Processing power needed to create complex models

To create complex and distinctively detailed models requires a certain amount of processing power. It's like trying to run a new sick engine and trying to install it on a jalopy. Sure it would go fast, but it would still look like an old jalopy. Not only do the looks need to be implied, it's performance is crucial to authenticating a simulation or model. The main idea of a simulation is to immerse someone/or people in a digital situation and see how they can react towards a similar situation in real life. If something is out of place then the whole immersion can be affected. Creating detailed and thorough simulations is highly difficult and requires a lot of skill and power to create. As an example, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Technology Graduate University in Japan wanted to try and simulate brain activity. The brain is a highly complex thinking device so naturally it was rather rigorous and difficult to try and simulate one. It was proven even further how difficult it would be, because according to research, simulating one second of human brain activity took 82,944 processors. So as you can probably tell, simulations and models cost power, and depending on how detailed and complex the model or simulation is also depends on how much power is available. Going back to the past, let's look at what kind of models a less complex processor could accomplish.








The Sega Genesis' main processor is a 16/32-bit Motorola 68000 CPU which contains 72kb or RAM and 64kb or video RAM. Back then it was only able to produce 16-bit models as seen in the picture above (Sonic the Hedgehog). Back then it looked great and fitting with its price. Of course that was back then, now technology is so advanced that graphics like this now looks obsolete. Obviously due to the lack of technical equipment developers had back in the day. Different kinds of simulations result in different kinds of models being needed to be present. For example a flight simulation needs to have all the buttons a regular plane would have. The buttons need to be functional to immerse the person in the experience. Same goes with a surgeon simulation. The more authentic a simulation is, the better the processing power needs to be.