Pre-rendered Backgrounds (And why they're your computer's friends!)

Video games are fun. They also contain a lot of polygons. We like polygons, they look nice! But computers (this includes game systems) don't like polygons. They take time and energy to render, and in a game, things are rendering all the time!

 Why does a game from 2002 look so much better than one from 1996? Well, a big part of that is what the computers at the time were able to do. Games today have crazy high polycounts (that's how many polygons) compared to games from even just 5 years ago.

So, where do the polygons begin? Is it with the Vectrex? That thing did have some rockin' vector graphics.

The Vectrex's rockin' vector graphics in action

Others contest that is was 1992's survival horror game, "Alone in The Dark" for DOS and later the 3DO.

Alone in the dark was ambitious. It had fully animated 3D models for characters, enemies, items, all sorts of things.

So, part of what made Alone in The Dark possible, was the use of pre-rendered backgrounds. This means that the background does not move with the game, but rather is a still image or series of images. This allowed for vibrant, 3D looking backgrounds.

Pre-rendered backgrounds were most common in DOS/PC, Playstation and various Saturn games of the 90s and early 2000s.

Pre-rendered backgrounds are still used today, often in indie games. Scott Cawthon (Who I've mentioned before) uses them in all of his games.

Today, the use of a pre-rendered background may be a stylistic choice as opposed to a limitations one. It's a clever way to get more polygon bang for your buck that today is seen as iconic of those games of old. To close, here's some awesome examples of pre-rendered backgrounds old and new.

Super Mario RPG 1996

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 2014

Darkseed 2 1995

Septemberween spotlight: Five Nights at Freddy's

With Fall upon us, it is time to prepare for the best time of the year, Halloween. Lobotomizing pumpkins, crunching leaves, and all things spooky have their time in the sun. So, what should we look at to get in that Septemberween spirit? Scary video games of course!

                                               Meet Scott Cawthon's Five Night's at Freddy's

Taking place at a Chuck-E-Cheese Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, you play as the night watchman tasked with looking over the place from 12 to 6 am. But be warned! The animatronics don't take too kindly to you, and if they get you, well, you die.

Looks pretty good right? But what if I were to tell you that everything in the game was 2D?
Five Night's at Freddy's was made in an engine called Multimedia Fusion, which is a 2D game engine. The game itself is actually a 2D point and click, styled to look 3D. The graphical style is reminiscent of the point and click computer games of the 1990's

Darkseed II, 1995

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, 1995

Every possible action and outcome in Five Nights at Freddy's is pre-rendered. The fully animated parts (which tend to be the parts right before you die) are gifs, and not a character moving in real time. The textures and shading of the characters and environments make them look remarkably 3D.

If you see this in-game, you're good as dead.

Most of the character movement happens off screen, adding to the terror and subtlety of the game. Nothing moves so long as you watch it, but you can only watch one camera at once, and it eats up your limited power. 

Each of the animatronics has its own AI, resulting in each one having different tactics. For only 5 bucks on steam, even to just look through the game's files at the superb art, Five Night's at Freddy's is worth a look. If you don't feel up to the spooktacular challenge and would rather watch other people play it and freak out, there's plenty of that too. 

Happy Septemberween, everybody.