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Low poly love [WARNING - Image Intensive]

jett

D-Member
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More Tobal love.

Aw yeah it's a Tobal 2 party now.

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Jaeger

Member
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So here's my deal: I LOVE the N64/PS1 aesthetic. It could just be nostalgia. I don't know. But the low res textures, poor or no texture filtering, faked lighting, and low poly stuff is just so cute to me.

I do not love the IQ or framerate. I can't wait for indie devs to move onto this gem. They'll do it right.

I can definitely see this being the next trend. It needs to happen.

Fighters looked really cool back then.

Yes indeed they did!

Aw yeah it's a Tobal 2 party now.

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It's so smooth.
 
Since someone linked some already, those PS1 era 3D shmups look mad nice too. Especially stuff like Brave Blade and RayStorm. Those super chunky 3D ships look great.
 
I love low poly counts and giant, chunky pixels. Like those Tekken 2 models still look good to me. And the Tobal stuff? *swoon*

YES. I play Tekken 2 pretty much every other week. I don't only "not" mind the low-poly models -- I actually enjoy them. Big head mode is awesome.

I love it. I honestly wouldn't mind if they pumped out Resi 2 quality survival horror games for the rest of time.

Man, page 1 of this thread is just full of A+ comments. Lovin' it!! :)
 
I was ready to come into this thread and be all like "nah man, y'all be trippin", then remembered why I loved games circa 1995-2000.

Thanks :)
 

BriGuy

Member
Fix the butt frame rates and pop in and all of my issues with that generation of games are solved. I like the look a lot actually. Games actually looked video gamey back then.
 

Sami+

Member
Yeah I can't wait for indie devs to start pushing this. With modern shaders and better framerates/IQ it'll look legit.
 

yencid

Member
i love the low poly looks. I love even more the things that are made from scratch on tumblr and 3D communities to hold those guidelines.
 
As a huge fan of the PS1 era, yes I love the aesthetic of those low poly games. I don't know why, I just like the grittiness of it all I guess. That's why I usually have no interest in seeing shit like a FF VII remake. Don't need it. It was always considered a great game even with the imperfect, sometimes "bad" graphics. Raising the visual fidelity wouldn't make it any more fun. Not for me, anyways.
 
So much beauty in this thread. I love PS1 3D with its chunky pixelated textures. I'd love to see a new wave of that kind of thing, minus that ugly texture warping of course
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
I am not a fan of really pixilated textures, but low poly stuff with simple shading and simple textures is pure gorgeous. Like these:

So nice.

Yeah my favorite "look" for textures is probably the flat-shaded Sega Model 1 style. The most recent game that looks like this is probably Grow Home. Sky Rogue is another cool example.

Next to that though on the consoles you had to choose between the N64 with its muddy texture filtering and the PS1 with its pixelated textures that lacked filtering entirely. Personally I prefer the PS1 style because well-done textures of that era essentially look like pixel art. Both it and the flat-shaded style exude a cool "video game" look.

Generally, I think the PS1 wins out over the N64 in terms of visual style and aging because the N64 had a higher proportion of western games that tried to push the bleeding edge of realism. GoldenEye looked almost photo-realistic in 1997 but looks like shit today. Mega Man Legends still looks fine more or less.

This is still one of my favorite Low Poly conversions, TF2.
http://tommytallian.blogspot.com/p/low-poly-tf2.html

And then this version of Advance Wars that doesn't exist but really, really should.
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https://sketchfab.com/models/6973f0bc978543008ec193369552b37e

This needs to be a mod or something. There needs to be an ultra-low graphics setting that makes TF2 look like this.
 

Unicorn

Member
I always love these low-poly appreciation threads. Strengthens the art > tech discussions.

Like, I wish as a generation ends for a console that they just open it up for indies to just goes balls-deep into stuff.

Things like indie-scene stuff for Saturn, Dreamcast and other similar "era" designed games are awesome. Like, working within the limitations of hardware to push the art direction. A lot like the early days vs later days generation thread that is also on the front page now.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
So here's my deal: I LOVE the N64/PS1 aesthetic. It could just be nostalgia. I don't know. But the low res textures, poor or no texture filtering, faked lighting, and low poly stuff is just so cute to me.

I do not love the IQ or framerate. I can't wait for indie devs to move onto this gem. They'll do it right.

This right here... The frame rates in these old games could be so terrible. I'd love a fresh take on the aesthetic with modern tech.
 

Those quadrilaterals.

Few other random games:

Indianapolis 500 (DOS/ PC, 1989)
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Silpheed (Sega CD, 1992):
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OK, granted, Silpheed used FMV video for the backgrounds, but it did have that cool low poly look to it. Also, the player shit and enemies were constructed out of real polygons (very simple ones).

Road & Track: The Need For Speed (3DO, 1994):
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Iron Soldier (Atari Jaguar, 1994):
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Virtua Cop (Arcade, Saturn, 1994, 1995):
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MDK (1997, DOS)
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AESplusF

Member
I always love these low-poly appreciation threads. Strengthens the art > tech discussions.

Do people actually argue that? Tech doesn't mean shit without good art.

We had fewer generic games during the PS1 & PS2 era and things just oozed character, I think things will get better once graphics tech get so good that it doesn't really make any difference anymore.
 

Lijik

Member
Most of the games Id post have already been posted so Ill just toot my own horn with a Kid Chaos model I did a few months ago
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Envelope

sealed with a kiss
low poly can look good but PS1/n64 low poly is hideous, like 90% of the examples in this thread. gross stretched textures and terrible IQ are already bad enough but on top of blocky models? no thanks.


EDIT: yeah, basically like the post above.
 

AESplusF

Member
Most of the games Id post have already been posted so Ill just toot my own horn with a Kid Chaos model I did a few months ago
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That looks really good, I just took an intro level 3D course this semester.
Haven't tried UV yet but when I do, I think I'll be doing this kind of work, since it's easier to manage art-->poly and it looks real good.
 

Haunted

Member
Outside of nostalgia for certain titles, I think IQ and cleanliness are hugely important for this low poly aesthetic to work.

No jaggies, clean lines, striking colours and texturing - recent examples like Drift Stage and Grow Home are terrific examples of low poly done right.
 

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
This thread is awesome.

Can anyone post some good Rare stuff from back in the day - maybe some goodies from Jet Force Gemini?
 

Lijik

Member
Actually you know what game hasnt been posted yet i adore the look of? Alpha Waves!!
A 3d platformer in 1990, game was ahead of its time:
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