Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!peter_alau@playstation.sony.com
From: matth@bellatlantic.net (Matthew Hulett)
Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english
Subject: Re: 3D sucks, sprites rule
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 01:43:14 GMT
Organization: SCEA News Server
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>There's a fun discussion on scea.freetalk that started out about
>Nintendo's new system due for release in 2000 that inevitably
>degenerated into an N64 vs Playstation, and then developed into Mac vs
>PC and 'mine is better than yours'.

   Neener, neener, mine is better than yours! [BG] Hey, if more N64
owners took the time to add their two-cents, it could've stayed on
topic. Younger gamers don't seem to remember days when platforms stuck
around for more than 3 years, and the hardware was continually being
exploited to a deeper degree. N64 will never come close to realizing
it's potential.

>Well, I'm not going to beat around the bush. I was in HMV Oxford St on
>Saturday and stood transfixed watching a demo running of a new game
>called Alundra. It had beautful sprites, beautiful animation and looked
>so superb. And it made me realise - 3D sucks, sprites rule.

   I am enjoying Tomb Raider II a great deal. Each has it's advantages
and disadvantages. The thing about 3D action that bugs me most is that
aiming your weapons is either automatic, or practically impossible.
Or, limited 3D, as in Doom.

>Fact is, polygons will always look like polygons. I saw some screenshots
>of Unreal in Edge and, you know, not bad, but not a curve in sight! Just
>lots of straight lines - the monsters looked like they had been cut out
>from the back of a Cornflakes packet with shears.

  Heh-heh... you could mix your sprites into a 3D polygon world.

>And these first-person PoV games make me feel sick and dizzy. Maybe it's
>also the lack of curves that does it - it could be a Feng Shui thing. I
>was playing Goldeneye on a friend's N64 recently and I had to have a few
>spliffs to get rid of the migraine and nausea it induced.

   I am from DEAland, I can't speak about spliffs! [BG]

>I'm hoping the tide will turn soon, to either a more organic 3D using
>voxels or back to the 2D world that got us into games in the first
>place. But please, no more polygons!

   Well, have you ever checked out ellipses? They have an interesting
look to them, albeit I have only seen screenshots, and have not played
a game with an ellipsoidal engine.
   I believe that technology and processor advancements will bring you
a better experience in the future. There is a 3D modeler advancement
called 'smooth skin', I believe, which can make polygon characters
look very real and get rid of the hard lines associated with polygons.
I was reading about the potential next type of 3D engine in a Next-Gen
article that refered to games approaching the quality of the animation
in the movie "Toy Story', but I can't find it... This will come in the
generation after Dreamcast/PSX II/ N128 (or whatever).
   I wish you grew up on Pong, Tic Tac Toe, and Zork the way I did,
you wouldn't be so fussy.

-Matt, who thinks younger gamers are spoiled!