Quantum computing remains in its emergence, but its potential to process data exponentially faster than traditional computers could bring about seismic shifts in almost every computationally intensive application. Quantum Guru has published similar articles in pharmaceutical (Read more) and finance (Read more) industries. We expect to write on other fields that are supposed to be significantly impacted by quantum computing. In this article, we discuss one of the applications that has become a mammoth consumer of compute cycles, Gaming!!
Needless to say, the whole gaming ecosystem (from the companies providing infrastructure to the gamers) is eager to know if that outsize computing muscle will transform the gaming industry. The natural question is “what can quantum computers do for gaming?”. However, “what can games do for quantum computers?” is worth looking at in future. Some of the ways quantum computing can influence gaming are:
- Better than ever graphics
- Non player characters that move hyper-realistically
- Truly random level generation — that is what quantum means for gaming
“Quantum’s heavy processing power will shape games in a few key ways”, according to Dr. James Wootton (IBM Researcher). “Its ability to factor large numbers should help improve so-called procedural generation — the method by which games populate random elements such as characters and level layouts. If you’re a game developer working today, you’re hampered by the fact that you don’t have good, fast analysis algorithms at the moment, which quantum computers could help with. I think that’s going to be the first use of quantum in games.” Dr.Wootton added. One of the games developed by him is a randomly generated game terrain using a quantum computer (Download here)
Quantum computing opens the door to random number generation that is genuinely random. For instance, it could help generate truly unpredictable game maps and character encounters. This is contrasting to present-day games that exhibit seemingly random elements, but in essence follow actual patterns. It would be more fun to play games using quantum resources as the levels are generated randomly to character encounters and puzzles hard to solve. Gaming with quantum presents a problem which quantum itself can solve, although providing useful hints could overcome the game difficulty.
Quantum will impact the two pillars of Gaming – AI and Graphics
Optimization also relates to another of quantum’s potential points of impact: its promise to produce much better artificial intelligence (refer Quantum Guru article link of news article). AI governs the behavior of a game’s non-player-controlled characters, which means quantum AI should render characters that are far more realistic, precise and detailed than what gamers encounter today.
Many theories predict quantum could not provide god level intelligence, but it can introduce better learning resources and major impact could be visible in graphics. In order to render graphics, computers must perform database searches and quantum computing promises to exponentially speed up and optimize those searches. Some of the games developed using quantum concepts are as follows:
- Hello Quantum
- Quantum Chess
- Quantum Moves
- Decodoku
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