The characters and environments in Fallout and JA2 are basically still frames (sprites) of 3D models at specific angles. They were rendered once on a powerful development machine, and converted to sprites for our lowly Pentiums and Voodoos.
It wouldn’t really. Hand-drawn sprites are pretty standard even today - whether they’re hand-pixelled (Stardew Valley) or frame-by-frame animation (Spiritfarer).
Lots of the best games were prerendered! Donkey Kong Country, Fallout, Jagged Alliance 2, Duke 3D, the Pro Pinball games, just to name a few.
I do have a soft spot for prerendered graphics.
Technically the monsters in Doom, too.
Most things in Doom, if we’re counting photos!
BioForge was particularly impressive for the time, with mixed pre-rendered graphics.
I am not sure prerendered describes ja2 and fallout (some of the best games tbh). Aren’t those just sprites?
The rest I have not played.
Prerendered sprites by taking screenshots of the models on their single expensive silicon graphics.
The characters and environments in Fallout and JA2 are basically still frames (sprites) of 3D models at specific angles. They were rendered once on a powerful development machine, and converted to sprites for our lowly Pentiums and Voodoos.
Aren’t all sprites prerendered? What is the alternative, hand drawn ones? That would go waaay back…
It wouldn’t really. Hand-drawn sprites are pretty standard even today - whether they’re hand-pixelled (Stardew Valley) or frame-by-frame animation (Spiritfarer).