16 1. Introduction
Super Mario Brothers. The 3D era includes platformers like Super Mario 64, Crash
Bandicoot, Rayman 2, Sonic the Hedgehog, the Jak and Daxter series (Figure 1.3),
the Ratchet & Clank series, and more recently Super Mario Galaxy. See htt p://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platformer for an in-depth discussion of this genre.
In terms of their technological requirements, platformers can usually be
lumped together with third-person shooters and third-person action/adven-
ture games, like Ghost Recon, Gears of War (Figure 1.4), and Uncharted: Drake’s
Fortune.
Third-person character-based games have a lot in common with fi rst-per-
son shooters, but a great deal more emphasis is placed on the main character’s
abilities and locomotion modes. In addition, high-fi delity full-body character
animations are required for the player’s avatar, as opposed to the somewhat
less-taxing animation requirements of the “fl oating arms” in a typical FPS
game. It’s important to note here that almost all fi rst-person shooters have an
online multiplayer component, so a full-body player avatar must be rendered
in addition to the fi rst-person arms. However the fi delity of these FPS player
avatars is usually not comparable to the fi delity of the non-player charactersFigure 1.4. Gears of War.