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Why Haven't 3D Graphics Surpassed 2D Game Art?
Thanks to GameSpot for its 'GameSpotting' article discussing the longtime game player's "soft spot" for 2D games, and why, in the author's view, "3D polygonal graphics still haven't entirely surpassed 2D game art." He explains: "In a way... I think the cinematic power of gaming almost took a step back with the transition from 2D to 3D. 2D game characters are displayed precisely how the artist chooses to display them to you. There is no extraneous frame of animation to be found. 3D game characters, meanwhile, are yours to control, so you may rotate them and view them from whichever unflattering angle you like." It's also argued: "2D games handle collision detection (or the interaction between two characters or objects) better than 3D games do... [and] I think 2D game characters still have the capacity to display more-lifelike emotions than 3D game characters do."
Here's something else I've noticed, with rare exception, 3D games to me seem easier than their 2D counterparts.
Maybe its me, but games like Metroid Prime aren't nearly as difficult as the original Metroid. It just seems to me that 2d games are easier to balance and whatnot, easier to see where the player is going to be and to "force" people into using a certain strategy.
As far as art, well, thats subjective. Creating an immersive 3d world is much more challenging than creating a painting. Screenshots don't often do games justice, you have to experience them, see how they move, in order to appreciate the art and work that went into them.
There's some truth to the statement that graphics took a step backwards with the transition from 2d to 3d. The best example of this comes from the Monkey Island games. Curse of Monkey Island looked superb... graphically it was pretty much on a par with any cartoon you'd see on TV. Escape from Monkey Island looked awful, like a 3rd rate fps from a budget development studio.
However, I think 3d has come on a long way, particularly over the last year or so. Farcry and UT2k4 are stunning to look at and I'm sure that Doom 3 is going to take things even further forward. 3d games have to contend with the fact that the bar is set quite significantly higher for them. It's harder to do photorealism than it is to do a cartoon and it's taken 3d gaming a while to catch up, although it's finally geting there.
My particular dislike is this nasty half-and-half measure we've been seeing more of recetly, with cell-shaded games. I'm thinking of Zelda: Wind Walker, Mario Kart 64, Auto Modellista etc. The screenshots on the box look great, but I find that the games look pretty hideous most of the time while you're playing, except from a few select angles.
Two dimensional pictures have been the mainstream since there were cave paintings. Sure, there has been sculpture too, but never in the sheer volume of traditional two dimensional art. It's no wonder the quality of three dimensional art in video games isn't at the level we would like it to be.
The comparison between 2D classic graphics and modern 3D graphics could be seen as synonymous with the change to impressionistic art after photography came around.
...which is one of the reasons Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is still one of my favorite games. When all the 32-bit consoles were trying to get the most cutting-edge picture possible, games like SOTN were taking the artistic/gameplay route. Without worrying about things like model animation, the developers were free to work on other aspects, such as the soundtrack, physics, color balance, etc.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
1. The biggest technical problem with 3D games is that they all have a quiality of origamai. The objects mostly look like they are made of 2D paper folded and joined edge to edge clumsily. How many times have you noticed the seams between facets? 2. Too much striving for realism. As people have pointed out, detailed attempts at human-like faces seem like corpses. Blizzard is going in a better direction with the less realistic but more fun graphics in World of Warcraft. For more info about why comic book style graphics tend to be more compelling read Understanding Comics.
Syntax error: loose != lose, affect != effect, then!=than
The F'ing CAMERA! Do you know how hard it is to land on a platform that you can't see because the camera decided to get a nice face shot? Or having to fire at a boss that's only visible if you stop and point right at him as if admiting defeat?
Graphics wise, 3D games are coming back around. During the PS1 era, 3D games were generally visual crap. We went right back to "that blurry squiggly dot is a save point". Don't believe me? Try playing Twisted Metal. I never could figure out what was going on in multiplayer.
The thing that developers (including you Sony) need to realize is that you don't NEED 3D to make a good game. There's no reason to make Guilty Gear, Metal Slug, or Street Fighter into 3D. They're excellent as 2D. Besides, does milk coming out of your nose when you get stabbed in the chest look as amusing when done in 3D?
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
I think a large factor in the continuing popularity of side scroller-type or top-down games is that they're usually a lot simpler to play than 3D (not to mention less resource-intensive.)
Case in point: I can fire up MAME and Ghosts & Ghouls on my laptop, goof around a bit, there are about 7 controls for me to "master" (back, forth, jump, duck, up, down, fire) and my machine never grinds to halt because I don't have the latest super-duper 3D drivers installed.
This sort of goes into the whole difference between "casual gamer" and "hardcore gamer"--it is the same reason I enjoy Angband on the train, before a meeting, before going to sleep, whatever--the controls are more difficult and involved, but I can quickly start it up, futz around a bit, and close it when I don't feel like getting too mentally involved.
Whereas, when I start up Call of Duty or something similar, I sit down with a coke and my headphones for a few hours and really get into it, as I would with a movie. I wouldn't be able to sleep or concentrate on work after 5 minutes (good luck anyway keeping it that short) of playing the car chase missions in CoD.
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People wonder why folks still play Atari, old NES games, MAME with ROMS from back in the day. That's because games back then had quality game play. I'd bet if you sat a 10-12 year old down with one of those plug-n-play "retro" games they would have a blast.
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I wouldn't say the author is trying to say that. I think the point is more that the art is lacking. The candelabra doesn't have to look the same in every direction, but it doesn't have to look drab, either.
Although, I think 2D in a 3D game is great as cel-shading in proper instances. Wind Waker was appropriate because of the cartooniness they added to Link. I couldn't stop laughing when he was launched out of the canon into the wall of one of the first fortresses. Tales of Symphonia, eagerly awaiting to be played on my desk, looks like it does cel-shading very nicely, giving the game the feel of anime.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
It's the old battle of graphics over gameplay my friends. 3D came about and everyone just assumed, 3D is better ergo 2D is crap. They abandoned a time honored format for buggy collision, low framrate and lets be honest jaddedy games.
Early 3D looked terrible. Just think. Street Fighter II(any of them) or Tekken One. Which looked better. Crash Bandicoot or Super Mario World. FF6, FF7. OK FF7 looed better, but only because of its pre rendered backgrounds.
Game companies figured that people would say, "2D graphics. That's lame!"
And guess what. They DID!!
The new wave of casual gamers snubs 2D like the plauge. They must have the latest and flashiest, regardless of the gameplay. Essentially games companies now sell the game's image. Not the game itself. Case in point. Need for Speed Underground. Ick. Lovely cars, but awful game.
The sad thing is, this will continue forever. Just look at the movie industry. Only the flashiest survive, regardless of actual merit.
May the Maths Be with you!
"2D game characters are displayed precisely how the artist chooses to display them to you."
Yes, this is true. It was easier to fill up those pixels when you had low resolution images to fill. Kind of like how it's easier to fill up a lite brite than it is to make a full color painting that will stand close up scrutinizing.
"There is no extraneous frame of animation to be found. "
None of those extraneous weird things like rotating cameras to worry about, etc.
"3D game characters, meanwhile, are yours to control, so you may rotate them and view them from whichever unflattering angle you like"
I'm not sure if he's pointing out that there's only so many polygons you can put in something, or that something doesn't look 'cool' from every angle. If it's the latter, the answer falls neatly under 'duh'. It is VERY hard to design something that looks cool from just about any angle. A lot of times, you just can't reasonably do it. It's not like living in the wonderful very limited world of 2D where you nudge the proportions around until each frame looks decent.
"It's also argued: "2D games handle collision detection (or the interaction between two characters or objects) better than 3D games do..."
Right... that would be because of the limitations of 2D, makes it MUCH simpler to detect what part of the sprite is touching what part of another sprite.
My responses are a little half assed here, so I'll put it together in a nice little summary: 2D graphics make the world simple enough that these challenges are much easier to overcome. 3D graphics need a LOT more work to accomplish the points this person brought up. Why haven't they done it yet? For the simple reason that in some cases you need more talented artists working on it (more in this context means both quantity and higher level of talent. Not a bash against 2D, but a lot more has to be considered...) and you also need hardware capable of it. It's like comparing a comic book to a live action movie.
"[and] I think 2D game characters still have the capacity to display more-lifelike emotions than 3D game characters do."
This is plainly untrue. Play Mario 64 or Wind Waker, then find a 2D game that's just as expressive. I'll concede that 2D games in a lot of cases had more character, but this is strictly a 'talent of the team' sort of thing.
"Derp de derp."
When you get into the world or racing games, third person rules nearly absolute. Why? Because you have no peripheral vision in first person. You can't rotate your head to look to the inside.
If there's any genre that's benefited from 3D the most, it has to be racing games. Collision detection has improved from where 2D games ever were, there's no sprite scaling issues, jumps are really jumps, and hills are really hills. And the cars look fantastic!
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
I seriously think the worse transition from 2D to 3D would have to be the Castlevania series. The last 2D Castlevania, which was SOTN on PSX, was seriously the best 2D game in the series. The new PS2 version does not even come close to its 2D counter parts. You could also say the same thing about the MegaMan and MegaManX series. Beautiful hand animation in all those games. Then they came out with the MegaMan legends games, which are horrible representations of the MegaMan series. So what do you guys think is the worst transition?