Sprite Polygon Mix: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

While some games can be nothing but sprite graphics or [[Polygonal Graphics]], some games mix them up.

Earlier games with 3D environments containing sprites had very obvious limitations; single-sided sprites in a 3D arena, for example, will appear to rotate to face the player as they move around. One solution to create a pseudo-3D sprite object with a high level of detail is to use two sprites, arranged at right angles. This looks moderately okay from every angle, but not very good from any; this is particularly true if it can be viewed from above, where it will look like a letter x made of single-pixel lines. This is sometimes still used for grass and other insubstantial-yet-complex plant life that will need to be repeated extensively, especially if it needs to be semi-transparent. Another method is to map a partially transparent texture to the outside of a sphere or cylinder; this allows the object to be viewed from all sides without requiring it to be modelled in detail.

 

 

It should be noted that the horizon and the sky in even recent games are usually [[Skybox|pre-rendered and then drawn onto the interior of a cylinder, sphere, or hemisphere]], since it would be an unnecessary waste of processing power to create such distant objects as level geometry. Effects such as snow and rain are usually also achieved this way, by creating a series of concentric cylinders with an animated rain effect mapped to them, which are centred on the player's position.

 

Can overlap with [[Video Game 3D Leap]], [[Digitized Sprites]].

{{examples}}

* Most pre-''[[Quake (series)|Quake]]'' [[First-Person Shooter|FPSs]] had an appearance consistant with this trope, but technically do not qualify since their environments did not use polygon meshes to create walls. They used various methods to create pseudo-3D backgrounds, with enemies, powerups and decorations being scaled sprites. ''Doom'', for example, used a texture fill method similar to 3D extrude functions to give a totally flat map an illusion of height, though the engine had no meaningful Z axis and did not use polygon meshes. Some later examples used voxels (I.E.: [[Duke Nukem 3D|Build]] [[Blood|engine]] [[Shadow Warrior|games]]) or polygons (I.E.: ''[[Dark Forces Saga|Dark Forces]]'') for some objects as well.

 

* Most early flight sims used a combination of polygon objects and sprite effects; cockpit displays were completely 2D, and effects like smoke and explosions the same. Examples include ''F-29 Retaliator'' and ''Gunship 2000''.

* ''[[Descent]]'' was the ancestor of true 3D shooters, and was notable in that, while its enemies and levels were rendered in 3D with polygons, all powerups and items, as well as some weapon effects, were rendered with sprites.

* ''[[Strider Hiryu|Strider]] 2''

 

* Handled extremely well in ''[[New Super Mario Bros.]].'' and ''[[New Super Mario Bros. Wii]]''.

* The original ''[[Alone in the Dark]]'' trilogy, providing the template for most later [[Survival Horror]] games.

* The first installment of ''[[The Sims]]'' used 3D characters on top of isometric 2D backgrounds.

* Again, the first ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star FOX]]'' game, but this time it was the planet/space scenery backgrounds which were fully 2D, with some tilting and occasional distortion effects. The ground had to appear especially featureless so it would stand in as any generic ground.

 

== Mixed and Other ==