List of techniques to fake 3D graphics with 2D hardware?

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Kimon
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List of techniques to fake 3D graphics with 2D hardware?

Post by Kimon »

So many games comes with various tricks to do 3D effects on 2D hardware that I don't know whether the amount of tricks possible is finite or infinite. Could such an exhaustive list be made ? Or is the number of technique just too long for that to be possible ?

Pre-rendering something that looks 3D is a special case so it would be just once part of the list.
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Bregalad
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Re: List of techniques to fake 3D graphics with 2D hardware?

Post by Bregalad »

It's funny because at some point several years ago I asked myself the same question !

I cannot say for sure, but the answer is that it's probably infinite. What exactly is "faking 3D" is in itself debatable, some 2D techniques could be considered at "faking 3D" while still having just 2D graphics and gameplay.

A list of techniques that comes to my mind, which are of course not mutually exclusive :
  • Parallax scrolling, fakes a background which is further behind the screen
  • Sprites being in front of eachother makes it looks they are more towards the camera
  • Pre-rendering, just draw something that looks 3D on screen
  • Road bending, same as pre-rendering but with some scrolling distortion to create curves
  • Scaling (especially for sprites), the smaller they are the further away from screen they are
  • Perspective as in Double Dragon games (I don't know how that's called)
  • Oblique perspective (buildings in Earthbound - looks ugly IMO)
  • Isometric perspective, typically using cubes. (Snakes rattle&roll, Tactics Ogre)
  • Wireframe graphics, using polygonal 3D shapes; either pre-rendered or calculated with matrices (Elite)
  • Pre-rendered on a higher-end graphics capable computer, and scaled down to console's sprites (Donkey Kong Country)
There's probably a lot of techniques I'm forgetting about.
Last edited by Bregalad on Thu Apr 16, 2020 5:32 am, edited 3 times in total.
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tokumaru
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Re: List of techniques to fake 3D graphics with 2D hardware?

Post by tokumaru »

There's also raycasting, of course.
lidnariq
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Re: List of techniques to fake 3D graphics with 2D hardware?

Post by lidnariq »

Wikipedia has an article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.5D
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Memblers
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Re: List of techniques to fake 3D graphics with 2D hardware?

Post by Memblers »

First post is a copy/paste of a previous thread.
viewtopic.php?t=15340
calima
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Re: List of techniques to fake 3D graphics with 2D hardware?

Post by calima »

OP is a spambot.
Bregalad wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 1:20 am It's funny because at some point several years ago I asked myself the same question !
Most funny in that you used the exact same words ;)
Bregalad wrote: Thu Jan 05, 2017 4:38 am So many games comes with various tricks to do 3D effects on 2D hardware that I don't know whether the amount of tricks possible is finite or infinite. Could such an exhaustive list be made ? Or is the number of technique just too long for that to be possible ?

Pre-rendering something that looks 3D is a special case so it would be just once part of the list.
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Bregalad
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Re: List of techniques to fake 3D graphics with 2D hardware?

Post by Bregalad »

F---
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tokumaru
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Re: List of techniques to fake 3D graphics with 2D hardware?

Post by tokumaru »

Bregalad wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 10:32 amF---
Funny thing is that you basically answered yourself. :lol: And I wrote similar replies in both threads.
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Bregalad
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Re: List of techniques to fake 3D graphics with 2D hardware?

Post by Bregalad »

I feel like a living spambot now.
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