Applications of digital graphics for computer games

There are several ways digital graphics are used in the production of video games, including (but not restricted to):

Advertisement

Computer Graphics are used to advertise video games for several reasons. The main reason advertisers use computer graphics to show off the game is because it is the most accurate representation of the actual game, this makes the audience see what the finished game will feel like.

Game Cover

Digital graphics are used on game covers to attract people to it. The cover also shows the 'feeling' of the game, meaning it shows what the game will be like if you play it. It does this by showing what part of the environment will be like, maybe the cover will show a main character or npc's etc.


Cover for Gears of War 3.

The cover of this game shows the main character at the centre of the image, npc's either side, with destroyed environment behind them all, this gives a very good impression on what the game will be like.



Logo's

Video game logo's use computer graphics because it is easy to generate and easy to change/alter during development. Also it is very easy to duplicate for multiple uses, like in advertisements, for in-game uses or for sequels in the series. The logo below was used for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but there was also a very similar logo used for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.



Logo for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Text/Subtitles

Text is made by digital graphics, this is so they can get the right font, size, colour etc. The text also has to fit with the theme and setting of the game, for example if the game is set in a futuristic environment you might want a more futuristic look like this.

Futuristic text example.

Textures

The most obvious use of digital graphics in computer games are the textures. The textures are what make the 3D Models look like what they're supposed to. Textures can come on a variety of sizes, but always stick to 'The Power of 2', meaning resolutions of 8x8, 16x16, 32x32, 64x64, 128x128 etc. The bigger the textures, the better the game will look but it will also run slightly slower if the textures are too big. So because of this game developers have to come to a compromise on textures. Also the bigger the texture sizes, the bigger the file size which will take up more memory to install and run.

Pixels and Image Resolution

Pixel & Image Resolution

A pixel is a very tiny square that uses colour to make a picture on a screen, and it is short for 'Picture Element'. The amount of pixels on the screen determines how clear and detailed the image is.

Earlier systems, such as game consoles in the 80's, could not get a higher resolution 128x64 because of the limits of the technology in those days.

More recent systems can achieve much greater resolutions, e.g. PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 can go up to 1920x1080 (Full HD).

RGB Colour scale.

A pixel's colour on a screen is determined by RGB Colour, which is Red, Green & Blue. Each of these 3 colours has a scale ranging from 0-255. And using this scale, each pixel has a different colour using a combination of these colour's gradients.

Each pixel is given specific co-ordinates which do not change, the only thing that changes is the RGB colour 'code'. To get a very smooth game/video, these pixel 'codes' have to be updated 60 times per seconds.


Image resolution comes in lots of different sizes, which include (but not restricted to):

 

• 420x360
• 800x600
• 1080x720 (HD Ready)
• 1920x1080 (Full HD)

If you multiply the two numbers together, that is approximately the number of pixels there are on the screen. The higher the resolution of the image, the more pixels it has and therefore the more detailed it can be.


Example:

The Full HD resolutions are 1920x1080. When multiplied this equals to 2,073,600. This can also be reffered to as 2 Mega-Pixels (rounded), because 1,000,000 pixels is 1 mega-pixel.

Where-as

8K Resolution is 7680x4320, which equals to 33,177,600 pixels on the screen. This is also called 33.2 Mega-pixels (rounded).