4D gaming

[Keiji]

Ok, presuming our tetronian friends out there have developed computers by now, how would a gamer go about gaming in the fourth dimension?

Consider a gamepad. The way I think of it, it could have a 3-axis rocker for movement, like our 2-axis rockers. There could be another, tetrahedral rocker for 4 trigger buttons. What about shoulder buttons? Would these be the same as in 3D? What about the start button?

Also, 3D games would be extremely easy to make on a 4D computer because the screen would be 3D itself. What about 4D games?

What about a keyboard? How would the keys be laid out? And would a mouse have four buttons? All this could lead to some very interesting games with many many controls while still being easy to use.

[PWrong]

I'm not sure what you mean by a gamepad; I probably know what it is but call it something different. As for a tetronian keyboard and mouse, it would depend on the tetronian alphabet and the shape of their hands. I guess the keyboard would be a lot of tetracubic buttons arranged in 3D space attached to a tetraboard.

If 4D gamers played a 3D game, I don't think it would be similar to our 3D games. Think of our 2D games. Although the characters only have two directions of freedom, (barring gravity), game isn't really 2D, because we assume that there is some kind of depth implied. More importantly, there's usually a background of hills, trees and sky, or something similar. Although we assume that this background is "behind" the character, it's actually surrounding him entirely. So if the character was a real bionian, or alternatively if there was a 2D gamer trying to watch the action from anywhere on the screen, there would be a solid background directly in front of them. All they would see is flashes of blue and green.

Now, if tetronians created 3D video games, they would very soon have the rudiments of 4D illusions. The space surrounding the character would be a solid 3D "background", only comprehensible to tetronians looking from outside. So if we tried to play it like one of our 3D games, using either a tv/computer screen, or some virtual reality, we'd just see the texture of the background color all around.

Now, in addition to the 3D background, tetronians wouldn't be able to see inside the 3D objects like they should. This is because they don't really have an inside. We don't see a 2D game character's insides, because he represents a 3D person. His insides just look like clothes. Likewise, a character in a tetronian's 3D game would look like tetronian clothes, not like the inside of a human body.

[jinydu]

PWrong, I agree with your main points, but I'll try to explain them more explicitly. Note that everything I write in this paragraph describes "primitive" video games, that is, those that were popular until about 10-15 (I'm not sure of the precise number) years ago, and the advent of 3D gaming. Our 2D video games rely on multiple (usually 2, or at most 3) 2D layers:

The main layer consists of the player-controlled character(s), the character's enemies and obstacles. All (or at least almost all) of the action takes place on the main layer. The player's view of the game always remains constant (it is impossible to "rotate the screen"). In order to show certain features more clearly, certain features are often distorted. For example, in some "profile" games (that is, you are supposed to see a profile, or side-ways view of the characters), the characters' faces are turned directly towards the player. This is obviously a distortion of a real 2D world, since the characters are all walking either left or right (yet their faces are turned outwards!), and in any case, they are supposed to have no conception of an outside, 3D world. In fact, a bionian would claim that the character's eyes are deep inside his body! As PWrong mentioned, the players do not see the insides of the 2D characters. This is because the characters are shown as if they were actually 3D beings, seen from a particular (but unchangeable) angle.

Then, there is/are background layer(s), usually depicting scenery that rarely interacts with the characters. They are shown as if they were actually behind the characters. However, the fact that it is impossible to move characters between layers makes the whole thing rather unconvincing. Thus, I would say that really old video games are best described as "2.5D". As PWrong mentioned, a bionian would be puzzled at a character's ability to walk through a mountain. However, we as 3D beings are unconvinced because of the finite number of layers, our character's inability to walk around obstacles or move towards that mountain in the background.

I think that what you have described is a "primitive" tetronian video game, analogous to the primitive video games I described in the above paragraphs. We would be confused by the character's ability to walk through mountains, unaware that the mountains are supposed to be in a different realm. However, tetronians would be unconvinced because of the character's inability to leave his realm.

But hopefully, the tetronians would eventually become ingenious enough to develop convincing "4D" games, analogous to our realisitic 3D games. Despite the limitation of a 3D screen, it would really look as if the characters could move through tetraspace. I'm quite sure that these 4D games would be much more complex than our 3D games, since the tetronians would have to keep track of enemies coming from many more directions.