It May Even Be In Our Time

Sorry I’ve been delaying my posts so much. Summer vacation’s barely been a vacation, and after lying around at home for several weeks and avoiding writing I came back to find work and no time for writing. Thankfully, I’m on top of things again, and in an environment that makes me want to write about games once more. Fancy that, eh? My immediate surroundings dictate my work ethic. I probably need to get a job immediately after graduating, else I fear my portfolio work and blogwriting might go down the drain. I need a gaming environment. Thank God, I’m back.

A while ago, months, I had been talking to my housemate and we started joking as I popped Uncharted into the Playstation 3, “What if PS3 games needed various disks? I mean, what would you fill up Blu-Ray disks with?” He mentioned textures having textures, and I laughed and replied that each molecule would be modeled in order to ensure the maximum possible true-to-life texture. At that, he mused, “It would be tight if developers could set up the code for molecules and how they behave inside a texture.”

As he said this, I suddenly remembered. They already have.

Read that article. Don’t just go past it and keep reading what I wrote. Just look at the pictures and videos if you want, but go to that site.

You did it? Good.

4D technology is essentially the use of algorithms to dictate the behavior of each pixel in a texture, affected by time and forces around the particle as if it were a regular bit of matter.

The amazing thing behind 4D technology which is slowly starting to appear in more and more PS3 games (mentioned in the article are Afrika and Killzone 2) is the way the algorithms programmed into the world allow for minimized use of textures, and yet manage visuals that far exceed most anything games have come up with so far.

That’s great when you’re doing things in High-Definition, where a low-res texture is going to look like utter crap. And if you want to fit thousands upon thousands of gorgeous upscale textures on a single Blu-Ray disc

The reason I’ve mostly used PS3 terminology is because 4D is simply not possible for the Xbox 360 and the Wii. They don’t have the power to parallel process all those behaviors. Without the core processor, there’s no way for a console to calculate the renders. So I once again wave my PS3 flag, and everyone continues to think I am a fanboy.

I really wish I could find positive things to say about other consoles for that very reason. But what do I do?

Anyway, we won’t see the use of 4D to its full potential just yet, but we will start to see games incorporating it rather soon. When this article came out, Killzone 2 was still heavy in development. Nowadays it’s scheduled for next year’s Q1 release (What? What happened to later this year? Our dear Delaystation 3) and who knows when Afrika will be released. Sometime next year.

Still, be on the lookout for this rising technology and its negative effects: soon, texture artists will not be as needed anymore, or their function will change. Get ready to no longer seek to make the greatest upscale texture possible but the most condensed, quality texture in the minimum amount of space. Be prepared to see this lose people jobs and create ones for new skillsets.