Providing the gamer with a powerful learning mechanism
Playing is not an
activity reserved to mankind. It is a
mechanism of discovery and learning that had been developed by nature
well before Homo Sapiens descended from their trees. Playing is
learning. Of course this mechanism applies to our own games. The
gamers learn in a FPS to anticipate their opponents' reactions and to
evaluate the power of a weapon, for instance.
How do they do it? By
exploring their game environment and by testing it, for example by
using the available weapons and evaluating the results. It is thus
possible to teach the gamers how to use tools they do not know. But
this mechanism becomes much less efficient when the cause-effect
relationship is not obvious. You've seen this in certain puzzles that
do not respond to our logic but rather to that of the game designer
that created them.
Physics is
especially suitable for this kind of self-learning mechanism, since
we know how it works in the real world. Thus, we instinctively know
how the forces of gravity and fluid physics will influence a spilled
liquid. Providing the gamers with gameplay that relies on physics
enables them to find their own solutions to complex problems.
Think this is just
hazy theory? Let's look at a few
applications. In Half-Life 2
several moving puzzles lie on a well-known mechanism: buoyancy -- or
its absence -- of certain objects. The gamer thus uses the positive
buoyancy of barrels to make a heavy object float or, on the contrary,
takes advantage of the mass of the metal pieces to make a floating
object sink.
In the PC version of GRAW 2
developed by the Swedish studio Grin, gamers can get rid of opponents entrenched in a
tower by causing its fall. Finally, let's consider the example of
Switchball.
In this puzzle game, some of the puzzles are solved by using balls of
different densities. A player quickly discovers that too light a ball
does not have enough energy to make its way through some obstacles.
A physical
game environment would allow the player to use his or her initiative
and spirit. The player can find solutions by using his or her own
real-life experience.
Let's project
ourselves ahead into the future and figure out what a level designer
with a physical game environment available could accomplish. Imagine
that a gamer is blocked by a group of opponents solidly entrenched
behind a barricade. What solutions could he or she come up with to
pass?
The falling of a tree or a building could crush opponents, a
large cylindrical object could be moved by the player who would then
be able to push it to make a mobile rampart, a vehicle could be freed
along a slope in order to be used as a ram, a vehicle could explode
so that the smoke column mask the player's movements. All these
solutions derive from the simple observation of the environment and
from our innate understanding of what is possible in the real world.
Letting players build their own tools
Physics enables the
distortion of objects such as plates, hoses or beams. It is therefore
imaginable to allow the gamer to shape them
according to his or her needs. Thus, by distorting metal sheets, a
player can build watercourses or ball paths. A skillfully cut canvas
could act as roofing or veil within a survival simulation. The
frailness of certain materials such as branches enables the building
of traps by covering a hole with the respective materials. The
flexibility features of a steel blade or board enable the building of
a primitive catapult.
Such applications of
physics would probably be limited to certain kinds of games such as
puzzles or survival games. In fact, the interface would have to be
adapted. But the fun potential of the game could be huge. Imagine a
building game where each brick is designed with physical features.
The gamer could build a totally unique game environment.
Conclusion
Physics is extremely
demanding in terms of resources and some of
the ideas that I have developed here are not currently achievable --
but the advances in the tools and technologies are foreseeable,
giving us the power in the future. From now on, gameplay can be
improved with uses that are not just cosmetic. The development of
dynamic game environments that the player can change on the fly is
already a trend in today's level design. Physics makes this evolution
possible.
Near future
technologies will astonish us and provide us with the power increase.
The ball will then be in the court of the game and level designers
who will then have to take this advantage we need to bring new
experiences to the gamer.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the
following persons for their contribution:
David Black
Hervé Vazeilles
James Dolan
Jean-Pierre Bordes
Majdi Kraiem
Monier Maher
Philippe Geldard
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The Havok engine has the option HavokFX which is accelerated by the GPU.
Excellent article.
HavokFX is pretty much a one-way street, like the name implies its about effect physics.
You can't have any meaningful gameplay physics running on the GPU, so in the context of this article it's not really interesting.