Pre-Rendered and Real Time Graphics - 3D Game Production Blog Task #2

Pre Rendered

Pre-Rendered graphics is a very simple concept that introduced very high level graphics into relatively weak systems by using either one or multiple frames of images instead of rendering everything in real time. When it was first popularized in the 90s, pre-rendering was a much bigger deal than it may seem today, as back then only a couple polygons would be able to be rendered.

One of the first games to pioneer a form of this, and a personal favorite of mine, is Donkey Kong Country.

Released in 1994, it pushed the SNES to it's limits. The technology behind it was straightforward. But the impressive part of it was that the developers at Rare were able to get all of the 3d detail and colors down into a set of 2D sprites and only a couple of colors. This gave the game a level of graphical detail that far surpassed other SNES games like Super Mario World.

Other examples of pre-rendered game graphics utilized to a far higher potential were in Resident Evil and Final Fantasy. Both of these games also incorporated animated parts on top of the pre-rendered backgrounds to create an even better effect.

This type of graphics however, has a very obvious limitation in that the camera cannot be moved freely. The background is just a series of images, and so the ways to use them in games is limited. They still exist in modern games however, most commonly in cutscenes.

Pre-rendered backgrounds are not exclusive to video games and are used far more commonly in 3D films. Same as games, pre-rendering allows for very high quality models and backgrounds to be able to be shown on systems that would be unable to render them in real time. Films take this a step further to be able to create near-photorealistic CGI nowadays however. Some notable films to use this are Toy Story or Shrek. Films like Monsters Inc. that had characters with fur especially benefitted from being pre-rendered.

Real Time Rendering

Real time rendering is a type of rendering where individual polygons are rendered via the graphics processor in real time. This type of rendering is far more costly, but it allows for total freedom of the camera, and allows for much more open environments. It also allows for player interactivity and input responses that would not have been possible without it.  

As I showed already in the pre-rendered graphics example, pre-rendered backgrounds were used to accomodate 2D and 3D real-time characters even back then. The player character is the core of our input as the player, so that makes sense.

One of my favorite examples of real-time rendering being used to it's full potential is with my favorite game of all time, Half Life 2. Different from it's predecessors like Quake and DOOM, that only faked a 3D effect, Half Life 2 was fully rendered in real time.

Being able to look around fully in this 3d environment and interact with physics objects, as well as characters, was only possible because of the advancements that real-time rendering had created. The player is able to make a multitude of decisions, such as throwing a barrel at a group of enemies, engage in cover to cover combat, explore intricate 3D levels in all three directions unlike DOOM. Dynamic enemies that respond to the player's actions would also been impossible to implement in any other way.

Basically, real-time rendering is what gives video games the feeling of being in control, the decision making. Pre-rendered graphics meanwhile are able to display were high quality images at low cost as long as the perspective doesn't change. 

 

Cube World - Digital Art Practice Week 11

This week I added some finishing touches and completed my cube world. 

I cleaned up everything further and added a simple background. The constrast of the buildings with a greener background was something I picked up from numerous references and from real life architecture that I've seen before. 

I added a Multiply layer to apply some more distinct cast shadows on top of what I already had.

After painting in some texture and some additional lights, I had my finished product as seen below.

I also painted one more material, which is a far better version of the first brick material I made three months ago. 

After completing work on my project., I created some more thumbnails for potential materials I can do in the future. 

Overall, this project has taught me the importance of separating my work into different layers, and has also shown me some of my shortcomings that I wasn't aware of. I had more trouble than I expected at the start with the lineart, and since I didn't really know what I was doing with layer modes besides Multiply and Overlay, I feel like there might have been some lost potential. In my future projects I indend to face these challenges head on.

House Project Week 5 - 3D Game Production Week 11

  This week I finished up my project by organizing everything and exporting it into unreal engine.

First of all I renamed all of my assets to more understandable names.

I checked my tri count and optimized further by removing geometry that wouldn't be visible. I ended up with just under the tri count limit. 8000 tris for my main house, and 7000 more for my unique props.

I exported my project from 3dsmax into Unreal Engine in order to finalize the project. 

I grouped materials, textures and my objects into their individual groups to make everything more organized and understandable. This made the project much easier to work with as well.

I optimized some lighting, added a player spawn, took render shots, and further cleaned up my model.

House Project Week 4- 3D Game Art Production Week 10

 This week I worked on improving my textures, and on creating unique assets that would give my house more identity. 

In this trim sheet I included all the main materials I would be using. I made sure to use every material in multiple places; the brick is used for the chimney as well as the stairs; and every plank is used in multiple places. 

I also repainted the textures from previous weeks as the quality did not satisfy me. I picked better references this time and spent an adequate amount of time on them. I was much more satisfied with the result and decided to keep these textures.

                                            

                                     

Since my house is also a butcher shop, I added carcasses of meat, and some sausages. I put these on large pieces of cloth and those on tables. The UV unwrapping of the carcasses gave me a great deal of trouble, and I had to learn a few new techniques in order to optimize it. I learned about the importance of removing ngons here as well.

I added a chimney to my house, and broke up the silhoette by boarding up the base.

I added individual planks to my door.

Finally, I added some medieval era props that made sense to me. They also gave more life to the behind of the shop. This area would be some sort of storage area, where the store owners could receive supplies for example.

Shading- Traditional Art Week 9

  This week I got a start at working with shading. This part of the drawing process has always been difficult for me, and I made sure to work on my technique during this drawing. 

First I made a drawing in order to determine the correct composition and proportions. Making this drawing beforehand let me understand the complex shape of the teapot on the right side. 

For my final drawing, I started with an initial thumbnail in order to have an easier time with proportions and composition as I drew.

First I worked on my lines exclusively; adding line weight and cleaning up whereever needed. In contrast to what I was doing in previous weeks, I now can say that I understand the importance of working in stages that are clearly divided. After cleaning my lines and checking the perspective, I started shading using a simple technique of following the surface of the objects. 

This week has been very informative in terms of shading, and I am looking forward on working on more similar projects later on.

Cube World and Material Studies- Digital Art Practice Week 10

This week I refined the final lineart for the cube world. I added some details such as the bricks and some line weights where it would make sense. 

I used my previous thumbnail paintings and references in order to paint in the main colors first, before separating everything into separate layers doing first a base color, and then a layer for implied lights and shadows. 

I also painted one more material this week, which is just a normal rock.