TOPI KAUPPINEN ... UNDERSTANDING THE HARDCORE TOPI KAUPPINEN CULT OF REAL-TIME IMAGE – UNDERSTANDING THE HARDCORE AALTO UNIVERSITY School of Art and Design Departement of Art and Media Pori 2011 Table of contents CHAPTER I: Introduction ...............................................................................................6 1.1 Goals ......................................................................................................8 1.2 Structure ................................................................................................9 1.3 Regarding Computer Animation .....................................................10 CHAPTER II: Ideology and Viewership ...................................................................... 12 2.1 Hardcore Viewership .........................................................................14 2.2 Infamous Case of Killzone 2 .............................................................17 2.3 Story of Sprite Scaling.......................................................................19 2.4 Three Pillars of the Cult ...................................................................20 CHAPTER III: Real-time and Image ............................................................................ 24 3.1 Real World and Representation ........................................................26 3.2 What is Real-time? .............................................................................27 3.3 Computer and Real-time ...................................................................29 3.4 Real-time Image as a Physical Object .............................................30 3.4.1 Screen .............................................................................................32 3.4.2 Hardware .......................................................................................35 3.4.3 Input (optional).............................................................................38 3.5 Frame Rate ..........................................................................................38 CHAPTER IV: Concept of Simulation ......................................................................... 42 4.1 Overview on Simulation ...................................................................45 4.2 Simulation and Source System .........................................................47 4.3 Source System and Real World ........................................................49 4.3.1 Simulation as Genre .....................................................................50 CHAPTER V: Simulation of Visual ............................................................................. 54 5.1 Design vs. Algorithm .........................................................................55 5.2 Structure of Simulation of Visual ...................................................57 5.3 Simulation of Space ...........................................................................61 5.3.1 Bitmap-based Simulation ............................................................63 5.3.2 Polygon-based Simulation ...........................................................66 5.3.3 Fusion of Technologies ...............................................................68 5.4 Simulation of Light ............................................................................69 5.4.1 Shading ...........................................................................................71 5.4.2 Shadows .........................................................................................73 5.5 Simulation of Motion ........................................................................76 5.5.1 Physics ............................................................................................77 5.5.2 Artificial Intelligence ....................................................................80 5.6 Simulation of Style .............................................................................82 CHAPTER VI: Need for Definition .............................................................................. 88 6.1 Resolution ............................................................................................90 6.1.1 Screen Resolution ..........................................................................92 6.1.2 Texture and Lighting Resolution .................................................92 6.2 Color Palette .......................................................................................93 6.3 Polycount .............................................................................................95 6.4 Level of Detail ....................................................................................97 6.5 Accuracy of Motion ........................................................................100 6.6 Image Quality ...................................................................................101 CHAPTER VII: Manifestation of the Cult .................................................................. 106 7. 1 The Demoscene ..............................................................................107 7.1.1 The Scene ....................................................................................108 7.1.2 Understanding the Demos ........................................................109 7.2 Tech Demos ......................................................................................112 7.2.1 Hardware Tech Demos ...............................................................112 7.2.2 Software Tech Demos .................................................................113 7.3 Benchmarking ...................................................................................115 7.3.1 Overclocking ...............................................................................117 7.4 Online Discussions ..........................................................................119 7.4.1 Creator Discussions ...................................................................119 7.4.2 Consumer Discussions ..............................................................121 CHAPTER VIII: Recap and Conclusions .................................................................. 126 8.1 Future Research ................................................................................131 References ..................................................................................................132 Image Sources ............................................................................................137 CHAPTER I ... INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I “Was that CG[I] or real time? If it’s the latter, color me fucking impressed.” 1 – Gomu Gomu irst of all, I have to excuse myself for using such a coarse quote as Fan opening for this introduction, but everything that is discussed in the following pages just comes together so beautifully within it; it just has to be there. In the history of man, it seems that every time when a new way of ac- complishing things appears, i.e. technology, people tend to confront it with fear. In retrospect, it is often hilarious to look back at the ways in which people have had irrational fears in some point of history: photog- raphy, cinema, comic books, VHS and probably even fire if we go back far enough. People in general hate change, uncertainty and most of all, the unknown. As the old cliché goes, there is nothing else to fear but fear itself. However, I would say the real fear is that of people mongering it, in order to control others and to further their own agenda, be it politi- cians, advertisers, or the mass media at large. Damnant quodnon intelligunt – they condemn what they do not understand. So real-time image (that is de facto video games) has been the new kid on the block for a while now. It has even gotten picked on today by people who simply do not understand the medium and are motivated by fear of the unknown. Granted, we can and should have a discussion over, for instance, torture-games2, whether they are good for the development of 1 http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=385864 2 Like for instance Manhunt 2 (Rockstar Games, 2007) Chapter I: Introduction 7 a child or not, but it is often forgotten that the medium itself is utterly an amoral entity, a mere brush or a chisel for an artist to use according their liking. Indeed, using a medium, any medium, an artist can create enchantingly beautiful pieces of art, or the most repelling and nauseating ones. Nev- ertheless, a medium, like real-time image, does not inherently bear any moral or ethical dimension: it just is. So in principle we can find beauty from the said torture-simulator, even if we are otherwise disgusted by its content. The beauty lies in the structure of the medium itself, which is basically my whole thesis in a nutshell. 1.1 Goals The main objective of this thesis is simply to paint a picture of a hypo- thetical entity I call Cult of Real-time Image, and by doing that, to study if one could make a case that such a thing in a certain sense actually exists. It has to be stated that the notion of cult is being used here in a lighthearted, socio-technical manner without any pejorative or negative connotations that it may carry today3. In fact, this thesis is more of an apologetic endeavor, or a celebration for the phenomenon that is under scrutiny here – collective “hardcore”4 enthusiasm towards something popularly known as video game graphics. The secondary goal that compliments the first one is to indeed make a coherent analysis of what makes real-time image such an unique and subversive