Game Graphics Concepts - Part 3 of 3

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From the course by Michigan State University

Introduction to Game Development

3118 ratings

Michigan State University

Introduction to Game Development

3118 ratings

Course 1 of 5 in the Specialization Game Design and Development

If you love games and want to learn how to make them, then this course will start you down that path. Making games is a creative and technical art form. In this course you will familiarize yourself with the tools and practices of game development. You will get started developing your own videogames using the industry standard game development tools, including the Unity3D game engine and C#. At the end of the course you will have completed three hands-on projects and will be able to leverage an array of game development techniques to create your own basic games. This course is for individuals interested in becoming a game designer, game artist, or game programmer.

From the lesson

From Game Player to Game Developer

The only thing more fun than playing games is making them. You can make games. All it takes is some time, a willingness to learn and a passion to create. You don't need to be a "coder" to make games. Part of the beauty of games is that they take a variety of skills to make. Art, creativity, and systems thinking are just as important as code. Join us in this journey into game making!

Game Graphics Concepts - Part 1 of 34:39

Game Graphics Concepts - Part 2 of 34:22

Game Graphics Concepts - Part 3 of 32:18

Creating Game Graphics2:27

Game Audio Concepts4:07

Creating Game Audio5:37

The Asset Pipeline4:20

End of Week 10:30

Meet the Instructors

Brian Winn
Associate Professor
Media and Information

[MUSIC]

Let's conclude our discussion of game graphics concepts.

Our focus will be onthe file layer of the graphics display model.

The file format defines how the graphics are stored in storage for later retrieval.

It's important to know a bit about file formats, as they are our vehicle for

moving data between one program and another.

And each file format has its own advantages and disadvantages.

There are many different bitmap file formats that support different features.

Unity supports importing all of these bitmap formats,

including Photoshop files complete with layers and effects.

While we often compress bitmap images to reduce their file size for

delivery over the web, as a general rule in game development

I try to maintain the highest quality image for as long as possible and

only reduce quality through downsampling or compression when I absolutely have to.

Unity actually will compress bitmap images for you based on your import settings and

your build settings for the target platform.

Therefore, I prefer to import uncompressed images such as Photoshop files or

tiffs directly into my game projects.

There are also many different vector file formats.

Some game engines, such as Flash, support 2D vector images in engine.

However, as of Unity five, Unity does not directly support 2D vector graphics.

However, many artists like the work flow and resulting look of working with vector

tools, therefore, you can use a vector tool to create the graphics and

then export them as a bitmap image for importing into Unity.

There are a number of 3D file formats as well, including proprietary formats for

Maya, 3dsmax, Blender, and a handful of other 3D modeling and animation tools,

and standard formats such as FBX and OBJ.

Unity actually converts the proprietary formats into an FBX file upon

importing into the project.

Just like using Photoshop files, this conversion is usually seamless, and

done in the background without you knowing it.

Therefore, you can have a proprietary file format in your project

such as a Maya binary file, and Unity will convert it

to an FBX automatically every time you update the file.

We'll discuss a bit more about this when we talk about the asset pipeline.

In the next video, we'll discuss a bit about creating game graphics.

[MUSIC]

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