Constraints of 3D

Unit 66- Constraints of 3D

Comparison between Yoshi's model in Super Smash Bros (N64)
on the left, and Yoshi's model in Super Smash Bros Melee (GameCube)
on the right.

In video games, 3D models are made up from polygons. As games consoles got more powerful and advanced, this allowed for more detailed 3D objects. The more polygons a model has, the more detail can be added in it. But for games which feature very high poly models and environments, more powerful hardware is required to be able to run these type of games. Because when there are a lot of polygons in a model, the GPU (Graphical Processing unit) needs to be able to process these graphics fluently. And the CPU needs to be able to process the game quickly, for example, games are expected to run at 60 FPS (Frames per second). On a PC, if a game is being run on a machine where the hardware is too limited to be able to play the game, sometimes it wouldn't often work at all, or if it does, it would run too slow (maybe even around 10-20 FPS) because there is so much to process, but the CPU and GPU aren't powerful enough and take too long to process it.

When developing a video game, the developers are given constraints (for example, a character model can be no more than 3000 polys). They generally shouldn't go over these constraints. Of course, when developing a game for a more powerful console (like the PS3) constraints are often higher due to it being able to handle more detailed 3D models. But on a console like the Wii, due to it's much inferior hardware, the constraints will be a lot more lower for the game to be able to run smoothly. This is why when you a game is ported to a platform with lower specs, features of the game (most notably the graphics) have to be dummed down in order for the system to be able to run it.