Dimension, Depth, Space, and Scale

http://awesims.sixty-ten.net/wp-content/50shouse-exterior-driveway.jpg

The image above is of a house that was designed using the computer game, The Sims 3.  In this 3D game, players can create avatars and houses for them to live in.  In order to make the design process easier, the game uses a lot of visual cues to communicate depth and dimension within this world.  In this image we see the house in a 2 point perspective.  We also see shading, particularly on the house and plants to help us define where the light is coming from.  We can also see Atmospheric perspective on the hills behind the house, which helps illustrate that they are far away.  It is easy to tell that the white house in the background is pretty far away as well because we can campare its relative size to the familiar size of the green house.  We can also tell what is closer and father away from us by looking at the overlap of some objects, for example, the bush with the orange flowers is the closest object to us because it overlaps the house and other plants, and is not overlapped by anything its self.