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"The rise and fall of 2D"

Realism has a lot to answer for. At first we had simple groups of pixels to represent our gaming characters and objects. Then there were more detailed sprites which had high levels of animation and hand drawn backgrounds. None of these were really that realistic, being on a 2D level only and often merely scrolling left and right. Since the late 8-bit era, higher polygon counts meant that more realistic looking games have been created and enjoyed by many.

One of the first to successfully incorporate polygons and detail (as opposed to the simple wireframe graphics of old) was Carrier Command. This led to many more attempts to re-create real life environments. Soon we were seeing games like Geoff Crammond’s Formula One (a game with many sequels) and Armageddon where you could control tanks, planes and other 3D vehicles against the computer’s forces or (if you were as lucky as me and had a link up with a mate) against other people. Realism crept in to more and more games. From the computers of the time, the Atari ST and Amiga, to the Megadrive and (to a lesser extent) the SNES, these games became more and more detailed and more interactive, allowing players to not only go forward into the screen but to also go damn well anywhere they pleased. This freedom was a great draw to the games player and would eventually lead to the success of the 32-bit consoles.

The Saturn and, to a greater extent, the Playstation both used 3D games with a higher polygon count and some neat new tricks to showcase their consoles. Virtua Fighter and Daytona were responsible for many sales of the Saturn during the first few months of its life. The Playstation, marketed successfully by Sony to a more mainstream audience, wowed many by showing them the future through Ridge Racer, Tekken and later in Wipeout. Once this took on, there was no going back. A few games appeared still using polygons, most notably SNK and Capcom titles, but it was a dying trend that would see 3D gaming becoming the norm.

While gaming had led to artists experimenting with 3D, it was also obvious that this was having an effect on the non-gaming community as well. Disney were very interested in this technology and approached a company called Pixar to work on a new film project called Toy Story. It was a massive success and even won Oscars for the artists. Soon we would be seeing 3D artists all over the world come up with new and exciting works, leaving the 2D cartoons for the small kids and daytime TV. Everyone wanted to work on a computer for their 3D modelling and tons of computer art magazines sprung up so that the bedroom artist could have their first stab at creating a masterpiece.

This left its mark on the 2D world. Less and less programmers wanted to work on 2D art and animation packages, more 3D packages appeared in the shops and took over as the main animator’s tool. We almost went through a stage where 2D artistry was lost forever, but it was saved by one important market and a development in the animation world that would see the joining of the two forces.

Anime was catching on in the west. The far eastern animated movies were a delight to audiences here in the west and we lapped them up. These weren’t 3D cartoons, they were 2D pieces of art. 2D was cool again and artists started to use the old ways once more. However, they had learnt things in their 3D days that would become invaluable in enhancing 3D animations and later games. With great effect they started using computers to plot 3 dimensional versions of their 2D animations. Backgrounds became fully rotational while the characters remained 2D, complex mathematical calculations were applied to the 2D figures to give them a more 3 dimensional feel, while at the same time keeping their 2D art form. In films this was used to pan around a character or apply a 3D background via computer animation over cel drawn graphics. Films such as Titan AE used this well and boy what a difference it made. Games took on this idea and created Cel Shaded graphics, mixing 2D and 3D animations and characters together in games such as Jet Set Radio. Other games took this on and used similar techniques to great effect.

Although 2D animation is not as popular as it once was, it has fought back, both in the animation and games industry. There are still far more 3D packages out there for Computer artists, but this has slowly changed, giving traditional artists reason to work on a computer rather than by hand. I believe that this is a good thing, all 3D animation may lead to a more realistic game, but without 2D we would have lost some of the greatest animated films in the world.

and before that, the quote was used to descrivbe the rise and fall of the Roman empire

Sonic

===SONICRAV---> wrote:
> Pb, was this title just lifted from neilc's title, or did you get it from David
> Bowie's album?

Sonic

Neither, strangly I had only seen Neilc's topic after I'd posted this, the title came more from the classic quote, which David Bowie also used, as did Reginald Perrin and someone who wrote a famous historical reference about the British Empire....

Pb, was this title just lifted from neilc's title, or did you get it from David Bowie's album?

Sonic

pb wrote:
> Are cell-shaded games really 2D though, or merely a clever way of showing 3D
> graphics?

Ok, so 2D has only 2 planes of movement (four ways to move) and
> 3D obviously has 3 planes with much more freedom, but as you so rightly point
> out, is it important that all games have this and if they do, can't we see
> something different in the way this is done?


Cel shaded is 3D, not 2D, just look at Jet Set Radio and Auto Modellista

Are cell-shaded games really 2D though, or merely a clever way of showing 3D graphics?

Ok, so 2D has only 2 planes of movement (four ways to move) and 3D obviously has 3 planes with much more freedom, but as you so rightly point out, is it important that all games have this and if they do, can't we see something different in the way this is done?

===SONICRAV---> wrote:
> Sibs wrote:
> The wise hedgehog and his sidekick are right again.

(but if
> you think I'm a
> twin tailed fox you're badly misinformed)

:D


What?
> You're a pink squirrel?

sonic


No, a red Echidna... (DUH!)

Sibs wrote:
> The wise hedgehog and his sidekick are right again.

(but if you think I'm a
> twin tailed fox you're badly misinformed)

:D


What? You're a pink squirrel?

sonic

The wise hedgehog and his sidekick are right again.

(but if you think I'm a twin tailed fox you're badly misinformed)

:D

Sibs, you have hit the nail on the head. I was saying earlier that most 3D games still use 2d gameplay, and 3D fighters are a perfect example. By simply including a button to step into the screen you are able to "dodge" attacks by moving into the 3rd dimension. They could simply add a "dodge" button to 2D games and get the same result!

What amazes me is that the polygon fighter hasn't changed very much since Virtua Fighter was first made- every game since has exactly the same gameply with the exception of Powerstone!

Meanwhile 2D beat 'em ups have continued to get better... but only if you're a big fan!

sonic

anyway, most beat em ups are still 2D GAMEPLAY wise. However much Tekken tries to cover up it's 2D-ness with flashy polygons and special effects, all that has changed since the days of Street Fighter 2 is the ability to do sidesteps which adds very little to the gameplay. The only reason polygons are used is to attract a larger number of customers to their games.

Samn for many other genres- the developer could produce a better game if it was 2D but 3D is 'in' so it is much lower risk than being different.