Pre-rendered graphics appreciation thread

[Anonymous No.2345685]

Pre-render thread. I like this style (not necessarily more than hand drawn, just in general). Obviously, it can look bad, but so can hand drawn. I like it in SNES games like Dank Dong, and in Saturn and Playstation games.

What are some games with sick pre-rendered graphics that people might not have heard of? Playing pic related at the moment.

And yes, backdrops can count, as in Myst or FF7. Everyone has played those particularly examples, though.

[Anonymous No.2345707]

>>2345685
i love this style. my favourite examples are resi 3 (or pretty much all the resi's) and dino crisis 2. it looks kindve wank in this image, i think this must be the pc version. neverthless, thought this was a gorgeous game, and at the time, best example of pre-rendered jungle. (also, very GOOD GAME.) Still waiting for a decent dc survival horror sequel.

[Anonymous No.2345714]

^same poster as above.
good lord, dont know how i forgot this. not sure if it technically counts? favourite art direction in a videogame, hands down. at the time, man... i was in awe. shit, gunna play this again tonight. (played through the remake recently, not impressed).

[Anonymous No.2345718]

>>2345714
As far as I know, everything about oddworld is pre-rendered. Definitely counts.

Only thing I've noticed about pre-rendered games is they all look atrocious outside of their native resolution. You can scale hand drawn a bit, and while it won't look good, it'll look ok and pretty much like it did before. Pre-rendered games get pixelated looking as hell.

[Anonymous No.2345726]

>>2345707
Also, this one looks wank because the backdrop is stretched to 1600x900. Stretched background plus super sharp 3d models definitely screams either PC version or emulated on PC.

[Anonymous No.2345781]

>>2345707
This pic shows one of the major downsides to emulating early 3D games with pre-rendered backgrounds. You can sharpen up real-time elements like velociraptors and dylan, but the pre-rendered stuff looks just as low-res as it always has. When stuff like that gets emulated and upscaled, it just looks incredibly jarring because the disconnect between the pre-rendered and real-time stuff is that much more apparent.

Also one of the reasons why I hate how the REmake HD port didn't re-render the backgrounds and instead just took the 480p images and upscaled them and put them through a smoothening filter.

[Anonymous No.2345798]

>>2345781
whilst i wouldnt go so far as to say i "hate" the remake, i found the overall experience to be pretty mediocre. i think they did a decent job visually, but the gameplay for me worked so much better in the original. i have a few other gripes too, but not gunna go into it. one thing i will say though was the mudoken dialogue (the npc's i mean) just felt out of place. some of it was okay: "god i hate meat" "i hate this smell". but alot of it was too comical considering the oppressive atmosphere the original game tried to evoke. same with the sligs. they announced exdous remake today or yesterday though, so fingers crossed thats better.

[Anonymous No.2345813]

You guys might be interested in this. It's a tool for better downscaling of 3D models and other images. You can make any image look like a 1997 pre-rendered background. http://www.research.rutgers.edu/~timgerst/

[Anonymous No.2345819]

>>2345813
While not really what I had in mind with "pre-rendered", digitizing drawings was really common, especially in Japanese PC games.

[Anonymous No.2345958]

>>2345813
Wow that is pretty cool. The dude who programmed it looks young too.

[Anonymous No.2345985]

>>2345813
Well, pixel art only makes any kind of sense today because of the human component guiding something so instantly perceivable as machine language, but this tool is pretty darn impressive. Check this one I just run through it (32 colors)

[Anonymous No.2345994]

>>2345685
I wish there were more shoot em ups like this

[Anonymous No.2346035]

>>2345994
I don't know of any others besides Lords of Thunder.

[Anonymous No.2346078]

>>2345994
Metal Black and Salamander 2 have some pre-rendered stuff.

[Anonymous No.2346093]

I really like Memoria, not on my own computer so I can't dump the high res versions

[Anonymous No.2346176]

>>2345685
this game looks gorgeous, whats the name??

[Anonymous No.2346184]

>>2346078
what's prerendered in metal black? That game all looks hand-drawn to me

[Anonymous No.2346194]

>>2346176
Sol Divide on the Playstation.

[Anonymous No.2346206]

>>2346184
maybe thats a bad example. I thought the backgrounds look pre-rendered.

[Commander Kai No.2347565]

>>2345685
>people might not have heard of

not really obscure but saga frontier, homm 3 and stargunner.

Traffic Department 2192 is quite obscure i guess. more like primitive pre-rendered though. and it's very weebish
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/344/Traffic+Department+2192.html

[Commander Kai No.2347582]

>>2347565
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq12zyxOe5g

and there was an abandoned remake.

[Anonymous No.2347662]

This is the worst graphics style ever conceived of. I pretty much always hate it or wish they had done something else. The only time I put up with it was in Super Mario RPG where it looked... almost alright? Most of the time it looks horrible.

It only really looks okay at very high resolutions and it was never used that way in the SNES/PSX to GBA era. Those three systems are the worst offenders IMO.

I mean look at how they ruined Donkey Kong '94 by turning it into this shit stain.

[Commander Kai No.2347692]

>>2347662
>looks okay at very high resolutions a
you're trolling right? can anyone be this dumb?

at higher resolutions like say 1080 lines, the pre-rendered graphics would just look pixellated as hell. they don't scale well unlike real 3D polygons or even vectors.

pre-rendered looked better in that era but not so much on modern monitors and televisions.

[Anonymous No.2347701]

>>2347692
I think he means that if the game was made in higher resolution, it would look better. For example, Diablo is 640x480, compared to a 240p console game. He's wrong, of course, but I think that's what he means.

Or possibly he means in HD resolutions? Though that looks generally really weird. Like clip art.

[Anonymous No.2348607]

>>2347701
I meant the game being made at a higher rez not just displayed, like Diablo, and it is better that way, you are dumb and wrong.

[Anonymous No.2349205]

Megarace 2 on PC.

[Anonymous No.2349296]

Ogre Battle 64.

[Anonymous No.2350253]

>>2347662
gr8 b8 m8

[Anonymous No.2350283]

>absolutely love pre-rendered graphics
>Ragnagard's in-game visuals make me want to hurl

[Anonymous No.2350285]

I know a lot of people don't like YS, but damn it looks gorgeous

[Anonymous No.2350290]

>>2350285
There's just something about the aesthetics that don't click like the original. Also, need to get all that fucking fruit off the HUD.

[Anonymous No.2350295]

>>2350290

Yeah, Yoshi's Island was crayon-like 2D graphics, and Yoshi's Story is actual prerendered graphics that look like real fabric materials, which I thought was nicely done.

You can take off the fruit from the HUD by tapping R, I believe.

[Anonymous No.2350325]

>>2347662

I don't like it for sprites. Because they would often just make 3D models, then take snapshots of them. They always looked poor.

I love it for backgrounds though.

[Anonymous No.2350654]

Im the guy who posted the oddworld stuff, and lo and behold i actually went and played it again after that image. rescued all 300 mudokens in a time of around 5 hours. probably the 3rd time ive done that now. So glad in Exodus they decided to make secret areas more noticeable by having soulstorm brew bottles in any area with them on a nearby screen. Enjoyed it thoroughly. Will probably do the same again next year. The concept work you get for rescuing all 300 is a bit weak though when you alreaady own the art of oddworld inhabitants book! heheh.

[Anonymous No.2351107]

What game is that op?

[Anonymous No.2351869]

>>2347662
>GBA
GBA is the god of bad pre-rendered graphics.

[Anonymous No.2352470]

There are a ton of pre-rendered graphic PC games from the ol' days. Blade Runner being one that comes to mind.

[Anonymous No.2352475]

damn, thought i was the only one who loved pre-rendered graphics

[Anonymous No.2352879]

>>2345813
>http://www.research.rutgers.edu/~timgerst/
I love you anon