video game graphics part of a series onvideo game graphics types 25d 34 perspective first person video games fixed 3d full motion video based game graphic adventure game isometric graphics in video games and pixel art sidescrolling video game stereoscopic video game textbased game thirdperson view tilebased video game topdown perspective vector game topics 2d computer graphics parallax scrolling pixel art sprite 3d computer graphics 3d rendering polygon prerendering skybox animation celshaded animation digitizing rotoscoping computer graphics realtime graphics game art design graphics engine firstperson shooter engine tile engine virtual camera system voxel lists list of fmvbased games list of fps engines list of stereoscopic video games list of textbased computer games categoryvideo game graphics vte art and video games video games as an art form arthouse game the art of video games exhibition alternate reality game artistic expression within video games video game art nongame machinima interactive movie video game art creation game art design video game graphics video game music storytelling pixel art video game artists video games portalvte a variety of computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games the predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time primarily due to hardware advances and restrictions such as the processing power of central or graphics processing units textbased textbased game some of the earliest video games were text games or textbased games that used text characters instead of bitmapped or vector graphics examples include muds multiuser dungeons where players could read or view depictions of rooms objects other players and actions performed in the virtual world and roguelikes a subgenre of roleplaying video games featuring many monsters items and environmental effects as well as an emphasis on randomization replayability and permanent death some of the earliest text games were developed for computer systems which had no video display at all text games are typically easier to write and require less processing power than graphical games and thus were more common from 1970 to 1990 however terminal emulators are still in use today and people continue to play muds and explore interactive fiction many beginning programmers still create these types of games to familiarize themselves with a programming language and contests are held even today on who can finish programming a roguelike within a short time period such as seven days vector graphics vector graphics a free software asteroidslike video game played on a vector monitor vector graphics refers to the use of geometrical primitives such as points lines and curves ie shapes based on mathematical equations instead of resolutiondependent bitmap graphics to represent images in computer graphics in video games this type of projection is somewhat rare but has become more common in recent years in browserbased gaming with the advent of flash and html5 canvas since these support vector graphics natively an earlier example for the personal computer is starglider 1986 vector game can also refer to a video game that uses a vector graphics display capable of projecting images using an electron beam to draw images instead of with pixels much like a laser show many early arcade games used such displays as they were capable of displaying more detailed images than raster displays on the hardware available at that time many vectorbased arcade games used fullcolor overlays to complement the otherwise monochrome vector images other uses of these overlays were very detailed drawings of the static gaming environment while the moving objects were drawn by the vector beam games of this type were produced mainly by atari cinematronics and sega examples of vector games include asteroids armor attack eliminator lunar lander space fury space wars star trek tacscan tempest and zektor the vectrex home console also used a vector display after 1985 the use of vector graphics declined substantially due to improvements to sprite technology rasterized 3d filled polygon graphics returned to the arcades and were so popular that vector graphics could no longer compete full motion video full motion video and interactive movie full motion video fmv games are video games that rely upon prerecorded television or moviequality recordings and animations rather than sprites vectors or 3d models to display action in the game fmvbased games were popular during the early 1990s as cdroms and laserdiscs made their way into the living rooms providing an alternative to the lowcapacity rom cartridges of most consoles at the time although fmvbased games did manage to look better than many contemporary spritebased games they occupied a niche market and a vast majority of fmv games were panned at the time of their release with many gamers citing their dislike for the lack of interaction inherent in these games as a result the format became a wellknown failure in video gaming and the popularity of fmv games declined substantially after 1995 as more advanced consoles started to become widely available a number of different types of games utilized this format some resembled modern musicdance games where the player timely presses buttons according to a screen instruction others included early rail shooters such as tomcat alley surgical strike and sewer shark full motion video was also used in several interactive movie adventure games such as the beast within a gabriel knight mystery and phantasmagoria 2d see also 2d computer graphics games utilizing parallel projection typically make use of twodimensional bitmap graphics as opposed to 3drendered trianglebased geometry allowing developers to create large complex gameworlds efficiently and with relatively few art assets by dividing the art into sprites or tiles and reusing them repeatedly though some games use a mix of different techniques an example of a typical topdown thirdperson view game the heist 2 topdown perspective topdown perspective also sometimes referred to in a while as birdseye view overworld godview overhead view or helicopter view when used in video games refers to a camera angle that shows the player and the area around them from above while not exclusive to video games that utilise parallel projection it was at one time common in 2d role playing video games wargames and construction and management simulation games such as simcity pokmon and railroad tycoon as well as in action and actionadventure games such as the majority of the legend of zelda games and early grand theft auto games sidescrolling game awesomenauts is a side scrolling moba game sidescrolling video game a sidescrolling game or sidescroller is a video game in which the viewpoint is taken from the side and the onscreen characters generally can only move to the left or right games of this type make use of scrolling computer display technology and sometimes parallax scrolling to suggest added depth in many games the screen follows the player character such that the player character is always positioned near the center of the screen in other games the position of the screen will change according to the player characters movement such that the player character is offcenter and more space is shown in front of the character than behind sometimes the screen will scroll not only forward in the speed and direction of the player characters movement but also backwards to previously visited parts of a stage in other games or stages the screen will only scroll forwards not backwards so that once a stage has been passed it can no longer be visited in games such as shoot em ups like rtype the screen scrolls forward by itself at a steady rate and the player must keep up with the screen attempting to avoid obstacles and collect things before they pass off screen examples of sidescrolling games include platform games such as sonic the hedgehog beat em ups such as the popular double dragon and battletoads and shooters such as rtype and more recently jetsnguns the super mario bros series has used all three types of sidescrolling at some time in its history 25d 34 perspective and pseudo3d 25d see also isometric graphics in video games and parallax scrolling isometric game freeciv 25d twoandahalfdimensional 34 perspective and pseudo3d are informal terms used to describe graphical projections and techniques that try to fake threedimensionality typically by using some form of parallel projection wherein the point of view is from a fixed perspective but also reveals multiple facets of an object examples of pseudo3d techniques include isometricaxonometric projection oblique projection orthographic projection billboarding parallax scrolling scaling skyboxes and skydomes in addition 3d graphical techniques such as bump mapping and parallax mapping are often used to extend the illusion of threedimensionality without substantially increasing the resulting computational overhead introduced by increasing the polygon count the terms sometimes possess a second meaning wherein the gameplay in an otherwise 3d game is forcibly restricted to a twodimensional plane examples of games that make use of pseudo3d techniques include zaxxon the sims and diablo isometricaxonometric projection ultima vii and paperboy oblique projection sonic the hedgehog and street fighter ii parallax scrolling fonz and space harrier scaling and halflife 2 skyboxes in addition to axonometric projection games such as the sims and final fantasy tactics also make use of a combination of predrawn 2d sprites and realtime polygonal graphics instead of relying entirely on 2d sprites as is the norm 3d see also 3d computer graphics with the advent of 3d accelerated graphics video games could expand beyond the typically spritebased 2d graphics of older graphics technologies to describe a view frequently more true to reality and lifelike than their predecessors perspective projection has also been used in some earlier titles to present a 3d view from a fixed and thus somewhat less hardwareintensive perspective with a limited ability to move fixed 3d fixed 3d refers to a threedimensional representation of the game world where foreground objects ie game characters are typically rendered in real time against a static background the principal advantage of this technique is its ability to display a high level of detail on minimal hardware the main disadvantage is that the players frame of reference remains fixed at all times preventing players from examining or moving about the environment from multiple viewpoints backgrounds in fixed 3d games tend to be prerendered twodimensional images but are sometimes rendered in real time eg blade runner the developers of simcity 4 took advantage of fixed perspective by not texturing the reverse sides of objects and thereby speeding up rendering which players could not see anyway fixed 3d is also sometimes used to fake areas which are inaccessible to players the legend of zelda ocarina of time for instance is nearly completely 3d but uses fixed 3d to represent many of the building interiors as well as one entire town this technique was later dropped in favor of full3d in the games successor the legend of zelda majoras mask a similar technique the skybox is used in many 3d games to represent distant background objects that are not worth rendering in real time used heavily in the survival horror genre fixed 3d was first seen in infogrames alone in the dark series in the early 1990s and imitated by titles such as ecstatica it was later brought back by capcom in the resident evil series gameplaywise there is little difference between fixed 3d games and their 2d precursors players ability to navigate within a scene still tends to be limited and interaction with the gameworld remains mostly pointandclick further examples include the playstationera titles in the final fantasy series square the roleplaying games parasite eve and parasite eve ii square the actionadventure games ecstatica and ecstatica 2 andrew spencerpsygnosis as well as little big adventure adeline software international the graphic adventure grim fandango lucasarts and 3d movie maker microsoft kids prerendered backgrounds are also found in some isometric video games such as the roleplaying game the temple of elemental evil troika games and the baldurs gate series bioware though in these cases the form of graphical projection used is not different firstperson perspective first person video games firstperson perspective as seen in stalker shadow of chernobyl 2007 first person refers to a graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the player character in many cases this may be the viewpoint from the cockpit of a vehicle many different genres have made use of firstperson perspectives ranging from adventure games to flight simulators perhaps the most notable genre to make use of this device is the firstperson shooter genre where the graphical perspective has an immense impact on game play games with a firstperson perspective are usually avatarbased wherein the game displays what the players avatar would see with the avatars own eyes thus players typically cannot see the avatars body though they may be able to see the avatars weapons or hands this viewpoint is also frequently used to represent the perspective of a driver within a vehicle as in flight and racing simulators and it is common to make use of positional audio where the volume of ambient sounds varies depending on their position with respect to the players avatar games with a firstperson perspective do not require sophisticated animations for the players avatar and do not need to implement a manual or automated cameracontrol scheme as in thirdperson perspective players have come to expect firstperson games to accurately scale objects to appropriate sizes however key objects such as dropped items or levers may be exaggerated in order to improve their visibility thirdperson perspective virtual camera system third person refers to a graphical perspective rendered from a view that is some distance away usually behind and slightly above from the players character there are three primary types of thirdperson camera systems fixed camera systems in which the camera positions are set during the game creation tracking camera systems in which the camera simply follows the players character and interactive camera systems that are under the players control examples of games utilizing thirdperson perspective include super mario 64 the tomb raider series the 3d installments of the legend of zelda series and crash bandicoot stereo graphics stereoscopic video game stereoscopic video games use stereoscopic technologies to create depth perception for the player by any form of stereo display such games should not to be confused with video games that use 3d computer graphics which although they feature graphics on screen do not give the illusion of depth beyond the screen virtual reality headset image captured from oculus rift dk2 showing compensation for lens distortion and chromatic aberration virtual reality headset the graphics for virtual reality gaming consist of a special kind of stereo 3d graphics to fit the upclose display the requirements for latency are also higher to reduce the potential for virtual reality sickness multimonitor setup video gaming on multimonitor setups many games can run multimonitor setups to achieve very high display resolutions running games that way can create a better immersion eg when playing a video racing game or flight simulator or give a tactical advantage due to the higher resolution augmentedmixed reality graphics augmented reality and mixed reality augmented or mixed reality game graphics use images that partial overlay the image of reality seen through partial transparent glasses or captured with a camera and seen with a headmounted display or other displays such as smartphone or tablet displays technical aspects game development portal 2d computer graphics 3d computer graphics realtime computer graphics rendering imagebased modeling and rendering game art design video games computer graphics graphics engine 3d rendering game engine sprite game genres and gameplay video game genres gameplay graphic adventure games textbased games 