Game Asset Repetition

The frequent repetition of visual assets, such as the frequent appearance of a particular game object in a game world or the repetition of a character's animation cycle, often becomes apparent to players when they encounter such repetition within a short period of time. A certain amount of visual repetition has always been accepted by players, however as technology improves and game worlds tend towards more detail, the repetition of assets in games becomes more obvious. Particularly graphically advanced games require an increasing number of assets to hide the repetition and to create believable game worlds. This paper examines various levels of asset repetition in electronic games and addresses problems that can arise. The paper describes some contemporary approaches used by artists in the industry to hide repetition, and touches on current technologies that might be applied in game development to address this problem.