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[Risk Breaker]

Anyone else share my love of low poly games? 64-bit era and below? I still think these look good, and now instead of looking good because of "polygons being displayed", or "how smooth and real they look!", but because are now art to me. Aging like fine wine. I remember we had a thread like this awhile ago. Figured we could use another.

I don't recognize this game, could someone tell me the name?

 

[heringer]

Some games from that era still look good despite the low poly count (usually because of a great art direction), but no game looks good because of it.

 

[djtiesto]

I don't mind low-poly that much, but that's only for flat/goraud shaded models. Low-resolution, grainy and warpy textures just kill it for me. Most of my favorite games from that era tended to be sprite-based 2D or with prerendered backgrounds.

 

[Sheriff_Battlesnake]

It baffles me how they failed to re-capture the feel of this Ganondorf in the remake. Everything else they got pretty well, but there's something reeeeally off about Ganondorf.


I think It's the age, they tried to make him older than he looked in the original. He loses the cock-sure pluck of a young man drunk with power.

Really? I like them both quite a bit. Both feel menacingly smug.

 

[ZSeba]

I absolutely love this

Whoa! What game is this? Looks adorable

 

[JNT]

I don't recognize this game, could someone tell me the name?

Samurai Shodown 64

 

[Pennywise83]

Whoa! What game is this? Looks adorable

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates for DS. It's a fun game!

 

[jett]

This thread wouldn't be complete without this:

WipEout reversed engineered for browsers

Its lo-if aesthetic holds up nicely in high resolution and framerate. You can't actually play, but you can look at the tracks and models.

 

[Android18a]

This thread wouldn't be complete without this:

WipEout reversed engineered for browsers

Its lo-if aesthetic holds up nicely in high resolution and framerate. You can't actually play, but you can look at the tracks and models.

That's so awesome. Do you think it would ever become playable?

 

[Unicorn]

This comes to mind.: WipeOut PSX model viewer

Holy Shit.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

I used to think it was hideous but over the past 10 years it has charmed its way into my heart. Especially Sega Model 1 and Namco System 21 stuff.

I felt the arcade stuff always looked good, it was the art direction.

Games from that era that tried to look realistic look like crap today, usually western games. But games from the PS1 era that knew they were dealing with blocky polygons and played their art direction towards that tend to hold up better today. Mega Man Legends is a great example. It's almost cel-shading before cel-shading.

So true. Art direction should be chosen so to fit the system's technical capabilities. And not just art direction, game design too.

 

[Princess Viola]

going through this thread i realized something

i really love the psx aesthetic, but hate the n64 one

idk i think low-poly works better with unfiltered textures

 

[RelentlessRolento]

The combo of crisp pixeled textures + low poly is bliss...

I feel like it can fully appreciated nowadays with higher visual output than back in the day.

 

[Mihos]

LHX. It was unbelievably realistic back in the '90

I played the hell out of this game. I was the scourge of all camels. Can't link rom work, but some of the stuff on 3DO and Sega CD especially makes me warm inside.

 

[Unicorn]

going through this thread i realized something

i really love the psx aesthetic, but hate the n64 one

idk i think low-poly works better with unfiltered textures

Yeah. I never had a fondness for N64's style. PSX's non-filtered felt grittier and more authentic, whereas N64 felt like alpha builds with stretched textures and glossy sheens.

 

[SmackDaddy]

Let's make this thread huge and inspire some indie devs ^_^

I think what sells these styles is quality of animation too. A lot of great stuff in here

 

[Unicorn]

Let's make this thread huge and inspire some indie devs ^_^

I think what sells these styles is quality of animation too. A lot of great stuff in here

Yup, some fantastic fighting games during this era, animation wise. Bloody Roar 1 & 2, Tobal 1 & 2, Rival Schools, Soul Blade,

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

going through this thread i realized something

i really love the psx aesthetic, but hate the n64 one

idk i think low-poly works better with unfiltered textures

It does seem like it was harder to make good looking games on N64...

 

[Kai Dracon]

Awful smeared textures hurt N64 visuals like nothing else. In hindsight you can see low poly sculpting as a form of art. But it's hard to see blurry, ridiculously stretched textures as anything other than a technical flaw.

 

[140.85]

Whoa! What game is this? Looks adorable

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates

Oh man I remember play it a lot on my DS. Good times.

 

[Xtyle]

AKA no idea what game this is

 

[Jaeger]

Resident Evil 2
Castlevania 64/Legacy of Darkness
Silent Hill

 

[Mr. Nice_Guy]

Growing up with so much of this, it's hard to believe there was a time where I thought it looked bad. Yes it aged poorly compared to the 16 bit era, but there were a lot of gorgeous games from this era, and the ones that weren't have charmed their way back into my heart.

That being said, so many great images, so few sources. Source your images everyone.

 

[missile]

Smearing the textures like seen on N64 kills resolution like nothing else
compared to non-smearing as seen on the PS1 for example, yet you will get a
lil more aliasing in return on PS1. So without filtering, PS1 games look more
hi-res so to speak compared to some hard-filtered N64 games for example.

 

[AESplusF]

3D-Printed FFVII figures:

You can kind of tell what they'd look like with realistic shaders.

 

[eso76]

Eww.

I guess these graphics must be to some of you what 2D pixel art from 1987-1994 is to me.

Although i also really like the untextured (or even textured unfiltered) low poly look, provided it comes with perfect IQ and extremely believable lighting (global illumination, good AO especially).

like these

 

[Jaeger]

I used to feel the same way about N64 model work some of you did. But you know, I'm actually starting to like theirs, too. More than I did back when these were new games. They have their own charm to them as well. Especially the first-party titles.

Sin & Punishment
Star Fox 64

 

[zbarron]

3D-Printed FFVII figures:

You can kind of tell what they'd look like with realistic shaders.

Those are amazing. I just googled them and then got very sad.

 

[AESplusF]

Those are amazing. I just googled them and then got very sad.

Yeah it's too bad, I wouldn't be surprised if you could find a download somewhere that's printer ready.

Of course you'd have to find a way to print them, which you could probably get done online somewhere, some places also have local 3D printing shops.

 

[Mihos]

Those are amazing. I just googled them and then got very sad.

If you have a printer, it is actually not an overwhelming process to do yourself.... You would most likely need to paint them also.... I have no talent for that part.

 

[Nishastra]

AKA no idea what game this is

It's OverBlood 2.

I also love the low-poly look, particularly with nice and chunky unfiltered textures.

 

[2+2=5]

I like new low poly stuff, and i like old untexured 3d games, but honestly i think that most of the first generation of games with textures were of an unbearable and mindblowing uglyness, i see here screens with antialias and other effects, original screens should be posted for truth.

 

[Auto-Reply]

There is something with early 3d graphics that is lost in modern 3d graphics. The level of detail was so low that you made up the rest of it in your head, sometimes being very creative about it and not even realising it.

It was kind of like not taking whats presented at face value and looking underneath it, the intention of the game creators.

Modern 3d is so detailed that your imagination is forced out of the visible element... maybe that's just me.

 

[Shrike_Priest]

I love low poly art. But I think the key to it still being gorgeous today is that low polys have to be backed up by great IQ.

PS1 games emulated in high res with some texture filtering can look amazing. And it really shows off the amount of work put into the models. Same thing with PSP games.

It's a shame FFIX's models were hidden behind that 320x240 (or whatever it was) resolution.

 

[lazygecko]

There is something with early 3d graphics that is lost in modern 3d graphics. The level of detail was so low that you made up the rest of it in your head, sometimes being very creative about it and not even realising it.

It was kind of like not taking whats presented at face value and looking underneath it, the intention of the game creators.

Modern 3d is so detailed that your imagination is forced out of the visible element... maybe that's just me.

The games being rendered at very low (240p - 480p) resolutions also had a lot to do with it. The low fidelity of rendering obscured much of the very simplistic geometry, essentially abstracting it for us. Old 3D games played at modern resolutions get a very different feel because of that. Especially emulated PS1 games have their wobbly, unstable polygons greatly exasperated. It was all there in the first place, it's just that we didn't notice it. Very much like how old dithered 2D graphics were designed around poor TV/video outputs in that regard.

 

[Jaeger]

Yep. The original, unaltered image on the left is the superior one. It loses all of it's charm with the muddy, smoothed out textures. These should be viewed as they are, in the format they were meant to be viewed at. They are indeed art. They lose all of their charm if seen any other way.

 

[Unicorn]

Yep. The original, unaltered image on the left is the superior one. It loses all of it's charm with the muddy, smoothed out textures. These should be viewed as they are, in the format they were meant to be viewed at. They are indeed art. They lose all of their charm if seen any other way.

On the flipside, DS games in HD look phenomenal.

Animal Crossing: Wild World blew me away.

 

[GoldandBlue]

I loved the looks of the summons in the FF4 remake.

 

[Jaeger]

On the flipside, DS games in HD look phenomenal.

Animal Crossing: Wild World blew me away.

Agreed. I think the key is the development. If it's designed with HD in mind, the texture work is of course done to match up. But blowing up old games (like MGS) where the blocky texture work is clearly more intentional than being due to limitations causes the models to suffer (when viewed in "HD").

 

[AESplusF]

Yep. The original, unaltered image on the left is the superior one. It loses all of it's charm with the muddy, smoothed out textures. These should be viewed as they are, in the format they were meant to be viewed at. They are indeed art. They lose all of their charm if seen any other way.

Agreed, jaggies win. Is it possible to upscale low res games in emulator with nearest neighbor resampling?

Another example from Spyro

Original 480p

1080p

On the flipside, DS games in HD look phenomenal.

That's emulation and upscaling done right, it keeps all the jaggies and unfiltered textures and fixes the IQ.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

1080p version is missing textures^

Yep. The original, unaltered image on the left is the superior one. It loses all of it's charm with the muddy, smoothed out textures. These should be viewed as they are, in the format they were meant to be viewed at. They are indeed art. They lose all of their charm if seen any other way.

I think the textures are better unfiltered, but otherwise the image benefits from a higher resolution and aa.

 

[Natureboy99]

Shocked to NOT see this:

 

[AESplusF]

Shocked to NOT see this:

It's been posted several times in this thread, I need to get around to playing it

edit: once before actually my bad

 

[patrickthehedgehog]

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

Seeing the texture work really reminded me of Microsoft 3D Movie Maker models! I loved that game as a kid...

 

[Natureboy99]

It's been posted several times in this thread, I need to get around to playing it

OK good. I was just browsing the images so I must have missed it. Gameplay is pretty love/hate though...

 

[spekkeh]

It does seem like it was harder to make good looking games on N64...

That's because 99% of this thread is cheating. PS1 graphics looked nothing like the upressed, AA versions seen here.

 

[Jarnet87]

pre luclin model ogre is best ogre. (everquest)

 

[PassiveObserver]

Sega Model 2 era was the height of this style.

Motor Raid

Gunblade NY

Low-poly but looked so much cleaner than the home console titles of the time.

 

[derwalde]

Amazing thread. This is why i love neogaf.

 

[ExpressGalaxy]

CS 1.6