and physics.