Patent ID: 8357040

Claim:
A method performed by a wagering game machine, comprising: executing a wagering game upon which monetary value may be wagered, the wagering game machine providing the wagering game on a gaming display; determining one or more graphical assets from a plurality of graphical assets for a three-dimensional graphical object within a component of the wagering game, by: receiving an indirect reference from logic of the wagering game for construction of the three-dimensional graphical object, the three-dimensional graphical object defined by a plurality of graphical asset characteristics associated with the indirect reference; and reading configuration data of the wagering game to translate the indirect reference to a direct reference to the one or more graphical assets, and to determine which particular graphical assets of the plurality of graphical assets are used to render the three-dimensional graphical object in the wagering game using the plurality of graphical asset characteristics; wherein the plurality of graphical assets conforms to a plurality of graphical asset types, wherein each graphical asset provides different display characteristics for a portion of the three-dimensional graphical object and is used to define three-dimensional characteristics of the three-dimensional graphical object, and wherein each graphical asset of a graphical asset type is interchangeable for use in the three-dimensional graphical object; rendering the three-dimensional graphical object in real time during operations of the wagering game using the one or more graphical assets; and displaying the rendered three-dimensional graphical object in the wagering game using the gaming display.