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What makes a great First Person Shooter?

There are a number of criteria for a FPS. Here is a nice list for all those game engines out there. Lighting and particle effects are top of my list.

VISUAL METRIC EVALUATION FOR FPS

Ability to maintain framerate





Able to display a large number of objects at one time



Accurate Lighting/Shadows





Amazing! Nothing wrong with it!





Animated mesh models

3




Atmosphere






Atmospheric Effects(Reflection/Refraction from heat/water)


Average - polish, but is completely playable.

Clarity, Simplicity, Quality, Structure, Ease of use



Collision detection






Cool Lights






Correct HUD






Curved surfaces






Destructible Terrain






Detail






Detailed Environment






Detailed/Lossless Vistas





Don’t even try it. It is unplayable.





Draw Distance






Dust and sparks






Ease of use






Elements of weather






Explosion (van)


4




Fire






Fluid water






Fog






Framerate : little to no lag during effects, explosions



Gravity






Great graphics






Gun firing particles






Interaction






Length of draw distance





Lighting


12

TOP



Cameras






Materials






mesh models






Models






Multiple Textures / Lighting





Needs a bit of work, Doesn’t crash but could use quite a bit of extra polish.

Needs a lot of work. Is glitchy and/or causes the program to crash.

No clipping






Number of onscreen effects possible




Partical effects


6

SECOND



phsyics of distruction






Physics






physics on the explosion





Physics Representation(Particles)





Quality of weather and particle effects




Quality, Structure, Ease of use





Rain






Realistic lighting and shadows





Realistic physics






Shading


4




Simplicity, Quality, Structure, Ease of use




Smoke






Snow






Sparks






Specular bloom






Static mesh models






Structure, Ease of use






Terrain Destruction






Terrain Quality






Textures


6




The large amount of detail in the fence, cloth, wall and background.

Trees/Terrain






Very Good. Fun to look at, and completely playable.



Volumetric fog






Water (texture/physics)

5




Wavy cloth with gun particle affects.




Wind in the cloth






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