Pre-rendered 3D

[Anonymous No.3526605]

Was this the biggest mistake of 90's game development?

[Anonymous No.3526612]

All depends on the game.

[Anonymous No.3526613]

How? Are you going to tell me that games like Mortal Kombat, DKC, Resident Evil looked BAD? at low resolutions obviously.

are you retarded?

[Anonymous No.3526615]

fmv-based games had it worse

[Anonymous No.3526616]

>>3526615
i love fmvs. only negers hate fmv

[Anonymous No.3526617]

>>3526605
Don't think so. People launch these games on emulators with 3x pixel size today—and of course they look like shit. I remember Killer Instinct and Donkey Kong looked amazing on TVs back in the day.

But it also needed to be tastefully done, and that was much harder. DKC looked great because it had smooth animation, cohesive cartoon style, and tons of work put into the CG. But then pre-renders became a staple for different shovelware devs who didn't give a fuck about all of these things, they wanted to make a quick buck on trendy gimmicks.

3D did become better and less clunky over time. But even back when Rare took it, you could do amazing things with it.

[Anonymous No.3526626]

I personally think DKC is a terrible game and I always bring it up in overrated games threads. Pre-rendered graphics are a conundrum though. In a game like DKC where it's 100% a 2D sprite based game it's basically just a "won't 3D graphics be cool some day?" thing. Same with Myst. But then in the next generation you have some ability to do real 3D but your polygons are limited so you're basically compelled to use some pre-rendered backgrounds or some other tricks. The entire survival horror genre sort of flowed from this and brings us nicely to pre-rendered cut scenes. Are they a good idea? Blood Omen has terrible pre-rendered cutscenes that I think detract from it but RE's live action cutscenes are stylistically jarring. There was really no good answer in the mid 90s.

[Anonymous No.3526627]

DKC trilogy is amazing tho

[Anonymous No.3526630]

>>3526605
it's thanks to pre-rendered graphics that some 90s games don't look terrible today, just compare chrono cross to fully 3d ps1 games like legend of legaia

>>3526615
this, much worse

[Anonymous No.3526635]

>>3526615
>>3526605
I was just playing dkc and dragons lair (3DO) today. both are still fun.

It was fine, I also like the disney games with pr3d

[Anonymous No.3526645]

>>3526630
>it's thanks to pre-rendered graphics that some 90s games don't look terrible today

this

[Anonymous No.3526652]

No, it extended the life of the SNES and probably helped get more games on the platform.

[Anonymous No.3526660]

>>3526613
>at low resolutions obviously

This.

For these games to look like they should, you must use a CRT. Looking at an upscaled gif on a modern screen obviously won't look as good.

[Anonymous No.3526667]

>>3526605
Bad taste, it's even possible on this board. Sadly.

[Anonymous No.3526726]

When it comes to creative work there's no such thing as a bad technique, only bad uses of it.

[Anonymous No.3526803]

>>3526605
>Mistake
>Used millionare proprietary machines that made tha first Jurassic Park

The Silicon art must be appreciated, thanks to pre rendered we have some memorable games that never gets old

[Anonymous No.3526808]

>>3526605
Yes, but it only got worse afterwards. When the GBA came out. That thing is sadly riddled with bad pre-renders.

>>3526617
>cohesive cartoon style
This whole series looks like cheap plastic. But some shooters managed to pull it off nicely.

[Anonymous No.3526813]

>>3526626
>terrible
you deffinition of terrible is terrible, overrated? maybe to yes, but terrible???

[Anonymous No.3526903]

>>3526613
Mortal Kombat was not so much pre-rendered CG as it was rotoscoping, but it was fun seeing people innovate in making sprites appear more detailed without actually increasing resolution. I still think cartoony graphics age better, even beyond what /vg/ calls retro, but graphics like Donkey Kong helped establish how to design good looking polygonal character models, even if systems that could render them in similar detail in real time were five years out.

Also, what would modern games even look like if graphics had improved in the last five years as much as they did between 95 and 2000...

[Anonymous No.3527150]

>>3526605
Only people that think that have visual agnosia.

[Anonymous No.3527195]

>>3526613
It looks shit even at higher resolutions, eg. Diablo.

[Anonymous No.3527210]

>>3526605
kill yourself

[Anonymous No.3527219]

>>3527195

I find that DKC and Diablo 2 look great, yet the new high-resolution real-tie versions look terrible. Obviously developers are not applying the correct post-processing methods

[Anonymous No.3527234]

No, I think it looks outstanding, particularly in games where it was a massive and overwhelming success such as in the DKC series.

[Anonymous No.3527261]

Should have made a sequel to Super Mario World that was nearly identical to the first with just different levels. SMW was perfect IMO.

[Anonymous No.3527269]

>>3526903
I nearly shit myself when I played Descent 2 on a Canpus Pure 3d (voodoo). It had 6 megs of ram, whereas most voodoo's only had 4, game played and looked incredible on my p200mmx

[Anonymous No.3527273]

>>3527269
err canopus

[Anonymous No.3527290]

>>3527261
Youve got romhacks at least
Switching shit up every game was the great thing about classic ninty

[Anonymous No.3527291]

>>3527261
Mario World with a good art style would have been perfect.

[Anonymous No.3527397]

In my dreams, Nintendo see's the good sales of the Mini and puts out Super Mario Brothers 4, a continuation of 3 (but with SMW's physics)

[Anonymous No.3527419]

>>3527397
You gonna learn something anon

[Anonymous No.3527475]

>>3526605
This thread was a mistake

[Anonymous No.3527580]

>>3526813
The gameplay is abysmal it would have been cool in 1984. The game's entire appeal was it's "next gen" graphics which are fake.

[Anonymous No.3528154]

>>3526605
I think OP was the biggest mistake of the 90's.

[Anonymous No.3528183]

>>3528154
>implying he wasn't born in the 2000's.

[Anonymous No.3528694]

>>3526605
NO. Textured polygons was the biggest mistake. Back then 3D was just a curious gimmick. They said 2D and 3D can "co-exist". Turned out the gimmick completely took over.

If someone ever tells you "we all can co-exist", just RUN. It's code for eradicating you from the face of the earth under the thunderous applause from the indoctrinated audience.

[Anonymous No.3528958]

>>3526615
whenever i think fmv, i think of this.

[Anonymous No.3528967]

>>3528958
holy shit, that's a real thing.

[Anonymous No.3529016]

>>3527419
>Super Mario Bros 4 Super Mario World

[Anonymous No.3529021]

>>3528958
>Funny man Rob Schneider
Fucking kill me.

[Anonymous No.3529023]

>>3528958
>FAST, SEAMLESS 15 FRAMES PER SECOND

[Anonymous No.3529045]

>>3528958
Hold up, this game was released in 1997.

How on earth was 15 FPS acceptable then? I can understand early 90s where the idea of watching video on something other than VHS was awesome, but 1997?

[Anonymous No.3529059]

This shit was significantly worse

[Anonymous No.3529079]

>>3528694
Stay butthurt, 2Dfag.

[Anonymous No.3529219]

>>3529045
When do you think dvds became popular? Everyone was still using vhs in 97 bub.

[Anonymous No.3529229]

>>3529016
and guess what take makes yoshi;s island

[Anonymous No.3529231]

>>3529079
yeah and whitie

[Anonymous No.3529243]

>>3529045

In before Penguin Poster penguins this.

[Anonymous No.3529246]

>>3529059

This actually looks better than the DKC games though. MK is at least trying to be somewhat 'realistic' with it's character models. DKC is supposed to look like a cartoon and the pre rendered graphics did not suit it at all. Same goes for Super Mario RPG. They're just so lacking in the vibrant colour that you'd expect from a Mario game. Everything's kinda murky looking.

[Anonymous No.3529249]

>>3529219
Even Video CDs didn't run at 15 FPS.

[Anonymous No.3529251]

>>3529246

Is it technically correct to refer to digitized photographs as "character models?" Also, I always thought Mario RPG was colorful as hell, save for intentionally darker areas.

[Anonymous No.3529259]

>>3529059
That looks great kys

[Anonymous No.3529278]

>>3529219
DVDs didn't really catch on until the early 2000s. Like, very early within the new millennium.

VHS tapes were still prominent until like 2002 in my area.

[Anonymous No.3529295]

>>3529246
>>3529259
I don't personally think that example looks better than DKC, but I do think it's an exception to the rule. Later MKs sprites looked better and had better animation than basically anything else with the same stop-motion photo style.

For most games, it just seemed like a lazy way to be "photorealistic" and make a mediocre game seem impressive.

>DKC is supposed to look like a cartoon and the pre rendered graphics did not suit it at all.
I always compared DKC's art style to 3D animation from the same time (ReBoot, VeggieTales, early Pixar), which for me had its own style separate from traditional animation.

[Anonymous No.3529390]

Isn't starcraft technically prerendered 3d?

[Anonymous No.3529407]

>>3529390
You're thinking about Star Tropics.

[Anonymous No.3529409]

>>3529390
Same is Warcraft 1 and 2.

[Anonymous No.3529413]

>>3529390
Isn't Space Quest technically prerendered 3d?

[Anonymous No.3529863]

>>3526605
DKC series looked great. So did Heroes of Might and Magic, Age of Empires, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, Super Mario RPG, among others. It was one of the killing features of the decade.

[Anonymous No.3530028]

I love it tbqh. I am 20 and never played DKC until I brought it a few months ago. I have seen speedruns but that doesn't compare to the real deal. Those water levels are gorgeous.

[Anonymous No.3530038]

>>3529390
It isn't technically anything. It is pre-rendered. OP is just a retard.

[Anonymous No.3530293]

>>3529246
Protip faggot: DKC was art style was influenced by claymation

[Anonymous No.3530302]

>>3527210
ugh how can the colorsbe so attrocious.

[Anonymous No.3530323]

>>3526605
Looked great on SNES, but it looked shit on the N64.

[Anonymous No.3530358]

>>3530323
Yoshi's Story looks pretty good though.

[Anonymous No.3530443]

>>3529059
Nah it just requires a fuckload of effort to look good. MK1 and 2 actually look fantastic because they bothered to make the costumes blend in well with the dark fantasy martial arts aesthetic it was going for. 3 on the other hand just looked like dook.

[Anonymous No.3531314]

>>3526605
You do realize games today still use pre rendered backgrounds with a few dynamic objects for illusion. Especially rail games like last if us

[Anonymous No.3531383]

>>3531314
>last if ls

[Anonymous No.3532293]

>>3531383
autocorrect turned off,
I akso like tpo libe dagnierousky

[Anonymous No.3532497]

>>3530293
I don't think it's supposed to look like claymation either. DKC art style is generally richer in details wherever it's fitting and claymation rarely pulls out the same atmosphere.

[Anonymous No.3532517]

>>3530028
I'm 29 and I only played it after I began browsing /vr/. I thought it was very solid, but really the water levels were the least good looking in my opinion. The snow valley and the treetop village impressed me more.

[Anonymous No.3532520]

>>3529229
Not Super Mario Bros. 5.

Super Mario Bros. 5 didn't come out until 2009.

[Anonymous No.3532539]

>>3530028
>>3532517

Wait till you get to part 2. While the first one is a great looking game, part 2 is actually a great playing game too. Not that 1 is bad, its just kind of average.

[Anonymous No.3532543]

>>3529229
Yoshis island is a prequel
Brings u back to when mario was a baby

[Anonymous No.3532550]

>>3530358

I don't know, the outlines of the sprites looked really jaggy to me, especially when you were sniffing and the camera was zoomed in.

[Anonymous No.3533535]

https://youtu.be/xL83Ko0vYrw?t=809
>"Donkey Kong Country proves that players will put up with mediocre gameplay as long as the art is good.”
apparently yes

[Anonymous No.3533541]

>>3533535

>original Shigeru Miyamoto transcription of that phrase never.

I seriously doubt he actually said DKC has mediocre gameplay.

[Anonymous No.3533557]

>>3529409
Warcarft 1's content looks like it was drawn.

[Anonymous No.3533574]

>>3526626
Thanks for your lame blog entry

[Anonymous No.3533781]

>>3526605
>was a massive technological advancement brought to us by some of the craftiest devs of that era that led to some of the best-selling games ever and took the industry by storm resulting in more research, progress and refining in general the biggest mistake of the 90s?

[Anonymous No.3534253]

I think DKC looks fantastic. A bit of dithering wouldn't have gone amiss surely, though?

[Anonymous No.3534351]

>>3533541

Not only did he actively help Rare to design it, he wouldn't be stupid enough to criticize a game owned by the company he works for.

[Anonymous No.3534410]

>>3533535
But DKC had mediocre gameplay and ugly art?

[Anonymous No.3534441]

>>3534253
The big practical breakthrough with PR3D was automation, as you could output lots of frames of elaborate and fluid animation; but that outpud did require cleanup, which was a tough enough job (pic related) without having to also translate the gradients to crisp-looking dithering patters (those pretty much only look good when a human artist does them)

[Anonymous No.3535078]

this right here is something the genny can't replicate very well, it even looks better than many 2d graphics from the 32-bit era

pre-rendered was a really smart idea at that time

[Anonymous No.3535275]

>>3532497
>and claymation rarely pulls out the same atmosphere.
I wonder what was the same claymation you were watching then because a lot of what I saw pulled off an atmosphere equaling to or even excelling tthat of DKCs. Still they're a good series though.