3D technology is now core to most, if not every single videogame you’ll pick up and play. Its big introduction came in the mid 90’s when Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo’s N64 made a move from 2D to 3D style games, and it’s grown in importance ever since then. You might not give it any thought, but can you imagine picking up playing a simple scrolling platform game today, when you now have games the quality of Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia and the Ratchett and Clank instead?!

In today’s gaming industry everything is designed and developed with 3D in mind, as the technology has evolved amazingly fast. Even some parts of games that look 2D actually have been conceived and developed in 3D! The most striking evolution comes from the fact that elements we could only previously see in feature films; think Jurassic Park, Toy Story, Final Fantasy, are now achievable in real time on the latest console hardware. This level of realism really allows gamers to immerse themselves in the world they play in, whether it be a first person shooter, role playing game or 3D platformer. 3D technology also allows for more freedom to explore worlds as well as creating these more realistic environments to play in, as cities, even countries can now be created, giving you the freedom to explore huge worlds that just wasn’t possible only a few years ago.

Top Spin 2 is one of the latest games to have really benefited from the latest in 3D technology, for example, the character creation process in the game and goes into a level of detail not seen before.

“We wanted, from the outset, to let the users be in control of the look of their characters. The challenge was to do so in such a way that their ‘creation’ would look as good as or even better than most other main characters available in games nowadays,” explains Francois Guintini, creative director at PAM Development. “Setting up the mechanics to achieve that goal was a very dense and difficult process; it involved many artists and coders working for several months to design the morphs, the texture blends and the logic behind the facial transformations.

“The level of detail of our characters is now tremendous. A huge amount of time was invested in working just on the skin shader (the way light reacts on real skin) to make sure it looks just like real life and varies according to the skin type. The realism is so high now that we have to deal with very small and specific details like the hair on arms and legs, the reflection in the iris, the movement of hair, etc.”

As for capturing the image of real star players; the process is now actually very simple and fast. The game developers spent one or two hours with each of the players taking hundreds of very high quality photos from every conceivable angle. These were then used to both create their facial geometry for reference and also to create their skin textures, making them look pretty damn realistic!

All these objectives would never have been achievable if real time 3D technology hadn’t evolved as quickly as it has of late; it’s even fair to say that this level of character detail wouldn’t have been possible a year ago. But its not just computer characters that benefit from 3D. The in-game environments themselves are always improving as 3D evolves.

Take Mexico City in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) for example. The game developers wanted to make the environment as realistic as possible for the game, and so went on a ‘recon’ mission to Mexico City to capture as much detail as possible, so that they could re-create the true essence of the City.

“Once there, we realised that there was even more diversity than we imagined,” says Adrian Fernandez-Lacey, senior co-ordinator of GRAW. “The mission took over a week, and we captured thousands of photos and over 12 hours of video footage.  We focused on primary locations in game such as Zocalo Plaza and the Torre de Angel which are in the heart of the city.

“We took detailed photos of everything from buses to trash cans,  we even visited a few Shanty Towns to get a feel of what they really looked like close up and the majority of these photos became textures used in game.

All this research was used to create a 3D in-game version of the city, with different textures, buildings and environments to explore. Shading, layers and use of shadows etc were then added, again using the game’s 3D engine, to create a truly realistic experience when you pick up and play it.

So that’s where we stand today, but 3D just keeps on evolving. That’s great news for us gamers, but it can make life harder for the poor guys that make them though. The more realistic visuals get, the easier it is for them to fail as players find flaws. When games aren’t realistic then you can get away with a lot more, but nowadays the move is towards more realism in games, and so developers have a lot of tough challenges ahead of them. We cant wait to see what area improves next though…