the glimpse

someanonsblog:

Even with a solid understanding of maths and graphics programming, Sometimes I am just amazed how video games can even exist. How millions of points in 3d space can be sorted. How many complex mathematical operations can be applied to each and every one, so that they can be deformed to look correct. How they can be joined together, and the volume inside of every triangle is calculated. How these volumes are mapped to individual pixels on the screen. How these pixels are lit, how textures are applied. How various complex techniques such as bump mapping, normal mapping, parallax mapping, parallax occlusion mapping are applied. How the resultant mess of pixels if then blurred according to depth to achieve effects like depth of field. How brighter pixels are then ripped away, blurred, and put back, resulting in bloom effects.

All of this, done 60 times per second. Twice as fast as the human eye can even capture images.

Fucking video games. An incredible mixture of mathematics, science, cutting edge technology, art, and thousands of incredibly talented people.

(via operatorputmethrough)