Craftsmanship
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0I like the world we live in and all, but the polycount here just isn’t high enough. In fact, I’m pretty sure there isn’t a single polygon used at all…How can we take this place seriously in this day and age with no polygons?
Video games still use polygons, right?
Wait a minute, a Happle Tea comic that casually mentions video games!? And here you were, thinking that this was a different breed of comic, one that doesn’t reach for the low hanging fruit of video game jokes! You were wrong.
I happen to enjoy playing video games, myself, but sometimes my conversations with game playing friends and family or articles written by enthusiasts point out some funny ways of thinking. It is sort of strange to hear someone describe a video game world in words they rarely use to describe the actual world we live in. Perhaps there is a problem with being constantly surrounded by something as beautiful as the universe that just makes us tune it out most of the time. Maybe it’s some weird form of sensory overload that allows us to appreciate the rather contained human created worlds of video games and movies and simultaneously take the world and life we have now for granted most of the time. I’m not a social scientist or psychoanalyst. All I know is that it happens.
I will say, however, that there are moments of immersion in experiencing the things other humans create that actually surprise me so much that I am forced into contemplating the real world around me. You feel yourself enjoying a movie or game more and more and then, like being shocked when you touch a door handle, you’re jolted out of it and really grasp the fact that you are just sitting there with a controller or a book in your hands. Weird!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not denigrating the desire to get lost in a different world. It’s fun and relaxing and it can offer some insight into our real lives to enjoy entertainment media. The point is just to take a step back from time to time and realize that the real world has a lot going for it too. There are amazing sights and sounds, wonderful textures, entrancing smells, and natural wonders that can’t be properly experienced if you aren’t paying attention. Sure, we’re sort of forced to live in the real world most of the time thanks to our responsibilities and our need to continue surviving, but how often do you stop and really seize a moment and think about it? If you’re anything like me, I’d say probably not enough.
So take a step outside and take a breath, think about what that breath means and look around. Smell the air, feel the crispness or warmth of it on your skin and examine the way the light touches surfaces. Take that moment and realize that you’re alive.
You’ll be glad you did.
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Most still do (use polygons), yes. The 3D rendered one’s, at least. Aaah, that’s 3D in terms of the simulated worldspace, not the TV screen. A lot of side scrolling or top down indie arcade type games are sprite based (sprites are like flat cutouts with animated images on them), and there’s the rare voxel-based 3D game like Minecraft (voxels are the 3D equivalent of pixels: cubes instead of squares), but aside from that yeah, still polgons.
There’s probably games that use nurBs too (3D equivalent of Vector), but I don’t know any offhand.
As far as I know, nurBs and voxels would be the best contenders to replace polygons in 3D, but both have the same problem of a tipping point in model complexity/resolution where they start to become progressively more resource-heavy than polygons, so to achieve the degree of realism seen even on modern platforms with polygons you’d need pretty exotic system specs.
There’s also procedural modeling (kinda like the opposite of file compression: using fractal algorithms and such to generate complex forms on the fly via extrapolation). This gets used for textures in some video games engines, but not models. Like with nurBs it gets used for models in high-end rendering though, like stills and movie effects (terrain, mostly: it’s best for simulating stuff that either has complex pseudo-randomness or complex regularity, as opposed to more discrete forms like a car or a human body). For modeling it requires too much computing power for real-time rendering, so… prerendered backgrounds and cutscenes only.
That’s my understanding at least. I’m admittedly far from expert though, and I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m off about any of that.
I think it’s semi important to note that the reason you don’t see the individual polygons in game anymore isn’t because each models uses tens of thousands of polygons but because they use a thing called normal mapping which sort of fakes bumps and crevices on a model creating a more detailed feel; which is powered by what must be magic because why it just sort of works without making my computer crap out is beyond me. something to do with shades of gray and tricking light the light?
Honestly, I can never stop thinking about the world in terms of biology, chemistry, and physics. So pretty much everything I see gets analyzed to its fullest extent.
It can be annoying, because instead of seeing a wonderfully beautiful and complex environment, I see a horrendously complex logic puzzle. Every time I see a painting I try and appreciate the image the artist was trying to convey and the work that went into it, but I can never help but wonder what the chemical structures of all the paints they used were.
No K, there are enough ninjas in the real world for you to appreciate it. You just can’t see them because they are flipping ninjas!
I’m a pretty dedicated gamer, but I live in an area with about 7 national parks, monuments, etc, practically in my back yard. I appreciate them all (some more then others. Dang 7 mile hike through lava flows >:I ) but ready access to all of them does kinda bring up the “being constantly surrounded by something as beautiful as the universe” point you made.
looking to worlds is all i do all time. i even consider different worlds within our own world. and sometimes i can point clear boundaries as ” The World of men ” and ” The Planet ” small things.
i have my hair long for lots of reasons one included is that i like to feel the wind in it, i love to watch the clouds, to see stars, noticing the variation of light during the year, the scent of the ocean and rivers, no science, no thinking, just, plain, blank, and wordless primal appreciation of the world.
almost a regression session to one of my eldest ancestors. and the world is beautiful.
BUT, GAMES, dont forget, people put effort sometimes in them, so, do not just play, stop to listen the songs and look the small details of the scenery.
love your comments for this comic <3