Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
each individual pole leaves the screen very quickly, but because the objects are so
identical,aviewerbeginstomistakeonepolewiththenextone,whichisdisplayedto
the right. In this case, the human visual system makes an incorrect judgment about
the direction of the movement (don't blame it, because the task is truly hard) and the
poles suddenly begin to move backward. The phenomenon can be defeated easily:
the speed should be changed so there will be no contradiction between the general
frequency and the frequency of the objects appearing on the screen.
It is noteworthy that besides the parallax itself, there is another distinction that can
increase the illusion of the third dimension in your game:
aerial
(or atmospheric)
perspective
. Even on a bright sunny day, distant objects look different than those
nearby. There are many particles in the air: dust, water vapor, and so on; together
they optically affect the rays of light, which transfers the information about visual
properties of a particular element of a landscape. Figuratively speaking, there is a
little
noise
intransmission.Asarule,objectsthatarefarawayhavelesscontrast, are
less saturated, the blue channel dominates their color spectrum, and their contour
and details are blurry. The last feature is most important; an imitation of the field's
depth not only looks great and natural but also creates a good contrast between the
background (which is blurry) and the sharp main scene. This increases the express-
iveness of the main character. If for the sake of the graphic style, you cannot make
a blurry background (for example, if the graphic style is vector based and flat), use
only colors and make them less saturated.
Sometimes, game developers also use a special layer placed between the main
scene and a player called the
foreground
. Usually, it is passive and static. It does
notcompriseanyimportantgamescenecomponentsandonlyaddsdecorativevalue
that creates special moods and increases the sense of the depth in a scene. Fore-
grounds are commonly blurred because they simulate a situation when objects that
are too close to the viewers are out of focus. The typical subjects are grass, foliage,
wires, and so on. The speed of these layers is always faster than the main scene,
because they are closer to a player. There is also a unique feature: a scene depic-
ted through a blurred foreground creates the sensation of peeping, as if somebody
is looking at the situation on the screen from an ambush. A good inspiration source
is
Limbo
, a game in which blurry and noisy layers of game scenes create profound
feelings.
