Can you guess Which game it is?

[Count von Schwalbe]

Ye Olde Flash game. Used to play the heck out of it.

 

[Thimblewad]

Here you go, a pretty obscure game, but I love it and I'm still playing it when I'm bored

 

[Princess Garnet]

Playstation 1 Edition stuff. This is one of the reasons I never liked the OG Playstation. Jiggling polygons and textures that don't line up always looked like amateur-hour crap to me.

Partially because it was. The hardware was finalized in 1994 and this was at a time when the industry was still figuring 3D out. There weren't yet "standard" ways of doing 3D, and if you compare it to Doom on the PC from not even a year earlier, or the Super Nintendo "mode 7", it puts into perspective where the entire market was in regards to 3D at the time. The Sega Saturn had its own approach with quads instead of triangles and it used a ton of co-processors, and the Nintendo 64 was finalized a bit later. That one was closer to what would become standard, but it had its own drawbacks. While the Nintendo 64 didn't have this particular issue, and while it even had texture filtering which the PlayStation lacked, I thought the games on that console looked worse overall because textures looked really blurry. It didn't have enough memory to do textures better than that.

The consoles had to make tradeoffs at the time in order to reach cost targets, and they both made tradeoffs in different areas. You could point to the PC, but that doesn't have a strict cost target to meet, and it has the benefit of being an open platform where you could piece meal hardware improvements as they became available. And even then, what is now refer to as "standard" 3D didn't start showing up on the PC side until some years later, which is a "long time" with how fast advancements were back then.

This behavior wasn't as noticeable on the smoother, lower resolution (and interlaced) CRTs of the time either. It was still noticeable, yes, but not quite as much as it is when seen in higher resolution screenshots from today. And when it came to characters (or held objects), I always interpreted it as breathing, although exaggerated. It was a bit annoying on floors/walls perpendicular to the camera though.

These days, some emulators can (most of the time) address this shortcoming with very little, if any, drawbacks.

I'm pretty biased for that generation of games, because that's where many of my favorites came from, and that's what matters to me; the games. When a console is a fixed hardware configuration having to meet a cost target, I think it did "alright" for something from 1994.

 

[mclaren85]

can restraint myself to take ss from this timeless masterpiece.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Partially because it was. The hardware was finalized in 1994 and this was at a time when the industry was still figuring 3D out.

While that seems like a fair point, it's not true at all. 3D on PC, Sega Saturn and Nintendo's N64 did not suffer from the same problems. And the Saturn came out first.

This behavior wasn't as noticeable on the smoother, lower resolution (and interlaced) CRTs of the time either.

Nonsense. I was there. It was noticeable and it was pathetic. Never understood why so many were impressed by it.

However, we're getting offtopic, so I digress..

 

[Princess Garnet]

While that seems like a fair point, it's not true at all. 3D on PC, Sega Saturn and Nintendo's N64 did not suffer from the same problems. And the Saturn came out first.

The things you're listing are ones I already addressed.

The PC isn't an analogous example because it's not a fixed hardware configuration finalized at a given time, needing to meet a low cost target, and then used for many years later. The late 1990s was also infamous as a time for rapid advancement, so if you look at the best examples from the late-mid to late 1990s on the PC, of course it would be worlds better than what the PlayStation was doing.

As for the other console examples, I never declared the way the PlayStation did it was the best possible way at the time. Many people (and this includes me) recognize this as a limitation, because it was. The other major consoles made tradeoffs of their own though (if not in rendering, then in other ways) and/or came later.

Nonsense. I was there. It was noticeable and it was pathetic. Never understood why so many were impressed by it.

Omitting my following sentence leaves out the context and changes my statement. So you're arguing a point I never really made; I didn't say nobody could notice it at the time.

As for me... I was younger then, so I admit I was just happy with the games I had access to and was more willing to overlook things (or even be less aware of them). Part of the excitement I remember with 3D at the time wasn't in the specifics of rendering; it was more that games were suddenly exploring a lot of new things because the new dimension allowed for so much more. At the same time, standards in regards to thing like rendering, controls, camera, and other things weren't yet "solved" like they are today. It was a time of novel experimentation and excitement, but also a time of good ideas that aged poorly in some regards (a reason why I think this era of games in particular is the most ripe for remakes to improve them, but that's a separate topic). It's probably less that people were impressed with the particular thing you're mentioning, and more they were impressed overall despite it. But I can only speak for myself there.

However, we're getting offtopic, so I digress..

It doesn't seem that far off topic (at least yet) because it came about as a result of an example game with the associated behavior, which you commented on, and I gave context of why it was like that. But fair.

To be fully on topic, here's a game to guess, and I wonder how many will be able to get this without reverse searching methods.

 

[kilo]

Hint: From the 90's

Answer:

Spoiler: Answer

Final Fantasy 7

 

[mclaren85]

View attachment 401801

Hint: From the 90's

Answer:

Spoiler: Answer

Final Fantasy 7

Wolfenstein?

The things you're listing are ones I already addressed.

The PC isn't an analogous example because it's not a fixed hardware configuration finalized at a given time, needing to meet a low cost target, and then used for many years later. The late 1990s was also infamous as a time for rapid advancement, so if you look at the best examples from the late-mid to late 1990s on the PC, of course it would be worlds better than what the PlayStation was doing.

As for the other console examples, I never declared the way the PlayStation did it was the best possible way at the time. Many people (and this includes me) recognize this as a limitation, because it was. The other major consoles made tradeoffs of their own though (if not in rendering, then in other ways) and/or came later.

Omitting my following sentence leaves out the context and changes my statement. So you're arguing a point I never really made; I didn't say nobody could notice it at the time.

As for me... I was younger then, so I admit I was just happy with the games I had access to and was more willing to overlook things (or even be less aware of them). Part of the excitement I remember with 3D at the time wasn't in the specifics of rendering; it was more that games were suddenly exploring a lot of new things because the new dimension allowed for so much more. At the same time, standards in regards to thing like rendering, controls, camera, and other things weren't yet "solved" like they are today. It was a time of novel experimentation and excitement, but also a time of good ideas that aged poorly in some regards (a reason why I think this era of games in particular is the most ripe for remakes to improve them, but that's a separate topic). It's probably less that people were impressed with the particular thing you're mentioning, and more they were impressed overall despite it. But I can only speak for myself there.

It doesn't seem that far off topic (at least yet) because it came about as a result of an example game with the associated behavior, which you commented on, and I gave context of why it was like that. But fair.

To be fully on topic, here's a game to guess, and I wonder how many will be able to get this without reverse searching methods.

The long dark?

 

[Hyderz]

View attachment 401801

FF7

 

[Princess Garnet]

The long dark?

That's not it.

If nobody gets it after three guesses, I'll say what it is.