The Popular Science Web site features a very cool article/slideshow that surveys the current progress of videogame hardware and software. The author discusses ten aspects of game design — such as processing power, water rendering, A.I., and destructable objects — and gives an overall description of where they stand today and where they are heading.
From the article:
Ask a programmer about fire, and talk inevitably turns to hardware—a sure sign that a programmer’s up against something hard. Currently, fire tends to be brief and explosive. Raging infernos are too hard to program. “We just don’t have the processing power to really do its physics accurately,” says Game Creator’s Lee Bamber.
