1.
Video game graphics
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A variety of computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games. The predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time, primarily due to hardware advances, some of the earliest video games were text games or text-based games that used text characters instead of bitmapped or vector graphics. Some of the earliest text games were developed for systems which had no video display at all. Text games are typically easier to write and require less processing power than graphical games, however, terminal emulators are still in use today, and people continue to play MUDs and explore interactive fiction. Vector graphics refers to the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, in video games this type of projection is somewhat rare, but has become more common in recent years in browser-based gaming with the advent of Flash, since Flash supports vector graphics natively. An earlier example for the computer is Starglider. Vector game can also refer to a game that uses a vector graphics display capable of projecting images using an electron beam to draw images instead of with pixels. Many early arcade games used such displays, as they were capable of displaying more detailed images than raster displays on the available at that time. Many vector-based arcade games used full-color overlays to complement the otherwise monochrome vector images, other uses of these overlays were very detailed drawings of the static gaming environment, while the moving objects were drawn by the vector beam. Games of this type were produced mainly by Atari, Cinematronics, examples of vector games include Armor Attack, Eliminator, Lunar Lander, Space Fury, Space Wars, Star Trek, Tac/Scan, Tempest and Zektor. The Vectrex home console also used a vector display, full motion video games are video games that rely upon pre-recorded television- or movie-quality recordings and animations rather than sprites, vectors or 3D models to display action in the game. As a result, the became a well-known failure in video gaming. A number of different types of games utilized this format, some resembled modern music/dance games, where the player timely presses buttons according to a screen instruction. Others included early rail shooters such as Tomcat Alley, Surgical Strike, full motion video was also used in several interactive movie adventure games, such as The Beast Within, A Gabriel Knight Mystery and Phantasmagoria. A side-scrolling game or side-scroller is a game in which the viewpoint is taken from the side. Games of this type make use of scrolling computer display technology, in many games the screen follows the player character such that the player character is always positioned near the center of the screen. Sometimes, the screen will not only forward in the speed and direction of the player characters movement. In other games or stages, the screen will only scroll forwards, not backwards, examples of side-scrolling games include platform games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, beat em ups such as the popular Double Dragon and Battletoads, and shooters such as R-type and JetsnGuns
2.
2.5D
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By contrast, games using 3D computer graphics without such restrictions are said to use true 3D. Common in video games, these projections have also been useful in geographic visualization to help understand visual-cognitive spatial representations or 3D visualization, lines perpendicular to the plane become points, lines parallel to the plane have true length, and lines inclined to the plane are foreshortened. They are popular camera perspectives among 2D video games, most commonly those released for 16-bit or earlier and handheld consoles, as well as in later strategy and role-playing video games. The advantage of these perspectives are that they combine the visibility and mobility of a game with the character recognizability of a side-scrolling game. There are three divisions of axonometric projection, isometric, dimetric, and trimetric. The most common of these types in engineering drawing is isometric projection. This projection is tilted so that all three axes create equal angles at intervals of 120 degrees, the result is that all three axes are equally foreshortened. In video games, a form of projection with a 2,1 pixel ratio is more common due to the problems of anti-aliasing. In oblique projection typically all three axes are shown unforeshortened, all lines parallel to the axes are drawn to scale, and diagonals and curved lines are distorted. One tell-tale sign of oblique projection is that the face pointed toward the camera retains its right angles with respect to the image plane, two examples of oblique projection are Ultima VII, The Black Gate and Paperboy. Examples of axonometric projection include SimCity 2000, and the role-playing games Diablo, the name refers to the fact that objects are seen as if drawn on a billboard. This technique was used in early 1990s video games when consoles did not have the hardware power to render fully 3D objects. This is also known as a backdrop and this can be used to good effect for a significant performance boost when the geometry is sufficiently distant that it can be seamlessly replaced with a 2D sprite. In games, this technique is most frequently applied to such as particles. A pioneer in the use of technique was the game Jurassic Park. It has since become mainstream, and is found in games such as Rome, Total War. Other examples include early first-person shooters like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Hexen and Duke Nukem 3D as well as racing games like Carmageddon, skyboxes and skydomes are methods used to easily create a background to make a game level look bigger than it really is. A skydome employs the concept but uses a sphere or hemisphere instead of a cube
3.
First-person (video games)
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In video games, the first person refers to a graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the players character. In many cases, this may be the viewpoint from the cockpit of a vehicle, many different genres have made use of first-person perspectives, ranging from adventure games to flight simulators. The most notable genre to use of this device is the first-person shooter. Games with a first-person perspective are usually avatar-based, wherein the game displays what the players avatar would see with the avatars own eyes, thus, players typically cannot see the avatars body, though they may be able to see the avatars weapons or hands. A first-person perspective allows for aiming, since there is no representation of the avatar to block the players view. However, the absence of an avatar can make it difficult to master the timing, players have come to expect first-person games to accurately scale objects to appropriate sizes. However, key objects such as dropped items or levers may be exaggerated in order to improve their visibility, while many games featured a side-scrolling or top-down perspective during the 1970s and 80s, several early games attempted to render the game world from the perspective of the player. While light gun shooters often have a perspective, they are distinct from first-person shooters. It is not clear exactly when the earliest such first-person shooter video game was created, there are two claimants, Spasim and Maze War. The uncertainty about which was first stems from the lack of any accurate dates for the development of Maze War—even its developer cannot remember exactly, in contrast, the development of Spasim is much better documented and the dates more certain. The initial development of Maze War probably occurred in the summer of 1973, a single player made their way through a simple maze of corridors rendered using fixed perspective. Multiplayer capabilities, with attempting to shoot each other, were probably added later in 1973. Spasim was originally developed in the spring of 1974, players moved through a wire-frame 3D universe, with gameplay resembling the 2D game Empire ire. Graphically, Spasim lacked even hidden line removal, but did feature online multiplayer over the worldwide university-based PLATO network, Spasim had a documented debut at the University of Illinois in 1974. The game was a space flight simulator, which featured a first-person perspective. Another notable PLATO FPS was the tank game Panther, introduced in 1975, in 1976, Segas Road Race extended the car racing video game genre into three dimensions with a first-person perspective. It displayed a constantly changing S-shaped road with two race cars moving along the road that the player must avoid crashing while racing against the clock. In 1980, Segas arcade space shooter Space Tactics also allowed players to take aim using crosshairs, First-person light gun shooters would rise in popularity during the mid-1980s, with Nintendos Duck Hunt being a much-loved example
4.
Full motion video based game
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In modern times, the term also refers to games that have a larger emphasis on story/presentation than on gameplay. This genre came about with the invention of laserdiscs and laserdisc players, thus, interactive movies were animated or filmed with real actors like movies, and followed a main storyline. Alternative scenes were filmed to be triggered after wrong actions of the player, when in danger, the player was to decide which move or action, or combination to choose. If they chose the move, they would see a lose a life scene. There was only one possible successful storyline in Dragons Lair, the activity the user had was to choose or guess the move the designers intended them to make. Despite the lack of interactivity, Dragons Lair was very popular, much as a Choose Your Own Adventure book might say If you turn left, go to page 7. Because laserdisc players of the day were not robust enough to handle the constant wear placed on them by constant arcade use, the first example of interactive cinema was Kinoautomat, which was written and directed by Radúz Činčera. This movie was first screened at Expo 67 in Montreal and this film was produced before the invention of the laserdisc or similar technology, so a live moderator appeared on stage at certain points to ask the audience to choose between two scenes. The chosen scene would play following an audience vote, in the 1970s, Kasco released a hit electro-mechanical arcade game with live-action FMV, projecting car footage filmed by Toei. An early attempt to combine random access video with computer games was Rollercoaster, written in BASIC for the Apple II by David Lubar for David H. Ahl and this was a text adventure that could trigger a laserdisc player to play portions of the feature film Rollercoaster. Developed in 1982, it was unveiled at the 1982 AMOA show in Chicago, however, the game that popularized the genre in the United States was Dragons Lair, animated by Don Bluth and released by Cinematronics shortly after. Around the same time, the laserdisc games Begas Battle and Cliff Hanger were also released, several laserdisc games added their own innovations to the genre. Space Ace, another Don Bluth animated game released by Cinematronics the following year, because Dragons Lair and Space Ace were immensely popular, they spawned a deluge of sequels and similar laserdisc games, despite the astronomical cost of the animation. To cut costs, several companies simply hacked together scenes from anime that were obscure to American audiences of the day. One such early example was Sterns Cliff Hanger, a 1983 game released around the time which used footage from the Lupin III movies Castle of Cagliostro. Years later, this would become the standard approach to video game storytelling, Begas Battle also featured a branching storyline. In 1987, the game Night Trap, featuring video, was created for Hasbros Control-Vision video game system. When Hasbro discontinued production of Control-Vision, the footage was placed into archive until it was purchased in 1991 by the founders of Digital Pictures, Digital Pictures ported Night Trap to the Sega CD platform, releasing it in 1992
5.
Adventure game
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An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving. The genres focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, literature and film, many adventure games are designed for a single player, since this emphasis on story and character makes multi-player design difficult. Initial adventure games developed in the 1970s and early 1980s were text-based, within the Asian markets, adventure games continue to be popular in the form of visual novels, which make up nearly 70% of PC games released in Japan. The Asian markets have found markets for adventure games for portable and mobile gaming devices. The video game genre is defined by its gameplay, unlike the literary genre, which is defined by the subject it addresses. Essential elements of the genre include storytelling, exploration, and puzzle solving, Adventure games have been described as puzzles embedded in a narrative framework, where games involve narrative content that a player unlocks piece by piece over time. While the puzzles that players encounter through the story can be arbitrary, combat and action challenges are limited or absent in adventure games, thus distinguishing them from action games. In the book Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design, only that combat is not the primary activity. Some adventure games include a minigame from another video game genre. Hybrid action-adventure games blend action and adventure games throughout the experience, incorporating more physical challenges than pure adventure games. This definition is hard to apply, however, with debate among designers about which games are action games. Adventure games are distinct from role-playing video games that involve action, team-building. Adventure games lack the numeric rules or relationships seen in role-playing games and these games lack any skill system, combat, or an opponent to be defeated through strategy and tactics. However, some hybrid games exist here, where role-playing games with strong narrative, finally, adventure games are classified separately from puzzle video games. Although an adventure game may involve puzzle-solving, they involve a player-controlled avatar in an interactive story. Adventure games contain a variety of puzzles, decoding messages, finding and using items, opening locked doors, solving a puzzle will unlock access to new areas in the game world, and reveal more of the game story. Logic puzzles, where mechanical devices are designed with interfaces to test a players deductive reasoning skills, are common. Others have been criticized for requiring players to guess, either by clicking on the right pixel
6.
Isometric graphics in video games and pixel art
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The terms 3/4 perspective,2. 5D and pseudo-3D are also frequently used, though these other terms can possess additional meanings in different contexts. Once common, isometric projection became less so as games began to more on the action as well as on individual characters. With the advent of more powerful 3D graphics systems, isometric projection began to be replaced by perspective projection, however, isometric projection has seen somewhat of a resurgence in recent years, especially on Kickstarter. This allowed older 8-bit and 16-bit game systems to portray large 3D areas easily, and, while the depth confusion problems of parallel projection can sometimes be a problem, good game design can alleviate this. There are also advantages to using an isometric or pseudo-isometric perspective in video games. For instance, compared to a purely top-down game, they add a third dimension, opening up new avenues for aiming and platforming. Secondly, compared to a first- or third-person game, they allow you to more easily field and control a number of additional units. Further, they may alleviate situations where a player may become distracted from a games core mechanics by having to manage an unwieldy 3D camera. I. e. the player can focus on playing the game itself, lastly, there is an artistic advantage. Static pre-rendered isometric graphics have aged well compared to their non-pre-rendered counterparts due to their spectacular. This artistic advantage may be less pronounced now than in the past, the projection commonly used in videogames deviates slightly from true isometric due to the limitations of raster graphics. Lines in the x and y directions would not follow a neat pixel pattern if drawn in the required 30° to the horizontal, while modern computers can eliminate this problem using anti-aliasing, earlier computer graphics did not support enough colors or possess enough CPU power to accomplish this. So instead, a 2,1 pixel pattern ratio would be used to draw the x and y axis lines, resulting in these axes following a 26. 565° angle to the horizontal. Therefore, this form of projection is more accurately described as a variation of dimetric projection, the use of isometric graphics in video games began with the appearance of Segas Zaxxon, released as an arcade game in January 1982. It is a shooter where the player flies a space plane through scrolling levels. It is also one of the first video games to display shadows, another early isometric game is Q*bert, which Warren Davis and Jeff Lee began programming in April 1982 and released in October/November 1982. Q*bert shows a static pyramid in a perspective, with the player controlling a character which can jump around on the pyramid. The following year in March 1983, the isometric platformer arcade game Congo Bongo was released and it allows the player character to move around in bigger isometric levels, including true three-dimensional climbing and falling
7.
Stereoscopic video game
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A stereoscopic video game is a video game which uses stereoscopic technologies to create depth perception for the player by any form of stereo display. Such games should not to be confused with games that use 3D game graphics on a mono screen. For video game consoles, however, stereoscopic 3D support must be built into each game. Potential stereoscopic game support is available, for instance, on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS is fully designed for autostereoscopic games. One of the reasons for the lack of success was that the surprise effect quickly wears off. A study at the University of Derby showed that converted 2D games do not transfer well to stereoscopic 3D. Games targeted to stereoscopic 3D audiences and devices must be designed from the start with stereoscopic 3D in mind, therefore, stereo video games must have elements that can only be achieved in S-3D for a proper stereoscopic immersion. For example, in the game Super Stardust HD, asteroids stand out from the plane and it makes navigation easier and serves a fundamental purpose. Super Mario 3D Land is another example for easier navigation and furthermore the game plays with depth, developers also need to mind perceptual problems such as stereo window violations and occlusion of virtual objects. Another scientific paper showed that S3D vision can change player behavior depending on actual game design. The entire development trend of games and other software for such head-mounted displays remains to be seen, there are two primary rendering techniques employed in stereoscopic video games, 2D + depth rendering, and dual rendered 3D. This technique generates a point of view from a single rendered image. It has a limit on how much parallax can be created. 2D+ can be compared to 2D to 3D conversion techniques for 3D films, several video games for Xbox 360 and PS3 used this method. It creates the best stereoscopic effect but has double system requirements for graphic rendering, Sega released the worlds first commercial stereoscopic video game, SubRoc-3D, in 1982. This arcade game introduced an active shutter 3D system, jointly developed by Sega with Matsushita, in 1983, the first model of the TomyTronic series of gaming laptop LCD game & watch-type stereoscopic 3D was released by Takara Tomy. A 3D imager for the console Vectrex vector, a pair of 3D glasses using a color wheel synchronized with the display was released by Smith Engineering in 1984. In 1987, the shutter-based SegaScope 3D Glasses for the Sega Master System was released, the Taito Z System arcade game Continental Circus, the first stereoscopic 3D racing video game, also released in 1987
8.
Virtual camera system
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In 3D video games, a virtual camera system aims at controlling a camera or a set of cameras to display a view of a 3D virtual world. Camera systems are used in videogames where their purpose is to show the action at the best possible angle, more generally, as opposed to film makers, virtual camera system creators have to deal with a world that is interactive and unpredictable. It is not possible to know where the character is going to be in the next few seconds, therefore. To solve this issue, the system relies on certain rules or artificial intelligence to select the most appropriate shots, there are mainly three types of camera systems. In fixed camera systems, the camera does not move at all, tracking cameras, on the other hand, follow the characters movements. Finally, interactive camera systems are automated and allow the player to directly change the view. To implement camera systems, video game developers use techniques such as constraint solvers, artificial intelligence scripts, in video games, third-person refers to a graphical perspective rendered from a fixed distance behind and slightly above the player character. This viewpoint allows players to see a more strongly characterized avatar, games with this perspective often make use of positional audio, where the volume of ambient sounds varies depending on the position of the avatar. In this kind of system, the set the properties of the camera, such as its position, orientation or field of view. The camera views will not change dynamically, so the place will always be shown under the same set of views. An early example of this kind of system can be seen in Alone in the Dark. While the characters are in 3D, the background on which they evolve has been pre-rendered, the early Resident Evil games are notable examples of games that use fixed cameras. The God of War series of games is also known for this technique. One advantage of camera system is that it allows the game designers to use the language of film. Indeed, like filmmakers, they have the possibility to create a mood through camerawork, games that use this kind of technique are often praised for their cinematic qualities. As the name says, a camera follows the characters from behind. The player does not control the camera in any way - he/she cannot for example rotate it or move it to a different position and this type of camera system was very common in early 3D games such as Crash Bandicoot or Tomb Raider since it is very simple to implement. However, there are a number of issues with it, in particular, if the current view is not suitable, it cannot be changed since the player does not control the camera
9.
Tile-based video game
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A tile-based video game is a type of video or video game where the playing area consists of small rectangular, square, parallelogram or hexagonal graphic images, referred to as tiles. The complete set of available for use in a playing area is called a tileset. Tiles are laid out adjacent to one another in a grid, usually, some tiles are allowed to overlap, for example, tile-based games usually simulate a top-down or 2. 5D view of the playing area, and are almost always two-dimensional. Tile-based games are not a video game genre, rather. For example, Ultima III is a video game and Civilization is a turn-based strategy game. Tile-based engines allow developers to create large, complex gameworlds efficiently, tile-based video games usually use a texture atlas for performance reasons. This approach allows for simple, visual map data, letting level designers create entire worlds with a reference sheet and perhaps a text editor. Examples of tile-based game engine/IDEs include RPG Maker, Game Maker, Construct, Godot, Ultima 7 uses a tile, chunk and superchunk three-layer system to construct an enormous, detailed world within the PCs of the early 1990s. The tile model was introduced by the Namco Galaxian arcade system board in 1979, the most common tile size used in video games was 8×8 pixels. A tilemap consisting of 8×8 tiles required 64 times less memory, early tile-based games shipped with pre-constructed levels or generated levels at game startup or on the fly. Most early tile-based games used a top-down perspective, ultimate Play The Game developed a series of video games in the 1980s that employed a tile-based isometric perspective. As computers advanced, isometric and dimetric perspectives began to predominate in tile-based games, hexagonal tile-based games have been limited for the most part to the strategy and wargaming genres. Notable examples include the Sega Genesis game Master of Monsters, SSIs Five Star series of wargames, some entirely 3D games have been tile-based, one notable example is the Neverwinter Nights series from BioWare. Other games, like side-scrollers, are technically also tile-based, but are not referred to as such. Ultima series Utopia Wars series Texture atlas Top-down perspective Isometric graphics in video games and pixel art Tiled rendering Tile Map Editor Tile2Map TME - Tile Map Editor TileStudio
10.
2D computer graphics
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2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them. The word may stand for the branch of science that comprises such techniques. This representation is more flexible since it can be rendered at different resolutions to suit different output devices. For these reasons, documents and illustrations are often stored or transmitted as 2D graphic files, 2D computer graphics started in the 1950s, based on vector graphics devices. These were largely supplanted by raster-based devices in the following decades, the PostScript language and the X Window System protocol were landmark developments in the field. 2D graphics models may combine geometric models, digital images, text to be typeset, mathematical functions and equations and these components can be modified and manipulated by two-dimensional geometric transformations such as translation, rotation, scaling. In object-oriented graphics, the image is described indirectly by an object endowed with a self-rendering method—a procedure which assigns colors to the pixels by an arbitrary algorithm. Complex models can be built by combining simpler objects, in the paradigms of object-oriented programming, in Euclidean geometry, a translation moves every point a constant distance in a specified direction. A translation can be described as a motion, other rigid motions include rotations and reflections. A translation can also be interpreted as the addition of a constant vector to every point, a translation operator is an operator T δ such that T δ f = f. If v is a vector, then the translation Tv will work as Tv = p + v. If T is a translation, then the image of a subset A under the function T is the translate of A by T, the translate of A by Tv is often written A + v. In a Euclidean space, any translation is an isometry, the set of all translations forms the translation group T, which is isomorphic to the space itself, and a normal subgroup of Euclidean group E. The quotient group of E by T is isomorphic to the orthogonal group O, E / T ≅ O, thus we write the 3-dimensional vector w = using 4 homogeneous coordinates as w =. Similarly, the product of matrices is given by adding the vectors. Because addition of vectors is commutative, multiplication of matrices is therefore also commutative. In linear algebra, a matrix is a matrix that is used to perform a rotation in Euclidean space. R = rotates points in the xy-Cartesian plane counterclockwise through an angle θ about the origin of the Cartesian coordinate system
11.
Parallax scrolling
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The technique grew out of the multiplane camera technique used in traditional animation since the 1930s. Parallax scrolling was popularized in 2D computer graphics and video games by the arcade games Moon Patrol and Jungle Hunt, some parallax scrolling had earlier been used by the 1981 arcade game Jump Bug. There are four methods of parallax scrolling used in titles for arcade system board, video game console. Some display systems support multiple background layers that can be scrolled independently in horizontal and vertical directions and composited on one another, on such a display system, a game can produce parallax by simply changing each layers position by a different amount in the same direction. Layers that move more quickly are perceived to be closer to the virtual camera, programmers may also make pseudo-layers of sprites—individually controllable moving objects drawn by hardware on top of or behind the layers—if they are available on the display system. The Amiga computer has sprites which can have any height and can be set horizontal with the copper co-processor, risky Woods on the Amiga uses sprites multiplexed with the copper to create an entire fullscreen parallax background layer as an alternative to the systems dual playfield mode. Scrolling displays built up of tiles can be made to float over a repeating background layer by animating the individual tiles bitmaps in order to portray the parallax effect. Color cycling can be used to animate tiles quickly on the whole screen and this software effect gives the illusion of another layer. Many games used this technique for a scrolling star-field, but sometimes a more intricate or multi-directional effect is achieved, such as in the game Parallax by Sensible Software. In raster graphics, the lines of pixels in an image are typically composited and refreshed in top-to-bottom order with a delay between drawing one line and drawing the next line. Some display systems have one layer. These include most of the classic 8-bit systems, the more sophisticated games on such systems generally divide the layer into horizontal strips, each with a different position and rate of scrolling. Typically, strips higher on the screen will represent things farther away from the camera or one strip will be held stationary to display status information. The program will then wait for horizontal blank and change the layers scroll position just before the system begins to draw each scanline. This is called an effect and is also useful for changing the system palette to provide a gradient background. Some platforms provide a horizontal blank interrupt for automatically setting the registers independently of the rest of the program. Many NES games use this technique to draw their status bars, more advanced raster techniques can produce interesting effects. A system can achieve an effective depth of field if layers with rasters are combined, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, ActRaiser, Lionheart
12.
Pixel art
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Pixel art is a form of digital art, created through the use of software, where images are edited on the pixel level. The majority of graphics for 8-bit and 16-bit computers and video game consoles, creating or modifying pixel art characters or objects for video games is sometimes called spriting, a term that arose from the hobbyist community. The term pixel art was first published by Adele Goldberg and Robert Flegal of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in 1982, the concept, however, goes back about 11 years before that, for example in Richard Shoups SuperPaint system in 1972, also at Xerox PARC. Some traditional art forms, such as embroidery and some kinds of mosaic. These art forms construct pictures out of colored units similar to the pixels of modern digital computing. A similar concept on a bigger scale can be seen in the North Korean Arirang Festival. There are some similarities of technique and style between pixel art and older artistic movements like Impressionism, Abstract Art, and especially Cubism. Drawings usually start with what is called the art, which is the basic line that defines the character. Linearts are usually traced over scanned drawings and are shared among other pixel artists. Other techniques, some resembling painting, also exist, the limited palette often implemented in pixel art usually promotes dithering to achieve different shades and colors, but due to the nature of this form of art this is done completely by hand. Here are a few parts of the image of “The Gunk” in detail. The basic form of dithering, using two colors in a 2×2 checkerboard pattern, changing the density of each color will lead to different subtones. Stylized dithering with 2×2 pixel squares randomly scattered can produce interesting textures, anti-aliasing can be done, by hand, to smooth curves and transitions. Some artists only do this internally, to keep crisp outlines that can go over any background, the PNG alpha channel can be used to create external anti-aliasing for any background. Pixel art is preferably stored in a file format utilizing lossless data compression, GIF and PNG are two file formats commonly used for storing pixel art. The JPEG format is avoided because its lossy compression algorithm is designed for smooth continuous-tone images and introduces visible artifacts in the presence of dithering, Pixel art is commonly divided in two subcategories, isometric and non-isometric. The isometric kind is drawn in a near-isometric dimetric projection and this is commonly seen in games to provide a three-dimensional view without using any real three-dimensional processing. Technically, an angle would be of 30 degrees from the horizontal
13.
Sprite (computer graphics)
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In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional bitmap that is integrated into a larger scene. Originally sprites referred to independent objects that are composited together, by hardware and this occurs as each scan line is prepared for the video output device, such as a CRT, without involvement of the main CPU and without the need for a full-screen frame buffer. Sprites can be positioned or altered by setting attributes used during the composition process. Examples of systems with hardware sprites include the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, the act of creating sprites is a form of pixel art. It is sometimes referred to as spriting, especially in the hobbyist community, the use of sprites originated with arcade games. The first video game to represent player characters as human player images was Taitos Basketball, Signetics devised the first video/graphics processors capable of generating sprite graphics for home systems. The Signetics 2636 video processors were first used in the 1976 Radofin 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System, the Atari VCS, released in 1977, features a hardware sprite implementation where five graphical objects can be moved independently of the game playfield. The term sprite was not in use at the time, the VCSs sprites are called movable objects in the programming manual, further identified as two players, two missiles, and one ball. These each consist of a row of pixels that are displayed on a scan line. To produce a shape, the sprites single-row bitmap is altered by software from one scanline to the next. Each is the height of the display—a long, thin strip. DMA from a table in memory automatically sets the graphics pattern registers for each scan line, hardware registers control the horizontal position of each player and missile. Vertical motion is achieved by moving the data within a player or missiles strip. The feature was called player/missile graphics by Atari, the Namco Galaxian arcade system board, for the 1979 arcade game Galaxian, featured animated, multi-colored sprites. According to Steve Golson from General Computer Corporation, the stamp was used instead of sprite at the time. The Elektor TV Games Computer was a microcomputer capable of generating sprite graphics. The term sprite was first used in the sense by one of the definers of the Texas Instruments 9918 video display processor. By this time, sprites had advanced to the point where complete two-dimensional shapes could be moved around the screen horizontally and vertically with minimal software overhead, the CPU would instruct the external chips to fetch source images and integrate them into the main screen using direct memory access channels
14.
3D computer graphics
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Such images may be stored for viewing later or displayed in real-time. 3D computer graphics rely on many of the same algorithms as 2D computer vector graphics in the wire-frame model, 3D computer graphics are often referred to as 3D models. Apart from the graphic, the model is contained within the graphical data file. However, there are differences, a 3D model is the representation of any three-dimensional object. A model is not technically a graphic until it is displayed, a model can be displayed visually as a two-dimensional image through a process called 3D rendering or used in non-graphical computer simulations and calculations. With 3D printing, 3D models are rendered into a 3D physical representation of the model. William Fetter was credited with coining the term computer graphics in 1961 to describe his work at Boeing, 3D computer graphics software began appearing for home computers in the late 1970s. The earliest known example is 3D Art Graphics, a set of 3D computer graphics effects, written by Kazumasa Mitazawa, models can also be produced procedurally or via physical simulation. Basically, a 3D model is formed from points called vertices that define the shape, a polygon is an area formed from at least three vertexes. A polygon of n points is an n-gon, the overall integrity of the model and its suitability to use in animation depend on the structure of the polygons. Before rendering into an image, objects must be out in a scene. This defines spatial relationships between objects, including location and size, Animation refers to the temporal description of an object. These techniques are used in combination. As with animation, physical simulation also specifies motion, rendering converts a model into an image either by simulating light transport to get photo-realistic images, or by applying an art style as in non-photorealistic rendering. The two basic operations in realistic rendering are transport and scattering and this step is usually performed using 3D computer graphics software or a 3D graphics API. Altering the scene into a form for rendering also involves 3D projection. There are a multitude of websites designed to help, educate, some are managed by software developers and content providers, but there are standalone sites as well. These communities allow for members to seek advice, post tutorials, not all computer graphics that appear 3D are based on a wireframe model
15.
3D rendering
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3D rendering is the 3D computer graphics process of automatically converting 3D wire frame models into 2D images with 3D photorealistic effects or non-photorealistic rendering on a computer. Rendering is the process of creating the actual 2D image or animation from the prepared scene. This can be compared to taking a photo or filming the scene after the setup is finished in real life, several different, and often specialized, rendering methods have been developed. These range from the distinctly non-realistic wireframe rendering through polygon-based rendering, to advanced techniques such as, scanline rendering, ray tracing. Rendering may take from fractions of a second to days for a single image/frame, in general, different methods are better suited for either photo-realistic rendering, or real-time rendering. Rendering for interactive media, such as games and simulations, is calculated and displayed in real time, in real-time rendering, the goal is to show as much information as possible as the eye can process in a fraction of a second. The primary goal is to achieve an as high as possible degree of photorealism at an acceptable minimum rendering speed, rendering software may simulate such visual effects as lens flares, depth of field or motion blur. These are attempts to simulate visual phenomena resulting from the characteristics of cameras. These effects can lend an element of realism to a scene and this is the basic method employed in games, interactive worlds and VRML. The rapid increase in processing power has allowed a progressively higher degree of realism even for real-time rendering, including techniques such as HDR rendering. Real-time rendering is often polygonal and aided by the computers GPU, animations for non-interactive media, such as feature films and video, are rendered much more slowly. Non-real time rendering enables the leveraging of limited processing power in order to obtain higher image quality, rendering times for individual frames may vary from a few seconds to several days for complex scenes. Rendered frames are stored on a hard disk then can be transferred to media such as motion picture film or optical disk. These frames are then displayed sequentially at high rates, typically 24,25, or 30 frames per second. When the goal is photo-realism, techniques such as ray tracing or radiosity are employed and this is the basic method employed in digital media and artistic works. Techniques have been developed for the purpose of simulating other naturally occurring effects, examples of such techniques include particle systems, volumetric sampling, caustics, and subsurface scattering. The rendering process is expensive, given the complex variety of physical processes being simulated. Computer processing power has increased rapidly over the years, allowing for a higher degree of realistic rendering
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Skybox (video games)
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A skybox is a method of creating backgrounds to make a computer and video games level look bigger than it really is. When a skybox is used, the level is enclosed in a cuboid, the sky, distant mountains, distant buildings, and other unreachable objects are projected onto the cubes faces, thus creating the illusion of distant three-dimensional surroundings. A skydome employs the concept but uses either a sphere or a hemisphere instead of a cube. Processing of 3D graphics is computationally expensive, especially in real-time games, levels have to be processed at tremendous speeds, making it difficult to render vast skyscapes in real time. Additionally, realtime graphics generally have depth buffers with limited bit-depth, to compensate for these problems, games often employ skyboxes. Traditionally, these are simple cubes with up to 6 different textures placed on the faces, by careful alignment, a viewer in the exact middle of the skybox will perceive the illusion of a real 3D world around it, made up of those 6 faces. As a viewer moves through a 3D scene, it is common for the skybox to remain stationary with respect to the viewer. This technique gives the skybox the illusion of being far away, since other objects in the scene appear to move. This imitates real life, where distant objects such as clouds, stars, effectively, everything in a skybox will always appear to be infinitely distant from the viewer. The source of a skybox can be any form of texture, including photographs, hand-drawn images, usually, these textures are created and aligned in 6 directions, with viewing angles of 90 degrees. As technology progressed, it clear that the default skybox had severe disadvantages. It could not be animated, and all objects in it appeared to be infinitely distant and this constructed skybox was placed in an unreachable location, typically outside the bounds of the playable portion of the level, to prevent players from touching the skybox. In older versions of this technology, such as the ones presented in the game Unreal, this was limited to movements in the sky, such as the movements of clouds. Elements could be changed from level to level, such as the positions of objects, or the color of the sky. The skybox in this game would appear to be infinitely far away, as the skybox, although containing 3D geometry. Newer engines, such as the Source engine, continue on this idea, allowing the skybox to move along with the player, although at a different speed. Because depth is perceived on the movement of objects, making the skybox move slower than the level causes the skybox to appear far away. It is also possible, but not required, to include 3D geometry which will surround the playing environment
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Animation
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Animation is the process of making the illusion of motion and the illusion of change by means of the rapid display of a sequence of images that minimally differ from each other. The illusion—as in motion pictures in general—is thought to rely on the phi phenomenon, animators are artists who specialize in the creation of animation. Animation can be recorded with either analogue media, a book, motion picture film, video tape, digital media, including formats with animated GIF, Flash animation. To display animation, a camera, computer, or projector are used along with new technologies that are produced. Animation creation methods include the traditional animation creation method and those involving stop motion animation of two and three-dimensional objects, paper cutouts, puppets and clay figures, Images are displayed in a rapid succession, usually 24,25,30, or 60 frames per second. Computer animation processes generating animated images with the general term computer-generated imagery, 3D animation uses computer graphics, while 2D animation is used for stylistic, low bandwidth and faster real-time renderings. An earthen goblet discovered at the site of the 5, 200-year-old Shahr-e Sūkhté in southeastern Iran, the artifact bears five sequential images depicting a Persian Desert Ibex jumping up to eat the leaves of a tree. They may, of course, refer to Chinese shadow puppets, in the 19th century, the phenakistoscope, zoetrope and praxinoscope were introduced. A thaumatrope is a toy with a small disk with different pictures on each side. The phenakistoscope was invented simultaneously by Belgian Joseph Plateau and Austrian Simon von Stampfer in 1831, the phenakistoscope consists of a disk with a series of images, drawn on radi evenly space around the center of the disk. John Barnes Linnett patented the first flip book in 1868 as the kineograph, the first animated projection was created in France, by Charles-Émile Reynaud, who was a French science teacher. Reynaud created the Praxinoscope in 1877 and the Théâtre Optique in December 1888, on 28 October 1892, he projected the first animation in public, Pauvre Pierrot, at the Musée Grévin in Paris. This film is notable as the first known instance of film perforations being used. His films were not photographed, they were drawn directly onto the transparent strip, in 1900, more than 500,000 people had attended these screenings. Stuart Blackton, who, because of that, is considered the father of American animation, in Europe, the French artist, Émile Cohl, created the first animated film using what came to be known as traditional animation creation methods - the 1908 Fantasmagorie. The film largely consisted of a figure moving about and encountering all manner of morphing objects. There were also sections of live action in which the hands would enter the scene. The film was created by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto negative film, the author of the first puppet-animated film was the Russian-born director Wladyslaw Starewicz, known as Ladislas Starevich
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Cel shading
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Cel-shading is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon and/or give it a characteristic paper-like texture. There are similar techniques that can make an image look like a sketch and it is somewhat recent, appearing from around the beginning of the twenty-first century. The name comes from cels, the sheets of acetate. The cel-shading process starts with a typical 3D model, where cel-shading differs from conventional rendering is in its non-photorealistic illumination model. Black ink outlines and contour lines can be created using a variety of methods, one popular method is to first render a black outline, slightly larger than the object itself. Backface culling is inverted and the triangles are drawn in black. To dilate the silhouette, these faces may be drawn in wireframe multiple times with slight changes in translation. Alternatively, back-faces may be rendered solid-filled, with their vertices translated along their vertex normals in a vertex shader, after drawing the outline, back-face culling is set back to normal to draw the shading and optional textures of the object. Finally, the image is composited via Z-buffering, as the back-faces always lie deeper in the scene than the front-faces, the result is that the object is drawn with a black outline and interior contour lines. The Utah teapot rendered using cel-shading, The back faces are drawn with thick lines The object is drawn with a basic texture Shading Steps 2 and 3 can be combined using multi-texturing, another outlining technique is to use 2D image-processing. Other notable examples include The Legend of Zelda, The Wind Waker, Viewtiful Joe, Ni No Kuni, Escape Dead Island, The Wolf Among Us, Ōkami, and Ultimate Spider-Man. Cutscenes in Mirrors Edge use a mixture of characters and 3D toon shaded models, with the latter used mostly in vehicles. Blue season 14, a game based TV series. Based on the video game Halo, Transformers, Robots in Disguise, a 2015 animated series and sequel to Transformers, Prime. List of cel-shaded video games 2. 5D IGN, Jet Set Radio review
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Digitization
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Digitizing or digitization is the representation of an object, image, sound, document or signal by generating a series of numbers that describe a discrete set of its points or samples. The result is called digital representation or, more specifically, an image, for the object. Unlike analog data, which typically suffers some loss of quality each time it is copied or transmitted, digital data can, in theory and this is why it is a favored way of preserving information for many organisations around the world. The term digitization is often used when diverse forms of information, such as text, sound, Digital information exists as one of two digits, either 0 or 1. These are known as bits and the sequences of 0s and 1s that constitute information are called bytes. Analog signals are continuously variable, both in the number of values of the signal at a given time, as well as in the number of points in the signal in a given period of time. Digitization occurs in two parts, Discretization The reading of an analog signal A, and, at time intervals. Each such reading is called a sample and may be considered to have infinite precision at this stage, Quantization Samples are rounded to a set of numbers. In general, these can occur at the time, though they are conceptually distinct. A series of integers can be transformed into an analog output that approximates the original analog signal. Such a transformation is called a DA conversion, the sampling rate and the number of bits used to represent the integers combine to determine how close such an approximation to the analog signal a digitization will be. The term is used to describe the scanning of analog sources into computers for editing. In this last case, as in normal photos, sampling rate refers to the resolution of the image, Digitization is also used to describe the process of populating databases with files or data. Digitizing may also used in the field of apparel, where an image may be recreated with the help of embroidery digitizing software tools and this machine code is fed into an embroidery machine and applied to the fabric. The most supported format is DST file, apparel companies also digitize clothing patterns Analog signals are continuous electrical signals, digital signals are non-continuous. Analog signal can be converted to digital signal by ADC, nearly all recorded music has been digitized. About 12 percent of the 500, 000+ movies listed on the Internet Movie Database are digitized on DVD, handling of analog signal becomes easy when it is digitized because the signal is digitized before modulation and transmission. The conversion process of analog to digital consists of two processes, sampling and quantizing, Digitization of personal multimedia such as home movies, slides, and photographs is a popular method of preserving and sharing older repositories
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Rotoscoping
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Rotoscoping is an animation technique used by animators to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, when realistic action is required. Originally, photographed live-action movie images were projected onto a glass panel and this projection equipment is referred to as a Rotoscope. Although this device was replaced by computers, the process is still referred to as Rotoscoping. In the visual effects industry, the term Rotoscoping refers to the technique of creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate so it may be composited over another background. Rotoscoping has often used as a tool for visual effects in live-action movies. By tracing an object, the moviemaker creates a silhouette that can be used to extract that object from a scene for use on a different background. While blue and green screen techniques have made the process of layering subjects in scenes easier, Rotoscoping in the digital domain is often aided by motion tracking and onion-skinning software. Rotoscoping is often used in the preparation of garbage mattes for other matte-pulling processes, Rotoscoping has also been used to allow a special visual effect to be guided by the matte or rotoscoped line. To achieve this, effects technicians traced a line over each frame with the prop, then enlarged each line, the live-movie reference for the character, later known as Koko the Clown, was performed by his brother dressed in a clown costume. Originally conceived as a short-cut to animating, the Rotoscope process proved to be time consuming due the precise, Rotoscoping is achieved by two methods, rear projection and front surface projection. In either case, the results can have slight deviations from the line due to the separation of the projected image. Misinterpretations of the cause the line to wiggle, and the Roto Tracings must be reworked over an animation disc, using the tracings as a guide where consistency. Fleischer returned to Rotoscoping in the 1930s for referencing intricate dance movements in his Popeye, the most notable of these are the dance routines originating from Jazz Performer, Cab Calloway in Minnie the Moocher, Snow White, and The Old Man of the Mountain. In these examples, the Roto tracing were used as a guide for timing and positioning while the characters of different proportions were drawn to conform to those positions. By 1934, Fleischers patent expired, and other producers could use Rotoscoping freely, walt Disney and his animators used the technique in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs during 1937. Leon Schlesinger Productions, which produced the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for Warner Bros. occasionally used Rotoscoping, the 1939 MGM cartoon Petunia Natural Park from the The Captain and the Kids featured a Rotoscope version of Jackie. Rotoscoping was used extensively in Chinas first animated movie, Princess Iron Fan. The technique was used extensively in the Soviet Union from the late-1930s to the 1950s, most of the movies produced with it were adaptations of folk tales or poems—for example, The Night Before Christmas or The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
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Computer graphics
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Computer graphics are pictures and films created using computers. Usually, the term refers to computer-generated image data created with help from specialized hardware and software. It is a vast and recent area in computer science, the phrase was coined in 1960, by computer graphics researchers Verne Hudson and William Fetter of Boeing. It is often abbreviated as CG, though sometimes referred to as CGI. The overall methodology depends heavily on the sciences of geometry, optics. Computer graphics is responsible for displaying art and image data effectively and meaningfully to the user and it is also used for processing image data received from the physical world. Computer graphic development has had a significant impact on many types of media and has revolutionized animation, movies, advertising, video games, the term computer graphics has been used a broad sense to describe almost everything on computers that is not text or sound. Such imagery is found in and on television, newspapers, weather reports, a well-constructed graph can present complex statistics in a form that is easier to understand and interpret. In the media such graphs are used to illustrate papers, reports, thesis, many tools have been developed to visualize data. Computer generated imagery can be categorized into different types, two dimensional, three dimensional, and animated graphics. As technology has improved, 3D computer graphics have become more common, Computer graphics has emerged as a sub-field of computer science which studies methods for digitally synthesizing and manipulating visual content. Screens could display art since the Lumiere brothers use of mattes to create effects for the earliest films dating from 1895. New kinds of displays were needed to process the wealth of information resulting from such projects, early projects like the Whirlwind and SAGE Projects introduced the CRT as a viable display and interaction interface and introduced the light pen as an input device. Douglas T. Ross of the Whirlwind SAGE system performed an experiment in 1954 in which a small program he wrote captured the movement of his finger. Electronics pioneer Hewlett-Packard went public in 1957 after incorporating the decade prior, and established ties with Stanford University through its founders. This began the transformation of the southern San Francisco Bay Area into the worlds leading computer technology hub - now known as Silicon Valley. The field of computer graphics developed with the emergence of computer graphics hardware, further advances in computing led to greater advancements in interactive computer graphics. In 1959, the TX-2 computer was developed at MITs Lincoln Laboratory, the TX-2 integrated a number of new man-machine interfaces
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Game art design
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Game art design is a subset of game development. It is the process of creating the artistic aspects for video games, Video game art design begins in the pre-production phase of creating a video game. The video game artists are visual artists involved from the conception of the game and they make rough sketches of the characters, setting, objects and these starting concept designs can also be created by the game designers before the game is moved into actualization. Sometimes these are concept designs are called “programmer art”, after the rough sketches are completed and the game is ready to be moved forward those artists or more artists are brought in to bring these sketches to life through graphic design. The art design of a game can involve anywhere from two people and up, the larger the gaming company is the more people there are likely designing a game. A games artwork included in media, such as demos and screenshots, has a significant impact on customers, because artwork can be judged from previews, Artists work closely with designers on what is needed for the game. Tools used for art design and production are art tools and these can range from pen and paper to full software packages for both 2D and 3D art. A developer may employ a team responsible for art production applications. This includes using existing software packages and creating custom exporters and plug-ins for them, Video game art development began when video games started to be created. When game development started the game artists were also the programmers and it was not until the early 1980s that art began to become more developmentally intricate. One of the first video artists who contributed more shape. Starting in the early 1990s art requirements in video games were allowed to increase greatly because there was room in the budget for art. Video game art began to be in 3D around 1994, before which it had mainly been 2D art design and this required the artist and programmer to work in congruence very carefully, in the beginning, due to the foreign nature of 3D in video games. As the hardware of video games and technology on a whole advances the ability to develop art for video games increases exponentially, in more recent years many games have developed a much more realistic art design where some artists choose to have a more stylistic approach to the game. There are some games that aim for realism, modelling characters after real actors, there are several roles under the art development umbrella. Each role plays an important part in creating the art for the video game, depending on the size of the game production company there may be anywhere from two people and up working on the game. The fewer the people working on the art design the more jobs the people will have to create the different facets of the game, the number of artists working on a game can also be dependent on the type of game being created. For most games there are roles that must be filled to create characters, objects, setting, animation
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Game engine
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A game engine is a software framework designed for the creation and development of video games. Developers use them to games for consoles, mobile devices. The process of development is often economized, in large part, by reusing/adapting the same game engine to create different games. In many cases game engines provide a suite of development tools in addition to reusable software components. These tools are provided in an integrated development environment to enable simplified. Game engine developers attempt to pre-invent the wheel by developing robust software suites which include many elements a game developer may need to build a game, most game engine suites provide facilities that ease development, such as graphics, sound, physics and AI functions. Gamebryo, JMonkey Engine and RenderWare are such widely used middleware programs, however extensibility is achieved, it remains a high priority for game engines due to the wide variety of uses for which they are applied. Some game engines only provide real-time 3D rendering capabilities instead of the range of functionality needed by games. These engines rely upon the developer to implement the rest of this functionality or assemble it from other game middleware components. These types of engines are referred to as a graphics engine, rendering engine. This terminology is used as many full-featured 3D game engines are referred to simply as 3D engines. A few examples of engines are, Crystal Space, Genesis3D, Irrlicht, OGRE, RealmForge, Truevision3D. As technology ages, the components of an engine may become outdated or insufficient for the requirements of a given project. Since the complexity of programming a new engine may result in unwanted delays. Such a framework is composed of a multitude of different components. The actual game logic has to be implemented by some algorithms and it is distinct from any rendering, sound or input work. The rendering engine generates 3D animated graphics by the chosen method, before hardware-accelerated 3D graphics, software renderers had been used. Game engines can be written in any programming language like C++, C or Java, though language is structurally different
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First-person shooter engine
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A first-person shooter engine is a video game engine specialized for simulating 3D environments for use in a first-person shooter video game. First-person refers to the view where the see the world from the eyes of their characters. Shooter refers to games which revolve primarily around wielding firearms and killing other entities in the game world, the development of the FPS graphic engines is characterized by a steady increase in technologies, with some breakthroughs. Attempts at defining distinct generations lead to choices of what constitutes a highly modified version of an old engine. The classification is complicated as game engines blend old and new technologies, features considered advanced in a new game one year, become the expected standard the next year. Games with a combination of older and newer features are the norm. For example, Jurassic Park, Trespasser introduced physics to the FPS genre, red Faction featured destructible walls and ground, something still not common in engines years later. Game rendering for this generation of FPS were already from the first-person perspective and with the need to shoot things. There are two possible claimants for the first FPS, Maze War and Spasim, Maze War was developed in 1973 and involved a single player making his way through a maze of corridors rendered using a fixed perspective. Multiplayer capabilities, where players attempted to shoot each other, were added later and were networked in 1974, Spasim was originally developed in 1974 and involved players moving through a wire-frame 3D universe. Spasim could be played by up to 32 players on the PLATO network, the first game to use this engine was the puzzle game Driller in 1987. Games of this generation are often regarded as Doom clones and they were not capable of full 3D rendering, but used ray casting 2. 5D techniques to draw the environment and sprites to draw enemies instead of 3D models. However these games began to use textures to render the environment instead of simple wire-frame models or solid colors, catacomb 3D was also the first game to show the players hand on-screen, furthering the implication of the player into the characters role. Wolfenstein 3D engine was very primitive. It did not apply textures to the floor and ceiling, and the ray casting restricted walls to a fixed height, even though it was still not using true 3D, id Tech 1, first used in Doom and again from id Software, removed these limitations. It also first introduced the concept of space partitioning. Another breakthrough was the introduction of multiplayer abilities in the engine, however, because it was still using 2. 5D, it was impossible to look up and down properly in Doom, and all Doom levels were actually two-dimensional. Due to the lack of a z-axis, the engine did not allow for room-over-room support, dooms success spawned several games using the same engine or similar techniques, giving them the name Doom clones
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Voxel
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A voxel represents a value on a regular grid in three-dimensional space. As with pixels in a bitmap, voxels themselves do not typically have their position explicitly encoded along with their values, instead, the position of a voxel is inferred based upon its position relative to other voxels. In contrast to pixels and voxels, points and polygons are often represented by the coordinates of their vertices. Voxels are frequently used in the visualization and analysis of medical, some volumetric displays use voxels to describe their resolution. For example, a display might be able to show 512×512×512 voxels, the word voxel is based on a contraction of vox and el, similar formations with el for element include the words pixel and texel. A volume described as voxels can be visualized either by direct volume rendering or by the extraction of polygon iso-surfaces that follow the contours of given threshold values, the marching cubes algorithm is often used for isosurface extraction, however other methods exist as well. Both ray-tracing and ray-casting, as well as rasterisation, can be applied to data to obtain 2D raster graphics to depict on a monitor. Another technique for voxels involves raster graphics where you simply raytrace every pixel of the display into the scene, a typical implementation will raytrace each pixel of the display starting at the bottom of the screen using what is known as a y-buffer. There is a downside to voxel rasterization when transformation is applied which causes severe aliasing. The advantage was the ability to rasterise using cheap integer calculations on a CPU without hardware acceleration, Outcast, and other 1990s video games employed this graphics technique for effects such as reflection and bump-mapping and usually for terrain rendering. Outcasts graphics engine was mainly a combination of a ray casting engine, used to render the landscape, although Outcast is often cited as a forerunner of voxel technology, this is somewhat misleading. The game does not actually model three-dimensional volumes of voxels, instead, it models the ground as a surface, which may be seen as being made up of voxels. The ground is decorated with objects that are modeled using texture-mapped polygons, when Outcast was developed, the term voxel engine, when applied to computer games, commonly referred to a ray casting engine. On the engine technology page of the website, the landscape engine is also referred to as the Voxels engine. The engine is purely software-based, it does not rely on hardware-acceleration via a 3D graphics card, john Carmack also experimented with Voxels for the Quake III engine. One such problem cited by Carmack was the lack of graphics cards designed specifically for such rendering requiring them to be software rendered, Comanche was also the first commercial flight simulation based on voxel technology. NovaLogic used the proprietary Voxel Space engine developed for the company by Kyle Freeman to create open landscapes and this rendering technique allowed for much more detailed and realistic terrain compared to simulations based on vector graphics at that time. A voxel represents a sample, or data point, on a regularly spaced
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Video game
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A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The word video in video game referred to a raster display device. Some theorists categorize video games as an art form, but this designation is controversial, the electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms, examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to small handheld computing devices, the input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, joysticks, mouse devices, keyboards, the touchscreens of mobile devices, and buttons, or even, with the Kinect sensor, a persons hands and body. Players typically view the game on a screen or television or computer monitor, or sometimes on virtual reality head-mounted display goggles. There are often game sound effects, music and, in the 2010s, some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets. In the 2010s, the game industry is of increasing commercial importance, with growth driven particularly by the emerging Asian markets and mobile games. As of 2015, video games generated sales of USD74 billion annually worldwide, early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a Cathode ray tube Amusement Device was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U. S. Written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanens on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961, and the hit ping pong-style Pong, used the DEC PDP-1s vector display to have two spaceships battle each other. In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold and it used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green, Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the Brown Box and these were followed by two versions of Ataris Pong, an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, the game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores. The game also became the subject of articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines. Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS, becoming the first killer app, the term platform refers to the specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware which, in conjunction with software, allows a video game to operate. The term system is commonly used
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Glossary of video game terms
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This glossary of video game terms lists the general video game industry terms as commonly used in Wikipedia articles. 1-up In games where players have a number of lives to complete a game or level, 1v1 Abbreviation of 1 versus 1, which means two players battling against each other. 8-bit A descriptor for hardware or software that arose during the generation of video game consoles. 16-bit A descriptor for hardware or software that arose during the generation of video game consoles. 2D graphics The game features 2-dimensional objects,2. 5D graphics A game consisting of 3D graphics set in a 2D plane of movement, where objects outside of this 2D plane can have an effect on the gameplay. 32-bit A descriptor for hardware or software that arose during the generation of video game consoles. 4X A genre of video games, short for explore, expand, exploit. 64-bit A descriptor for hardware or software that arose during the generation of video game consoles. AAA A high-budget game with a development team, or game studios that make them. AAA games are usually multiplatform, have multimillion dollar marketing budgets, abandonware The idea of a game being forgotten about, or abandoned by the developers for multiple different reasons, one being copyright issues. Act See Level Action point A subunit of a players turn, for example, during each turn, a player can take a set number of actions, each costing a point. Action role-playing game A genre of role-playing video games where battle actions are performed in real-time instead of a turn-based mechanic. Actions per minute The total number of actions the player can perform in a minute, ADS Aiming Down Sights, or, Aim Down Sights. Refers to the alternate method of firing a gun in an FPS game. AFK Abbreviation of Away From Keyboard, generally said through a chat function in online multiplayer games when a player intends to be temporarily unavailable. Often used in gaming to grind, sometimes facetiously used in reference to irritated bystanders. Aimbot A first-person shooter cheat that lets players shoot other player-characters without aiming, in most cases, the reticle locks on to a target within the players line of sight and the player only has to pull the trigger. Aimbots are one of the most popular cheats in multiplayer FPS, alpha release An initial, incomplete version of a game, alpha versions are usually released early in the development process to test a games most critical functionality and prototype design concepts
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Golden age of arcade video games
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The golden age of arcade video games was the era of greatest popularity and technological innovation for arcade video games. The exact time period is a matter of debate, but key moments include the release of Space Invaders in 1978, the golden age lasted until the early-1980s, when home video game consoles like the NES were introduced. Although the exact years differ, all timelines overlap in the early 1980s, technology journalist Jason Whittaker, in The Cyberspace Handbook, places the beginning of the golden age in 1978, with the release of Space Invaders. Video game journalist Steven L. Kent, in his book The Ultimate History of Video Games, places it at 1979 to 1983, however,1983 was the period that began a fairly steady decline in the coin-operated video game business and when many arcades started disappearing. The game brought forth with it the power of the microprocessor, following Space Invaders, Ataris Asteroids and Namcos Pac-Man further solidified the strength of the Golden Age. The golden age of arcade games largely coincided with, and partly fueled, the generation of game consoles. The golden age was a time of great technical and design creativity in arcade games, the era saw the rapid spread of video arcades across North America, Europe, and Asia. The number of game arcades in North America, for example. Beginning with Space Invaders, video games also started to appear in supermarkets, restaurants, liquor stores, gas stations. By 1982, there were 24,000 full arcades,400,000 arcade street locations and 1.5 million arcade machines active in North America, the market was very competitive, the average life span of an arcade game was four to six months. Some games like Robby Roto failed because they were too complex to learn quickly, qix was briefly very popular but, Taitos Keith Egging later said, too mystifying for gamers. Impossible to master and when the novelty wore off, the game faded, at around this time, the home video game industry emerged as an outgrowth of the widespread success of video arcades at the time. In 1980, the U. S. arcade video game industrys revenue generated from quarters tripled to $2.8 billion. The total revenue for the U. S. arcade video game industry in 1981 was estimated at more than $7 billion though some estimated the real amount may have been much higher. By 1982, video games accounted for 87% of the $8.9 billion in commercial sales in the United States. In 1982, the video game industrys revenue in quarters was estimated at $8 billion surpassing the annual gross revenue of both pop music and Hollywood films combined that year. In comparison, the U. S. video game industry in 2011 generated total revenues between $16.3 billion and $16.6 billion, prior to the golden age, pinball machines were more popular than video games. The pinball industry reached a peak of 200,000 machine sales and $2.3 billion revenue in 1979, which had declined to 33,000 machines and $464 million in 1982
29.
Third generation of video game consoles
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In the history of computer and video games, the third generation began on July 15,1983, with the Japanese release of both the Family Computer and SG-1000. The best-selling console of this generation was the NES/Famicom, followed by the Master System, although the previous generation of consoles had also used 8-bit processors, it was at the end of this generation that home consoles were first labeled by their bits. This also came into fashion as 16-bit systems like the Mega Drive/Genesis were marketed to differentiate between the generations of consoles, in Japan and North America, this generation of gaming was primarily dominated by the Famicom/NES, while the Master System dominated the European and Brazilian markets. The end of the 3rd generation of video games comes as 8-bit consoles become obsolete in graphics, some features that distinguished third generation consoles from most second generation consoles include, D-pad game controllers. Screen modes with resolutions up to 256×240 or 320×200, 25–32 colors on screen, from a palette of 53–256 colors. Tile-based playfields with smooth multi-directional hardware scrolling, advanced hardware scrolling, including multi-directional scrolling, diagonal scrolling, and line-scrolling. 64–100 sprites on screen, each with 4–16 colors and 8×8 to 16×16 pixel sizes, up to five channel mono PSG audio. The Family Computer became very popular in Japan during this era, the Famicoms Western counterpart, the Nintendo Entertainment System, dominated the gaming market in North America, thanks in part to its restrictive licensing agreements with developers. The company had an estimated 65% of 1987 hardware sales in the market, Atari Corporation had 24%, Sega had 8%. Nintendo sold seven million NES systems in 1988, almost as many as the number of Commodore 64s sold in its first five years, as Computer Gaming World reported in 1992, No matter how fast your 486 is, you still cant play Super Mario XVII on it. The kids who dont have access to videogames are as culturally isolated as the kids in our own generation whose parents refused to buy a TV, Nintendos market domination, while overwhelming in sheer number of units sold, was not global. Although the NES dominated the market in Japan and North America, Segas Master System made large inroads in Europe, Oceania and Brazil, the Atari 7800 also had a fairly successful life in the United States. Sega was Nintendos main competitor during the era in terms of market share for console units sold, in the following generation, Nintendo would also introduce the Game Boy, which almost single-handedly solidified and then proceeded to dominate the previously scattered handheld market for 15 years. Since the Game Boys release, Nintendo had dominated the handheld market, additionally two popular 8-bit computers, the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC, were repackaged as the Commodore 64 Games System and Amstrad GX4000 respectively, for entry into the console market. This era contributed many influential aspects to the history of the development of video games, the third generation saw the release of many of the first console role-playing video games. Editing and censorship of video games was used in localizing Japanese games to North America. During this era, many of the most famous video game franchises of all time were founded that outlived the third generation, some examples are Super Mario Bros. Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Metroid, Mega Man, Metal Gear, Castlevania, Phantasy Star, Megami Tensei, Ninja Gaiden, the third generation also saw the dawn of the childrens educational console market
30.
Fifth generation of video game consoles
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The fifth-generation era refers to computer and video games, video game consoles and video game handhelds from approximately 1993 to 2001. For home consoles, the console was the PlayStation by a wide margin, followed by the Nintendo 64. Both were discontinued before the other made their debut. The Neo Geo Pocket was released in 1998, but was dropped by SNK in favor of the fully backwards compatible Neo Geo Pocket Color just a year later, Nintendos Game Boy Color was the winner in handhelds by a large margin. There were also two updated versions of the original Game Boy, Game Boy Light and Game Boy Pocket, there was considerable overlap between this and the sixth generation of consoles, which began with the launch of the Dreamcast in Japan on November 27,1998. The fifth generation officially ended with the discontinuation of the PlayStation in March 2006, early efforts from then-industry leaders Sega and Nintendo saw the introduction of the 32X and Super FX, which provided rudimentary 3D capabilities to the 16-bit Genesis and Super NES. Prime examples of this trend include Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn, Tomb Raider on the PlayStation and Saturn, Tekken and Crash Bandicoot on the PlayStation, and Super Mario 64 on the N64. Their 3D environments were widely marketed and they steered the industrys focus away from side-scrolling and rail-style titles, as well as opening doors to more complex games and genres. 3D became the focus in this era as well as a slow decline of cartridges in favor of CDs, due to the ability to produce games less expensively. Publicly, Nintendo defended this decision on the grounds that it would give games shorter load times than a compact disc, however, it also had the dubious benefit of allowing Nintendo to charge higher licensing fees, as cartridge production was considerably more expensive than CD production. Many third-party developers like EA Sports viewed this as an attempt to raise more money for Nintendo. Nintendos decision to use a cartridge based system sparked a small scale war among gamers as to which was better, a Nintendo magazine ad placed a Space Shuttle next to a snail and dared consumers to decide which one was better. Almost every other system used the new CD-ROM technology. Consequent to the storage and cost advantages of the CD-ROM format, there was much confusion over which console was superior to the others. Also, console makers routinely boasted theoretical maximum limits of each systems 3D polygon rendering without accounting for real world in-game performance, the FM Towns Marty is considered the worlds first 32-bit console, being released in February 20,1993 by Japanese electronic company Fujitsu. Never released outside Japan, it was marketed as a console version of the FM Towns home computer. It failed to make an impact in the due to its expense relative to other consoles. While using a 32-bit word length, however, the Intel 80386SX CPU only supports 16-bit bus addressing, despite massive third party support and an unprecedented amount of hype for a first-time entrant into the industry, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayers $700 price tag hindered its success
31.
Platform game
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A platform game is a video game which involves guiding an avatar to jump between suspended platforms and/or over obstacles to advance the game. The player controls the jumps to avoid letting the avatar fall from platforms or miss necessary jumps, the most common unifying element of games of this genre is the jump button, but now there are other alternative like swiping in touchscreen. Jumping, in genre, may include swinging from extendable arms, as in Ristar or Bionic Commando, or bouncing from springboards or trampolines. These mechanics, even in the context of genres, are commonly called platforming. Games where jumping is automated completely, such as 3D games in The Legend of Zelda series, Platform games originated in the early 1980s, with 3D successors popularized in the mid-1990s. The term itself describes games where jumping on platforms is an part of the gameplay and came into use after the genre had been established. While commonly associated with gaming, there have been many important platform games released to video arcades, as well as for handheld game consoles. North America, Europe and Japan have played major parts in the genres evolution, Platform themes range from cartoon-like games to science fiction and fantasy epics. At one point, platform games were the most popular genre of video game, at the peak of their popularity, it is estimated that between one-quarter and one-third of console games were platformers. No genre either before or since has been able to achieve a market share. Since 2010, a variety of endless running platformers for mobile devices have brought renewed popularity to the genre, Platform games originated in the early 1980s. Because of the limitations of the day, early examples were confined to a static playing field. Space Panic, a 1980 arcade release by Universal, is credited as being the first platform game. While the player had the ability to fall, there was no ability to jump, swing, or bounce, however, it clearly influenced the genre, with gameplay centered on climbing ladders between different floors, a common element in many early platform games. Another precursor to the genre released that year was Nichibutsus Crazy Climber. Donkey Kong, a game created by Nintendo and released in July 1981, was the first game that allowed players to jump over obstacles and across gaps. Donkey Kong had an amount of platforming in its first two screens, but its last two screens had a more pronounced platform jumping component. This game also introduced Mario, an icon of the genre
32.
Super Mario Bros.
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Super Mario Bros. is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System home console. Released as a sequel to the 1983 game Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan and North America in 1985, and in Europe and Australia two years later. Super Mario Bros. was critically acclaimed, the games mid-1980s release served to further popularize the side-scrolling subgenre of the already popular platform video game genre of the early 1980s. The commercial success of Super Mario Bros. has caused it to be ported to almost every one of Nintendos major gaming consoles. The games success led to a series of sequels and a franchise, including adaptations into a television series, an anime. Super Mario Bros. s plot is told in the instruction manual. The peaceful people of the Mushroom Kingdom are suddenly attacked by a tribe of turtles called the Koopa Army, using Bowsers signature black magic, the army leaves waste to the kingdom and turns its inhabitants into objects such as bricks and stones. The tribe also kidnaps Princess Toadstool, the daughter of the Mushroom King, after hearing the story, the plumber Mario sets out on a quest to save the princess and free the kingdom from the Koopa. Mario then enters a room and frees the princess, and the Mushroom Kingdom is let free of the Koopas reign, the player takes on the role of the main protagonist of the series, Mario. Marios younger brother, Luigi, is playable by the second player in the games multiplayer mode and assumes the same plot role. The objective is to race through the Mushroom Kingdom, survive the main antagonist Bowsers forces, the player moves from the left side of the screen to the right side in order to reach the flag pole at the end of each level. The game world has coins scattered around it for Mario to collect, and special bricks marked with a question mark, other secret, often invisible, bricks may contain more coins or rare items. If the player gains a red and yellow Super Mushroom, Mario grows to double his size and can take one hit from most enemies and obstacles. One life is lost when Mario takes damage while small, falls in a pit, the game ends when all lives are lost. Marios primary attack is jumping on top of enemies, though many enemies have differing responses to this, for example, a Goomba will flatten and be defeated, while a Koopa Troopa will temporarily retract into its shell, allowing Mario to use it as a projectile. These shells may be deflected off a wall to other enemies, though they can also bounce back against Mario. Another attack, for enemies standing overhead, is to jump up, another is the Fire Flower, when picked up, this item changes the color of Super Marios outfit and allows him to throw fireballs, or only upgrades Mario to Super Mario if he has not already. A less common item is the Starman, which appears when Mario hits certain concealed or otherwise invisible blocks
33.
Beat 'em up
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Beat em up is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat between the protagonist and an improbably large number of opponents. These games typically take place in settings and feature crime-fighting and revenge-based plots, though some games may employ historical. Traditional beat em ups take place in scrolling, two-dimensional levels and these games are noted for their simple gameplay, a source of both critical acclaim and derision. Two-player cooperative gameplay and multiple characters are also hallmarks of the genre. The first influential beat em up was 1984s Kung-Fu Master, with 1986s Renegade introducing the urban settings, Games such as Streets of Rage, Final Fight and Golden Axe are other classics to emerge from this period. The genre has been popular since the emergence of 3D-based mass-market games. A beat em up is a type of game where the player character must fight a large number of enemies in unarmed combat or with melee weapons. Gameplay consists of walking through a level, one section at a time, defeating a group of enemies before advancing to the next section, however arcade versions of these games are often quite difficult to win, causing players to spend more money to try to win. Beat em ups are related to—but distinct from—fighting games, which are based around one-on-one matches rather than scrolling levels, such terminology is loosely applied, however, as some commentators prefer to conflate the two terms. At times, both one-on-one fighting games and scrolling beat em ups have influenced each other in terms of graphics and style, occasionally, a game will feature both kinds of gameplay. Beat em up games usually employ vigilante crime fighting and revenge plots with the taking place on city streets, though historical. Players must walk from one end of the world to the other. Some later beat em ups dispense with 2D-based scrolling levels, instead allowing the player to roam around larger 3D environments, though they retain the simple gameplay. Throughout the level, players may acquire weapons that they can use as well as power-ups that replenish the players health, as players walk through the level, they are stopped by groups of enemies who must be defeated before they can continue. The level ends when all the enemies are defeated, each level contains many identical groups of enemies, making these games notable for their repetition. In beat em up games, players fight a boss—an enemy much stronger than the other enemies—at the end of each level. Beat em ups often allow the player to choose between a selection of protagonists—each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and set of moves, attacks can include rapid combinations of basic attacks as well as jumping and grappling attacks. Characters often have their own attacks, which leads to different strategies depending on which character the player selects
34.
Battletoads
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Battletoads is a video game media franchise by Rare that began with the original beat em up game Battletoads in 1991. Starring three anthropomorphic toads named after skin conditions, Rash, Zitz, and Pimple, the series was created to rival the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games. The series as a whole has been popular with five installments up to this date. In each of the games, the objective is to defeat the toads nemesis the Dark Queen, Battletoads, The Battletoads have to defeat the evil Dark Queen on her planet and to rescue their kidnapped partners, Pimple and Princess Angelica. Battletoads, An LCD game was released by Tiger Electronics in 1991, Battletoads, Despite having the same box art and title as the original NES release, it is in fact a completely different game from the NES version. Battletoads in Battlemaniacs, Released in 1993 for the SNES and in 1994 for the Sega Master System, in this game, Zitz and the daughter of Psicone Industries CEO have been captured and it is up to Rash and Pimple to save them from the Dark Queens clutches. Different from the games, in this one each character has its own specific abilities. The Player 1 character, Pimple, is the powerhouse, big and with huge range with punches, while the Player 2 character, Rash, is nimble and smaller, fighting using kicking attacks. Aside from cooperative play, a player is able to play as Rash by switching to the second controller. Battletoads & Double Dragon, A crossover with the characters from the Double Dragon series with liberties taken, the Dark Queen and Shadow Boss team up and five heroes must stop them. The game allows players full and free choice of characters for the first time through a selection screen. Released in 1993 for the NES, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES, Battletoads Arcade, An arcade game released in 1994, also known as Super Battletoads. The arcade game, unlike the games, featured voiceovers and several other features that distinguish it from the other games. While Rash is kept as the nimble and smaller character and Pimple as the powerhouse, Zitz is represented as the intermediate, also, during vehicle levels, combat is emphasized rather than memorizing and avoiding obstacles. A canceled sequel/remake game was being developed for the Game Boy Advance, in 2013, Phil Spencer from Microsofts Xbox team mentioned his fondness for Battletoads while asking the fans what Rare games should be brought back for the Xbox One. On November 10,2014, Battletoads was re-trademarked in the United States, Spencer appeared publicly in a Battletoads T-shirt in January 2015, just days after Microsoft Studios Ken Lobb said they have plans to bring it and the other classic Rare series back someday. The Battletoads appear in a boss encounter in the Xbox One version of Shovel Knight. Battletoads and Battletoads Arcade are included in Rare Replay, a compilation of 30 Rare games released for the Xbox One in 2015, Rash appears in the Xbox One fighting game Killer Instinct as a playable guest character for the games third season
35.
Role-playing video game
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A role-playing video game is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character immersed in some well-defined world. Many role-playing video games have origins in tabletop role-playing games and use much of the terminology, settings. Other major similarities with pen-and-paper games include developed story-telling and narrative elements, player development, complexity, as well as replayability. The electronic medium removes the necessity for a gamemaster and increases combat resolution speed, RPGs have evolved from simple text-based console-window games into visually rich 3D experiences. Role-playing video games use much of the terminology, settings. Players control a game character, or multiple game characters, usually called a party. Players explore a world, while solving puzzles and engaging in tactical combat. A key feature of the genre is that characters grow in power and abilities, RPGs rarely challenge a players physical coordination or reaction time, with the exception of action role-playing games. Role-playing video games typically rely on a developed story and setting. Players control one or several characters by issuing commands, which are performed by the character at an effectiveness determined by that characters numeric attributes. Often these attributes increase each time a character gains a level, role-playing video games also typically attempt to offer more complex and dynamic character interaction than what is found in other video game genres. This usually involves additional focus on the intelligence and scripted behavior of computer-controlled non-player characters. The premise of most role-playing games tasks the player with saving the world, there are often twists and turns as the story progresses, such as the surprise appearance of estranged relatives, or enemies who become friends or vice versa. To a lesser extent, settings closer to the present day or near future are possible, the story often provides much of the entertainment in the game. Because these games have strong storylines, they can make effective use of recorded dialog. Players of these tend to appreciate long cutscenes more than players of faster action games. While most games advance the plot when the player defeats an enemy or completes a level, for example, a player may make the decision to join a guild, thus triggering a progression in the storyline that is usually irreversible. New elements in the story may also be triggered by mere arrival in an area, the plot is usually divided so that each game location is an opportunity to reveal a new chapter in the story
36.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
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Castlevania, Symphony of the Night is a platform-adventure action role-playing game developed and published by Konami in 1997 for the PlayStation. It is the sequel to Castlevania, Rondo of Blood and features Draculas dhampir son Alucard as the protagonist and it marks a break from previous games in the series, which are action platformers. The game emphasizes exploration, has non-linear level design, and Role-playing video game elements, initially, the game was unsuccessful – particularly in the United States where it was meagerly publicized – but thanks to praise by critics, it gained sales through word-of-mouth and became a hit. It has been re-released on several consoles and is considered a hit, a cult classic. Symphony of the Night uses 2-dimensional Side-scrolling video game gameplay, the objective is exploring Draculas castle to defeat Richter Belmont, who says hes lord of Castle Dracula. Canonically, Richter was the hero of the events took place in Castlevania. The game is non-linear, but most of the castle is inaccessible until various items are collected, including Shapeshifting into a bat, wolf, as the player uncovers more of the castle, a map is updated to show progress. While protagonists in previous Castlevania games typically used a whip, the player can find weapons ranging from Zweihänders to Nunchaku and he can also obtain health restoratives, equipment and items that boost his attributes, these are located on an inventory. Relics found throughout the castle provide Alucard with abilities, such as the ability to double jump, a bestiary kept by the castles librarian, who also functions as a shopkeeper, shows the monsters encountered by the player and the items they drop when defeated. Castlevania, Symphony of the Night incorporates elements found in role-playing games, Alucards hit points determine the maximum amount of damage he can withstand before dying while his magic points decide how frequently a magical attack may be cast. Defeating monsters provides him with experience points and he will level up after reaching a predetermined amount, Alucard may cast eight different spells, which requires the player to input directional combinations and will use up varying amounts of his magic points. During the course of the game, Alucard can acquire the ability to summon familiars, the North American version of the game includes the Fairy, Demon, Ghost, Bat, and Sword familiars. The original Japanese version also includes the familiars Nose Devil and Pixie, alternative modes of gameplay can be unlocked after the completion of the game. By inputting Richter Belmonts name as the name, the player can choose to play as Richter. Two alternative modes have Alucard as the character with certain items. Castlevania, Symphony of the Night begins during the ending of the game in the series, Castlevania, Rondo of Blood. Four years later, in 1796, Alucard arrives at the castle, inside, he meets Draculas servant Death, who warns him to stop his quest to destroy the castle and strips him of his equipment. He also meets Maria Renard, a vampire hunter who fought alongside Richter and is now searching for him, and the castles librarian
37.
Korea
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Korea is a historical state in East Asia, since 1945 divided into two distinct sovereign states, North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by China to the northwest and it is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan. Korea emerged as a political entity after centuries of conflict among the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Later Silla divided into three states during the Later Three Kingdoms period. Goryeo, which had succeeded Goguryeo, defeated the two states and united the Korean Peninsula. Around the same time, Balhae collapsed and its last crown prince fled south to Goryeo, Goryeo, whose name developed into the modern exonym Korea, was a highly cultured state that created the worlds first metal movable type in 1234. However, multiple invasions by the Mongol Yuan Dynasty during the 13th century greatly weakened the nation, following the Yuan Dynastys collapse, severe political strife followed, and Goryeo eventually fell to a coup led by General Yi Seong-gye, who established Joseon in 1388. The first 200 years of Joseon were marked by peace and saw the creation of the Korean alphabet by Sejong the Great in the 14th century. During the later part of the dynasty, however, Koreas isolationist policy earned it the Western nickname of the Hermit Kingdom, by the late 19th century, the country became the object of imperial design by the Empire of Japan. Despite attempts at modernization by the Korean Empire, in 1910 Korea was annexed by Japan and these circumstances soon became the basis for the division of Korea by the two superpowers, exacerbated by their incapability to agree on the terms of Korean independence. To date, both continue to compete with each other as the sole legitimate government of all of Korea. Korea is the spelling of Corea, a name attested in English as early as 1614. It is a derived from Cauli, Marco Polos transcription of the Chinese 高麗. This was the Hanja for the Korean kingdom of Goryeo or Koryŏ, Goryeos name was a continuation of the earlier Goguryeo or Koguryŏ, the northernmost of the Samguk, which was officially known by the shortened form Goryeo after the 5th-century reign of King Jangsu. The original name was a combination of the go with the name of a local Yemaek tribe. The name Korea is now used in English contexts by both North and South Korea. In South Korea, Korea as a whole is referred to as Hanguk, the name references the Samhan—Ma, Jin, and Byeon—who preceded the Three Kingdoms in the southern and central end of the peninsula during the 1st centuries BC and AD. It has been linked with the title khan used by the nomads of Manchuria
38.
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
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As in all RPGs, the player assumes the role of a character and takes control over many of that characters actions. MMORPGs are played throughout the world, worldwide revenues for MMORPGs exceeded half a billion dollars in 2005, and Western revenues exceeded a billion dollars in 2006. In 2008, the spending on subscription MMORPGs by consumers in North American, World of Warcraft, a popular MMORPG, has over 10 million subscribers as of November 2014. World of Warcrafts total revenue was $1.04 billion US dollars in 2014, Star Wars, The Old Republic, released in 2011, became the worlds Fastest-Growing MMOG Ever after gaining more than 1 million subscribers within the first three days of its launch. Although modern MMORPGs sometimes differ dramatically from their decedents, many of them share the basic characteristics. The majority of popular MMORPGs are based on traditional fantasy themes, some employ hybrid themes that either merge or replace fantasy elements with those of science fiction, sword and sorcery, or crime fiction. Still, others draw thematic material from American comic books, the occult, often these elements are developed using similar tasks and scenarios involving quests, monsters, and loot. In nearly all MMORPGs, the development of the character is the primary goal. Traditionally, combat with monsters and completing quests for non-player characters, the accumulation of wealth is also a way to progress in many MMORPGs, and this is also traditionally best accomplished via combat. The cycle produced by these conditions, combat leading to new items allowing for more combat with no change in gameplay, is sometimes referred to as the level treadmill. The role-playing game Progress Quest was created as a parody of this trend, eve Online trains skills in real time rather than using experience points as a measure of progression. In some MMORPGs, there is no limit to a player’s level, MMORPGs that use this model often glorify top ranked players by displaying their avatars on the game’s website or posting their stats on a high score screen. Another common practice is to enforce a maximum level for all players. Once reached, the definition of a player’s progression changes, instead of being awarded primarily with experience for completing quests and dungeons, the player’s motivation to continue playing will be replaced with collecting money and equipment. Often, the range of equipment available at the maximum level will have increased aesthetic value to distinguish high ranking players in game between lower ranked players. Colloquially known as gear, this set of empowered weapons. Player motivation to outperform others is fueled by acquiring such items and is a significant determining factor in their success or failure in combat-related situations, also traditional in the genre is the eventual demand on players to team up with others in order to progress at the optimal rate. This sometimes forces players to change their schedules in order to keep up with the game-world
39.
MapleStory
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MapleStory is a free-to-play, 2D, side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game, developed by the South Korean company Wizet. Several versions of the game are available for countries or regions. Although one may play the game for free, one can purchase some character appearances. In the game, players travel the Maple World, defeating monsters and developing their characters skills, players can interact with others in many ways, such as through chatting, trading and playing minigames. Groups of players can band together in parties to hunt monsters and share the rewards, in July 2010, the Korean version of the game was completely revised in a patch named the Big Bang. Other versions followed suit and have received the Big Bang update. Later in the year, the Korean version received the Chaos update which introduces PvP and its sequel, MapleStory 2, was released in July 2015 and features updated 3D graphics and a similar storyline. Players assume the roles of citizens in the Maple World with no objective to win the game. The antagonist of the game, the Black Mage, was sealed away years ago by six heroes, fearing his resurrection, Empress Cygnus enlisted the Maple World to join her Cygnus Knights in preventing his return. However, the Black Wings were able to return the Black Mage to reality for a moment, with the seal on the Black Mage weakening, the five heroes return to the world in a weakened state. The players character starts a quest to restore the Black Mages seal but instead, the Black Mage then begins assimilating Grandis with the Maple World in order to rule both worlds. MapleStory is a 2D scrolling platform game, the controls for the game are executed using the keyboard and mouse. The keyboard is used for many functions, and much of it can be rearranged to suit users needs. The mouse is used to trigger NPCs and manipulate items. Like most MMORPGs, gameplay centers on venturing into dungeons and combating monsters in real-time, the players combat monsters and complete quests, in the process acquiring in-game currency called Mesos, experience points and various items. Players are able to acquire in-game professions, allowing them to craft equipment, players are also able to raise or lower the in-game popularity stat entitled Fame of other players and compete with other players in minigames, such as Gomoku or Concentration. They may also engage in trading activities for Mesos or other in-game items, MapleStory characters exist in worlds or servers. Players are able to create characters in each world, though the characters in different worlds can not interact with each other
40.
Shooter game
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Shooter games are a subgenre of action game, which often test the players speed and reaction time. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapon, usually this weapon is a gun, or some other long-range weapon. A common resource found in many games is ammunition. Most commonly, the purpose of a game is to shoot opponents. There are many criteria to determine the type of shooter, listed below are some of the major divisions, using the following, it is possible to categorize almost all shooters developed. It is also possible for a game to have a camera, especially shooting gallery games. Tactical shooters are games that attempt to emulate lifelike ballistics and character damage, other shooter games range further away from realism and towards fantasy, like the Sci-Fi action shooting series titled Lost Planet. Games which feature non-player characters fighting alongside the player, but which are not directly controllable are not considered squad-based games, if a shooter game is playable online, there are several other sharp divisions it can take. Many games will offer differing modes which allow players to choose from various types. In team modes, players are assigned to one of two factions which are competing for some goal, co-op modes have several players on the same faction playing through either single-player or custom missions against computer-controlled enemies. Individual has all players competing with each other and this is often an optional way to categorize a shooter, but in some cases its needed to help distinguish it. A game may quite often heavily rely on stealth as opposed to direct action, others might have large horror elements to them. However, the one thing in common with all shooters is that combat with a gun or similar long range/projectile weapon is the focus of gameplay itself. Shoot em ups are a subgenre of shooters wherein the player may move up and down and left and right around the screen. Shoot em ups share common gameplay, but are categorized by viewpoint. This genre also includes run and gun games which emphasize greater maneuvering or even jumping, such as Thexder, Contra and Metal Slug. Shooting gallery games include light gun games, although many can also be played using a regular joypad, when these debuted, they were typically played from a first-person perspective, with enemy fire that occurred anywhere on the screen damaging or killing the player. One of the earliest examples is the 1985 arcade game Shootout produced by Data East, other games in this subgenre include Blood Bros
41.
R-Type
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R-Type is a side scrolling shoot-em-up arcade game produced by Irem in 1987. The player controls a fighter named the R-9 to defend humanity against a mysterious powerful alien life-form known as the Bydo. R-Type is set in the middle of 22nd century, and the player flies a futuristic fighter craft called the R-9a Arrowhead with a mission to destroy the evil Bydo Empire, the game is composed of several sequential levels, with a boss enemy at the end of each. The player controls a spacecraft and must navigate terrain and fight enemies using the various ship weapons. The players spacecraft has, by default, a weak but rapid-firing main gun, and a powerful gun called a wave cannon. When released, this fires a bolt of energy which can do more damage to larger enemies. During the game, the player can obtain a device called a Force. This resembles an orange ball. The Force can be attached to the front or back of the players spacecraft, when attached, the Force provides one of three different powerful weapons, in addition to the main gun and the wave cannon. When detached, these weapons cannot be used, but the Force will instead resort to a set of guns. The Force has a use as a shield, it is completely indestructible and can block most things fired at it. It can also be used as a ram, either by attaching it to the spacecraft and running into enemies, or by launching it into enemies. The R- in the title originally stood for ray, as in a ray of light. This was later retconned in R-Type Final to refer specifically to the code as well as a term of endearment for the player fighter craft. Another theory suggests that R-Type refers to Bydo as r-strategists in r/K selection theory, the original R-Type was well received by most gaming critics. However, it was infamous for its relentless difficulty. The gameplay of R-Type is noticeably distinct among shoot em ups, invariably the player will lose, not because of an inequality in firepower, but because of the design of the levels themselves. There is usually a correct way to get through a level, the ZX Spectrum version of R-Type was awarded 9/10 in the January 1989 issue of Your Sinclair and was placed at number 6 in the Your Sinclair official top 100
