Quote:
Originally Posted by zobraks
We adventurers (I believe) do not care for graphics so much as the fans of other genres do.
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Hullo! You may want to talk for yourself there!
But true, without content, 3D graphics make only sense if the game is of the sort where your name is Ramirez, and you get bossed around the field by your sargeant. Conversely, in the case of adventure games, graphics are not a good
substitute for story, but I'm firmly convinced that they can be an excellent addition. I can't see how good content along with excellent 3D graphics can't make a successful game.
The trouble with 3D graphics redered in real time on the gamer's machine is that it's often inconsistent in quality. Such inconsistency is observable within the same game, but often even within the same frame.
As an example for the former case, consider how even a high-res texture will inevitably appear "smudged" when viewed close up. The game you're playing may have wonderful 3D graphics, but as soon as you smash by accident into a wall, the texture reveals its interpolated nature, which really spoils the atmosphere. Even modern techniques of bump-mapping etc. don't help much on close-ups. This is rather irrelevant if the game is an FPS (where atmosphere may be important as well.. but if you don't get yourself away from that wall quickly, you may have your head blown apart by the odd sniper), but in adventure games... it can really spoil the experience.
On the other hand, prerendered graphics (both backgrounds and panoramic nodes) guarantee a certain degree of homogeneity in quality throughout the game.
This is why, if a developer chooses to go full-3D, he/she can't really start making compromises. If an adventure game has to be realtime 3D, making the game compatible with older hardware is not an option.
I'm not sure what AgustÃ*n means by "except we're making it look like actual 3D" (and, indeed, it's not the time to be sure about anything, considering that the project is still in its early stages), but it surely sounds interesting. Perhaps he has found the balance between real time 3D and prerendered nodes? Only time will tell!
