ComputerGraphics
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'80s game designers had to cheat their way to color graphics
We take powerful computer graphics for granted nowadays, to the point where we complain when 4K games won't play at 60fps. But YouTube's iBookGuy showed how tough designers had it back in the 80s just to make color graphics work, period, on 16K machines of the day. They had to use a variety of workarounds just to get 16 colors on a 320 x 200 screen, as that would normally eat up your entire 16K of RAM right there. Developers for machines like the NES and Commodore 64 resorted to dividing the screen into "cells" that could each hold only two colors, a trick that used up just 9K of memory.
Gemotion display boasts reactive 3D functionality
We've seen dozens of (mostly futile) attempts to bring 3D technology into our lives in a non-gimmicky manner, but the 54-year old Yoichiro Kawaguchi has developed yet another device that will likely fall by the wayside rather than gain steam. The University of Tokyo professor has devised a psychedelic 39- x 24-inch screen that boasts no fewer than 72 air cylinders behind the flexible fabric front, which are used to "push and pull" based on whatever action is being portrayed. The creator describes the Gemotion as a "soft, living display that that bulges and collapses in sync with the graphics on the screen," creating a moving display that's likely to terrify (or thrill, depending on perspective) small children. Apparently, the idea is to use computer software to convert images projected onto the screen into specific movements, allowing characters on screen to literally "jump out" at viewers, and can purportedly liven up your average "video game, TV show, or film" by giving it "an element of power never seen before." While the idea seems impressive in theory, we'd definitely need to see this thing in action before taking it too seriously, but those hanging around the National Art Center in Tokyo can drop by and give it a once over for us until February 4th.[Via PinkTentacle]
Technology advances in lighting promise more realism
Geometric algebra, an up-and-coming field of mathematics, has found its way into video games thanks to Geomerics, a British startup. Although the company has yet to release details of their products, they've recently published some information on technology advances made possible by geometric algebra which help add further realism into gaming.Currently, lighting in games is a toss-up between three elements: in real life, light often changes position (e.g. as the sun moves across the sky); objects cast shadows, which are often quite subtle; and depending on your viewpoint, you can sometimes see light sources reflected in other objects. The usual method is to pre-calculate the shadows in a scene and paint them on the ground, but this means the light source must stay fixed. Thanks to next-gen computing power, spherical harmonic lighting can be used to generate soft, lifelike shadows from moving light sources, but without any of the shiny surface effects that complete the picture and add realism.Geomerics' development, using geometric algebra and wavelet technologies, allows all three elements to be computed in realtime: moving light sources, soft shadows and glossy surfaces. Hopefully this means that next-gen graphics can get even better.[Thanks, Pete]
