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Presence Examples From The Herald Sun ("Australia's biggest-selling daily
newspaper") A case of water on the brain By GREG THOM 25 Sept. 2002 Programmers at Melbourne video games outfit Torus spent five months inventing a way to simulate water. Underwater refraction, surface reflection, mist and the ebbs, flows and foam of a thundering river are all realistically re- created, thanks to a technology called X-Stream. Their work, for the coming white-water rafting game, Tao Berman's Extreme Kayaking, is considered one of the finest examples of its type in the world. Whether players will pause to appreciate the work is beside the point. To Torus, it makes their creation a better game. "Some wouldn't know it was there. It's just eye candy," Torus Games associate producer Michael Solomons says. "Often these things don't have a great impact, but they make the game better." Designers around the world are pushing technological boundaries to deliver more realistic, expansive and stimulating games. Techniques with strange-sounding names such as bump- mapping, cel-shading and screen distortion are among the methods to create games such as Halo, Luigi's Mansion, Final Fantasy X and Battlefield: 1942. "A lot of people do look at the graphics and think, 'That looks really great'," says Allan Johns, a console programmer with Brisbane-based Evolution Games, "but many hardcore gamers don't because they know a game doesn't have to look good to play well." When game designers get it right, the results can be amazing. In Splinter Cell, developed for Xbox, move secret agent Sam Fisher in front of a projector and the film realistically projects on to his back, complete with lighting effects. Luigi's Mansion, in which Nintendo diehard Mario explores a creepy old house, is packed with atmospheric effects, from light and shade created by his torch to transparent ghosts, mirror reflections, smoke trails and dust. More powerful consoles such as Xbox and GameCube, along with PC graphics cards and computers with more grunt, are enabling designers to expand their horizons. An indicator is the use of polygons, the building blocks of video games. Johns estimates the number in the average game has expanded tenfold in four years. Solomons concedes some games with great graphics are pretty ordinary to play. He says designers are still often constrained by tight budgets and have to make compromises. They must carefully chose where the money goes to make the most impact. "A game is never finished," Solomons says. "You get to the point where you just have to let it go." The popularity of video games has brought together many technologies, from computer graphics and cinematic special effects to virtual reality, artificial intelligence, computer networking and hardware design. There have been spinoffs into other industries, such as enhanced graphics in medical computer programs in hospitals. Johns believes LOD (level of detail) seamless environments such as those used in the PS2 title Jack and Daxter will be the next big thing. "The theory is that you should be able to stand on a hill and look across an entire landscape, then be able to run toward something you see far away and eventually get there in a seamless manner," he says. Another big trend in the next few years will be vertex and pixel shaders that give objects and characters greater texture and detail. "Objects will really look as if they are shiny metal, furry or made of cloth," he says. Game tech TimeDilation ALLOWS players to manipulate time, freezing the action and queueing a series of moves and attacks. Cel shading DELIVERS games that resemble cartoons. Examples include Jet Set Radio Future and Cel Damage. Pixel shading ALLOWS real-time effects such as reflections to be applied at pixel level, allowing ultra-realistic games. Geomorphing ALLOWS a highly detailed piece of game environment to be morphed down until it resembles a lower-detail piece. See Halo and Jack and Daxter. Screen distortion PRODUCES effects such as heat haze and rippling of air above a flame.
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