Yep. I am getting older. I was looking at some screen shots from some of these "other" engines out there and, all of a sudden, I started thinking back to when I first started to get involved in real-time 3D graphics. I can remember when the original Unreal was still a year or so away from being released and the developers would post updated progress shots of their work. Everyone was so impressed with what they were seeing. Back in those days it was an adventure! The number of real-time 3D engines was ... well ... they almost did not exist! Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) was learning the ins and outs of developing for this "new kid" on the block. We had to worry about things like making a "base frame" for our 3D models and these models typically had 300-600 polys in them. Any more and you might lock up someone's blazingly fast 486 DX2! Texture sizes were in the range of 32 pixels by 32 pixels or possibly even 62 x 62. No one really had a 3D card and, you know what? It was a lot of fun! It was an adventure!
Why was it such an adventure? Because most people (including many of the companies that were developing games using real-time 3D engines) were in it for the fun and not for the money. It was all new and we were all learning the ropes. It was "Lewis and Clark" in the digital age.
While I still enjoy real-time 3D graphics and content creation for the same, I cannot help but miss the days gone by. Back then, DOOM was amazing and could scare the daylights out of you. Now ... well ... some would say it looks "lame". Yep. I'm sounding like an old fogy. I guess I can't help it. I've watched this industry grow and I miss the "flavor" it had "back in the day". Everyone's an "expert" these days. Back then, none of us were sure what we were doing and, as a result, we would all reach out and help each other. Sure, people still do a bit of that today, but it certainly is not like it was.
As I am writing this I am not thinking only of the past. I guess my real question is, "Where is the adventure now?" I don't mean in real-time 3D gaming. I mean, what is the next computing advancement that will take us on a ride like real-time 3D did? What group of guys, in some garage somewhere, are hacking out the next cool thing that will make us feel like we did back when DOOM was being distributed as shareware on three floppies?
