Trigger Happy
In the real world, we perceive depth because we have two eyes: each receives a slightly different perspective on the scene and our brain blends them into a stereoscopic image. But a flat representation such as that in paintings or videogames can still offer a lot of information about depth, partly through scientific perspective, and partly through other “indirect” means, taking advantage of the fact that in binocular vision at distances of more than about fifty feet, we do not perceive depth directly anyway. The fact that we routinely rely on cues other than the direct perception of depth is easy to demonstrate if you close one eye and look at people a hundred yards away. You don’t immediately think they are midgets.
Videogames use many of the same tricks that painters have used over the centuries. One hoary old device much used in the Renaissance was a
As well as scientific perspective, there are artistic traditions of overlapping contours, aerial perspective, dispensation of light and shade and interpretation of
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