Pivotal moments in the history of game renderers *fork*

[Cyan]

Unreal is free on Steam and GoG now. The three biggest leaps in the history of the 3D graphics were Quake, Unreal 1 and Crysis (by order of appearance).

Pure 3d optimized and made for the first 3D graphics accelerators, really squeezed those graphics cards, and were ahead of their time and the hardware and directx (dx10 was based on what crytek asked)

To a lesser extent, Far cry / Half-Life 2 / Doom 3, are also quite there.

Had to mention this 'cos Cliffy B. worked on Unreal, I think.

 

[Malo]

dx10 was based on what crytek asked)

And was also arguably the biggest failure of the DX versions.

 

[AlNom]

Quake 3 ditched the software renderer.

Shall we spin-off the discussion for something along the lines of "Pivotal moments in the history of game renderers" ?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

(dx10 was based on what crytek asked)

Not just Crytek. Other developers also had significant input. Even smaller developers like Techland (Call of Juarez) had input into how Dx10 finally turned out.

Dx for MS has always been a collaboration between MS, software developers and hardware IHVs with MS being the final arbiter of what makes it in. Software developers tell MS what they'd like to see added/improved. IHVs tell MS what they are working on and what might or might not be possible to implement. MS then tries to resolve all of that into a standard that everyone can use (IE - IHV hardware features that are shared or can be implemented by all GPU makers).

Regards,
SB

 

[Cyan]

And was also arguably the biggest failure of the DX versions.

why so? I wasn't into the PC world back then as much as I usually did, only have a functional laptop..

Not just Crytek. Other developers also had significant input. Even smaller developers like Techland (Call of Juarez) had input into how Dx10 finally turned out.

Dx for MS has always been a collaboration between MS, software developers and hardware IHVs with MS being the final arbiter of what makes it in. Software developers tell MS what they'd like to see added/improved. IHVs tell MS what they are working on and what might or might not be possible to implement. MS then tries to resolve all of that into a standard that everyone can use (IE - IHV hardware features that are shared or can be implemented by all GPU makers).

Regards,
SB

Talking of which, maybe just 20 games used DirectX 10 to its fullest. Call of Juarez was one of them. Also Far Cry 2 has a DirectX 10 mode. Gotta say though, that I prefer the original look (DX9 based) of Call of Juarez, because the DirectX 10 version has some extra shiny shiny effects, but the large rocks seem to have some kind of radiactive glow. Far Cry 2 also has a DX10 mode, but it seems anecdotal, more than anything else.

Crysis was DX10 at its peak. Tbh, I never knew if it was DX9 compatible.

Quake 3 ditched the software renderer.

that was a blessing, wasn't it? I had a Matrox G400 AGP (alas, not the Max version) back then and the 32 bits colour depth was stunning. Too bad that I had to switch to my Voodoo 3 for way better framerates..

 

[Theeoo]

Quake 3 ditched the software renderer.

Shall we spin-off the discussion for something along the lines of "Pivotal moments in the history of game renderers" ?

What was the WTF code for then? I guess if lighting calcs were done in software then it was still part software?

 

[Rootax]

I know I'm wrong, but in my mind, the racing game POD was a big deal. If my memory serves me right, It was one of the first MMX optimized game, and soon after that a Glide version came out, and It was awesome ! Like really great. And a D3D patch came later again for other cards.

 

[Cyan]

I know I'm wrong, but in my mind, the racing game POD was a big deal. If my memory serves me right, It was one of the first MMX optimized game, and soon after that a Glide version came out, and It was awesome ! Like really great. And a D3D patch came later again for other cards.

POD was a great deal for many people, including some of my friends, 'cos of the graphics and the arcade fun and sense of speed.

On a different note, the aforementioned Far Cry became another pivotal moment in 3D graphics development, imho. CryENGINE, interestingly, is a game engine which was initially created to produce a game demo for Nvidia, for their graphics processing unit and because of that demo's great success, the game (Far Cry) was taken into full production and was a commercial success. The game engine itself is also very successful, as we know, and tbh I prefer it over Unreal Engine for instance.

 

[Nesh]

Ironically all examples mentioned except POD are first person games.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Why's that ironic? 3D is far more important for 1st person games than others, especially during the development of 3D where other game genres didn't need advances in 3D rendering. Something like Syndicate or AOE or a Lucasarts title didn't need to push the 3D envelope.

The list is also very limited because not many people have contributed to the discussion. No mention of Elite despite that being a huge landmark in what 3D vector games could give gamers. No mention of Zarch/Virus. No Battlezone or Stunt Car Racer. No Sentinel. There are many, many more landmark titles than this discussion has mentioned, and many far more significant than the OP's 3.

 

[Nesh]

Why's that ironic? 3D is far more important for 1st person games than others, especially during the development of 3D where other game genres didn't need advances in 3D rendering. Something like Syndicate or AOE or a Lucasarts title didn't need to push the 3D envelope.

The list is also very limited because not many people have contributed to the discussion. No mention of Elite despite that being a huge landmark in what 3D vector games could give gamers. No mention of Zarch/Virus. No Battlezone or Stunt Car Racer. No Sentinel. There are many, many more landmark titles than this discussion has mentioned, and many far more significant than the OP's 3.

What do you mean? 3D games weren't just First person.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The development of 3D generally progressed for a desire to represent a game world from the player's POV. Games that didn't need that perspective could use 2D graphics - everything from fighters to RPGs to strategy to sports. If you're not travelling into the screen, you don't need 3D. There were various 3rd person games like racing of course, but by and large you'll find most advances in 3D started with first-person representations (Dungeon Siege/Ultima to Wolfenstein to DOOM to everything else).

That's not to say there aren't landmark 3D games that aren't first person, but I don't know that any really provided significant leaps in 3D. The Mario 64s and Spyros and Tomb Raiders were reworking I think. Or not. At least there's a discussion point there.

 

[Nesh]

The development of 3D generally progressed for a desire to represent a game world from the player's POV. Games that didn't need that perspective could use 2D graphics - everything from fighters to RPGs to strategy to sports. If you're not travelling into the screen, you don't need 3D. There were various 3rd person games like racing of course, but by and large you'll find most advances in 3D started with first-person representations (Dungeon Siege/Ultima to Wolfenstein to DOOM to everything else).

That's not to say there aren't landmark 3D games that aren't first person, but I don't know that any really provided significant leaps in 3D. The Mario 64s and Spyros and Tomb Raiders were reworking I think. Or not. At least there's a discussion point there.

There were tons of 3D games that were not fighting games or racing games. You would think that in the large crowd of 3D adventure or platform games you would at least get an example that set new standards.

But probably the huge advancements of 3D graphics came in the form of FPS because they were correlated with more common advancements in hardware that happened in the PC space. These games were primarilly designed for PC with no consideration for other platforms but the other games were developed with consoles included into the picture. FPS games were in general not so great for consoles due to controls.

But I must say Quake on the Saturn was a super impressive achievement and the N64 games like Turok and Goldeneye were super impressive in their own right

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There were tons of 3D games that were not fighting games or racing games. You would think that in the large crowd of 3D adventure or platform games you would at least get an example that set new standards.

I didn't say they were. There were lots of game genres that didn't need 3D so developers making these games didn't push the 3D envelope. It was first-person 3D games that needed advances in 3D, particular racers and FPS and space-sims. These pushed the envelope enabling tech that future 3D platformers and adventure games and RPGs would use.

I think.

 

[Nesh]

I didn't say they were. There were lots of game genres that didn't need 3D so developers making these games didn't push the 3D envelope. It was first-person 3D games that needed advances in 3D, particular racers and FPS and space-sims. These pushed the envelope enabling tech that future 3D platformers and adventure games and RPGs would use.

I think.

I think it was purely the fact that PCs were enjoying hardware advancements unlike consoles and developers were designing FPS as primarilly PC games (same with simulation games). So it was the best platform and the PC genre to take advantage of the newer technology without thinking about the game being ported to consoles.