Josh Assignment 1

Unit 78: Digital Graphics for Computer Games

Assignment 1: Understand Theory & Application used within Computer Game Graphics

In my assignment, I will be comparing a 3D game to a 2D game considering their art styles and why they were made the way they were. The games I will be comparing are; The Division and Super Mario Bros.

First off, the division has a very photo-realistic art style as it is a representation of Manhattan, New 

York, in an apocalyptic environment. This art style works extremely well for this game as it is supposed to make the player feel immersed in the world and engross them in what is going on around them and this executes it really well with its stunning visuals and accuracy of the map of the game to the real world. On the right is an image of an area of the game and you can see how realistic the lighting and weather effects are which really help immerse the player into the world.

The scenes of the division were captured through photography and then scanned in to be exported in to the game. This is to get the most realistic representation of New York and keep it true to the way it looks and feels.

On the other hand, Super Mario Bros is an 8-bit pixel game which looks very basic as there isn't much detail. As you can see on the right, the game looks very basic, there are no special effects or shaded areas, it is all just made up of solid blocks of colour and basic sprites. But this doesn't mean the game is bad, the art style works for this as it is a simple and fun little game to play and is not immensely story driven, it does not need to look realistic to get the player immersed, it uses fun, addicting game mechanics instead like bouncing on Goombas and fun power-ups. This game was captured through drawings and pixel art which was scanned in to the game. This gives the game its pixel, cartoon look.

The division is made up of 3D sprites as it is an immersive TPS which allows the player to explore New York in an apocalyptic state and feel what it would be like to explore the infected city and fend off gangs. Also the division has a user interface which allows the player easy access to their inventory, the map and customisation. This add more immersion as the player can dress how they want and play how they feel whether they want to be a long ranged player or a close ranged fighter.

In Super Mario Bros the game uses 2D sprites as it is an older game which used older systems that could not handle too much and the resolution limits would mean it would be pointless. Also, in Mario there is only a minimalistic user interface such as a lives counter, level indicator and coins collected. It does not have an inventory or a customisation option as it a basic 8-bit game that has a fixed character and no collectables. It does not need to have these options as it is a small platforming game.

Also, the division is a more contemporary game which is optimised for newer consoles like PC, Xbox and PS4. This means that the game was made with these consoles in mind and so they were optimised to work best for these consoles. That means that the files would be compressed so that they would keep as much detail as possible but still run and not take up too much space, like 100 GB, and they would also be saved as lossless files such as PSD.

Whereas in Super Mario, the game was made for older consoles that could not run such high-quality graphics and so they were optimised to help run on the consoles of that generation. The files of this game would be saved as more losable formats such as JPG which would compress the amount of space they would take up but also lower the quality to assure they would run smoothly.

Another difference is the resolution of the games. In the division, the resolution can go up to 4k which is nearly 8.3 million pixels. This enhances the look of the game as there are more pixels per inch which makes the image look sharper and more colourful and intense. This is possible because hardware these days can run this quality smoothly and we also have monitors/TV's that can play in higher resolutions such as 4k monitors and TV.

On the other hand, in Super Mario Bros, the resolution is stuck at 256 x 224 which is only 5.7k pixels. Compared to the division, Super Mario has less pixels per inch which means the image quality is much worse. This is because back then when Super Mario came out, the consoles could not run in higher resolutions as they couldn't process higher resolution and also the output they were connected to did not have high resolution settings.