LEAD 3D ARTIST

"My job includes using various software packages, Alias and 3D Animator, which allows us to apply the lighting to the surfaces and build the 3D models and also compute the images from those models. We use a lot of ray tracing to compute our images.  We have nine SGI machines, all of which have 288 MB of RAM to accomodate our models which are very big. This is because all the textures and geometry have to be correct. You need this amount of memory for all of the calculations. All this helps us to work on a very large area.

"Another thing that makes our environments better is that we can see far into the distance. There is foliage in the background, which is very difficult to deal with in 3D graphics as well as realistic panoramas. All this amounts to a photorealistic environment with the ability to pan a full 360-degrees."

GTE Entertainment decided to go the Myst road regarding graphics. That is, no 3D engine was developed for Timelapse. Rather, high quality graphics and FMV sequences form the basis of the graphics. In Timelapse, however, the action is presented full-screen as opposed to Myst's slot-graphic approach. In addition, Timelapse utilises full 360-degree panning techniques giving a smoother look to the game.