Glorious Pre-rendered Master Race

[Xeogred]

Zero never gets enough love. It looks just as beautiful.

It's a shame these aren't utilized today, but we could see a surge of them coming back thanks to the indie scene and kickstarter stuff perhaps? With resolutions at what they are today, this stuff could probably look mindblowing.

You can often see 2D images in some modern games off and on. I actually noticed them a lot in the backgrounds of Vanquish. Was kind of funny, but blended in it does the job well. Assuming it's the same technique as how the old used them, just at a different level.

But yeah, I would love to see them utilized more and put more upfront thesedays, somehow. Especially if we're talking 2D, I would take this or sprites over nasty pseudo 2D/3D polygon stuff we've seen too much of off and on.

All in all, I've been in love with them at first sight pretty much. And it is a huge reason why I think the PSX has aged way better than the N64. They kind of just stuck to full 3D polygons on the 64, and pre-rendered stuff was way more common on the PSX even beyond JRPG's. PSX stuff can even be better on the eyes than PS2 stuff sometimes.

I think Chrono Cross probably had some of the best on the PSX.

[winds]

Yeah Zero looked fantastic as well. The Remake of the first one just stands out more for me personally because I remember gawking over the screenshots months before its release in anticipation for it.

I remembering being surprised that zero also interlaced motion video with the static backgrounds. I have no idea the technique behind it, but if I remember correctly the zombie in the background in this picture had his arm swaying back and forth:



It was the first time I noticed pre-rendered backgrounds ever doing that. It added a whole new level of atmosphere to the backgrounds that was astounding. It also made it freaky in the sense that you didn't know what was static pre-rendered backgrounds or what could be animated and jump out at you.

[AppleQueso]

^REmake did quite a bit of that too, though Zero really pushed it over the edge.

[emwearz]

OOT made some good use of them, most the game was real time, but the pre-rendered scenes look awesome.



Fear Effect also stands out, not only for the Pre-rendered background, but the art style in general.


Little Big Adventure 2 I think was the first game I remember playing that featured them. At the time it blew me away.

[AppleQueso]

OOT made some good use of them, most the game was real time, but the pre-rendered scenes look awesome.

...that's from the 3DS remake, which used models.

Here's the same (or at least a similar) area from the N64 version:


The backgrounds in OOT were pretty neat though, especially with the whole fixed camera panorama thing they did. I've always wanted to see those textures "unfolded"...

[ZeroAX]

OOT made some good use of them, most the game was real time, but the pre-rendered scenes look awesome.

...that's from the 3DS remake, which used models.

Here's the same (or at least a similar) area from the N64 version:


The backgrounds in OOT were pretty neat though, especially with the whole fixed camera panorama thing they did. I've always wanted to see those textures "unfolded"...

Where did the tall peter pan guy go in the 3DS remake?



I LOVE pre rendered backgrounds. I don't care what people say, for some genres it still works AMAZINGLY well. Case in point: Final Fantasy. No matter how "impressive" HD graphics are, the cities of FFX, XII and XIII never managed to look anywhere near as amazing and "alive" as Midgar, Balamb, Esthar ect. (though Rabanastre came close I guess).

Just compare how "big" Galbadia felt compared to Achadia in FF XII.

Since games have to render everything with normal graphics, they game world only feels as big as it really is. But with pre-rendered backgrounds you had things feeling much more epic.

I think it also still works really well with 2D platformers (at least it looks better than 2.5D imo) and of course adventure games.

It hasn't been mentioned yet, but The Longest Journey had some AMAZING pre-rendered scenes:

......and I can't find any proper ones online :/.... oh well here's a completely random one



Also Syberia (damn gorgeous game and heart breaking storyline)







And lastly, perhaps my favorite JRPG city of all time, Balamb

[AppleQueso]

Where did the tall peter pan guy go in the 3DS remake?]

They're from different points in the game.

[Michi]

Where did the tall peter pan guy go in the 3DS remake?

Neverland.

[fastbilly1]

It hasn't been mentioned yet, but The Longest Journey had some AMAZING pre-rendered scenes:

Second post.

Clockwork Knight has the first that really stood out to me:

Though that is from Clockwork Knight 2, you get the drift. They used both pre-rendered and models. So sometimes badguys will be on the pre-rendered background then jump into the foreground.

[Luke]

Every shot from Willy Beamish: