{"id":8625,"date":"2022-04-23T00:38:14","date_gmt":"2022-04-23T03:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mastertrend.info\/?p=8625"},"modified":"2026-04-28T17:23:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:23:21","slug":"technologies-that-will-change-the-gaming-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mastertrend.info\/en\/tecnologias-que-cambiaran-el-pc-gamer\/","title":{"rendered":"Technologies that will change the PC Gamer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Technologies that will change PC gaming \u2013 Five technological advances that marked a huge leap in PC gaming<\/p>\n

Technologies that will change PC gaming.<\/h2>\n

The PC world is full of essential technological advances. Its history is so rich that we could make a product intensely summarizing the most interesting ones and in the end it would be "eternalized". I'm not exaggerating, think for a moment in those "honorable retirees" formed by vacuum cylinders<\/strong> which took up entire rooms, and which marked the arrival of transistors both in terms of performance and miniaturization.<\/p>\n

Personally, I think that That was the most essential and much more important leap<\/strong> of each and every one of us who have lived in the world of computing, that transition from vacuum tube to transistor, and I doubt that we will see anything as dazzling in the next few years, especially knowing the problems that quantum computing has to take off.<\/p>\n

If we jump from that general level to a much more concrete one, it is easy to realize that the advances in technology<\/a> of enormous significance in the world of PC had a very different impact depending on each field. Thus, for example, the jump from 8 to 16 bits, and the subsequent arrival of 32 bits<\/strong>, are clear turning points in the professional world, but it is clear that many of the most important ones also had a place on the gaming planet<\/strong>, and we are going to dedicate this to them product<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Technologies<\/p>\n

Choosing five technological advances from among all those that took us from those traditional games, made of dots and lines, to the giant three-dimensional worlds with a finish that is increasingly closer to realism photography is, of course, an ambitious approach,<\/strong> But at the same time, it is appropriate because it will reduce the consistency and difficulty of the product, and that will make it much more entertaining and comfortable for them to read. As always, I invite you to comment and share with us other developments in technology<\/a> which, for us, have been fundamental.<\/p>\n

1.- The use of color was among the greatest advances in technology<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It's a thing of no relevance today, but in the 1980s, color reproduction in the PC world, and in games, was nothing like what it is today. EGA graphics cards could display up to 16 colors at a resolution of 640 x 350 pixels. It was a huge leap, since We went from playing in monochrome (without color) to doing so with a whopping 16 simultaneous colors<\/strong>, but the much bigger things came in the following years.<\/p>\n

In 1987, another of the most important technological advances focused on the use of color on PCs took place, thanks to the launch of graphics resolutions based on the VGA standard, which could use up to 256 colors on screen with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. This represented a huge advance that is difficult to understand for those who did not live it at the time, but do not worry, I wanted to show you with three images of DOOM, the classic from 1993.<\/p>\n

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\"DOOM<\/p>\n

Technologies that will change the PC Gamer \u2013 <\/strong>DOOM CGA 4 colors<\/p>\n

\"DOOM<\/p>\n

PC Gamer \u2013 <\/strong>DOOM EGA with 16 colors<\/p>\n

\"Five<\/p>\n

PC Gaming \u2013 <\/strong>DOOM VGA with 256 colors<\/p>\n

As you can see, the jump to 256 colors completely changed the planet of PC gaming,<\/a><\/strong> And while other major developments in this regard were generated later, none were as dazzling or had the same influence as that one. The reasons are obvious, think about playing your favorite game today with only 4 colors, or with 16 poorly delegated colors to try to cover a huge void, as the second image shows. Playing with 256 colors was a real delight.<\/p>\n

2.- The democratization and standardization of three-dimensional graphics<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\"Quake<\/p>\n

Quake 2 via program<\/p>\n

\"Five<\/p>\n

Quake 2 with 3D acceleration via Open GL<\/p>\n

We can distinguish several stages at this point, and it happens that the transition from 2D to three dimensions was quite extensive, and the democratization of that technology did not happen immediately either. During the earliest stage, three-dimensional games They were quite poor<\/strong>, but in exchange they worked partially well as long as we had a strong processor.<\/p>\n

In the second stage, at the time when 3D graphics accelerators began to arrive<\/strong>, was when this type of graphics really took off. Games like Quake GL, Quake II, the first two Tomb Raider games, Resident Evil 1 and 2, and Half-Life showed the world the potential of 3D graphics, and also made clear the difference that a 3D graphics could make. graphic card<\/a> three-dimensional accelerator.<\/p>\n

From there, three-dimensional graphics evolved in every single way. We increasingly had games with much more free levels, much more complicated geometry and a much more realistic finish<\/strong>, although there are some titles that marked a before and after on their own merits. Games like Quake III and GTA III are two great examples, and much later titles like DOOM III and Half-Life 2 raised the bar again.<\/p>\n

3.- Taming the three dimensions: T&L, programmable shaders and unified shaders<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Five<\/p>\n

The evolution that was gradually caused in the planet of three-dimensional graphics was so colossal that we went from flat and unsettled worlds<\/strong>, with completely square individuals whose faces were just blocks with a flat texture attached, organic and rich worlds<\/strong> which, at times, could easily pass for a scene from any real world.<\/p>\n

To get to where we are today, it was not enough to increase our capacity by a barbaric amount, it was also necessary to complete a sequence of advances in technology<\/a> that I always like to group around three main keys: T&L, programmable shaders and unified shaders. The first is what is known as transformation and also illumination<\/strong><\/a>, and represented a colossal advance in that it freed the central processing unit from an essential workload, which ended up falling on the GPU.<\/p>\n

It was between the GeForce Key Specifications<\/a> 256, and allowed the realism of the games to flourish enormously through the development of transformation, through which the image adapts to each new frame, and lighting, which reached some higher levels of realism<\/strong>Max Payne 2 is one of the best examples. Programmable shaders made it viable that fabulous game<\/a> of lights and shadows that we have seen in DOOM III<\/strong>, and unified shaders ended the division of deliberate elements into pixels and vertices, marked a colossal advance in terms of raw capacity and defined the foundations of today's graphics technology.<\/p>\n

4.- Dual-core Intel processor: A key step towards creating considerably more complex games<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Dual-core<\/p>\n

The evolution of the GPU had a colossal relevance in PC gaming, but this should not lead us to underestimate the leap that marked the arrival of dual-core processors with a monolithic design. Intel had now realized what the future of the entire world of general consumer processors was going to be at the time when integrated the technology<\/a> HT on their Pentium 4<\/strong>This allowed its core to work with 2 threads, and it is a feature that has remained as such until today.<\/p>\n

It was a first step, but the genuine revolution came through the AMD Athlon 64 X2<\/strong>, who were the first processors<\/a> Intel's Pentium Ds were dual-core processors aimed at the general consumer market that had a monolithic core design. Intel responded with the Pentium Ds, which were essentially 2 Pentium 4s "stuck together" and were very much under the radar of consumers. AMD<\/a>, but much later it made up for it with the Core 2 Duo, one of the most important generational leaps in the field of high-performance general consumer CPUs.<\/p>\n

The jump to 2 physical cores became one of the most important technological advances because it directly opened the doors to another way of developing video games, where it was possible to parallelize the workload on 2 complete cores and give form to considerably more complex and rich titles, both in terms of physics and AI (artificial intelligence).<\/strong> It is not by chance that Crysis<\/strong> It was one of the first games that required a dual-core processor to run properly, and yes, it would load both cores at 100% capacity.<\/p>\n

We currently have processors with up to 16 cores and 32 threads, but recent games do not use much more than 6 cores and 12 threads well, and the evolution that has occurred at the level technological<\/a> It was much less incredible<\/strong> of what was at the time the jump to the 2 cores with the legendary Crysis.<\/p>\n

5.- Dedicated sound cards: No more "peep, poop, boom"<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Five<\/p>\n

This is another one of those advances in technology that Few of our readers will have lived<\/strong>, but I am sure<\/a> that those who have done so will agree that it deserves to be in this article without any doubt.<\/p>\n

Throughout the second half of the first decade of the year 2000, the recognition of sound cards began to decline with the rise of built-in sound resolutions<\/strong> on the motherboard. These resolutions largely cannibalized the sound card market because, in the end, they offered acceptable quality and allowed the user to save a significant amount of money, which could be invested in improving other components of the PC.<\/p>\n

That situation has continued to this day, although I can confirm that the difference between using an internal sound solution and a dedicated card is very large. I already told you about this when we were able to investigate the Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus, but the truth is that the real revolution came with the abandonment of the old PC "speaker" and the arrival of dedicated sound cards.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Games from the eighties and nineties could make use of the speaker that came with the PC, but the result was a bunch of sounds and noises that, in the best of cases, could approach the much more basic quality of an 8-bit system.<\/strong> With the arrival of sound cards, the leap was so colossal that it is difficult to describe, but in essence it would be something like going from the "stone age" to the "modern age."<\/p>\n

I loved illustrating this topic with one of my favorite videos, as it perfectly captures the leap that marked the arrival of dedicated sound cards as opposed to the PC speaker. DOOM from 1993, for example, It is a group of noise sounds and does not have music<\/strong>, but with a simple Sound Blaster the experience changes completely and we can enjoy the carefully crafted soundtrack created by id Program, some fabulous sound effects for the season, and that unique atmosphere created by the noises, grunts and moans of the opponents.<\/p>\n

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