10 Ways Video Games Blew Your Mind (Without You Even Realising)

10. Groundbreaking Water Effects - Halo 3

Convincing simulation of water has always posed a challenge to game developers, and its execution is something of a badge of honour. While most devs settled on flat planes with animated textures for many years, it was Bungie's work on Halo 3 that raised the bar.

Rather than flat planes, which looked fine from higher angles but less impressive when closer to eye level, Bungie implemented a new system where the water was composed from a mesh which would realistically ripple and distort.

Said mesh was also heavily customisable, and could be edited to accurately reflect the body of water depicted - from babbling brooks to endless oceans. On top of that, these meshes could also have parameters "painted" onto them, in order to simulate effects such as the change in the water's resistance when it hit an obstacle such as a rock jutting above its surface.

The engineer who designed Halo 3's water system was so impressed by what Bungie was doing, that during development they created a new and improved version in order to give the environment artists even more freedom.

Just about any video game water we have seen since can be traced back to Halo 3.