bizarre hybrid of real-time and turn-based gameplay.
Turn-Based Strategy: SeeTurn-Based.
Vertex Deformation: A 3D animation system where the individual vertices of a
model are moved one by one to new positions for each frame of the animation. This is
the simplest 3D animation method to code for, but has many disadvantages over a skel-
etal animation system. Sometimes also called keyframe animation.See alsoSkeletal
Animation.
Virtual Reality: Technically, virtual reality, or VR, refers to advanced world-simula-
tion systems at a minimum involving the user wearing a set of goggles with a small
monitor or display device in each eyepiece. This allows players to get a truly 3D, ste-
reo-vision experience. Also, the VR headset allows the players to turn their heads and
have their view of the virtual world change accordingly to match the new location at
which they are “looking.” VR systems may also involve wearing gloves or full-body
suits that detect the user’s motion and translate that into motion in the virtual world.
Because of this, VR allows for some of the most immersive virtual environments possi-
ble. Virtual reality is one of the most commonly misused terms in all of computer game
parlance. Many game developers with inflated senses of what they are doing will refer
to their RT3D first-person games as VR when, since they do not involve headsets, they
are really nothing of the kind. Marketing people are particularly fond of misusing and
abusing this term.
VR: SeeVirtual Reality.
Wargame: When used in reference to computer games, wargame typically refers to
strategy-oriented games that employ gameplay based on pen and paper or board
wargames such as those made by Avalon Hill. Computer wargames almost always sim-
ulate historic battles, typically feature hexagon-based play-fields, and use turn-based
gameplay. Games that are set in historical wars but are not strategic in nature are not
generally referred to as wargames. Classic examples of computer wargames include
KampfgruppeandEastern Front (1941),while more modern examples includePanzer
GeneralandClose Combat.
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