bob bobato
L'imparfait
Nothing to add to question.
Is Rise of Nations 2D or pretending to be 3D?
- Thread starter bob bobato
- Start date
johncross21
Warlord
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2006
- Messages
- 178
The graphics on RoN are not as good as more recent games. Does it matter ?
Grohan
Bug-hunter
IIRC the terrain is 2D while the units are 3D. So I would say it's 2D.
cubsfan6506
Got u
2d ftw dddddd
NubianMercenary
Warlord
: I would say 3d units, 2D Terrain, and rich hybrid buildings has 2D sculpting with 3D shadows/details.
Wow, it sure has been a while since I posted anything about RoN. It remains one of my favorite games of all time, even if I don't play it much nowadays.
Here's some information on this topic I dredged up from the depths:
RoN's Associate Producer Paul Stephanouk, posting as "Targa," probably at RoN Heaven; 18 October 2002: "The game world is 3d - you'll see that clearly when you see the units moving around.
"The buildings are 2d with z-buffer data encoded so that they can interact with the 3d elements. You might call them 2.5d. As 2d sprites they have a *lot* more detail without a high poly cost. The tradeoff being that, since they don't have backs, you can't rotate the camera (the game allows for zooming, not rotating).
"So, to be clear, the game IS 3d. We've just done some cool stuff with the buildings to make them look much better then they ever would have if they were fully 3d. We're really happy with the way it turned out."
BHG Programmer Jason Bestimt, possibly in an interview at the Apolyton Civilization Site or maybe at the long-defunct RoN Pantheon; 26 March 2002: "The only issue left was how to get 2D buildings to look 3D (smoke pouring out windows, units walking behind walls, etc). Our solution was to take a low detail 3D mesh and throw it underneath the sprite. The mesh draws no color information, but writes only to the z-buffer, creating the illusion that the building was 3D."
...
How much time has been spent on creating the sprites and voxels / unit art for RoN?
"First, let me say thank you. Calling our units sprites is probably the biggest compliment you can give our team. Our goal was to make the game look as good as possible. Pre-rendered (2D) art can be created with any number of polygons and special effects. The fact that many people mistake our 3D art for 2D says we're doing something right. Plus, the screen shots don't do the units justice. The animations really add a lot of character. Our unit team rocks!
"We're not using voxels for our 3d units, just plain old-fashioned triangles. Voxels just didn't fit the look we were going for."
Here's some information on this topic I dredged up from the depths:
RoN's Associate Producer Paul Stephanouk, posting as "Targa," probably at RoN Heaven; 18 October 2002: "The game world is 3d - you'll see that clearly when you see the units moving around.
"The buildings are 2d with z-buffer data encoded so that they can interact with the 3d elements. You might call them 2.5d. As 2d sprites they have a *lot* more detail without a high poly cost. The tradeoff being that, since they don't have backs, you can't rotate the camera (the game allows for zooming, not rotating).
"So, to be clear, the game IS 3d. We've just done some cool stuff with the buildings to make them look much better then they ever would have if they were fully 3d. We're really happy with the way it turned out."
BHG Programmer Jason Bestimt, possibly in an interview at the Apolyton Civilization Site or maybe at the long-defunct RoN Pantheon; 26 March 2002: "The only issue left was how to get 2D buildings to look 3D (smoke pouring out windows, units walking behind walls, etc). Our solution was to take a low detail 3D mesh and throw it underneath the sprite. The mesh draws no color information, but writes only to the z-buffer, creating the illusion that the building was 3D."
...
How much time has been spent on creating the sprites and voxels / unit art for RoN?
"First, let me say thank you. Calling our units sprites is probably the biggest compliment you can give our team. Our goal was to make the game look as good as possible. Pre-rendered (2D) art can be created with any number of polygons and special effects. The fact that many people mistake our 3D art for 2D says we're doing something right. Plus, the screen shots don't do the units justice. The animations really add a lot of character. Our unit team rocks!
"We're not using voxels for our 3d units, just plain old-fashioned triangles. Voxels just didn't fit the look we were going for."
GenMarshall
High Elven ISB Capt & Ghost Agent
3D terrain with 2D sprite Buildings.
