A prototyping environment for real-time graphics

As technology advances, graphics displays are becoming more powerful and less expensive, making interactive graphics increasingly popular as a method of man-machine communication. Often, nonprogrammers play a principal role in the design and implementation of applications involving graphics. Because interactive graphics require such a high level of feedback with both human and hardware, traditional programming languages are not well suited for the graphics environment. This paper describes CGRASS, a portable, general-purpose programming language, and how it is used for prototyping videogames. The design rationale for a game-prototyping system is given, followed by an overview of the CGRASS language with emphasis placed on features particularly helpful for user interface design and modeling. We show examples of tools implemented for different hardware architectures and targeted for users of varying backgrounds.