Utilization Of DVD ROMs By Computer Game Developers

Computer games are a hit with all ages of people. Before the advent of computer games there were the video consoles like Sega, Dreamcast, Gameboy, etc.

The video consoles were a hit with the younger generation only. Due to the poor quality, it could not spread among different age groups. Programmers were depressed by the lack of storage space. The utilization of DVD-ROMs by computer game developers opened a whole lot of ideas to the game developers.

Computer games are not like that. Their appeal is not at all limited to any specific age group or category. The fan following which a latest computer game generates is tremendous. The graphics from the time of Wolfenstein has improved by leaps and bounds. Right now, there is Halo 3 for Xbox 360; which will shortly be available to PC platform. The game is packed with high definition graphics, improved AI, a superior lighting engine, new artillery, characters, and confrontation.

Earlier in the computer motherboard there used to be VGA slot which was limited to 4 x speeds only. The newer PCI express slots have replaced it. The PCI express slots can support up to 16x speed. Single PCI express graphics card has been replaced by the SLI system that boasted of dual graphics cards with identical specification.

The utilization of DVD-ROMs by computer game developers has enabled concepts like Pixel shader, Hardware Texture & Lighting technology, Vertex shader and Stream Processors that greatly enhance the quality of what we see. Microsoft Corporation has bundled direct X 10 along with its Windows Vista, the next generation operating system. It is predicted to support the next generation of graphics and sound.

Game developers are nowadays not limited to making games for CDs only. The scripting for the object oriented programming or OOP has greatly been modified to suit the hardwares that are coming out to meet the needs of a hardcore gamer.

For a 3D game the texture that is being used nowadays is of immensely better quality than the likes of say Unreal Tournament, 2002. Unreal Tournament revolutionized the First Person Shooter genre with its Unreal Game Engine. It supported a lot of system configurations, yet produced high quality graphics on lower end machines. The size of the game was just over 600 MB. The new Unreal Tournament 3, which hit the market at the end of 2007, is sized over 4 GB, with double installation.

Nowadays the utilization of DVD-ROMs by computer game developers has dumped the CDs for game packaging. Single layer DVD has become an industry standard. However, game developers are putting their games on dual size or double-layered DVDs. The high performance game engines are taking a lot of space to perform. The developers now have the luxury to spread their creativity without thinking of the output storage system.

Another industry standard construction is the half-life and the quake game engines. Half-life was the first FPS game, which took the market by storm with its superior game play and incredible graphics. It went on to become the game of the year. Quake also revolutionized team game along with its counterpart the Unreal Engine.

The game engines are taking the multi threading technology of the processors to the maximum. The games eat up a lot of space in the hard disk. Earlier a 700 MB game took around 500 MB to 1400 MB of Hard Disk space for installation. Now a 2 DVD game can eat up a whole partition of the hard disk.

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