Introduction

Games are full of visual effects—probably even more than you realize. These effects are important not just as eye candy, but also for giving the player clues and information about what is happening in the game world. These effects also add a great deal to the level of immersion that a player will experience in a game. For example, in some games you can shoot at a wall and nothing will happen—did a bullet come out of your gun? In another you can shoot a wall and a few pixels may fly from the point of impact; how satisfying is that? Shoot a gun at a wall in a recent game of any quality and you will see ...

Get 3D Game Textures, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.