The process of generating an image or series of images from a model by means of computer programming.
42
votes
2answers
2k views
How can I get textures on edge of walls like in Super Metroid and Aquaria?
Games like Super Metroid and Aquaria present the terrain with the other facing parts having rocks and stuff while deeper behind them (i.e. underground) there's different detail or just black.
I ...
30
votes
2answers
2k views
How to render realistic ice?
I am trying to write an ice shader in Unity that looks good and at least semi-realistic.
If the following shot (found on Google) was CG, what would its shader include? (the foreground cave). I might ...
27
votes
2answers
2k views
What is deferred rendering?
I've heard about deferred rendering and how using it can allow for "lots" of lights in a scene without a huge performance hit, but what is it and (from a high level) how is it implemented?
21
votes
2answers
701 views
Out of bounds in AAA games
In many common AAA titles (Source engine games especially), when the player reaches an area 'un-catered' for, such as out of bounds, or noclipping under the map; a strange effect occurs on the screen ...
20
votes
4answers
1k views
Architecture a for a central renderer rather than self-rendering
For the architectural side of rendering, there's two main ways: having each object render itself, and having a single renderer which renders everything.
I'm currently aiming for the second idea, for ...
18
votes
6answers
738 views
Coordinate system handling for 2D UI
Following on from the aspect ratios question, I'm interested to hear what other people are using when working on 2D UI systems (most likely their own home-grown solutions). Specifically, how do you ...
16
votes
1answer
4k views
Isometric rendering and picking?
I've been looking for a formula to plot (world->screen) and mouse pick (world->screen) isometric tiles in a diamond-shaped world.
The ones I've tried always seem to be, well, off.
What's the ...
14
votes
3answers
733 views
What does the graphics card do with the fourth element of a vector as the final position?
From this question it appears you would want a four-element position vector, as it is simpler to modify its position with matrix multiplication.
On its own this would imply the fourth element should ...
13
votes
3answers
10k views
12
votes
4answers
1k views
Should actors in a game be responsible for drawing themselves?
I am very new to game development, but not to programming.
I am (again) playing around with a Pong type game using JavaScript's canvas element.
I have created a Paddle object which has the following ...
12
votes
3answers
2k views
outline object effect
How can I achieve an outline effect similar to the ones found in League of Legends or Diablo III?
Is it done using a shader? How?
I would prefer answers that are not tied up to any particular ...
12
votes
2answers
506 views
Best technique to create oldschool (fake 3D) racing game?
What would be a good approach to develop the render system for an oldschool type racing game that uses a pseudo 3D scenery, like for example Outrun or Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge? There's an endless ...
11
votes
4answers
691 views
What is an achievable way of setting content budgets (e.g. polygon count) for level content in a 3D title?
In answering this question for swquinn, the answer raised a more pertinent question that I'd like to hear answers to. I'll post our own strategy (promise I won't accept it as the answer), but I'd like ...
11
votes
6answers
1k views
How can I create my own sky maps?
What are the methods/tools for generating realistic skies with clouds and atmospheric shading?
FOSS alternatives and spherical projections get extra points.
11
votes
2answers
3k views
How do you programmatically generate a sphere?
Could someone please explain how it would be possible to create a sphere vertices, indices and texture coordinates? There is a surprising lack of documentation on how to do so and it is something that ...
11
votes
2answers
1k views
Is Deferred Rendering The Future?
Is deferred rendering the future of real-time 3d rendering on pc hardware (at least until raytracing becomes feasible)? I'm aware of the benefits (lots of lights, less state changes) and also trouble ...
11
votes
1answer
383 views
OpenGL - white edges on cubes
In a minecraft-like game I'm making, I get white edges on my cubes:
It is much more noticeable in darker textures. The textures are being setup like this:
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, ...
11
votes
4answers
7k views
Preferred way to render text in OpenGL
I'm about tu pick up computer graphics once again for an university project. For a previous project I used a library called ftgl that didn't leave me quite satisfied as it felt kind of heavy (I tried ...
10
votes
2answers
13k views
How Do I Do Alpha Transparency Properly In XNA 4.0?
Okay, I've read several articles, tutorials, and questions regarding this. Most point to the same technique which doesn't solve my problem. I need the ability to create semi-transparent sprites ...
10
votes
1answer
517 views
How does pixeljunk shooter simulate its liquids?
I am really impressed by the liquids in pixeljunk shooter. I would love to know how they do it.
10
votes
1answer
467 views
10
votes
3answers
386 views
Is showing a collision in slow motion computationally relaxing?
In a lot of racing games (Burnout Paradise, for example) when a collision is about to happen, the game play automatically switches to slow motion and carries on in slow sequence until after the ...
9
votes
6answers
4k views
LOD in modern games
I'm currently working on my master's thesis about LOD and mesh simplification, and I've been reading many academic papers and articles about the subject. However, I can't find enough information about ...
9
votes
4answers
349 views
What exactly causes a surface to overlap another?
I cannot really figure out what causes one surface to overlap another. In a 3D engine I'm creating, my technique is failing in edge cases.
My method is sorting the surfaces to be painted from the ...
9
votes
2answers
526 views
Good practices in screen states management?
I wonder what are the best ways to organize different screens in a game?
I am thinking of it like this:
Inheriting a base State class, and overriding update and render methods, to handle the current ...
9
votes
2answers
889 views
How can I unit test rendering output?
I've been embracing Test-Driven Development (TDD) recently and it's had wonderful impacts on my development output and the resiliency of my codebase. I would like to extend this approach to some of ...
8
votes
6answers
2k views
Should an object in a 2D game render itself?
I'm making a 2D street fighter-like game that is not tile based. Usually people recommend that entities be given to a renderer that render them, not them render themselves, but it seems the inverse is ...
8
votes
2answers
925 views
Why would you want multiple render targets?
In d3d11, you can bind multiple render targets ID3D11DeviceContext::OMSetRenderTargets. But why would you want to do this?
8
votes
1answer
318 views
Drawing “Stenciled” Sprites and making them glow
Currently, in my game - I'm not using XNA's SpriteBatch to render anything(I am using Farseer Physic's Debug View), and I was wondering how I would render something like this:
only using XNA. My ...
8
votes
2answers
676 views
Structuring game world entities and their rendering objects
I'm putting together a simple 2d tile-based game. I'm finding myself spinning circles on some design decisions, and I think I'm in danger of over-engineering. After all, the game is simple enough ...
8
votes
1answer
299 views
Rendering Unity across multiple monitors
At the moment I am trying to get unity to run across 2 monitors. I've done some research and know that this is, strictly, possible. There is a workaround where you basically have to fluff your window ...
7
votes
5answers
425 views
Ideas for extending tic-tac-toe game? [closed]
I'm building a 3D tic-tac-toe game and this is what I've implemented so far:
3D renderer with texture mapping
Playing against the computer
Playing online (multiplayer)
Now I'm a little lost what I ...
7
votes
2answers
2k views
How do I render terrain in a 2.5D perspective, like in the game Don't Starve?
I have experience in making 2D side scroller games such as Terraria, but now I want to challenge myself and make a game that has a 2.5D perspective. The game I am trying to mimic is Don't Starve. ...
7
votes
1answer
466 views
Information about rendering, batches, the graphical card, performance etc. + XNA?
I know the title is a bit vague but it's hard to describe what I'm really looking for, but here goes.
When it comes to CPU rendering, performance is mostly easy to estimate and straightforward, but ...
7
votes
4answers
1k views
glsl demo suggestions?
In a lot of places I interviewed recently, I have been asked many a times if I have worked with shaders. Even though, I have read and understand the pipeline, the answer to that question has been no. ...
7
votes
2answers
379 views
Why are some games using some dithering pattern instead of traditional alpha for transparency?
Recently, I have seen some 3D games (eg: GTA IV) to use some kind of ordered dithering to simulate transparency / alpha.
The polygons are not transparent as usual, but instead render a dithering ...
7
votes
4answers
427 views
What types of effects or shaders would you teach in a rendering class? [closed]
I am looking for a list of topics that would be fun to learn and not too complicated to implement with a prototyping tool like FX Composer or Rendermonkey for an intermediate class of real-time ...
7
votes
2answers
545 views
How does OnLive work, and is there anything special Game Developers need to do?
The OnLive service works by "cloud rendering", which is very different from the traditional model of "on-premise rendering" that we are all familiar with. How does this work at a technical level, and ...
7
votes
3answers
2k views
Questions about rendering access in UDK
I also asked about this over on the UDK forums, but haven't had much luck getting any responses. Basically, I have some experience with UT3 modding, but I'm just getting started with the UDK, and I ...
7
votes
2answers
405 views
Portal Projection
Ok ok I admit, I'm bored and toying with a portal script like the one on steam.
I've figured out the following:
relative positioning of the mirrored cameras
render to texture for the portal (the ...
7
votes
2answers
609 views
How would I setup fog to follow a players coordinates?
I'm wondering if its possible to setup a fog to a player's coordinates (where there is fog around the player to make it more third-person) the main reason I ask this is because I have my player more ...
6
votes
6answers
1k views
How come the 3d graphics and animations of MMORPGs are usually worse than non-online 3d games?
I have noticed that in general it seems like the 3d graphics and animations for MMOs and MMORPGs seem not as seductive and polished as the graphics for normal, non-online 3d games.
How come this is ...
6
votes
8answers
405 views
Is it useful to monitor framerate over the course of an arbitrary (but long) period of time?
How useful is it to keep a measurement of framerate over the course of long times (such as an hour) spanning multiple scenes/data environments?
I've had plenty of times where data throttling/pushing ...
6
votes
4answers
1k views
Entity System and rendering
Okey, what I know so far;
The entity contains a component(data-storage) which holds information like;
- Texture/sprite
- Shader
- etc
And then I have a renderer system which draws all this. But ...
6
votes
2answers
802 views
Is frustum culling necessary in a Flash/AS3 game?
I'm making a 2D game where the map will be scrolled frequently, and only a small part of it will be visible at any time.
Which implementation would run faster?
The naive way: Make the map a single
...
6
votes
3answers
583 views
What is the best way to render a 2d game map?
I know efficiency is key in game programming and I've had some experiences with rendering a "map" earlier but probably not in the best of ways.
For a 2D TopDown game: (simply render the ...
6
votes
2answers
665 views
Low-level game engine renderer design
I'm piecing together the beginnings of an extremely basic engine which will let me draw arbitrary objects (SceneObject). I've got to the point where I'm creating a few sensible sounding classes, but ...
6
votes
1answer
459 views
Achieving certain rendering styles
I'm trying to assess the difficulty of creating a rendering style that is more like the game Okami and the Quake mods (as shown on this page...search for 'okami','quake npr'). Here's a better page ...
6
votes
1answer
615 views
How can I organize render and transformation data in a scalable fashion?
I am writing for OpenGL 2.0 and in the future porting to OpenGL ES 2.0. I only use VBOs and shaders (no immediate mode, no vertex arrays).
I already have working solutions, they just... feel wrong. ...
5
votes
3answers
695 views
Game Classes design
I'm trying to create a simple 2D sprite game. The problem I'm having now is how to design my game. I was thinking of using a Sprite class that will be my base class for all the different types of ...
