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Trigger Happy
225
But though human beings do not actually look like
this, they do move like this, and the tangible solidity of
one leg sweeping in front of another, of a fist slamming
into a chest, is a magic wrought by Plato’s four
numbers.
Just as Timaeus argues further that the four
numbers (or atoms) that make up the cosmos
correspond to the four elements in ancient Greek
cosmogony (earth, wind, fire and water), so modern
polygons can be made to draw every kind of substance
on the videogame screen: rocky outcrops, sure, but also
lakes, blazing torches, grass, even snow. And games no
longer have the chunky, android look of those in the
polygonal vanguard, like Virtua Fighter 2. Usefully, the
more sides you can afford to devote to a polygon—
which can also be thought of as drawing a polygon with
more and more basic tri-angles—the more curved it
looks (because the straight lines connecting each point
are so short).
The more polygons a processor can draw on the
screen at any one time, therefore, the more rounded and
“organic” will seem the environments and the
characters within them, as in markedly more “realistic”-
looking games such as Zelda 64, Tomb Raider: The
Last Revelation or Quake III: Arena. And