How are video games projected on screen?

3d scanning video games image

Lp182

I know that we aren't actually looking at a constant moving video game and that all we are seeing are multiple frames per second. But how is it done? I'm just curious how they do it. And are video games only projected at 30 frames and 60 frames per second, or are there other # of frames that can be shown in a given second?

Answer
The numbers 30 and 60 are a side effect of the NTSC format of television. Even back in the black-and-white days of TV, NTSC was a 640X480 image, interlaced (draws all the odd lines in one pass, then draws all the even lines on the next), and operating at 60 Hz. It wasn't until about 10 years ago that consumers started seeing any change to this, when EDTVs came on the scene and changed the interlaced to Progressive Scan (all lines are drawn sequentially on each pass), and then HDTVs changing the image resolution. Very recently, sets that can do 120 Hz have come onto the market. In Europe, they uses the PAL format, which ran at 50 Hz, but switched to 60 Hz for HDTV to simplify things for TV manufacturers (who had started to sell sets in Europe that could handle both 50 Hz and 60 Hz).

So for the longest time, TVs were displaying 60 half-frames (due to interlacing). As such, having a game run at 60 Hz would result in slightly smoother animation, but a lot more processing power which could otherwise be used to enhance the detail. So typically 60 frames games were smoother, but 30 frames games were much more detailed. Any other rate, and you the smoothness will vary, which is rather jarring to the immersiveness factor.

All of this only applies to consoles, though, since PCs have always had monitors that could do a variety of framerates, and therfore their games always strived for the highest framerate possible (and where 60 Hz is on the far low end) and don't really worry about the framerate dipping at times. High end modern monitors can typically do at least 140 Hz, and some older games on new hardware can actually create several hundred frames per second if certain settings are disabled.

Regardless of PC or console, the same programming technique is used for creating the frames and managing the process of sending them to the screen. Each object is placed in position in a virtual 3D space in RAM, textures are applied (only if they are facing the virtual camera's location), the view from the virtual camera is established, and the objects that the camera can see are flattened into a 2D image. This whole process is called rendering.

Then, the rendered image is put into a piece of memory (usually in the graphics chip itself) that has been designated as a "frame". This frame is then sent to the TV/monitor, and as it is being sent, a second image is being rendered and put into a second "frame". Once the first frame has been sent to the screen completely, the second frame is designated as the primary frame, and a third image is rendered and overwrites the first frame. This process is called Frame Buffering.

PCs (and maybe HDMI TV connections, I'm not sure) have the capability of the monitor being able to send a signal back to the game program and tell it when a frame is done being drawn. This allows the game to not switch frames while it is being sent to the screen (vertical synch), preventing a top section of an image and a bottom section of the same image displayed not matching up, refered to as "tearing". Since consoles know what frequency the TV is operating at based on the region (or more recently in Europe, through an option in the settings for either the game or the system), they can simply use an internal timer as an artificial vertical synch.

How far are we into understanding the brain and nevous system? Will singularity happen?

ackee

I heard about blue brain, and There is the Russia 2045 plan for immortality. Think back about 50 years we really had none of the stuff we have today and all of a sudden all this stuff is exploding. Video games were low graphical started from 2D flatness, then came sprites, low res 3D higher res 3D, and getting more realistic. I remember being a kid and wishing games were how they were in the cartoons all cinematic and I never really realized when they actually DID. We now have tablets mini computers getting extreamly powerful and Ray kurzweil is right about technology getting better smaller and cheaper. I think he may be right about the coming singularity. And russia 2045 may just acheive it. Its hard to believe but I think it might just happen. No i definetly think it will happen just didn't know if it will happen in their aloted time but looking back at how stuff change in our short amount of time makes it possible. Think. Stuff have gotten this good? how much better can they get? I've heard we have gotten monkeys to "Feel" objects and textures in virtual space. Do Scientist no alot more about the brain then they have let us know so far? I think they may have and just not have told us much yet. I think we may really have Virtual reality nervous system. That will be a big hit in the internet world wide. The world itself will change simply because of that. What do you think?
So say we manage to simulate the brain. Does that mean we can have things like virtual reality and augmented reality in the nervous?
Well guys. If we come to understanding his. I hope to meet you when and if we become neo humanity in 2045. It will be fun. Living in your virtual world on different planets, etc. I guess in a way we will become mini gods. Does that mean if we get even more advanced then we will just keep getting better and better? If there is a god. Could it be that he or them were simple people that simply transended their own world, like we are soon to accomplish. Hmm.
Lol uiry I don't think you should tell all the secrets if your telling the truth :P. One thing I really want to experience is the virtual reality aspect. Being able to become someone else. Being able to hang out with your friends as if they are really beside you touching them. Online dating and relationships will be very common. Sex will change. Maybe marridges will last longer because in virtual reality normal human limitations are gone. I really want to live to experience it. And If I die or we die. I really don't think we are dead forever. The brain create conciousness but i believe the energy thats used to power it is what makes you. You may not be the same person or even the same species when you return, but you will be back, everything in this universe is one I believe we are not truly destroyed. Also other dimensions are all so that can be another thing. I guess im talking about reincarnation in a sense. Just because we don't have the proof doesn't mean it doesn&

Answer
("How far are we into understanding the brain and nevous system? Will singularity happen?")
--------------------------------------
Absolutely!

The human brain is yielding its secrets to neuroscientists at a tremendous rate, thinks to the human genome project. There is no question that the human brain can be "fully" simulate at some point in the very near future.

The Russian quest for significantly extended human life time by 2045 is well within the framework of rational reasoning. The human life span could be increased considerably using nothing more than today science and technology; the big problem is getting past people's fears of letting go of the status quo, and moving forward in a progressive way.

Scientists are not likely holding back information from the public. The public are not being encouraged to seek out new information about current scientific breakthroughs, thinks to business and religion.

See: New Genes Linked to Brain Size, Intelligence
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120415150123.htm

See: Electronic hippocampal system turns memory on and off, enhance cognition
http://www.kurzweilai.net/artificial-hippocampal-system-restores-long-term-memory

See: "Virtual body technology" lets users walk in someone else's shoes
http://www.gizmag.com/virtual-body-technology/25547/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=7f5d40e5b2-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email

See: How to build a bionic Man
http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-build-a-bionic-man?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=dc88c5c026-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email

See: Watch a Translucent Fish's Brain Light up, Literally
http://www.technewsdaily.com/16690-translucent-zebrafish-light-up-brain.html

See: Scientist Read Dreams
Brain scans during sleep were successfully used to decode some of the visual content of subject's dreams
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=scientists-read-dreams&WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20121022

See: Word-of-Mind ... Decode Words from the Brain's Auditory Activity
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=word-of-mind-researchers-decode&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_MB_20120704

See: Can you build a human body?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17235058

See: 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal
http://www.kurzweilai.net/2045-the-year-man-becomes-immortal?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=eb5ae180fe-UA-1&utm_medium=email

And this is just an tiny, tiny sample of the kinds of scientific breakthroughs that are happening right now today. There's much more to come.

Best regards

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