How are PC games rendered?

[mitzibishi]

Im wondering how PC games are rendered.

are modern PC games coded in 1080p because it is standard and then if the monitor is not 1080p either upscaled or downscaled from 1080p by the graphics card?

what about old games, are they rendered in a lower rezo by developers at the time and the game is patched later to show higher and higher resolutions in the settings but is always upscaled, say an old game is coded for 480p then it is upscaled to 1080p by the graphics card?

im confused about how PC games resolutions are put onscreen and how they are in the options for higher resolutions years after they are released. do devs patch them to have an iption for say, 1600p but it is upscaled from 1080p anyway?

thanks for your help

 

[Arwin]

PC graphics are defined by 3D co-ordinates (x,y,z), so you don't have to upscale anything, just map those coordinates to different resolutions. Texture resolution (2D graphics that game engines sometimes apply to 3D surfaces), and those are typically in a fixed resolution, so they will show their age after a while. The amount of detail a computer can render also grows a lot over time, so older games will have a lot less 'resolution' in the amount of 3D co-ordinates that define a shape.

This is very basic stuff though, so you may just want to look this up on wiki-pedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_computer_graphics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_rendering

 

[mitzibishi]

I was reading this from someone about how PC games are rendered, is this correct?

"your Graphics Card "Upscales" ANY games that were coded to a specific range of Monitor resolutions to meet the majority of monitor specs on the Market at the time, even if the games show higher resolutions in the settings menu now, due to the Games HOST FILE being patched etc.. Any Upscaled resolution, loses some visual quality, as it's upscaling from a lower resolution that was designed for how many polygons per pixel were used.

ANY resolution higher than what the game was designed &/or intended for lke 4k, IS UPSCALED BY YOUR GRAPHICS CARD (ie. Hardware) from 1080p to 4k, so your monitor can view it at that resolution, which takes more time to process on your GPU & uses more resources, thus reducing performance etc.."


and what about emulators? i heard that N64 or even Wii games are true 1080p on PC but i just cant believe it seen as they were set coded for a specific resolution and for N64 1080p wasnt even invented back then, it must be impossible

 

[Arwin]

And here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygon_mesh

Just read and come back with more specific questions, or you'll look like a weird kind of spam bot.

 

[mitzibishi]

ive read those but i cant really understand it all. do developers code todays PC games in 1080p and then if you go above that its upscaled?

 

[Mize]

ive read those but i cant really understand it all. do developers code todays PC games in 1080p and then if you go above that its upscaled?

No.

 

[mitzibishi]

so what resolution do they code for? how are there other resolutions in the settings? are they not upscaled from 1080p which is the satnadard?

How do old games have a list of new resolutions, are they patch into the game?

I saw a video of metro 2033 on a 4k TV, how is this possible when no games are coded for 4k yet, is the game hacked to show 4k in the settings and its just upscaled from 1080p?

 

[Arwin]

so what resolution do they code for? how are there other resolutions in the settings? are they not upscaled from 1080p which is the satnadard?

How do old games have a list of new resolutions, are they patch into the game?

I saw a video of metro 2033 on a 4k TV, how is this possible when no games are coded for 4k yet, is the game hacked to show 4k in the settings and its just upscaled from 1080p?

It is no wonder that you have so many questions. People apparently just hate to read?

 

[Albuquerque]

ive read those but i cant really understand it all. do developers code todays PC games in 1080p and then if you go above that its upscaled?

No again, and to further expound on Mize's point, that quote you pulled from earlier is bunk -- a lie, not correct, a falsehood perpetuated by someone who simply doesn't know and made something up.

Games for the PC platform designed within the last five to seven years simply do not have a "fixed" resolution. Even back in the 90's games could have multiple resolution options, things like 240P, 320P, and 480P. With the advent of VESA, a standard way to support higher resolution under DOS became available and even more resolution options came in.

So to reiterate: modern PC platform games are not upscaled, nor are they downscaled. They simply fully render at the resolution that you request - whether it's 1280x720, 1366x768, 1650x1050, 1920x1080, 2560x1440, or whatever else.

 

[mitzibishi]

Thanks for the help, its becoming sort of clearer, but theres just some things i cannot fathom, see im new to PC gaming coming from console.

So what about that video of someone playing Metro 2033 on a 4k TV, is it hacked to play in 4k? because no games are coded for 4k yet.


And what about emulators, how can someone say you can play N64 games in 1080p when its a console game coded for a set resolution and 1080p wasnt even invented back then, let alone the game being in the same aspect ratios

 

[trinibwoy]

so what resolution do they code for?

You do not code 3D games for any particular resolution. Console devs simply remove the ability for the end user to set the resolution.

The graphics card rasterizes the scene into whatever resolution you request, up to its maximum of course.

Take the GTX 680 for example. It can render up to 4096x2160 or 4K. Therefore it can render ANY modern 3D game at that resolution.

 

[mitzibishi]

what about emulators, how is it possible for an N64 game to be rendered in 1080p when the game itself was coded for a set resolution and aspect ratio before 1080p was even invented

 

[mitzibishi]

im getting it now, todays devs do not code games for 1080p and PCs do not upscale/downscale in the other resolutions the game allows.

So if you have a 4k TV you can play games in 4k. the game is not hacked or patched to do that, the option is just there because the game detects what resolutions the monitor supports.

And the same with old games, they are not coded to a magic number, say 480p, then as time goes by the game is patched to show newer higher resolutions and its upscaled from 480p. the game detects the monitors supported resolutions, shows them in the graphics options and hardware renders the game true to the selected resolution. so even if the game is Counter Strike 1.6 and i have a 1600p monitor and i select 1600p in the graphics options i will definately be playing that game in 1600p and not upscaled from a lower resolution becuase its an old game.

Is that correct?

 

[Albuquerque]

Yup, now you're getting it.

Old games that had no concept of "other" resolutions can indeed be upscaled (it's a choice thing, really), but the vast majority of PC games are resolution-independent. This is also what allows things like Eyefinity to work... Upscaling an image lengthwise across three 1080p monitors (5760 x 1080) would otherwise be a disaster.

Emulators are an interesting piece of this, because they often provide "advanced" upscaling in ways that only make sense for emulated console games (example: "SuperEagle" upscaling for old Nintendo titles).

 

[mitzibishi]

i thought "super eagle" was like a filter that took the edge of the blocky pixels on sprite based games.

 

[Albuquerque]

i thought "super eagle" was like a filter that took the edge of the blocky pixels on sprite based games.

I don't think that's correct, but maybe it's used in a game that I'm simply unaware of. Keep in mind that upscaling isn't a single standard formula, there are hundreds of ways to do it. SuperEagle is only one such way, and one that really "works" for blocky console games

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_scaling

 

[Davros]

"your Graphics Card "Upscales" ANY games that were coded to a specific range of Monitor resolutions to meet the majority of monitor ect ect ect

Practically all of this quote is wrong...
The game is rendered at the resolution you choose. No upscaling.
the only way upscaling occurs is if I choose a resolution lower than the resolution of my monitor (and I tell my gfx card or monitor to scale, I could tell it not to scale in that case the game would be in the center of the screen at the chosen resolution (eg: 640x480) with black borders around it) One of the first lessons you learn is you always run games at at least native monitor resolution otherwise it looks bad.
Its different in console land where scaling does occur because unlike pc's the developer will know exactly how much power the end user will have and also consoles in a lot of cases dont have the power to render at 720p never mind 1080p

im getting it now, todays devs do not code games for 1080p and PCs do not upscale/downscale in the other resolutions the game allows.
So if you have a 4k TV you can play games in 4k. the game is not hacked or patched to do that, the option is just there because the game detects what resolutions the monitor supports.

yes, Deadspace 3 for example : (click the bar)

 

[mitzibishi]

thanks for your help. so basically i have been misinformed all along and shouldnt listen to people who think games have to be programmed to 4k resolutions

 

[Albuquerque]

thanks for your help. so basically i have been misinformed all along and shouldnt listen to people who think games have to be programmed to 4k resolutions

Indeed

 

[Rodéric]

thanks for your help. so basically i have been misinformed all along and shouldnt listen to people who think games have to be programmed to 4k resolutions

Textures need to be higher resolution to look nice @4K.
(1 texel per pixel, @ 3840*2160 you need higher resolution than @ 1920*1080.)