Today we see the light of so called 3D games. You use glasses for games and you feel that you are really into the environment since the position of the elements in the game are 3D aligned. Although for the past 20 years, there were numerous games designed with 3D graphics, but today just because those gamers can see some elements at areas away from TV, the game is labeled 3D. So what we should call the games we played for the 20 years. 2.5D? Maybe I should term this type of games as 4D! 4D??? Hmm! Imagine if a game is originally made in 4D. How is that even possible, since we know that a space consists of x, y and z coordinates? It is something that some people are curious of: The fact that how games will be like.
Since my early childhood days, I was thought of the idea that the fourth dimension is considered time along with the length, breath and height. It seemed logical since our eyes can see everything in 3D form. Maybe a person or an object moving away from me has some relations with changing image. Maybe the length, breadth and height are changing along with time. Well I am not that intellectual to think like this (I started thinking like this when I learnt Einstein’s theory of relativity). I used to read a lot of science fiction books (mostly from my favorite local Bengali author Mohammed Zafar Iqbal). In some of his writing he termed the 4th dimension as time, but it was always a fictional term. The reason is of time dilation, which only happens in space due to difference in gravity. Also in some case what someone observes can be different if another person from somewhere else observes it. Maybe the change in observation or time is 4D. Time dilation is not at all possible on earth unless billions of dollars are put to experiment with it or even create a billion dollar game console out of it, where the user can even interact and change time (wow what an imagination!!!!). Maybe the change in hologram images, in some 3D games we see today, can be considered 4D since people’s observation can be different according to people’s perception. The theory of relativity might work here in this case too, since light is playing a major role in changing behavior of the image. In my point of view 3D is always considered static and 4D as dynamic, which has vector properties due to movement of coordinates. Due to my constant prejudice of taking time being responsible for the fourth dimension, the movement of x, y, z coordinates depends on time. Maybe that’s why there is software called Cinema 4d, which is basically used for animations in movies and games. Maybe the software is considering the fact that you can design everything in 3d orthographical mode but also move them along with time.
Nowadays the time factor is not supported, since a vector property cannot support the concept of dimensions that creates images. Both time and length are two different SI units in physics. So what else can be considered? Psychology? Maybe! If we think about the fact that we have different perception on 3D hologram images in games, then we are thinking differently. Maybe the image is meant to confuse people to judge the image differently. The best example I can give is by showing two images. Lets look at the first one.
Source: Wikipedia
This is the picture of two cubes with edge points connected. The image is static and has 3D properties. What if this simple image is rotated constantly? Lets see the next animated picture.
Source: Wikipedia
Can you figure out what kind of shape it is? It shows so many faces, the shape changes. A cube is not a cube anymore. Just see how our brains are analyzing this image. It is so confusing anyway. The whole factual image is turning out to be too abstract. The image shows the property of a term called tesseract. Maybe the 4th dimension is playing a big role with riddling with our perception. Scientists are still trying to find a solid mathematical theory to explain this phenomenon. Psychologically it is playing a huge role.
Now imagine this, if the above-rotated image can be further developed to create graphics and objects in a game, how the game will be played? Will this make gamers change the way games are played? Will the confusion and abstract of the graphics make gamers’ brain dead? Will someone make a innovative game out of this concept just like games like Flower or LocoRoco? Will the developers take the advantage of graphical confusion and psychological perception difference to create a game that will solely depend on how people judge and think how they would interact with the graphics? Only time will tell. It’s a relief anyway, since we can clearly rule out time as the 4th dimension, cause it that ever becomes true, then gamers had to spend billions of dollar buy a 4D console or protection against changing environment due to 4D. For the time being we can safely tell, its all going to be a brain teasing game.
