wild wild rice
Member
I am loving this thread. I wish I could play Thunder Force IV.
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Games that have really nice parallax scrolling
- Thread starter Phediuk
- Start date
2.5D doesn't negate parallax scrolling, when you have different planes scrolling at different speeds to give the impression of depth, then it's parallax scrolling. I doesn't matter, if said planes are made of 3D rendered objects.
Toadthemushroom
Member
SteamWorld Heist, because every single detail of the environment moves at some degree in parallax with the camera.
What's validates this aspect of the game is how the parallax scrolling appears with the 3D turned on in 3DS -- every single layer that stands out in 3D will scroll at its own independent speed, which creates an incredibly convincing effect when the camera moves.
Other 2D platformers on 3DS, like Shovel Knight, don't do this. Some layers might be given 3D space, but because there is no parallax scrolling they "stay still" when the screen scrolls which makes the 3D effect less convincing. The 3D really tells you whether a layer should move at its own independent speed or not to the rest of the layers.
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I'd like to mention Yoshi's Island. I don't have any gifs, sadly, but that game used Parallax Scrolling to create some nice foreground effects where necessary.
What's validates this aspect of the game is how the parallax scrolling appears with the 3D turned on in 3DS -- every single layer that stands out in 3D will scroll at its own independent speed, which creates an incredibly convincing effect when the camera moves.
Other 2D platformers on 3DS, like Shovel Knight, don't do this. Some layers might be given 3D space, but because there is no parallax scrolling they "stay still" when the screen scrolls which makes the 3D effect less convincing. The 3D really tells you whether a layer should move at its own independent speed or not to the rest of the layers.
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I'd like to mention Yoshi's Island. I don't have any gifs, sadly, but that game used Parallax Scrolling to create some nice foreground effects where necessary.
cj_iwakura
Member
M.U.S.H.A. is the king.
That's bullshit, neither of those things have anything to do with CPU.
For the resolution the SNES simply doesn't support 320x240 (it does however kindof support 512x240)
For parallax the SNES is objectively superior, as it supports more real bg layers. Technically it supports up to 4 but in that mode you can only use 2 bit palettes so it's not that useful; but a very common mode uses 3 layers, (2 with 4-bit palettes and one 2-bit). While megadrive only has two (both 4-bit).
However the way a lot of games achieves more impressive parallax effects is by using raster based scrolling. But that's not a very CPU demanding task. Both consoles have a bit different approaches to set this up, but I think that with the way the SNES HDMA table works it can probably update the scrolling layers with less CPU overhead than Megadrive in most cases.
It's really more about clever image composition at that point than CPU power to acheive many layers. For example, plenty of games on both consoles do stuff like full screen wave effects; that's technically the same as 224 parallax layers
In mode 7 you only have one layer. So yes in Super Mario World some bosses like, Ludwig, Roy, and Bowser use the the BG while most of the background is actually sprites
Soapbox Killer
Grand Nagus
I really wish somebody would make a movie like this. Straight side-scroling action and story for 90min.
Man i loved parallax scrolling!
Since Shadow of the beast many amiga games tried to put as many parallax levels as possible, one of the best is Lionheart
look it in action here
https://youtu.be/BoiHk_3siYg?t=3798
Since Shadow of the beast many amiga games tried to put as many parallax levels as possible, one of the best is Lionheart
look it in action here
https://youtu.be/BoiHk_3siYg?t=3798
Parallax scrolling is often used to refer to creating the illusion of depth/distance using flat 2D layers scrolling through the viewable area at different speeds. Fully 3D rendered games, even of the 2.5D variety, don't actually implement parallax scrolling techniques as the parallax effect is inherent to polygonal 3D rendering and these games don't need to fake it.
Klappdrachen
Member
The Japanese version of the original Sonic had extra parallax layers that were not present in US or PAL versions:
https://youtu.be/17P0RkXHKoM?t=98
Looked pretty good in Marble Zone for example, where the trees are separated from the mountains in the background.
Could you name Nos. 1, 3 and 4 please? They look fantastic. I know No. 2 is Gynoug on Mega Drive.
Ah the "posts pics or gifs without saying what the game is because surely everyone has an encyclopedic knowledge of all video games ever" guy
There is always one
DiipuSurotu
Banned
The titles are in the URLs of the pics though. You didn't see them when quoting?
Earthpainting
Member
That sounds about right! It looks like I forgot the link to footage earlier though, so I'll fix it. Here is a nice introduction to how it rolls, for those that are interested. Honestly you can skip through the video and be amazed at its lack of parallax restraint. Nothing lax about this. More like paramax.
Well, 3 and 4 are Gleylancer(or Advanced Busterhawk Gleylancer), a really nice genesis shooter with excellent music. 2 is Gynoug. As you can see the art is quite unique. And after checking the filename, 1 is a game called Eliminate Down.
Klappdrachen
Member
Completely missed the names in the URLs. Thanks! Gynoug is one hell of a game btw. Excellent music and really crazy, otherworldly creature designs.
Well I wouldn't have had to quote them if the names were there in the post
Not adding names is annoying because once those gifs or pics are no longer hosted the post becomes useless
When you look at threads from a year or more ago loads of them are just blank posts, if you at least add the name then the thread is still readable even years later
That's a minor issue anyway, most people can't recognise every single game in the world by pics alone, so is it really too much to ask that people add the name of the game they're posting?
Preshitoric Isle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8gTJkZNxNk
Up, Down, and normal Parallax stuff.
Loved this game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8gTJkZNxNk
Up, Down, and normal Parallax stuff.
Loved this game.
Oh yes, the game had some very nice tech.Man i loved parallax scrolling!
Since Shadow of the beast many amiga games tried to put as many parallax levels as possible, one of the best is Lionheart
look it in action here
https://youtu.be/BoiHk_3siYg?t=3798
Loved how they used copper to change color of backgrounds depending the height. (IE. plant color from green to brown, amazing use of few actual colors.)
Brian the Lion had some sweet tricks as well.
Plenty of layers.
Barrel background.
Man i forgot how impressive was brian the lion, especially the shoot em up part!
Your links point both to the beginning of the video though
Sir Abacus
Member
Even though the Genesis only has two layers, each of its background layers has a high and low layer which can scroll independently and even have different Z priority.
This is where most of the parallax magic happens in hardware.
The cool thing about older hardware is that you could get around not having multiple layers for Parallax Scrolling by drawing every background pixel row independently to simulate Parallax Scrolling. You can often notice this because every pixel in a same row will go at the same speed but other rows go at different speeds.
Programmers/Artists just had to be ingenious enough to make it hard to notice.
Programmers/Artists just had to be ingenious enough to make it hard to notice.
Yes
Came in here for ulillillia, did not leave disappointed.
Mister_Bubbles
Member
I didn't think anyone else played the game Greendog. First time I've seen someone mention it. The game was impressive, with a totally 90s protagonist.
Green Hill Zone sure, but there was always something wrong with the way Starlight Zone scrolled, like it was a little off or something.
WaterAstro
Member
Where's the Odin Sphere example?
Even though the Genesis only has two layers, each of its background layers has a high and low layer which can scroll independently and even have different Z priority.
This is where most of the parallax magic happens in hardware.
That's just the priority bit for tiles/sprites. It's similar on SNES. And no it does not affect scrolling. But yes it can be used to create more impressive parallax scenes and hide the edges of raster based scrolling
JudgmentJay
Member
Ori and the Blind Forest
Muramasa The Demon Blade
These are what immediately came to my mind. So good.
Even though the Genesis only has two layers, each of its background layers has a high and low layer which can scroll independently and even have different Z priority.
This is where most of the parallax magic happens in hardware.
No, not as such. Plane A High and Plane A low aren't separate planes, it's the same plane with different a priority set. I.e. you can't have a plane A high and low at the same time.
As to why the Genny had better parallax, that's down to the talent of the developers. The SNES hardware genuinely had an edge.
Slick Butter
Member
Yes
I should've known Ulillillia would show up here. The man loves his parallax, to an extreme extent.
Hamster Plugin
Member
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (PC) has 8 layers of sprites and you can even edit the scrolling speeds of each of them in the map editor, except for layer 4 which your character is on. It's great to have a simple implementation for custom maps.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
What about Galactic Attack / Layer Section on the Saturn? I seem to recall some really cool parallax effects.
https://youtu.be/N8gkEo3woNQ?t=125
https://youtu.be/N8gkEo3woNQ?t=259
https://youtu.be/N8gkEo3woNQ?t=538
Aptly named too, as you dig deeper into each layer of the world.
https://youtu.be/N8gkEo3woNQ?t=125
https://youtu.be/N8gkEo3woNQ?t=259
https://youtu.be/N8gkEo3woNQ?t=538
Aptly named too, as you dig deeper into each layer of the world.
Fuck that is cool! I knew a bit about Ranger X but I never really noticed that. Nice music too! Dat Genesis soundchip <3
... and yet Syder Arcade does it and very effective too. Breaking up your scene into layers with parallax scrolling gives way more depth impact than scrolling through normal 3D scene. It's also less expensive performance wise, than rendering full scenes with lots of depth.
Puppeteer on PS3 also sports parallax scrolling while having lots of 3D rendering.
ValkyrUser
Member
Mental Atrophy
Banned
Ninja Gaiden 3 had some parallax stages, which was an extremely rare effect on NES games. Battletoads, Bucky O'Hare, and a few other games had one layer of parallax, but NG3 had multiple on one stage:
Terrorblot
Member
Some great gifs here. Parallax is awesome, I've never seen some of these.
dr. apocalipsis
Banned
Nope. It is because of MD's VDP being a beast on that regard. Megadrive has a lot of hardware highlights beyond the CPU. But it is like most people want to disregard it.
It really does. What were they thinking?
Most of you probably know there is a ps4 dynamic theme for the original 1989 shadow of the beast for anyone interested.
I got it from my ps4 - the extras tab - when I bought the heavy spectrum version and I was going to post the link to the store for you but for some reason the link is an error on the store, but on ps4 it worked last time I tried about an hour ago.
I'm sure those that want it if you havent got it can find it easily enough.
It's got that parallax goodness!
I got it from my ps4 - the extras tab - when I bought the heavy spectrum version and I was going to post the link to the store for you but for some reason the link is an error on the store, but on ps4 it worked last time I tried about an hour ago.
I'm sure those that want it if you havent got it can find it easily enough.
It's got that parallax goodness!
in terms of parallax scrolling the VDP doesn't really have any features that the SNES doesn't match or surpass. How you set up things like line based scrolling is a bit different, but it should actually be more flexible on SNES with the HDMA system, and it can do more real layers.
But no it's not particularly CPU heavy either. If there are indeed more games with impressive parallax on mega drive I'd put it down to different focus across the platforms, and also, since you can do do more on Snes without raster effects there's less need for it. Plus a lot of the time when developers wanted fancy effects on SNES they go straight to Mode 7
I can't believe I forgot Galactic Attack. I loved that game as a kid.
Definitely one of the best looking games of the era.
It had some killer line scrolling effects if you ran it in "arcade" mode(Yes I flipped my 80lb crt just to see this lol).
https://youtu.be/1_OcMm439tM?t=234
Elfforkusu
Member
Thanks, I totally forgot about that.