Supper Mario Broth: Special Zone, Issue 39 (Patreon)

Welcome, everyone, to the 39th issue of Supper Mario Broth: Special Zone.

Today, I will talk about the different types of windows in video games and analyze the windows seen in the Super Mario Galaxy games to provide examples.

Windows To The Cosmos

The environments of video games are filled with small details that, due to their relative lack of importance, are going to be overlooked, barely noticed, or not given much thought by the vast majority of players. As times have gone on and video games became more and more complex, so too did the backgrounds and decorations of 3D areas. Nowadays, we take a certain amount of decorative items for granted, but we must always remember that each graphical asset, no matter how unimportant to the plot or the gameplay, was created by someone on the game's team who designed it and then drew or modeled it. 

Since you are reading this article, I am assuming that you are interested in small details in video games. I have decided to write an analysis of something as small and inconsequential as windows just to show how much variety and different decisions go into the small things that populate the world of Mario games, and of course by extension, video games in general. In addition, although I cannot say that I have read an extremely large number of video game design books, I have read quite a few, and I have never encountered any guides to different types of windows, so perhaps if some of the readers of this article are interested in making a video game of their own, this classification may help them find the best kinds of windows to use.

First, we must define what a window and its purpose are.  A window is a hole in the wall, either glazed (fitted with glass) or unglazed, that has at least one, but most commonly both, of these purposes:
-Allow people to view what is on the other side of the wall as though the wall was not there, and/or
-Let light through from one side of the wall to another.
In short, a window exists either to let people see something through it, or to make a space brighter. There are of course exceptions, and this is not a 100% rigid rule - some windows exist to let people reach through them rather than for any light-related reasons - but it covers the overwhelming majority of cases.

In video games, interestingly enough, the first point is very rarely a factor - as you will see, only one of the six window types will let you actually see through it - and the second point is almost not a factor whatsoever, because lighting in video games does not work anything like light in the real world, and is generated on the spot rather than being produced from a light source (although in more realistic games, the game goes to great lengths to simulate, or pretend, that light is being produced from a light source). Games where opening a window lets more light into a room and closing it makes the room darker are rare; games where this is not just a scripted event and it actually backed up with dynamic light physics are exceedingly rare.

I classify windows as six different types, ordered from least to most programming-intensive: dark, shuttered, opaque glass, lit, simulated view, and functional. I will provide an informational graphic for each, along with some commentary.

1. Dark windows

A window is dark-type when all that is seen inside it is darkness. In the real world, this happens to windows if they have no glass, are small, or the outside is very brightly lit like on a sunny summer day while the inside of the building is not lit. A typical example of windows that would nearly always appear dark in the real world are the small windows in towers of medieval castles.

Other types of dark windows are glazed windows at night when the inside is not lit and there is not enough light from outside to be reflected in the glass, or even glazed windows during the day when seen from a specific angle, although in these cases, changing the angle often turns them into the third type, opaque glass.

Dark windows are very easy to draw, and relatively easy to model (though with modeling, there is often an extra requirement of making the darkness a gradient from the outside in; having it an abrupt change may look jarring). Usually, they are used to give a less-than-friendly atmosphere, but sometimes as in the Bianco Hills example, it is just a realistic depiction of unglazed windows in bright sunshine.

2. Shuttered windows

A shuttered window is a window that has been closed with some mechanism that does not allow light to get through anymore, rendering the window unusable for as long as it is shuttered. In real life, this is done to protect privacy, prevent people from breaking in, and lower the light conditions.

In video games, a shuttered window is an easy way to show that a window is architecturally present without having to worry about showing what is behind it. Sometimes they are used to show that the environment is secretive or mysterious, while sometimes, they are used simply because shutters can have various decorative designs on them that glass cannot.

3. Opaque glass windows

A window is opaque glass type if it is glazed and the glass completely obscures the view of whatever is behind the window. In real life, a window is opaque glass-type if it is either actually made from opaque glass (anti-peek bathroom windows or stained glass) or is viewed from outside in bright light conditions. From inside, a window with regular glass with not appear opaque as that would defeat the purpose of the glass; the exception is when the glass is very dirty.

In video games, opaque glass windows can be a very colorful and cartoony asset that adds a blue highlight to buildings and makes the scene more cheerful, which is how they are often used in Mario games. They can also be more subdued for whenever it is important to show that a window is glazed, so using a dark-type window is out of the question. A distinctive visual element of these windows is the diagonal stripe of light running across it (also used for mirrors); the more cartoony a setting is, the more likely a window is to have those.

4. Lit windows 

A window is lit-type when the only thing seen inside it is light, i.e. it is brighter than its surroundings but nothing else can be discerned about whatever is on the other side. This is the polar opposite to dark-type windows; it shows that the light conditions on the other side are overwhelmingly bright compared to the viewer's side. In real life, lit-type windows can be seen in houses at night, but only from so far away that no details can be seen about the interior.

Lit windows generally provide a cozy effect, showing that civilization is present in a location. Of course, this only works if the window is lit with a bright yellow or white light; a dimly-lit window or one that is lit with red appears ominous instead. While one may assume that a lit window takes the exact same amount of effort to implement as a dark window due to being filled with a solid color, that is not the case outside of the simplest examples: to make a lit window appear to truly emanate light, some manner of glow effect must be present. Whether the glow is simply drawn around the window (called "baked-in" in 3D contexts) or is implemented with a lighting engine depends on the style and budget of the game.

5. Simulated view windows

This is a type that is specific to video games and does not exist in real life, as the entire purpose of it is to fake being functional (in real life, all windows are functional but may appear as one of the first four types depending on occasion, especially from far away). A simulated view is an image that purports to show what is on the other side of the window without actually displaying the other side (as the other side may either not exist, or be part of a different room that is not currently loaded).

In terms of effort put into the window object itself, simulated view windows are the most demanding, as someone must first determine what would be logically seen through the window, then determine how to best implement that view (textures, cubemaps, etc.), and finally model or draw it. Often, a simulated view can only be used for a single window, and if several need them, a different simulated view must be made for each. However, the effort on an individual level pales compared to the global, game-spanning effort to create...

6. Functional windows

This is the holy grail of windows: a window that actually shows what is on the other side. In real life, all windows are functional - though some must be approached really closely to be able to see anything. However, in video games, due to the nature of the medium and how areas are designed, there are two problems standing in the way of making a functional window:
1. Often, the other side of a window simply does not exist. The overwhelming majority of buildings in 3D video games are just empty boxes. Clipping into them shows nothing inside, so clearly, the windows must be one of the first 5 types as there would be nothing to show if they were functional.
2. Even if there is something on the other side on a "game world logic" level, (e.g. a building is enterable, so both the outside and the inside can be seen separately), usually, these are separate rooms. One must be unloaded for the other to be loaded, either for memory capacity reasons or because the interior is larger than the exterior (to allow characters to move more freely once indoors) and would physically not fit inside the exterior.

This presents a very interesting problem: in most games, no amount of effort put into an individual window could make it functional because the game was not, from the ground up, designed for functional windows in the first place. If the game was designed to have interiors larger than exteriors (such as to put dungeons inside buildings), then it can never have functional windows. 

However, if a game is designed to have them, then putting in a functional window takes little to no effort whatsoever because it boils down to what windows actually are in the real world: a hole in the wall. Simply model a hole in the wall between the interior and the exterior and it becomes functional all on its own, provided the framework is there. As such, the tradeoff is immense: either invest extreme amounts of work to enable functional windows to then be able to add them without effort, or be completely unable to add them with any amount of effort.

Once again, this classification does not aim to cover all windows. In fact, in this article, I will also show how some games may have their own idiosyncratic kinds of windows that do not fit into this system.

I hope that this classification could provide some insight into the different types of windows in video games. Now, I will go through Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 and point out what types the windows encountered there are. The screenshots used here are either taken by me in-game or taken from noclip.website.

We start off with Peach's Castle Grounds at the beginning of Super Mario Galaxy. This area provides very pronounced lit windows in the houses of the town (which unfortunately does not have a name in-game; it is not Toad Town) and especially Peach's Castle itself. A very intense glow effect lends a dreamlike quality to the scene as it is meant to be a magical moment both for Mario and everyone else in-universe, being the rare Star Festival that only happens once each 100 years, and for the player who is about to experience a one of a kind (at least at the time of the game's release) galactic adventure. Note also the stained glass window on Peach's Castle, the classic opaque glass example.

In the Gateway Galaxy, we see the first example of a window type that it specific to these two games, and one of the reasons I wanted to write this article in the first place as it shows that even with a classification that covers almost all cases, there are still unique stylistic decisions that cannot be generalized.

The windows on the main planetoid have what I would call "indented" type windows. The window is simply an indention in the wall, textured with the same material as the wall, and covered with a frame. This is clearly completely unlike a real-life window and was done as a type of shortcut to reduce the amount of effort necessary to make some of the game's windows. From far away, the indention is hard to recognize, but going into first-person view near it clearly shows that the windows are not showing anything but the wall itself.

My personal theory is that this shortcut was used for all windows that the designers believed players would not take too close of a look at, and as long as they look acceptable from a distance, this type was used. You will see many more examples of these, especially in Super Mario Galaxy 2.

On the Comet Observatory, the windows of the observatory domes are dark, but covered with a translucent glass (this still qualifies them as dark-type; they would only be opaque glass-type if the glass were completely obscuring the inside). Interestingly, for whatever reason, the Garden dome does not have a window, raising the question of how it is meant to function as an observatory; however, it is also clearly more magical that the other domes and likely just follows different rules.

The Toad Brigade's Starshroom ship can also be seen here, where it has opaque glass windows. It fluctuates between having functional windows in other places and opaque glass ones here and whenever it is seen crashed. Here, it is likely that the Observatory also has so many objects loaded in at once that the programmers simply removed the interior and replaced the windows to reduce the strain on the hardware; this can be confirmed by clipping into the ship and seeing the interior is not present.

This is what the functional window design looks like, seen here in Sweet Sweet Galaxy (and in many other places). Note how the windows are functional both looking in and looking out, which is rare. 

The Kitchen dome provides a nice simulated view featuring a comet. This is not a real view as when the camera zooms out, the space outside the Kitchen looks different (raising the question of why the designers didn't make the window functional as there is already a space skybox loaded behind it). The image actually depicts the real life Halley's Comet, as found by Super Mario Galaxy expert CometMedal here.

In Good Egg Galaxy, there is a (mildly) lit window on the upright side of the starting planetoid to give the house a friendly look. On the upside-down side (left), the castle-like structure has a window that appears to be, if anything, bricked up. This qualifies it as a shuttered window by the definition I use, although, of course, in the real world being bricked up is quite a bit more permanent than being shuttered. In the airships seen in the third mission, the windows are dark to give them a more menacing look.

Other airships used both here and in many other galaxies have some boarded-up windows, again qualifying as being shuttered... unless I am mistaken and these are not intended to be windows, but some other feature of the airships. Not being intimately familiar with ship design, I cannot be sure about this. Perhaps these are boarded-up cannon holes instead; if you have your own suggestions, please let me know!

In Space Junk Galaxy, we get to see the inside of one airship, which contains a subdued opaque glass window on a door in the hold. The rocket, which is based on Olimar and Louie's rocket from Pikmin 2, has again an example of indented windows, but with translucent glass covering them so that a really close look is necessary to realize that the glass is just covering the hull instead of an actual opening.

In Battlerock Galaxy, there is a very interesting and easily missed example of a simulated view. The planetoid where Mario plays the Gearmo's minigame for a bonus star is supposed to be a trash dump; the sides of the planetoid (which cannot be walked on and can only be seen if Mario walks close to the edge) contain small grate-covered windows showing some pieces of metallic scrap. However, that is in fact a simulated view - instead of the entire planetoid being filled with scrap, each window has a small chamber behind it filled with only a few pieces of it, but which together fake the impression of the insides of the entire planetoid being shown.

There is also a rare set of functional windows in the area that Mario blasts out of with an explosion, as that one was able to be programmed to be physically loaded at the same time as the outside and the designers took the opportunity to add a functional window.

In Bowser's Star Reactor, the windows on the towers are dark to underscore that the environment, being one of Bowser's bases of operations, is hostile.

The Ghostly Galaxy, being centered on a haunted mansion, obviously has the most windows of any location in the game, having a mix of different types:

On the outside, there are both menacing-looking dark windows that look especially scary due to the broken grates covering them, and subdued opaque glass windows that appear to reflect the galaxy's dark blue skybox (but do not actually reflect it; this is merely a texture). 

There are more different types of dark outside windows (right); particularly interesting is the one that is dark but where the grating is shaded to create extra darkness at the edges. The indoor windows are interesting in that they are almost functional, but not really - while they in fact show the outside, most of the outside areas actually unload while Mario is in the mansion, resulting in the windows showing only the skybox. This is likely simply to save on processing power; however, even if the windows did in fact show the outside properly, the translucent glass is almost opaque so this would be very difficult to see and appreciate.

Dusty Dune Galaxy contains a tower with functional windows that is really only a window by virtue of having the edges designed to seemingly connect panes of glass; in reality, it is a glass dome, which in the real world would not really qualify as a window. This is another example of a functional window being present only because it is necessary for gameplay, as shown in my infographic earlier; without the window, Mario would either not be able to be seen inside the tower or be able to jump sideways out of it when it is sinking into the sand, nullifying the challenge. Only a functional window could provide the correct environment for the mission to be possible.

Bowser's Dark Matter Plant contains the simplest type of functional window possible: a simple free-standing wall floating in space, with a hole in it. Again, due to how simple such windows are to implement if the wall is in a spot where the environment on both sides of it is already being rendered, it is no suprise the developers took the opportunity.

In Toy Time Galaxy, the factory planetoid has dark windows with bars over them in one area, appearing slightly darker than would be expected of a galaxy themed after a child's playroom, since the bars make them look like prison windows. Strangely, the other side of the same planetoid has more friendly-looking indented windows - which actually make more sense thematically as the factory is not supposed to be a real building, but a toy, so it would naturally have fake indented windows anyway. It is possible the designers simply overlooked the dark windows at some point and only changed some of them to be more appropriate.

The tower in the Sea Slide Galaxy has very strange "double" windows - first a functional outside window, which is covering a second simulated view window of some curtains. While double windows like that exist in real life in some places that need high degrees of insulation, if this is indeed intended to be an attempt at realism, in stands in stark contrast with the fantasy design of the rest of the game's windows.

Bowser's Galaxy Reactor, while having the same towers as Bowser's Star Reactor, seems to have windows that have been overlooked or for no apparent reason changed, as some of them are lit with a strange brown light, while others are indented in a way that is visible even from very far away as being such. One could argue that the latter ones are intended to be bricked up instead, which of course only the designers would be able to answer for certain.

Onward to Super Mario Galaxy 2:

As the opening scene now takes place in broad daylight, the town and Peach's Castle now no longer have lit windows. Instead, the town windows and some of the castle windows have a very subdued, almost dark, opaque glass style, while other windows of the castle appear to be shuttered with beige blinds. I theorize that the decision not to make the windows brighter and friendlier, as would be expected, is due to them being seen only when Bowser already begins his attack, so the intended mood is one of danger and tenseness instead.

Sky Station Galaxy again has indented windows, showing only boards behind them. The windows, while using the same textures as the wall, have additional color filters and resize the textures to look mildly different from the actual wall, leading me to believe that the intent was to make them look legitimate from a distance, rather than to suggest they are actually boarded up. Super Mario Galaxy 2 in general has many more indented windows than Super Mario Galaxy, with many of them showing signs that there are in fact supposed to fool the viewer. I admit that they are successful at that, as I myself did not realize just how many of them are simple indentions before I started analyzing them very closely.

Starship Mario has one set of very elaborate simulated view windows purporting to show the engine room. Despite appearing very legitimate, they do not actually show the engine room, but a fake view of the top of it, including the beacon. The actual engine room would not physically fit inside the ship, and is a different room. The chimney also has an opaque glass window on it.

The buildings at the beginning of Fluffy Bluff Galaxy have rather noticeable indented windows (the only example of them I noticed during my first playthrough of the game in 2010). There was an effort here to darken the windows, but not enough to completely hide the stone texture, again making them look fake or bricked up. Likely, the designers did not opt for making them completely dark as it would clash with the bright sky aesthetic of the galaxy.

Rightside Down Galaxy, like Toy Time Galaxy, is made out of toys, so the presence of an indented window here is completely expected; this is not meant to be a real window but a toy block used to build a toy castle. I wonder if the presence of "justified" indented windows gave the designers the idea of using them in other places since they already had the tools for making them - but of course, this is only speculation.

More justified indented windows in Bowser Jr.'s Fiery Flotilla, since Bowser Jr.'s entire aesthetic is based on toy blocks and the fort in question appears to be made out of plastic.

Cosmic Cove Galaxy contains another likely not intentional indented window underwater. Note how deep the indention is; it takes relatively precise positioning to see all the way inside during gameplay. However, it is not the deepest the indentions go in this game:

In Haunty Halls Galaxy, there are windows with what I can only call absurdly deep indentions, which are not even indented-type, but dark-type, as they do ultimately end with darkness on the inside. I cannot imagine these being seriously considered; they are almost certainly made very quickly. Try to visualize what a window like this would look like in real life - why would any structure have window frames so thick that they amount to literal tunnels through the wall? This window is thicker than it is wide or tall, which is really not something I ever expected to see, even in a cartoony video game.

Cloudy Court Galaxy has mildly ornate shuttered windows, which is another example of how shuttered windows can be used for their decorative aspects rather than to not show what is on the other side.

I have covered this one before due to its oddity: in Freezy Flake Galaxy, a Star Bunny can be seen inside a cabin through a functional window. However, just like the example in my infographic in Mario Kart 8, the window is only functional from one side: 

When the camera is moved inside the cabin, we can see the Star Bunny is looking at a solid wall instead. Also note that the other window, behind the Star Bunny, is a simulated view of curtains instead, despite logically being of the same build and design as the functional window.

Flipsville Galaxy and Chompworks Galaxy both feature functional windows to look through to see Chomps rolling, which helps with timing Mario's movement to avoid them when they exit through a hatch into the playable area:

In Bowser's Gravity Gauntlet, there are actually unused windows inside the visible ones:

The windows seen in-game are shuttered. But moving the camera precisely inside the shutters shows that there are wrought iron grates behind them. It is likely that the iron grates were the first window design considered, and the shutters were added later without removing the old design hidden underneath them.

In the first part of Boo Moon Galaxy, some dark windows with iron bars can be seen on the swap planetoid, and interesting simulated view windows with curtains on the picture book planetoid. As the picture book is not purporting to be real, the windows are completely flat and stylized, with a type of "holographic foil" effect that makes them change color depending on the position of the camera and is despite its visual appeal not used for most glass surfaces in the game.

The second mission of Boo Moon Galaxy is another mansion, and uses various different types of windows. Some are opaque glass, some are dark, and the ones at the top of the mansion surrounding the Power Star are functional, showing the skybox behind it. I theorize that the different moods of the non-functional windows from the functional ones (centered on the brightest part of the skybox in a manner that frames it like a sunrise) is to create a sense of triumph or relief upon reaching the Power Star.

I hope that this analysis was able to show how many different considerations exist when designing windows for a video game.

Thank you very much for reading.