Starscape 3D or 2D?

[Fost]

[Lothar]

Are you talking about making it 3D in the same sense that, say, War3 or Dungeon Siege are 3D? Meaning, essentially, all the action still happens in a 2D way and you can only move 2D, but everything is rendered 3D?

If so, here are a couple thoughts:

1) 3D games with fixed camera angles aren't 3D in any meaningful sense. Everything has been pre-rendered down to 2D sprites, and they'll always show up the same because they're being viewed from the same angle. In this case, you've basically got what you have now, so why change it?

2) allowing player-controlled camera angles introduces a whole new set of controls -- how do you zoom in and out? How do you make the angle steeper or shallower? How do you get the action you WANT on the screen? Will controlling the camera distract the player from playing the game?

3) NOT allowing the player to control the camera angle -- having it computer-controlled somehow -- is hella annoying. I hate when I'm moving around in DS2 and the computer decides the camera just HAS to be at some angle other than the one I had it at, so I get a sudden extreme closeup of my party when what I want is a far-off view so I can see everything. But, I can't have that angle because there's a wall there, and the computer just isn't smart enough to not render it, but it's smart enough to zoom past it. UGH.

I love Starscape, in large part, for its simplicity. I use a grand total of 8 keys all game. If you introduce a camera I can move, suddenly I'm using 14 keys (6 new ones are: zoom in/out, turn left/right, pitch up/down) and if you make the computer control it I have to deal with the complication of figuring out how the computer makes its choices so I can change my game style to make the camera behave for me. Neither one of these sounds like a good move. I'll stick with 2D, thanks very much.

[Magnulus]

[Fost]

[Lothar]

[icarus]

[MrPete]

Ever played baldurs gate 2?

Try rendering that realtime.

2d sprites allow you to have 500 one million polyon ships blasting around an firing at once.

The most starscape would gain is lighting, which you're really gonna see when being swarmed by fighters.

I think it'd be better to create new and more varied content (beam enemies? missile enemys [not big rocket things]? stealth enemies?) rather than building a new engine to do a possibly inferior job.

The game runs well for me, even with music on in the background, even with shedloads of enemies ingame. This is good.

Pre-rendered 3d sprites look as good as you make em, and these look good.

In my humble opinion of course.

[Magnulus]

Well, part of the allure of 3D graphics is that you have full fluidity of movement, which is something you just don't get in pre-rendered graphics without spending several hundred megabytes on different viewpoints, etc. of each and every character and item.

[Rup]

and there's subtle effects you can add such as rocking a ship slightly when it gets hit or washing particle effects across models more convincingly. Asteroids can roll around in full 3D and destroyed ships could twist a bit as they blow up. You'd get all of this effectively for free. And it should also make the game smaller which could be important e.g. in the 360 Live Arcade port

I'd rather not see proper 3D lighting though without a decent level of ambient light (to keep things simple and easy to play) unless e.g. you want to make a gameplay mechanic out of ships hiding in the shadows of asteroids. I also think you'd have trouble making the worms and some of the boss effects (e.g. the cutting disc trails) look as good in 3D rather than just 2D. And the characters and the in-Aegis screens are cartoonish which might not fit as well with real 3D graphics.

I'm sure you guys could pull this off if you wanted to but I don't see a compelling reason to change.

[DogBoy]

Definitely 2D. It just looks nicer.

[Fost]

Check out reviews of Loco Roco to see what I am talking about.

I will state now that ANYONE who gives that game less 10 for its graphics is AN IDIOT.

The reviews drive me nuts - "well, it's only 2D, so you might not really like it."

IDIOT! do you think you've been short changed because you are missing a D? Perhaps the Mona Lisa isn't really that satisfying because it isn't in IMAX 3D? you MORON!

Loco Roco, for the platform, the style of game, and the style of graphics they have chosen, IS PERFECT.

No arguments - I can prove it using a calculator.



..sorry, lost it a bit there

[Chibi]

You tell 'em Fosteyboy!

Everybody else, GO CHECK IT OUT!

[Doom III]

evryone is right and everyone is wrong


anyone play the airstrike series

worst___game____EVER!

but the review i read thought it was the best thing hed seen

i mean did they play ANY shootemp before they played that that THING


people want no people expect no people DEMAND 3D wether its good for them or not

we all know the world is messed up

[LT. JamesWolf]

Hmm, 3-D does allow for much greater manueverability, In 2-D you can't hug the deck of an enemy ship at full speed or pull fancy manuevers. Of course I'm just speakig from the POV of an adrenaline junky who wats a new playground to do his suicidal piloting in.

[Fost]