• insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafe
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    12 hours ago

    Abandon widespread* texture use, return to polygons+vertex colors+in-engine cutscenes (and similar data-saving techniques like soundfonts).

    my examples (2D: created with Godot, 3D: created with Blender)

    A simplified polygonal scene, originally from Futurama scene that's styled like anime. Fry is saying "You and I are enemies now." while pointing at a jpegified Professor Farnsworth. Meta note: The scene was made in the Godot game engine.

    Peter Griffin in a polygonal art-style, saying "I find this... shallow and pedantic." with a smug face and touching his fingertips together.

    The entire scene is low-poly with colors defined using the mesh itself,  also the image is optimized for color to reduce data, resulting in dithering patterns. In a gray room with black and white triangle tiles, there are 6 badgers of various sizes standing and facing the viewer. Similarly, there are 5 eyes floating in the air one of which is not fully opaque. There is 1 banana on the floor.

    A low-poly, vertex color-only model of a tail-less gecko, pathetic-looking and purple under its eyes. The origin lines from the software Blender can be barely seen

    Animated eye

    This was using a feature that likely isn’t viable (for common use) due to performance.

    And for something not-by-me, see Spyro’s vertex color skyboxes.

    The Lofty Castle skybox from the original Spyro. A beautiful sky, with the bottom half being dark-ish purple space with small triangular stars, the top-half with a visible planet and another smaller planet/moon in a blue sky, with the middle of the sky being separated by a line of clouds with an orange/pink glow on the upper half


    * general normal maps are ok, but I didn’t have much luck beyond using generated noise for metal. I even tried some stuff with watercolor, maybe with better shaders it could work but untextured is easier.

    Or another example, any material you can just apply without alteration (for instance, make something look like wood) is alright too. Maybe UV mapping is not too bad, but extra per-model work is not ideal.

    • Broadfern@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I love Spyro to bits but that game/camera style makes me motion sick something fierce. Can we get a compromise?

      • insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafe
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        23 hours ago

        Look at how some of my examples are 2D, motion style is not really core to my point. Many variants of fixed-camera, top-down, sidescroller, even static/semi-static art are possible.

        I mean I guess if you make a cool skybox like that you’ll want players to be able to look at it somewhat freely. Is it specific to flying/camera speed or any 3rd-person game? 1st-person? Can settings help, or is this something that would not work with faster-paced games?

        I do see that less motion seems to help, one person said higher FOV+big display with distance (among other non-digital things)… though I don’t think I’ve ever had motion sickness from a game (though I think I do have some issue related to inner ear) so I can’t be sure.

        I know personally if I’m able to make anything, it’ll probably be on the smoother/simpler side. For example, I made a simple character controller and adding view bob never entered my mind. Probably no filters either.