How this site is written

The frame is the first budget. At sixty frames a second there are sixteen and two-thirds milliseconds, and in practice twelve or thirteen once driver overhead and the cost of keeping processor and graphics hardware in step are accounted for. Simulation, animation, physics, lighting, audio and the draw calls all have to fit inside what is left. The schedule is the second budget, and it behaves the same way: every feature is a claim, and the claims are settled late.

The site is organised as nine sections, from the frame itself through to the credits. Each entry is a worked example rather than a rule — the numbers in a register are one plausible partition on one platform, shown because a partition makes the trade-off legible, not because it is what any particular team used.

Photography

The photographs are real, supplied, and credited under each figure. They show the work: desks, blockouts, test booths, capture stages, plans marked in pen. Captions carry information the picture cannot; the credit sits beneath the caption as a smaller, quieter thing.

Corrections

If an entry is wrong, we would rather know. Write to the editors and quote the entry title — the address is on the contact page.