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[FindMyFarms]

Tearaway, it's ported from Vita to PS4 in an extended " Unfolded " edition

Sweet, thanks for the heads up. I like the look

 

[Log4Girlz]

This reminds me of Derrick the Deathfin:

Fun game actually. Chill ost.

I want a papercraft Zelda game.

 

[Hastati]

I want a papercraft Zelda game.

A platformer/Zelda-style game, or maybe something like Okami, where you were a piece of paper that could transform through player creativity and expertise into different Origami animals to traverse the environment, fight, flee, etc. would be a lot of fun.

Or just papercraft Zelda, which would be amazing.

 

[BlazeHedgehog]

 

[sinxtanx]

What are you even talking about lmao, this person tryna telling me to check my vision when I'm saying these two polygons are very nearly identical, obviously they aren't 100% identical.
Chill.

he was showing how one example polygon in the OP isn't using flat shading at all
we can all see that they are different

sorry, I'm just riled up about people in this thread posting examples that doesn't use flat shading in any way

Gems in Spyro are flat shaded

Environments aren't

 

[Mononoke]

Stupid/ignorant question.

But would it still be heavy resource intensive? When I hear low poly, I think it can't be as bad as fully regular 3D stuff. But then some of that low poly art looks too gorgeous.

Maybe my question doesn't even make sense.

 

[Log4Girlz]

That looks so fucking good.

God I want a 3D Sonic game with these graphics.

Or a Mario 64 2 but with purposely low-poly art *sheds tear*

 

[ichtyander]

Yeah, what we're seeing more and more in indie and smaller studios' 3D graphics is intentionally minimalistic, low poly geometry with some nice lighting applied to give it that smooth, nice look, rather than being actually flat shaded. I've been making a list of mostly upcoming titles that have embraced this popular look, been thinking of making a thread about it for a while now.

Here are some nice examples:

Scale

Vane

Into This Wylde Abyss

 

[Spaceking]

I'm still confused between cell shaded, flat shaded, low polygon count, etc. I'm going to research a little bit more.

 

[akachan ningen]

This reminds me of Derrick the Deathfin:
http://www.3dtotal.com/admin/new_cropper/gallery_736/sea_monsters.jpg[/mg]

Fun game actually. Chill ost.[/QUOTE]

The actual game doesn't look like that though. It looks much much worse.

 

[pottuvoi]

You can have a flat shaded textured polygon. It just means that all parts of the polygon and applied texture receive the same lighting value.

Flat shading just means there is only a single normal used to compute the lighting for every texel on the polygon surface.

It's the 'really old' definition from realtime computer graphics / demo scene.
Agreed that when talking about actual lighting/shading, one can use textures with the term etc.

"No additional calculation within polygon fill" would mean a coloured polygon with no shading if you are suggesting there is no lighting applied in that case. That wouldn't be "flat shading".

In old good times lighting was calculated for each polygon. (Thus just inner loop consisted marching from pixel to another filling same color.)

 

[George Costanza]

I like it.

 

[Dead Man]

A platformer/Zelda-style game, or maybe something like Okami, where you were a piece of paper that could transform through player creativity and expertise into different Origami animals to traverse the environment, fight, flee, etc. would be a lot of fun.

Or just papercraft Zelda, which would be amazing.

I want this game now.

 

[Log4Girlz]

I want this game now.

Evilore owns the idea now.

 

[sinxtanx]

I'm still confused between cell shaded, flat shaded, low polygon count, etc. I'm going to research a little bit more.

it's basically all just tech jargon

a polygon is a triangle used to draw graphics, so low-polygon just means blockier graphics

flat shading means drawing the polygons with just one color per individual polygon, the color is determined by light sources and the color of the polygon

cel shading is a lighting technique where intensity of lighting ramps down in sharp steps as you get further from a light source. cel shading is often confused with toon shading, which is used to make outlines around objects. toon and cel shading are often used in conjunction to achieve an anime or comic book look

 

[Acheteedo]

The Witness is sort of doing that:

And Rime is like a hybrid between flat shading and normal shading:

Or is that just cartoony?

 

[DriftedPlanet]

I am working myself on a game with a similar style, sadly it is on hold till the 3rd quarter of the year.

That looks great, man. I'm not at all familiar with flat poly but I dig the aesthetic.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Tobal 2 still looks pretty good

 

[Dascu]

And Rime is like a hybrid between flat shading and normal shading:
http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/RiME-Trailer-PlayStaititon-4-1.jpg[IMG]

Or is that just cartoony?[/QUOTE]
[I]Rime [/I]is not using flat-shading or even toon-shading.

 

[cakefoo]

These are very nearly identical

My perfect vision is telling me that these are very nearly identical

Are you requesting in a round-about way that I provide a more extreme comparison?

Color transitions from light green on the top, to middle green half-way down, to dark green at the bottom. A truly flat shaded polygon would be one solid color. Although the gradient on that tree is more obvious than most other polygons in that screenshot, they all do have -A- gradient, and therefore do not technically qualify as flat-shaded. They could be more accurately described as low-poly, low texture assets in a global illumination or ambient occlusion-lit game world.

To OP: slipping up with the terminology is no big deal. I just saw people with inflated egos and thought I'd take a more humble, sincere approach.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

We are doing something similar for the game we are making, although our scenery models have pixelart textures, so its not flatshading per se. We wanted that minimalistic polygon look, to try to emulate the german expressioninsm scenrey in the movies.

 

[Log4Girlz]

We are doing something similar for the game we are making, although our scenery models have pixelart textures, so its not flatshading per se. We wanted that minimalistic polygon look, to try to emulate the german expressioninsm scenrey in the movies.

Nice. In my space opera game I always dreamed of nice pixel art textures used sparingly. Man you're living the dream.

 

[charsace]

The Witness is sort of doing that:

And Rime is like a hybrid between flat shading and normal shading:

Or is that just cartoony?

They seem to do it because the styles are minimalist so they can look similar.

A great example of Flat Shaded is Tobal 1. Still one of SE's better looking games.

 

[oneida]

Not sure why the OP decided to randomly shit on Virtua Fighter by using a image from the 32x port. VF1 Arcade is a thing of beauty

Was always a shame that the Saturn, being Sega's home console only received rushed, bad ports of VF and Daytona USA.

Thank you!

VF1 and VF2 are the best looking entries to that series. There I said it.

I get 1 from a stylistic perspective but how does 2 look better than 3 4 or 5?

 

[epmode]

I really like the flat shaded poly thing.

I also love low-poly models with simple, unfiltered textures rendered at high resolutions. Kind of like this guy:

(I know this isn't the same thing that the OP is talking about)

 

[Dice]

I also love low-poly models with simple, unfiltered textures rendered at high resolutions.

Yes, if I play old games with lowres textures, I turn off filtering. It's much better than a blobby mess.

 

[thelurkinghorror]

I really like the flat shaded poly thing.

I also love low-poly models with simple, unfiltered textures rendered at high resolutions. Kind of like this guy:

(I know this isn't the same thing that the OP is talking about)

Awesome, I'm so sad the Notch has trashed the project

Btw, three pages and no Jet Set Radio yet?

 

[derExperte]

Heavy Bullets

 

[SerTapTap]

It can really look great, glad to see more devs try the textureless look

Man I hate that "video game fog" crap, really ruins the look of a lot of games. Like Gravity Rush.

 

[Pezus]

Just saying. I'd enjoy making a platformer like Super Mario 64 with that kinda style

Great, when can you start?

 

[ElFly]

he was showing how one example polygon in the OP isn't using flat shading at all
we can all see that they are different

sorry, I'm just riled up about people in this thread posting examples that doesn't use flat shading in any way

Gems in Spyro are flat shaded

I played spyro a looong time ago so maybe I am misremembering. But I think the gems in spyro are just prerendered sprites -like the fruit in crash bandicoot-.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

Btw, three pages and no Jet Set Radio yet?

JSR is almost the exact opposite of flat shaded polygons

 

[More_Badass]

I hate to shit on someone's birthday cake, but that concept looks eerily similar to one of my student games at Digipen:

Dreamside Maroon

I think it's still available to download for free on Digipen's website.

To be fair, I have no idea if Matt, Ian, or Hamza (my teammates on Dreamside Maroon) have anything to do with Grow Home, which I'd be super okay with.

I've played Dreamside and aside from the use of vines and focus on explorarion in an open enviroment, the games are nothing alike. Grow Home sounds more like a 3D version of Foddy's GIRP, as you control your arms independently to scale the world.

 

[ElFly]

Tobal 2 still looks pretty good

I love Tobal 2 but I think it doesn't really use flat shaded polygons, just untextured ones -mostly untextured-.

It seems Tobal 1 did, but I didn't really play it

 

[sinxtanx]

I played spyro a looong time ago so maybe I am misremembering. But I think the gems in spyro are just prerendered sprites -like the fruit in crash bandicoot-.

no they're 3D objects alright - this makes them resolution agnostic, which is why they look so crisp in an emulator

like freaking candy

and since they're flat shaded they are faster to draw than the rest of the game

I really like Insomniac's decision to go with 3D gems for Spyro - in fact basically everything in their Spyro games is 3D, something that makes them stand out even more

 

[orava]

I really like the flat shaded poly thing.

I also love low-poly models with simple, unfiltered textures rendered at high resolutions. Kind of like this guy:

(I know this isn't the same thing that the OP is talking about)

I like this too. One of my favorite games is Quake 2 which looks amazing with "unfiltered" textures.

 

[Extra Sauce]

Reminds me of origami.

 

[Jac_Solar]

I wonder if the reason why independent developers don't employ those types of graphics more often is because of the relatively "abstract" nature of it; while "realistic" type of graphics have a reference, this type doesn't, really. Everything in the world needs to be tied together very neatly to provide context for the player (Colors, modelling, placement of everything.) so he knows what's what.

But, also, the apparent "lack of detail", combined with a coherent, simple color scheme, probably makes it a lot easier to appreciate.

Left is a polygon from the OP's screenshot, it has smooth shading. It has a gradient. Right is the same polygon, but edited to have flat shading- it's one solid color:

 

[jhmtehgamr20xx]

Just saying. I'd enjoy making a platformer like Super Mario 64 with that kinda style:

With proper lighting, nice gestures / shapes and fluid animation, this kinda style could really be eye-popping... especially compared to this:

Definitely not a Winner

You're celebrating an art style by insulting the first game that popularized it? That's definitely not a winning thing to say.

But the style being cool is something we can agree on. There's so much potential there but the way the industry if fixated on achieving photorealism, the rate of games like that first example coming will be painfully slow.

Awesome, I'm so sad the Notch has trashed the project

Btw, three pages and no Jet Set Radio yet?

Not quite the same. The other examples here are not cel-shaded. JSR is cel-shaded.

 

[andymcc]

That looks so fucking good.

God I want a 3D Sonic game with these graphics.

Or a Mario 64 2 but with purposely low-poly art *sheds tear*

ever see the sonic world mode on sonic jam?

this was probably part of the development process for Sonic Adventure btw

 

[laxu]

I really like the flat shaded poly thing.

I also love low-poly models with simple, unfiltered textures rendered at high resolutions. Kind of like this guy:

(I know this isn't the same thing that the OP is talking about)

That is actually just really good use of limited polygons and limited res texturing. It works perfectly for the character.

 

[laxu]

As a matter of fact I think the VF image above would still look great with the appropriate resolution.
I remember playing one of the VF4 episodes that let you play with original VF models, and I thought it still looked great, even somehow better than characters with complex geometry and textures.
Simple, flat-shaded objects are usually much more "readable" than complex ones.

I agree. I would love to see a "remaster" of VF1 with higher poly characters but still keeping that flat look to them.

 

[Fourth Storm]

I love Tobal 2 but I think it doesn't really use flat shaded polygons, just untextured ones -mostly untextured-.


It seems Tobal 1 did, but I didn't really play it

Yeah, Tobal 2 used gouraud shading to smooth the polygonal surfaces. I believe Tekken 1 used the same technique. Not sure if it's still in use today.

 

[Pagusas]

I can't wait for real time GI.
Too bad it won't happen this gen.

You and me both, that will be when I finally say "wow" to game visuals again.

 

[ElFly]

Yeah, Tobal 2 used gouraud shading to smooth the polygonal surfaces. I believe Tekken 1 used the same technique. Not sure if it's still in use today.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that they are gouraud shaded, and yeah, Tekken does too.

I think gouraud fell out of favor last gen, given that phong became affordable.

Google says that SF4 (!) still uses it?

 

[ShogunX]

Isn't this the same technique that Secrets of Raetikon uses?

 

[ichtyander]

Isn't this the same technique that Secrets of Raetikon uses?

I believe Raetikon is completely 2D, but stylistically I'd say it's an analogous 2D style to the specific modern 3D low poly style discussed in this topic. It's a trend that's been going on for a few years now, from logo and web design to motion graphics and various user interfaces. I think it all blends into a similar sharp and colorful look.

 

[Boogdud]

That style has always been my favorite. Been gaming since the beginning and there's just something about that aesthetic that never fails. It just seems so timeless to me. I had a few flight sims that used this style (a-10 attack and cuba on the mac/pc as well as the graphsim hornet series) that just looked so amazing.

Also, all the Virtual On games, so great.

 

[oneida]

I agree. I would love to see a "remaster" of VF1 with higher poly characters but still keeping that flat look to them.

Virtua Fighter Anniversary is for you.

 

[MiniBossBattle]

Jedipottsy's post nails it.

I can't wait for real time GI.
Too bad it won't happen this gen.

Realtime GI exists on a limited basis (usually tagging specific hero object to calulate GI when in motion) but AO can be baked in, so you don't have to calculate lighting realtime.

There is now deferred rendering which is used in a lot of games now.