SBURBDEV Forum

[immortius]

Why would we have a 3D environment with 2D graphics? what's the advantage of it over a 2D environment with 2D graphics? wouldn't it just be harder to make levels in?
I mean, if I get a chance to draw some stuff tomorrow I'll have some decent mock ups ready, but that seems like a really arbitrary setup to just decide upon. Can you give some examples of where that approach has worked? Aside from Doom? because Doom involved a LOT of sprites for each NPC.

Pokemon Black/White? Daggerfall too, but really bad example. A dozen odd eastern mmos do this too. I think the reason people were raising was they felt procedural generation of terrain is easier in 3D (I don't feel that is true though). Another advantage is allowing a lot more NPCs to be rendered over 3D NPCs on a 3D terrain, although straight 2D would presumably be better still.

As previously mentioned, 2D skeletal animation eliminates a lot of spriting for each NPC if we go down that path (and opens up customization as you can swap different sprites in for heads, clothes, etc).

A lot of Doom sprites were actually made by photographing clay models from different angles incidentally.

[AgentPaper]

I don't think Doom was ever used as an example, actually. The examples I saw were things like Paper Mario and Odin Sphere.

[immortius]

Odin Sphere is strictly 2D though, it isn't an example of sprite characters in a 3D world.

Edit: Some more examples that come to mine: Disgaea series and Recettear.

This thread also discusses 2D vs 3D, with no clear resolution besides 3D acceleration should be used regardless.

[AgentPaper]

Well, if nothing else it seems that people want to be using a 3d environment, and then either 2d or 3d art assets on top of that. Unless I'm mistaken, if we're using a 3d environment mechanically, then it should be fairly easy to swap out 2d or 3d assets, or even just use both as appropriate.

With that done I think we should get started on the next step of all this. I'll make a new thread for the next discussion.

[Interloper]

If it can be made work, then let's do it I guess. Someone should come up with some mockups though because I'm really not sure exactly what people have in mind.
I did play Recettear though so I guess I see how it could work for something like this.
But at least let's wait until a basic mock up exists. And also until we figure out how the massive poly counts inherent in Prospit/Derse would work.

[Legendary]

Prospit and Derse should probably just have backgrounds and have only a few areas worth exploring. Otherwise yeah, so much polygons. They both seem to be legitimately FRACTAL, which breaks down heavily. Best just to paint something in the background and call it a day.

EDIT: Then again, we're using an isometric camera. That makes the poly count even LESS of an issue. Never mind me!

[ripples]

well.

3d would in my opinion make the overall feel of the game better, like your actually inside the game. 2d DOES follow the homestuck style, however, the question is if you want the sprites to be fully customizable. the easiest way in 2d would be to set up a system where the players simply needed to draw their own sprites (including walking frames) and insert them into the game, thus making their characters appearence. but in my opinion i would prefer we didnt stick EXACTLY to the homestuck style because that would just look silly in 3d (but it depends how you go about it. imagine 3d john homestuck style in your head. i think the proportions just wouldnt work) so maybe you could work towards a 'hero mode' sprite set? like, in character creation, there would be a screen where you can choose height, weight, and size of indavidual body parts (including other things like skin color, hair length/color, and accesories of course) to give each character a unique look. id love to see something like that thats so customizable, that i could literally make myself (oh i forgot! at the start you would choose a age for the default characters proportions :3) and play it. i just think that would be so awesome. but also LOTSSS of works. well, in all honesty, ive never worked in the area of 3d so i wouldnt have a clue how long it would take to program the prites to be that customized and stay the way throughout the game. you have to pertain to jump animations and running and fighting still with all the size differences and such. what i reccomend (please remember i have little knowledge so this might not help at all) is that you have a limit to how small or large the initial size of the character should be, and also how about 3 or 4 groups. small, medium, large, and extra large(?) each group would have specific animations for jumping and such that would all fit its size. but dont make JUST 3 or 4 options for the players to choose! i was thinking (lertaining to sliders in character creation) that there are different sections along the slider that after passing, your character advances into the next animation. . . ? oh, and that brings me to another thing, sliders. in character creation (please remember that everything im talking about right now if specifically for 3d, if this were 2d, sliders definetly wouldnt be needed) i think that there should be sliders, controlling the height, weight, and measurment of various parts, possibly including glasses and such?

oh wow i just realized none of this really even goes with the idea of 3d or 2d o-o oops haha well i guess thats my debate and ideas for characters XD basically, 3d.


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