The Future of Video GamesWritten by Daniel Punch
I’ve recently been thinking about where video games could be going in future. I’m hoping to work in game industry one day after I’ve finished university study and I’ve been wondering about it a lot. What do I want to see happen in future? Well I may not have too many answers right now, but I have come up with a few ideas that I think may come into ‘play’ in not too distant future.Firstly forget Virtual Reality, as we know it. They’ve tried VR goggles and they made a lot of people sick in doing so. It’s probably never going to work very well in its current form. They’re still around and you can still buy them but they really don’t seem to be taking off. It will probably take a lot to get people totally immersed and involved in a new form of game play. It’s threatening to lose touch with outside world and people around you aren’t going to appreciate it much either. The Sci-fi neural implants are also both a long way off and not likely to be accepted by a majority of general populace without some severe marketing and luck. I for one am not planning on going through brain surgery just to have a computer attached to my head. In fact I never want anyone to able to plug into my brain. A technology that was brought to my attention by a zealous presenter at local ‘Science and Technology Centre’ (a sort of science museum aimed at making science fun for children and juvenile adults such as yours truly) is that of ‘Augmented Reality’. Augmented Reality is essentially overlaying of virtual elements onto real world, such as a pair of transparent glasses that can display certain elements over top of what is actually there. I agree with presenter in that this could indeed have some awesome potential. Forget all socially beneficial applications such as workmen being able to view underground pipes before digging, think about it from a games point of view. This technology could provide gamers with ability to run around looking like complete idiots shooting at things that aren’t actually there and that no one else can see, kind of like in film ‘They Live!’ The upside to this is that it would be a lot of fun. A group of people from University of South Australia created ‘ARQuake’ project, http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www/, merging classic shooter Quake with this Augmented Reality technology. Again, this technology may not ever become overly popular, but it would be entertaining to play with. Technology has driven games industry for a long time with new games always trying to keep one step ahead of competition. It started way back at dawn of technology and it continues to this day. 2D graphics gave way to 3D and 3D is becoming ever better. Graphics are starting to lose ability to impress like they once did. The step between Quake 2 and 3 was amazing, but DOOM 3 while being visually very impressive isn’t leaps and bounds ahead of its competitors in same way new games used to be. 2D graphics encountered a similar problem; there comes a point where you just can’t do much more with graphics technology. It is this that turns graphics from striving for technological achievement to becoming art. It is my hope that we will start turning away from tech demos and return to game play and making great entertainment. Games such as Zelda: The Wind Waker or The Sims that strive to show greater depth of character through simplifying game enough to portray emotions will hopefully become more common (and more fun… but that’s just one person’s view…). Technology plays a certain part in conveying of emotions and story but it’s quite hard to focus on everything at once. When technology is easier and less essential to game sales we’ll hopefully see an increase in games that cast a lasting impression.
| | 3D - The most versatile tool for Macromedia FlashWritten by Maricon Williams
Macromedia Flash Swift 3D is an innovatory extension for Flash MX. Swift 3D instantly converts text and artwork into spectacular 3D animations without leaving Flash interface. Swift 3D combines user friendly interface, industry standard vector exporter and a full ray tracing rendering engine. It can export to both raster and vector file formats as well as Macromedia Flash (SWF), AI, EPS, JPEG, BMP and others. Neophytes as well as veterans in field of 3D animation can quickly adjust to this newly discovered craze for creators. They can use pre-built animations, lighting schemes and materials to create a high quality 3D animation to their satisfaction. The versatility of this tool is brought about by 13 different styles of highest quality vector output, vector-based movie clips for smallest file sizes, raster-based movie clips for photo-realistic quality, extensive control over object bevels, sizing and rotation, pre-built materials from gallery, and a lot more. 3D Vector Realism turns your graphics into pragmatic models with use of complex shadows, transparency, advanced highlights and reflections into your 3D vector objects. Photorealistic raster output with vectors, on other hand, tags your 3D Flash work to another rank by introducing raster graphics. To create a life-like depiction, apply bitmap textures to your vector models. You can use your 3D models not only for Flash but with Photoshop, Fireworks and other graphic programs as well. Your model can also be exported to JPEG or on any format that your graphics program will import to have a 3D canvas to explore.
|
