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PA199
Advanced Game Design
Lecture 1
Introduction to Advanced Game Design
Dr. Fotis Liarokapis
18th February 2019
Fotis Liarokapis
• PhD in Computer Engineering
– University of Sussex, UK
• MSc in Computer Graphics
and Virtual Environments
– University of Hull, UK
• BSc in Computer Systems
Engineering
– University of Sussex, UK
My Research
• Research areas:
– Computer Graphics
– Virtual Reality
– Augmented Reality
– Interactive Environments
– Brain Computer Interfaces
– Serious Games
– User studies
Contact Details
• Email:
– liarokap@fi.muni.cz
• Telephone:
– 549493948
• Office Location:
– C411
• Office Hour:
– Monday 13:00 to 14:00
Course Details
• Prerequisites
– Knowledge of computer graphics fundamentals
• Lectures
– Every Monday
– Time: 14:00 to 16:00
– Location: A217
• Lab/Seminar
– Every Monday
– Time: 16:00 to 17:00
– Location: A215
Course Objectives
• Demonstrate an understanding of the main
mathematical concepts used in computer game
design
• Mathematically model all the components of an
interactive computer game
• Have a good understanding of the collision
detection techniques that are used in computer
games and apply them in practice
• Design and implement an interactive computer
game from scratch (i.e. not using a games engine)
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Syllabus
• Introduction to advanced
games design
• Game engine architectures
• Mathematics and physics
for computer game design
• Collision detection
techniques for computer
games
• Fractal terrain generation
• City and road modeling
• Fluid modeling
• Deformation techniques for
games
• Procedural texturing
techniques
• Animation for computer
games
• Crowd modeling techniques
for game
• Online virtual environments
• Mobile game development
• Advanced interaction
techniques
• Serious games
Teaching Methods
• Delivery of the material will
be based on
– Expositional lectures
– Reinforced by computer
demonstrations of the
application of the material
– Video demonstrations
Assessment Methods
• One Assignment
– Will be assessed on:
• Implementation (60%)
• Report (40%)
• Note that all the code
must be provided in a
CD/DVD or uploaded into
the system
• Exams…
Plagiarism and Cheating
• If you use an external resource cite it clearly!
• Don’t do things that would be considered
dishonest... if in doubt ask
• Cheating earns you:
– Fail in the class
– Getting reported to the University
– No exceptions
Literature
• D.F. Rogers and J.A. Adams. Mathematical Elements for
Computer Graphics, Second Edition, McGraw Hill, 1990.
ISBN: 0070535299
• D.H. Eberly. 3D Game Engine Design, A Practical Approach
to Real-Time Computer Graphics, Morgan Kaufmann,
2001. ISBN: 1558605932
• A. Watt. 3D Computer Graphics, 3rd Edition, AddisonWesley,
2000, ISBN: 0201398559
• H. Pottman, A. Asperl, M. Hofer, A. Kilian. Architectural
Geometry, Bentley Institute Press, 2007, ISBN: 978-1-
934493-04-5
• J. Schell. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses,
Second Edition Paperback, November 24, 2014, ISBN-13:
978-1466598645
Introduction to Games
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What is a Game?
• Game
– An activity engaged in for
diversion or amusement
• Video Game
– “An electronic game played by
manipulating moving figures on
a display screen, often designed
for play on a special gaming
console rather than a personal
computer”
http://www.yourdictionary.com/video-game
Another Definition
• “Interactive software that
is used for entertainment,
role playing and
simulation. Played on a
specialized device mobile
device or personal
computer, video games
have become extremely
realistic, not only in their
graphics and animation,
but in their themes”
http://www.yourdictionary.com/video-game
Games and Video Games
• Sports, board-games, videogames can be
grouped under “game” because all of them are
susceptible to being broken down and analyzed
with game grammar (they all have rules)
http://www.raphkoster.com/2012/03/13/x-isnt-a-game/
Fiction to Non-Fiction Gaming
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131205/game_taxonomies_a_high_level_.php?print=1
Richard Bartle’s Game Chart
http://www.skotos.net/articles/TTnT_25.html http://blog.seagate.com/consumer/the-evolution-of-video-games/
Evolution
of Video
Games
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History of Games First Game 1952
• 1952 W. A. Higgenbotham
– Willy Higginbotham on an oscilloscope
connected to analog Donner computer
– Idea was to use a small analog computer
to graph and display the trajectory of a
moving ball on an oscilloscope, with
which users can interact
– By this he converted an oscilloscope into a
pinball game – an abstract simulation of
the game of tennis
– Made a scientific instrument attractive for
a nonscientific
First Game 1952 . First Game Video
Spacewar 1962
• 1962: "Spacewar" (Steven Russell)
– Developed at MIT using vector graphics on PDP-1
– Sega releases Periscope: electronic shooting game first
arcade game
Spacewar Video
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First Commercial Games 1971
• 1971-Nolan Bushnell develops Computer Space
– First commercial arcade game based on SpaceWar
– Vector graphics, but really cool real-time space
game
– Too sophisticated for market and fails
First Commercial Games 1972
• Magnavox builds Odyssey
First Commercial Games 1973
• Pong in Arcades by Atari
– By Magnavox
Pong Video
First Commercial Games 1972-1976
• Adventure: The
Colossal Cave
– William Crowther and
Don Woods
– First text-based
adventure game
Games 1980-1981
• Phillips Odyssey2 (1978) and Mattel
Intellivision
– Mattel had better graphics, but terrible
controller
• Namco has Pac-Man
– >$1 billion ($2.3 in 1997 dollars)
– 300,000 arcade units sold since introduction
• Atari doing $1 billion:
– Asteroids & Battlezone released
• Williams releases Defender
• Zork released by Infocom, Ultima
released
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Games 1980-1981 .
• Game industry > $6 billion in sales
• Nintendo: Donkey Kong
• Galaxian, Centipede, Tempest, Ms. Pac-Man
• IBM introduces the IBM PC
Games 1982
• Atari sales down 50% -- starts to lose $$’s
– Releases 5200
– But it still controlled 80% of the market
– Atari buys rights to ET for $22 Million
– Produced more PacMan cartridges than systems
• Activision releases Pitfall
• ColecoVision gets Donkey Kong
• Game companies start just for home computers
– Sierra On-Line, Broderbund, BudgeCo
• Electronic Arts is formed
Games 1983
• Mattel losses $225 million from Intellivision
– Doesn’t ship the Aquarius
– Loses as much as it had made the four prior years
• Atari loses money
– Market flooded with poor quality games:
– Fox, CBS, Quaker Oats, Chuck Wagon dog food
• Coleco crashes
– Saved by Cabbage Patch Kids
• Commodore 64 - home computer
– 17-22 million total sold
• Dragon’s Lair released
– Laserdisk
– 6 years to make - Bluth Studios
Games 1984
• Industry drops to below $800 M
• Apple introduces the Macintosh
– Birth of modern computer: good
resolution, sound
– Games not a priority
– 100,000 sold in first six months
• King’s Quest is released by
Sierra On-Line
Games 1985
• Nintendo introduces Nintendo Entertainment
System
– Strict control on software
• Lockout chip, and restricts companies to 5
games/year
• Nintendo sells cartridges to software distributors
• Atari tries to come back with 16-bit 520ST
– Computer and Game system
• Carmen Sandiego released by Broderbund
Games 1986
• Commodore ships Amiga: cool but marketing kills it
– Computer system designed to support games – 3D color
– Developed by Atari hardware engineer Jay Miner
• Sega ships Sega Master System console
– Superior to Nintendo, but it ignores third-party developers
and fails because of lack of games
• Atari ships 7800
• Nintendo outsells competitors 10 to 1
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Games 1987-1989
• 1987:
– EA releases their first game: Skate or Die
– Serious games start to show up for IBM
PC’s: VGA and SVGA help
• 1988:
– Tetris imported from Soviet Union
– Coleco files for bankruptcy
• 1989:
– Sega Genesis is released: 16-bit
• Attacks console market with EA sports titles
• Aggressive marketing at older market (> 13 year
old)
– Nintendo sticks with 8-bit
• Releases Gameboy
– Maxis releases SimCity
Game Consoles 1990
• Nintendo releases Super Mario 3
– all-time best-seller 11M
• Amiga and Atari ST die out
• PC’s and Consoles are major
game platforms
• Electronic Arts starts to acquire
other game publishers
Game Consoles 1991
• Nintendo launches Super-NES
(16-bit)
• S3 introduces first single chip
graphics accelerator for PC
• Capcom releases Street
Fighter II for arcades – big hit
• id releases Wolfenstein 3D
• Civilization released
Game Consoles 1992
• PC gaming explodes: Dune II
• Nintendo has $7 billion in sales ($4.7B in U.S.)
– Higher profits than all U.S. movie and TV studios
combined
• Midway releases Mortal Kombat for arcades –
extreme violence
Dune 2 Video Games 1993
• Pentium chip is launched
• Consoles (Sega and Nintendo)
are 80% of game market
• Panasonic ships Real-3DO: 32-bit
– Now out of business
• Caesar released
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Games 1994
• Atari ships Jaguar: 64 bit
– Very expensive for console
~$700, >$100/game
• DOOM released by id
• MYST released
– All time biggest selling PC
game until 2002
• Warcraft
– Orcs and Humans released
Doom Video
Games 1995 (32-Bit)
• Sega ships Saturn (32-bit)
– Sony ships Playstation (32-bit)
– Microsoft releases Window 95
• Includes the Game SDK - Direct-X
• Bring major game performance to
Windows
– Internet and WWW expanded
– Command & Conquer released
– Full-motion video becomes a part of
games: 7th Guest
Playstation 1995
• Launched in U.S., Sept. 1995
– 300,000 polygons/sec., 30MIPS
processor, 4MB RAM, 2MB VRAM
– 400 U.S. Titles
– 20% penetration in U.S. homes
• Analysis:
– Multi-platform games look worse on
Playstation
– Playstation-only games look good,
but grainy
– Cheap and lots of them for software
developers
Games 1996
• – Nintendo ships Nintendo 64
– Originally promised for 1995
• Multi-player gaming goes commercial
– Via modem and internet and network companies
• TEN, Mplayer, …
– First commercial MMOG: Meridian59
Nintendo 64 - 1996
• Launched in U.S., Sept 1996
– 93.75 MH 64 Bit CPU, 64-bit MIPS co-
processor
• over 500,000,000 16-bit operations/sec
• Built-in Pixel Drawing Processor (RDP)
– 4.5MB RAM, 150,000 polygons/sec
– Originally aimed at younger market
– Cartridge makes it very expensive
– Very dependent on software
– Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
generates more
– Revenue in last 6 weeks of 1998 than
any film
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Games 1997
• 3D acceleration starts to
standardize on 3D-FX
– Games start to assume 3D
acceleration
• Pentium II’s at 200Mhz make
powerful game machines
• Ultima Online launches – first
MMORPG in 3D
– Isometric view
• Age of Empires, Total
Annihilation released
Games 1998
• Lots of good PC games
– StarCraft, CivII, Caesar III
• Playstation rules consoles
• NCSoft’s Lineage, most
popular MMORPG, launched
in S. Korea
Games 1999
• Dreamcast
• Maximum Score for Pac-Man
Achieved
– Billy Mitchell achieves the highest
score of 3,333,360
• EverQuest is launched
– First non-wireframe 3D Massive
Multiplayer Online Role Playing
Game (MMORPG)
• SM Alpha Centauri released,
BigHugeGames founded
Games 2000
• Development moves from PC to consoles
• Playstation II
– See next slide
• Diablo II sells 1 million units in 1 week
• SIMS sells 2.3 million units ($95M)
– + 1.4 mill. in expansions
• Shogun: Total War released
Sony Playstation 2 - 2000
• Launched May 4, 2000 in Japan
– In U.S. on October 26, 2000: $299
– 90 Million sold world wide by 2005 [2 years < PS1]
• Hardware
– 128 Bit 300MHz processor
– 3 Special purpose 150 MHz co-processors
– 32MB DRAM: 3.2 GB/sec
– DVD & CD
– MPEG2 hardware
– Dual Shock 2 analogue controller
– Chip set will be available for other platforms
– 66M polygons/sec geometry – 16M polygons/sec
curved
• Software development is tough
Games 2001
• Gamecube (Nintendo)
• Xbox (Microsoft)
– See next slide
• CivIII released
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Microsoft Xbox - 2001
• Software
– Direct X API
• Hardware
– Pentium IV 733 Mhz
– Custom 3-D 300Mhz GPU
– 64MB Ram – 6.4 GB/sec
– 8GB hard drive
– DVD
– 100 MBps Ethernet
• Performance
– 150 million transformed and lit polygons per second
– 100+ million polygons per second sustained performance (shaded, textured)
– 300 million micropolygons/particles per second
– 4 simultaneous textures
– Full-scene anti-aliasing
– 1920x1080 maximum resolution
– HDTV support
Games 2002
• Americas Army released as free game
• SIMS becomes the best-selling PC game
of all time (March 2002)
Games 2003
• SIMS continues to grow
– Unleashed, Superstar
– But SIMS Online fails
– Star Wars Galaxies
– > 275,000 Registered Users
– Second biggest Massive Multiplayer Online
Game (MMOG), fastest growing
• WarCraft III, UT 2003, GTA, ports from
console
• Second Life and There.com launch
– Different approach to MMOG
• EA grosses $2.5B in 2003
• Rise of Nations released
Games 2004
• $7.3 B sales
• Madden sells 1.3M copies in one week
• Sequels rule: SIMS 2, Halo 2, Half-life 2, Doom 3
• Consoles: 2004
– Stables of slow growth - lower prices
– 1,000,000 GBAs sold
– Nokia Ships >1,000,000 N-Gages
• Nintendo Launches DS
– >5 million units worldwide by March 2005
– Ninetendogs – 250K in one week – best handheld?
• Sony Launches PSP
– 5 million units shipped by July 2005
– Where are the games
• Shifting away from PC (15% sales) to Consoles
Hallo Video
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Games 2005
• US Top Selling PC Games
– World of Warcraft
• 4 Million Subscribers ($700M/year
subscriptions)
• EA rolls along:
– Madden NFL 2006, sold 1.7M in first
week
• Gamestop and EB games merge
• CivIV released
• Next Gen Consoles coming
– Difficult software development
– Very expensive for development (teams
twice size)
XBOX 360 - 2005
• Custom IBM PowerPC CPU
– 3 symmetrical cores: 3.2 GHz each, 2
threads/core, VMX-128 vector unit/core, 1MB L2
cache, CPU Game Math: 9.6B dot product/sec
• Custom ATI Graphics Processor
– 10MB DRAM, 48-way parallel floating point,
Unified shader architecture, 500 million
triangles/sec, 16 gigasamples/sec, 48 billion
shader operations/sec, Supports 16:9, 720p or
1080i – HD output
• 512 MB of 700MHz GDDR3 RAM – unified
memory architecture
– 22.4 GB/s interface bus bandwidth, 256 GB/s
memory bandwith to EDRAM, 21.6 GB/s frontside
bus
• Overall system floating-point: 1 teraflop
• Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive
• 12x dual-layer DVD ROM
PC Games 2006
• US Top 10 best selling console games (May)
– 1. New Super Mario Bros-Nintendo (DS)
– 2. Kingdom Hearts II-Square Enix (PS2)
– 3. Brain Age: Train Your Brain In Minutes-Nintendo (DS)
– 4. God of War-Sony Computer Entertainment (PS2)
– 5. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter-UbiSoft
(Xbox 360)
– 6. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion-Bethesda Softworks (Xbox 360)
– 7. MLB '06: The Show-Sony Computer Entertainment (PS2)
– 8. Guitar Hero (with Guitar)-RedOctane (PS2)
– 9. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas-Take Two Interactive (PS2)
– 10. Kingdom Hearts-Square Enix (PS2)
Console Games 2006
• US Top 10 best selling PC games (August):
– 1. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
– 2. The Sims 2 - Electronic Arts
– 3. Nancy Drew: Danger By Design - Her Interactive
– 4. Civilization IV: Warlords - 2K Games
– 5. The Sims 2 Open For Business - Electronic Arts
– 6. Roller Coaster Tycoon 3: Gold - Atari
– 7. Cars - THQ
– 8. The Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff - Electronic Arts
– 9. Civilization IV - 2K Games
– 10. Sim City 4 Deluxe - Electronic Arts
Playstation 3 - 2006
• Cell processors (1 PowerPC PPE, 8 SPE) @3.2 GHz each
• Graphics: Nvidia 550 Mhz GPU 1.8 Tflops
– 100 billion shader ops/sec
– 51 billion dot products/sec
– Full HD (1080p)
• Floating point performance: 2 TFlops
• 512MB RAM
– Split between CPU and graphics
• 512KB L2 cache
• 7 AltiVec vector processing units
• Blue-ray DVD may make it very expensive
• Removable hard drive
Nintendo Wii - 2006
• > 101 million units sold by 2009
• Competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360
and Sony's PlayStation 3
– It succeeds the Nintendo GameCube
• CPU: PowerPC-based Broadway
processor
• GPU: ATI Hollywood GPU made with
a 90 nm CMOS process
• 512 MB built-in NAND flash memory
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Xbox 360 Kinect - 2010
• Kinect is a motion sensing input
device for the Xbox 360 and
Windows PCs
• Enables users to control and interact
with the Xbox 360 without the need
to touch a game controller, through
a natural user interface using
gestures and spoken commands
• A version for Windows was released
on February 1, 2012
Wii U - 2012
• Competes with Sony's PlayStation 4
and Microsoft's Xbox One
• First Nintendo console to support
high-definition graphics
• Espresso CPU, designed by IBM,
consists of a PowerPC 750-based tricore
processor with 3 MB of shared
L2 cache memory and clocked at
approximately 1.24 GHz
• Wii U games can be downloaded
digitally through Nintendo eShop, or
at retail on physical media
Nintendo 3DS
• Portable game console (Nintendo)
• Displaying stereoscopic 3D effects
without the use of 3D glasses or
additional accessories
• CPU
– Dual-Core ARM11 MPCore, singlecore
ARM9
• Memory
– 128 MB FCRAM, 6 MB VRAM
• Storage
– 1 GB internal flash memory
Xbox One - 2013
• large emphasis on internet-based features
• Ability to record and stream gameplay
• Ability to integrate with a set-top box to watch
cable or satellite TV through the console
• An enhanced guide interface and Kinect-based
voice control
PlayStation 4 - 2013
• AMD x86-64 Accelerated Processing Unit
• GPU can perform 1.843 teraflops
• The world's most powerful console
– Big performance difference between the PS4 and
Xbox One
• Sales: 19.9 million consoles
Gaming Platforms - 2017
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hnewman/2017/11/29/the-history-of-video-games-in-one-infographic/#584ed76a1a5c
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Video Games in Czechoslovakia Hobby computing in Czechoslovakia
Adopted from Jaroslav Švelch Presentation CEEGS 2014, Brno
Hobby computing in Czechoslovakia .
• Vibrant hobbyist scene starts to emerge around
1982 affiliated with socialist organizations
– Partially supported by the state through “computer
clubs”
• Individual imports of Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Atari 8bit
– 10,000s in 1982 up until the total of around
200,000 in 1989
• Efficient systems of informal distribution working
at the “speed of lightning”
• Around 200 homebrew games preserved from
before 1990
Adopted from Jaroslav Švelch Presentation CEEGS 2014, Brno
Hobby computing in Czechoslovakia ..
• 1979: Federal Ministry of Electrotechnical Industry
• 1984: Long-term Complex Program of
Electronization of Czechoslovak National Economy
• 1985: Long-term Complex Program of
Electronization in Education
• Main interest
– Educate future computer programmers and operators
for the industry
Adopted from Jaroslav Švelch Presentation CEEGS 2014, Brno
Domestically produced micros
• School computers
• Low quality computers in schools cause “political
damage”
Adopted from Jaroslav Švelch Presentation CEEGS 2014, Brno
Import from Western Society
• Around 1985 – informal distribution is in
place, leads to influx of Western commercial
games
Adopted from Jaroslav Švelch Presentation CEEGS 2014, Brno
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Video Games Audience Video Games Audience
• 88% of households have some
form of video game
• 70% of gamers are aged 18+
• The average gamer is aged 24 –
35 years
• Most gamers have been playing
for approximately 11 years
Typical Age Groups Types of Games Played
Video Game Market Video Game Addiction
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Why Play Games?
• Entertainment
– Video games are identified by many people as a popular
hobby/past time
• Storyline
– Many games have a plot and like a reader of a novel
• Fantasy
– Modern video games present life in imaginary worlds
• Interaction
– Different ways of interacting, even exercising via games
• Learning
– New trend in computer games, called Serious Games
What is Video Game Addiction?
• Addiction is defined as:
– “A primary, chronic disease, characterized by impaired
control over the use of a psychoactive substance and/or
behavior.”
• People who play games compulsively and avoid
other responsibilities are video game addicts
• Video game addiction is not an addiction that is
recognized in the diagnostic and statistical manual
of mental disorders
– However, it shares many of the symptoms of other
addictions andis a rising concern
Symptoms of Video Game Addicts
• Playing video games for more than 3 hours per
sitting
• Passing up activities that are normally enjoyed
• Neglecting work to play the game
• Getting restless or irritable if you can’t play
the game
• Trying unsuccessfully to limit or stop game
playing
Advantages
• A way to release frustrations and anger
• Increase in imagination
• Enhancement of hand-eye coordination
• Maybe more...
Disadvantages
• Violence
• Neglecting responsibilities
• Putting loved ones to the side for the game
• Games have influenced many situations that
have resulted in death
• Again maybe more...
Addiction Solutions
• Provide other activities
• Lessen the time spent playing games
• After school activities
• Sports
• Set a schedule
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Dangers of Video Games
• Excessive game play can be fatal
• In Korea, where 30% of the
population subscribes to online
multiplayer games, one man died
in 2005 after playing 50 hours
(almost non-stop) StarCraft
• 3 Chinese died in 2007 after
playing more than 50 hours, and 2
died in 2005
Dangers of Video Games .
• EverQuest is a 3D online game
played by more than 400,000
people
• Games can lead to isolation and
suicide
• Hudson Wooley, an epileptic
who was playing 12-hours per
day, eventually committed
suicide
Game Genres Game Genres
• Different types of video games exist, called
genres
– Each game belongs to one or more of these
genres
• Games in the same genre can look different
but share many properties
– Similar design issues and problems
– In some cases, similar gameplay mechanics
Game Genres .
• Action Games
• Adventure Games
• Strategy Games
• Role-Playing Games
(RPGs)
• Simulation Games
• Sports Games
• Fighting Games
• God Games
• Casual Games
• Puzzle Games
• Online Games
• Online Virtual
Environments
• Serious Games
Action Games
• Real-time games that require quick reactions
to what is happening
• Opponents are computer generated or other
human players
• Not much AI elements
– Players are looking for fast-paced action
– Some action games add adventure, strategic, or
tactical elements
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Action Games Types
• FPS games
– i.e. Quake and Unreal
Tournament
• Platform games
– i.e. Mario and Sonic the
Hedgehog
• Maze games
– i.e. Pac-Man
• Shooters games
– i.e. Space Invaders, Metal Slug,
Gradius
<- Unreal Tournament
Mario 64 ->
<- Pac-Man
Metal Slug ->
Unreal 4 Video
Adventure Games
• Story-based games that
rely upon puzzle solving
to move the story along
• Types:
– Text based (requiring a
parser of some kind)
– Graphical (point and click)
– Hybrids
• See next slide!
Zork I (Text Adventure)
Myst V: End of Ages (Graphical Adventure)
Adventure Games .
• Generally they have a large,
complex world with many
interesting characters and a
good plot
• Usually not real-time games
– Can take as much time as
wanted to take a turn
– Action-adventure hybrids can
be real-time
Tomb Raider (Action-Adventure)
Strategy Games
• Players must manage a limited
set of resources to achieve a
pre-determined goal
– Resource management entails
deciding what units to create and
how to deploy them
– Trade offs in time, money, and
raw materials
• Opponents can be computer
generated, human players or
both
Full Spectrum Warrior
Command and Conquer
Strategy Games .
• Can be either turn-based
or real-time
– Turn-based strategies give
you time to think and
implementdecisions at
your own pace.
– Real-time strategies (RTSs)
have all opponents
thinking and acting at the
same time with no turns
Civilization
Rome: Total War
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Role-Playing Games (RPGs)
• The gamer generally directs a group of
heroes on a series of quests
– Huge world with unfolding story
– Players micromanage their characters
– The game characters tend to grow in
strength and abilities
– Combat is typically an important element
• That is how experience, money and strength
are accumulated
• Fantasy RPGs feature complex magical
systems and diverse races of
characters
Role-Playing Games Examples
104
Fable
Star Wars KOTOR II Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Final Fantasy X Fable
Simulation Games
• Simulation games attempt to
emulate real world operating
conditions with great detail
– The more serious, the more
important accuracy is
– Great time and effort may be
required to learn
all of the intricacies of the game
Airport Firefighter Simulator, Excalibur
Gran Turismo 4
Simulation Games .
• Most simulate some kind of
complex machinery
– i.e. Racing games, flight
simulators, etc
• Not all simulations are so
serious
– Simplifiedto allow players to
play more easily
– Such games are called arcade
simulations
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Microsoft Mobile Arcades
Simulation Video
http://www.excalibur-publishing.com/games/airport-firefighter-simulator/
Sports Games
• Players participate in a
sporting event
– Can take player, owner,
manager or coaching
roles
– Can be a single match,
series, entire season or
life-time of the team or
franchise
FIFA, EA Sports
Basketball , EA Sports
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Sports Games .
• Transferring real game to
video game
• Must accurately and
realistically reproduce
the rules and strategies
of the sport
– Arcade versions with
relaxed rules or reduced
realism can also be
entertaining
Baseball arcade
Olympic games, arcade
Fighting Games
• Players control avatars and
attack opponents and
defend from attacks
• Players expect a set of
basic attacks and counters
to start
– More complex
combinations over time
Mortal Kombat , Deadly Alliance
Virtual Fighter 4
Fighting Games .
• Most fights last only a few
minutes, but there may be
many rounds in a complete
bout
• Games are generally
viewed from the side
– Newer versions have 3D
elements and multiple view
angles and camera positions
Dead or Alive 4
Tekken 4
God Games
• Games that do not have a
real goal
– Also called software toys
• Encourage players to fool
around with them to see
what happens
– No wrong way to play the
game
– Open-ended games with few
or no preset winning
conditions
Rollercoaster Tycoon
The Sims 2
Casual Games
• Casual games are easy-to-
play
• Players familiar with the
rules of the game
• Players drop into and out
of these games quickly
• Short session games with
little or no learning curve
Casual Games Types
• Adaptations of traditional
games like chess, hearts,
and solitaire
• Television games like
Wheel of Fortune and Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire?
• Simple games like
Minesweeper
Solitaire
Minesweeper
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Puzzle Games
• Puzzle games exist purely for
the intellectual challenge of
problem solving
• Puzzles can be real-time or non
real-time
– Real-time puzzles have some
timing elements and contain
some action
– There are little or no time
constraints in non real-time
puzzles
Rubik’s Puzzle
Sudoku
Tetris Video
Online Games
• Online games include any of
the preceding genres but
allows for multiplayer
network play
• Some can accommodate
only 2-4 players, but others
can taken dozens, hundreds,
or possibly thousands of
players
Everquest II
World of Warcraft
Online Virtual Environments
• New ways of exploring web-based applications
– Evolution of telecommunication technologies, webservices
and software engineering
• Great range of online virtual environments
– More than 100 different ones
Online Virtual Environment Video Serious Games
• Game: "a physical or mental contest, played
according to specific rules, with the goal of amusing
or rewarding the participant."
• Video Game: "a mental contest, played with a
computer according to certain rules for
amusement, recreation, or winning a stake."
• Serious Game: "a mental contest, played with a
computer in accordance with specific rules that
uses entertainment to further government or
corporate training, education, health, public policy,
and strategic communication objectives."
Mike Zyda "From Visual Simulation to Virtual Reality to Games“, IEEE Computer, 2005
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Serious Games Video Video Games Components
Video Games Components
• Computer Graphics
• Physics Simulation
• Artificial Intelligence
• Human-computer interaction
• Many more
– i.e. Modeling, Audio, Arts, etc.
Computer Graphics
• Computer Graphics is
ubiquitous:
– Visual system is most
important sense:
• High bandwidth
• Natural communication
– During the past few years, fast
developments:
• Hardware
• Software
From Past to Future
• Over the past 60
years we have gone
from this
• To this…
Historical Perspective
• 1950: MIT Whirlwind (CRT)
• 1955: Sage, Radar with CRT and light pen
• 1960: Spiel ‘Spacewar’ on PDP-11
• 1963: Ivan Sutherland‘s ‘Sketchpad’ (CAD)
• 1963: Steven Coons, Coons patches
• 1969: ACM Siggraph founded
• 1968: Tektronix storage tube ($5-10.000)
• 1968: Evans&Sutherland (flight simulators)
founded
• 1970ies: First software standards, raster displays
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Historical Perspective .
• 1971: Gourand shading
• 1974: Z-buffer
• 1975: Phong model
• 1979: Eurographics founded
• 1980: Whitted: Ray tracing
• 1981: Apollo Workstation, IBM PC
• 1982: Software standard GKS, Silicon Graphics (SGI)
founded
• 1984: X Window System
• 1984: First Silicon Graphics Workstations (IRIS GL)
Historical Perspective ..
• Cindy Goral: Radiosity
• 1988: Graphics standard PHIGS
• Until mid/end of 1990s: Dominance of SGI in the high
end
– HW: RealityEngine, InfiniteReality, RealityMonster, ...
– SW: OpenGL, OpenInventor, Performer, Digital Media Libs, ...
• End of 1990s: Low- to mid range taken over by „PCs“
(Nvidia, ATI, ...)
– HW: Fast development cycles, Graphics-on-a-chip, ...
– SW: Direct 3D & OpenGL, computer games
• 2000s: Ubiquitous computer graphics
– Advanced games engines
– Mobile computer graphics
Method of Operation Supporting Disciplines
• Physics, Mathematics and other Natural Sciences
– Models and Techniques
– Numerical Analysis
• Engineering
– Hardware and Software Systems
– Input and Output Devices
– Infrastructureand integration into existing environment
• Art, Psychology, Medicine, ...
– Story-Telling
– Design and Composition
– Perception
• ..and of course Computer Science
What is Computer Graphics Some Applications
• Computer Aided Design (CAD)
• Computer Aided Geometric Design
(CAGD)
• Entertainment (i.e. games)
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Visualization (Scientific Visualization,
Information Visualization)
• Medical Visualization
• Navigation and Wayfinding
• Archaeology and Cultural heritage
• Many more…
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Components of Graphics 3D Rendering Hardware
• Geometric representation
– Triangles, volumes
• Viewing
– Transformation
• Hidden surface removal
– z-buffer
• Lighting and illumination
– Gouraud shading
• Realism
– Texture mapping
• Special effects
– Transparency, antialiasing, etc
Graphics Digital Libraries
• ACM
– http://dl.acm.org/
• IEEE
– http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/home.jsp
• EUROGRAPHICS
– https://diglib.eg.org/
But Why Physics?
• Physics is exploding in the games
development industry
• It is a powerful tool for producing greatlooking
games
• It is the only tool for making games look
realistic
• Companies are increasingly seeking
programmers whose physics skills are strong
Physics is Fun!
• Physics modeling can be fun
• A simple model can create
effects that the programmer
never dreamed possible
• A nice physical model of a fire
will work and look beautifully
even if you wave your move
your hand over it!
Modern Computer Games
• Modern computer games are about creating a
virtual world
• The virtual world can behave in any way that
the programmer decides
• However, if we want players to understand
and engage with our games, virtual worlds
must model the physical world accurately
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How Much Physics is Required?
• To answer the question think about the games
you have played
• What happens in those games?
– Movement, explosions, collision detection, many
more…
• These days you can not seem to have a game
without collision detection
Some Basic Things
• 3D Objects
• 3D Scenes
• Movement
• Rigid objects
• Rotation
• Friction
• Air and water resistance
• Gravity
• Collisions and
explosions
• Springy things
• Waves
3D Objects
• Creating a software model of a 3D object is
not an easy task
– However we can use tools to simulate 3D objects
• Graphics APIs like OpenGL, DirectX extend the
hardware support for simulating 3D objects
3D Scenes
• Modeling an entire
scene in 3D is just an
extension of the
techniques used to
model a 3D object
– But more interactions
take place!
Movement
• Modern games have a lot of movement
– Walk, jump, run or pick-up objects
• Making movement happen in a way that looks
realistic can be achieved using a number of
techniques
Rigid Objects
• A spinning space station is
an example of a rigid object
in motion
• Rigid bodies seem to be
easy but not so trivial if you
implement them first time
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Rotation
• 3D objects can move forward or
backward, left or right, and up or
down
– However they can also rotate as
they move
• Modeling rotation increases the
number of forces that a game
has to apply on the object
• Rotation can stabilise or
destabilise an object as it moves
Friction
• In the real world, most objects eventually
come to a stop due to friction
• Modeling friction is a very common task in
modern games
– Icy or slippery surfaces
• But many games get it wrong!
Air and Water Resistance
• Many games ignore air
resistance completely but
not water resistance
– Air resistance is not becoming
an important issue
• Modeling water resistance
involves more than slowing
movement down
– Water also moves
Gravity
• Gravity affects everything
– Can not get away from it,
even in space!
• A modern game must
model the effects of
gravity in all situations
– Not always so easy
Collisions and Explosions
• What is a game without special effects
• It is impossible to simulate all aspects of a
collision and explosion
– Physics are too complex but does not matter
• If we model the physics of the larger forces and
interaction of objects in collisions and
explosions we can make it look right
Springy Things
• In physics, springy things includes non-rigid
elements such as hair and cloth
• Think what it takes to model the movement of
a virtual girl while running
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Waves
• Dealing with water is more
than just resistance and
currents
– It also involves waves
• Old games simulated waves
by moving the camera up
and down
– Not acceptable any more in
modern 3D games
What about Maths?
• Physics requires maths
– Vectors
– Matrices
– Triangles and Planes
– Derivatives
– Imaginary numbers
– And many more..
Artificial Intelligence Artificial Inteligence Video
Human-Computer Interaction Human Technology Interaction
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Flavors of Game Developers
• Game Designers decide on the format and
behavior of the game
• Artists design models, textures, animations and
otherwise are responsible for the look of the game
• Level Designers create the spaces in which the
game takes place
• Audio Designers are responsible for all the sounds
used in the game
• Programmers write code, to put it all together, and
tools, to make everyone else’s job simpler
• And others
– Production, management, marketing, quality assurance
Questions