Video games

Motion pictures yield a passive, third-person experience, in contrast to video games which are closer to a first-person experience by allowing us to interact with him. Recall from Section 1.1 the differences between open-loop and closed-loop VR. Video games are an important step toward closed-loop VR, whereas motion pictures are open-loop. As shown in Figure 1.28, we see the same trend from simplicity to improved realism and then back to simplicity. The earliest games, such as Pong and Donkey Kong, left much to the imagination. First-person shooter (FPS) games such as Doom gave the player a first-person perspective and launched a major campaign over the following decade toward higher quality graphics and realism. Assassin's Creed shows a typical scene from a modern, realistic video game. At the same time, wildly popular games have emerged by focusing on simplicity. Angry Birds looks reminiscent of games from the 1980s, and Minecraft allows users to create and inhabit worlds composed of course blocks. Note that reduced realism often leads to simpler engineering requirements; in 2015, an advanced FPS game might require a powerful PC and graphics card, whereas simpler games would run on a basic smartphone. Repeated lesson: Don't assume that more realistic is better!