“You see a missile coming at you, fired by an opponent off on
another platform. Its translucent smoke trail is more of a
give-away than the rocket flame, which is mostly obscured by the
missile as it hurls itself directly towards you. Dart to the right,
off the ledge, while you rail-gun your opponent; his body comes
apart into pieces, each bouncing around leaving bloody stains where
they hit.”
“While not everyone may agree with the content of Quake3 Arena,
or any of a multitude of other violent games available, it’s hard
not to be impressed with the technical sophistication of the images
produced. Many, including Q3A, rely on the OpenGL Application
Programming Interface (API) to do the actual rendering. OpenGL
is a good choice for developers who want to produce real-time 3D
images because it’s cross platform and mature. OpenGL (or a clone)
API is available on most modern desktops, with some taking
advantage of 3D hardware acceleration provided by the video
card.“