AuthorTopic: Rendering 3d models to 2d sprites  (Read 25980 times)

Offline Akira

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Re: Rendering 3d models to 2d sprites

Reply #20 on: December 01, 2007, 06:47:16 am
Some earlier games used voxels which is a bit like a 3d pixel. Command and Conquer used them and the modding community had a voxel editor which was pretty cool to play around with. Some newer games have been looking at voxel rendering again because it's generally considered to be less taxing on hardware.
thanks Dogmeat!

Offline HughSpectrum

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Re: Rendering 3d models to 2d sprites

Reply #21 on: December 01, 2007, 12:28:32 pm
Quote
Some earlier games used voxels which is a bit like a 3d pixel. Command and Conquer used them and the modding community had a voxel editor which was pretty cool to play around with. Some newer games have been looking at voxel rendering again because it's generally considered to be less taxing on hardware.
This isn't the same concept.  What's actually being discussed is making 3D models before hand, screen shotting them, and then using them as the 2D sprites.  As a result, the 3D models aren't actually 3D, they're just snapshots of 3D models that are then blit onto the screen the same way a pixel drawn sprite would.  Voxels are more of a real time application.

The result is usually very ugly.  Golden Sun did it better than most games, and worked very well for its map tiles, but the sprites looked very much like plastic as a result.

Offline Helm

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Re: Rendering 3d models to 2d sprites

Reply #22 on: December 01, 2007, 01:02:24 pm
Golden Sun was profoundly ugly in my opinion

Offline HughSpectrum

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Re: Rendering 3d models to 2d sprites

Reply #23 on: December 01, 2007, 01:13:43 pm
I think it's ugly too, but I think it worked better for the tiles than the sprites, just to be unbiased about it.

Offline Helm

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Re: Rendering 3d models to 2d sprites

Reply #24 on: December 01, 2007, 02:06:52 pm
weren't the backgrounds pixel art?

Offline HughSpectrum

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Re: Rendering 3d models to 2d sprites

Reply #25 on: December 01, 2007, 02:29:08 pm
I actually have no clue, especially since I can't find any 1:1 ratio screenshots.  I'm sure some pixeling is involved for small details and doctoring up, but not from the ground up.

Offline huZba

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Re: Rendering 3d models to 2d sprites

Reply #26 on: December 01, 2007, 03:23:30 pm
example gettt!
Just to add to the mess, the sprites are RESIZED on the fly. We get random doubled pixels running through the sprites while doing this.
The rotating battlefields and different camera angles are a nice idea and could work on a different platform. GBA just isn't up for this kind of stuff.
The city backrounds have pixel art tiles mixed with 3D rendered parts here and there.
A more traditional approach to the graphics would have given better results and most likely wouldn't have taken that much more time.

I wonder if normal young gamers are bothered by this at all? Sometimes awesome quality pixelwork is regarded old and not that good looking.
 

Offline vierbit

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Re: Rendering 3d models to 2d sprites

Reply #27 on: December 01, 2007, 04:14:20 pm
That looks pretty bad. But keep in mind the battle sequences are generally very
dynamic in this game, so the shortcomings are not that apperant.

@huZba
I think most gamers that start gaming after the 16bit generation dont care if its
pixelart, rendered, digital painted ect, a 3D game is automatically better than 2D.
But then again, often gamers dont have much artistic sens as opposed to basically all members of this forum for exemple.
So I dont know if I can blame than for there taste.

Offline HughSpectrum

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Re: Rendering 3d models to 2d sprites

Reply #28 on: December 01, 2007, 04:37:59 pm
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That looks pretty bad. But keep in mind the battle sequences are generally very
dynamic in this game, so the shortcomings are not that apperant.
They were very apparent to me.  I actually played it enough to notice why the sprites look like crap.  Actually, I think the problem was even worse in the first game, so I noticed it very quickly.  The real kicker is looking at the summons, which have far more detail put into them than most of the games' sprites combined.

Quote
I wonder if normal young gamers are bothered by this at all? Sometimes awesome quality pixelwork is regarded old and not that good looking.
Sadly, this is very true.  Young people don't have much of an eye for good pixel art or classy animations.

Offline Helm

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Re: Rendering 3d models to 2d sprites

Reply #29 on: December 01, 2007, 05:47:58 pm
That screen looks super-bad, but an overhead map screen would be good to see as well.