Take a Byte I

Polygon counts face off against atmospherics in Tristan's debut column, Take a Byte.

Sunsets and Polygons: The Eternal Debate

Welcome to the new PC column. Every month I'll be rambling on about various subjects to do with the world of PC gaming. If you have anything you'd like me to talk about, drop me a line at tristastic@hotmail.com.

A while back I finished Doom 3. Remember the hype in the years before it was released? It was all about the graphics, about the amazing anti-aliasing and uncompressed textures that would be at our fingertips. Or they would be if you had a beast of a PC to run it on. I've got a P4 1.8ghz with 512mb of RAM, and Doom 3 is only playable with many graphical features turned down. This is something I had to put up with: upgrading my computer over a single game just doesn't seem worth it anymore. At least until the next Elder Scrolls game comes out...

Turned out the graphics weren't the point anyway. There was an initial effect: I was amazed at the shadow effects and character faces, and the first third of the game had me completely soaking up the atmosphere, afraid to go around the next corner. Having some studio-quality headphones on didn?t help either - I'll never forget all that whispering.

But level after level of similar-looking corridors and rooms doesn't equal three years of hype. Every now and again there'd be another fun way to show off the lighting effects, but by the time I worked my way to the end, I was over them. Overall, the graphics lasted as long as the story - and the Doom series ain't famous for its plot.

The game just didn't do much for me after the initial 'wow factor' wore off. By the end I was trying to run through the levels as fast as I could, and they all looked mostly the same anyway. I felt that the engine hadn't been used to its full potential, that there wasn't enough variety to keep me interested in my surroundings.

A game like The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, on the other hand, uses its graphics engine for maximum effect. I've been an Elder Scrolls fan since Arena, and really enjoyed the wide open spaces I could traverse through. There was one particular moment in Morrowind when I was high up a mountain and happened to glance over to my left. I saw a line of misshapen trees silhouetted against a sunset. As the sun sank the sky turned from blue to gold to red to deep blue, and stars began to appear as the day ended. It was a real Moment, and certainly drew me into the world. Now, Morrowind's engine was quite high-end at the time, but that seemed almost irrelevant next to the design and implementation of the artwork.

World of Warcraft does the same thing. It has a fairly basic engine, and yet - thanks to the awesome art design - you're constantly presented with awe-inspiring scenes. I was playing the game at my mate's place the other day, thinking, 'this game is ok, but not brilliant'. Then I took a ride on a griffin, and it leaped above the forest canopy and flew out over the sea. That was cool, but then I happened to glance over to my left. On the horizon, an island was being silhouetted by an amazing sunset.

(Note to game designers, then: when making a game, forgo impressive anti-aliasing techniques or high polygon counts, and just concentrate on including sunsets. There's your ticket to glory right there.)

Lighting effects aside, the most important thing to take into consideration is how a graphics engine is used, not how many polygons it can push or how high-res its textures are. That's right ladies and gentlemen: it's not how impressive your engine is, it's what you do with it that counts. Remember when the two hottest first person shooters on the planet were Duke Nukem 3D and Quake? Which one did you think looked more interesting? I know I'd choose the madman with the pipe bombs any day.

Sure, I've got a weakness for the great outdoors, and loath endless corridors. But you can't escape the fact that the most powerful engine in the world won't save you if you don't have an imaginative and inspired art design to back you up. Pretty shadows will never be appreciated if there is nothing worthwhile to cast them on. In the end, it comes down to realistic graphics versus a realistic world. It's a rare game that manages to have both these things, but the result is spectacular.

Would you rather see realistic shadows or varied environments? Do you think that Quake had more character than Duke Nukem 3D? Sound it off in the forums!

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