29th November 2004, 10:52 PM
Oh GR, I meant the data is just a big 1D stream, no dimensions to it except that it's a connected line from outlet to ground.
So what I mean is Doom is 3D because it looks 3D to your eyes. Now the fact that, in playing it, you realize that there are NO "underneath the stairs" areas, and that whenever you go up or down, elevators are used or other things since it's impossible to have two different height levels directly on top of each other, shows you that in some ways the gameplay is 3D (a wall can get in your way and you can take stairs to get over it), but in a major way it's 2D (If you are on the "second story", the floor below you can't possibly have monsters on it, not until you, ego, lower the active floor TO that level, so in other words no creepy climbing down stairs and then suddenly a monster hiding under the stair case comes after you moments). Purely graphically, it's 3D because that's what it looks like except for the actual sprites, which are 2D layered in a 3D environment.
Now with Duke3D, they actually allowed true 3D because, even though everything was still sprites layered in 3D space, you could actually be a floor above some real action instead of a floor above null space until you lowered the entire floor. Thus, they could actually add a spiral staircase that eventually looped above itself! Amazing!
And then polygons came along, they made 3D space something that could actually make STUFF 3D. Of course, a polygon is still just a 2D triangle. And, the whole way they are done in 3D is just, well, perhaps the best comparison would be to paralax scrolling... Well, no not really, VERY different... but in the sense that far away things look far away to you, but it's all just a trick, they are similar. But when you get down to it, 2D is just an illusion.
And big guy yeah I'm fine with 2.5D. Kirby 64 was like that in gameplay terms since while it was all just running in a single plane, sometimes it curved around mountains and stuff, and when you shot bullets, they also curved around. Also, if kirby tried using a straight edge to measure the curve, it woudl curve too, because ether is something that's intrinsically impossible to prove.
So what I mean is Doom is 3D because it looks 3D to your eyes. Now the fact that, in playing it, you realize that there are NO "underneath the stairs" areas, and that whenever you go up or down, elevators are used or other things since it's impossible to have two different height levels directly on top of each other, shows you that in some ways the gameplay is 3D (a wall can get in your way and you can take stairs to get over it), but in a major way it's 2D (If you are on the "second story", the floor below you can't possibly have monsters on it, not until you, ego, lower the active floor TO that level, so in other words no creepy climbing down stairs and then suddenly a monster hiding under the stair case comes after you moments). Purely graphically, it's 3D because that's what it looks like except for the actual sprites, which are 2D layered in a 3D environment.
Now with Duke3D, they actually allowed true 3D because, even though everything was still sprites layered in 3D space, you could actually be a floor above some real action instead of a floor above null space until you lowered the entire floor. Thus, they could actually add a spiral staircase that eventually looped above itself! Amazing!
And then polygons came along, they made 3D space something that could actually make STUFF 3D. Of course, a polygon is still just a 2D triangle. And, the whole way they are done in 3D is just, well, perhaps the best comparison would be to paralax scrolling... Well, no not really, VERY different... but in the sense that far away things look far away to you, but it's all just a trick, they are similar. But when you get down to it, 2D is just an illusion.
And big guy yeah I'm fine with 2.5D. Kirby 64 was like that in gameplay terms since while it was all just running in a single plane, sometimes it curved around mountains and stuff, and when you shot bullets, they also curved around. Also, if kirby tried using a straight edge to measure the curve, it woudl curve too, because ether is something that's intrinsically impossible to prove.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)