It isn’t lost on me the amount of CGI renders incorporated into this video (perhaps more than you even usually spoil us with), a true love letter to the art form 🥰
The big question is, despite today Big Budget massive CGI, nothing really touch your soul. there still something missing, PS1 to early 2000 era got that blend of Ambition and Passion, it's something that you feel, even today, working with high polygon model, and software kink is very slow, it's like you're constantly banging your head, the software sometimes become unresponsive. or a manual labor like tweaking Vertices one by one by hand to retopology the model, or placing hair plane one by one until everything is covered up can't imagine how those guy managed to pull all of that with weak hardware from 90s
@@jensenraylight8011yeah today’s games have poor art direction. because of the technical limitations of past games, you needed some kind of real art direction to make everything cohesive. now everything from final fantasy to resident evil 4 remake is just “realism” with various noise and grain filters.
@@jensenraylight8011 I think that today producing a game costs a lot... so companies don't want to take any more risks... they prefer ready-made formulas that they already know will sell: remakes, remasters and open world games with online multiplayer... Whoever lived the magical era at the beginning of it all, lived!
I'm glad you included the brief snippet of "Sticker brush Symphony" for this video. While the obvious main draw for the original"Donkey Kong Country" series is the pre rendered graphics; without the incredible compositions from David Wise, they might not be as great as the culmination of all of these things working in tandem.
@@verygoodfreelancer -resident evil 4 -realism -poor art direction If we're talking about the remake I can see that, but OG RE4? Sorry, but that's a huge boomer take.
This was brilliant! I'm an experienced 3D character modeller, and this exact era was where i was becoming hugely inspired and taking my first steps into doing 3D as a job. Back then everything felt exciting and new. I always remember being blown away from segmented characters in games like Virtua Fighter and Tekken 1 became a single skinned seamless body, like in Tekken 3. Thank you for taking me back to that more optimistic time!
Thanks for the great video. I spent these 2d to 3d years at Probe Entertainment as an artist and and then Art Manager. Was an exciting time. We were using the SGI machines for Alien Trilogy and Diehard Trilogy but over a period of a year or so we were transitioning over to 3Dstudio DOS and Lightwave for games like Forsaken and Re-Volt. I was lucky enough to beta test the first version of 3dsMAX. It was an exciting time as all the 2D pixel artists were staying late after work to teach themselves 3dsMAX. All the artists knew it was the future. Shout out to all the physical book authors that wrote unofficial manuals for all the new 3d software. They were crucial in the days before the internet.
Very cool to see comments like this from someone involved professionally at the time! My experience with Probe was mostly playing MK1 on Genesis as a kid but it was amazing to see all the rapid leaps in tech back then. Every year practically felt like skipping several new console gens by today's standard, especially in the arcades.
What a fucking era it was to grow up as gaming went from 2D to 3D. I'll never forget that Christmas when I got the first Donkey Kong Country and played it all day.
I'll never forget as a kid reading some magazine article about Toy Story while waiting at the dentist. They said it would have taken 27 years to render on the average desktop computer. That blew my mind 🤯.
@@manuelkfc7916 It was around the time it came out on video. So what was that... Late 95, early 96? Iirc we had a 66mhz with 8MB ram at the time, that was slightly below average
@@natecw4164 wow, that's some microgram of specs compared to nowadays. Just look at people doing all sorts of things like Unreal Engine 5 on their own home PCs. How time flies.
@@strafefox Perfect renders for the time, motion capture, tons of data cause of HDD, antialiasing, no crisp wobbling Playstation-like pixels, all lightings on. A fmv of KI have better shadows and lightning than shamefully magazine still renders of Sony and Sega that backtrack us to the age "close the ray tracing" for faster renders. 21:23 visible polygons in still render on Nina? Really?
It was the Tomb Raider series that really opened up fully 3-D worlds for me. CORE pretty much instantly figured out how to use it to full effect to produce levels that made the gamer think in three dimensions.
I was born in the early 90s so growing up, I saw CGI everywhere. From ReBoot, and Toy Story to Donkey Kong Country and Final Fantasy VII. It was a very interesting time seeing so much happen so quickly with computer animation. You captured it excellently here.
The line about artists and having to quickly learn and master these tools is significant. I remember seeing a demonstration of Alias on an SGI machine at the time, while relatively primitive compared to contemporary software it still offered a lot and to suddenly have to learn something like that must have been overwhelming, a lot of artists did though. Next to no real thought had been given to usability with these old tools, baffling user interfaces were the norm and if you thought Blender looked impenetrable now imagine what this looked like in the early-mid 90s, the computer it was running on was worth $30k+ and the software assumed you to be a skilled. No real internet to help either, just experimentation and giant manuals.
I remember it was insane jumping from silly 8/16Bit games to fully 3D ones, every game looked fantastic back then. Now looking back, most of them look Meh at best and I personally still find the few 2.5D ones to be the more charming ones, and also those who have aged more gracefully than fully 3D games.
@@CerealKiller lol it’s true. The games that aged best from that era are not the ones which are fully 3D. There may be a few exceptions such as Wipeout 2097.
I’m so glad you pronounced SoftImage correctly. Too many people understandably say “image” instead of “im-aj” (rhymes with mirage). I remember the jab back in the day being “You’re not a veteran 3D artist if you can’t pronounce SoftImage correctly”.
Too bad we don't have a letter to represent that sound. We could have spelled it SoftImaж. No ambiguity. Edit: The 'a' is still wrong compared to what you'd expect, and the 'I' is ambiguous, as well as suggesting the wrong syllable emphasis. Soft-ihmahж. Much better.
I was wondering wwhy it was pronouncing that. Didn't know there was a correct way to pronounce it, I presume it was image given how it was written. Man English can be weird even when you are born using it!
8:55 "The 90's was still an era with a general positive anticipation for the future and rising technology" I will never stop looking forward with optimism
Truly the most exciting time in gaming. I feel so sorry for people that will never be able to experience how mind blowing these graphics were at the time.
I've been watching your channel for about 4 years now. Your channel is basically the kind of tv show I wish it existed back in the 90s and I thank you very much for making it real. Also, your recent focus on graphics (the 80s video, and this one) overlapped with my recent interest in art. Above all, one thing I realized in this video is that I love the aesthetic of the rendered graphics of the 90s. Many would call them outdated, but your video pointed out to me what an art style it is. And good art never gets old. Thank you, thank you so much for this.
Thanks! This was an easy one in terms of music, not being restricted to one particular franchise. Adding the music is always one my favorite aspects of production, it really brings things to life.
I just love those glossy old-school CGI models. Wish they would release Donkey Kong Country 1-2-3 using the original pre-rendered assets, but in HD and not shrunk down.
I love that a lot of the decompiled PC ports of N64 games have texture mods that aim for that original render look. Having Mario 64 actually looking like the manual and box art images is pretty much how it looked to me as a kid before the bar kept going up on 3D visuals
I don't know how younger gamers view it these days but when I was younger, watching a PS1 games Intro movie was such a big part of the games experience. I loved it. It should be appreciated that only the generation before was completely 2D gaming. So to jump into a world of 3D gaming was a gigantic leap. But the pre rendered game intros showcased a graphical advancement that was nothing short of reaching far into the future. It was so exciting to watch those. And when games used multiple pre rendered videos sewed skillfully into their games, such as FF7.... it's hard to convey just how impressive that was at the time. But it's something that has always stayed with me. That time in gaming was revolutionary, more so then probably any other. For a gamer back then, games regularly took your breath away.
The kids ive seen today just skip the cinematic, then 10 minutes in are donfused and dont understand the story or whats going on. Sadly i see alot of adults do the same now.
Cutscenes were used as a reward when the actual realtime 3D looked like some kindergarten cubes but given the graphic quality we have today this is unnecessary
Once again, I'm in awe as I get lost in the history lesson of 3D art and animation. . That's what made the 90s special in video games, we get to see how much the technical capabilities of gaming evolve. . Something I believe we won't really see again. . But seriously, amazing work! . .
Whenever a new Splash Wave pops up, I stop what I'm doing and watch one of the best Game Documentaries on this website! While I was a kid who wasn't in a hurry for games to go all polygonal, the transformations were happening a lot sooner than I thought, and in the end, it was a natural progression. Pixels and Polys can co-exist, and our old 16-bit favorites showed us the way all along!
I know this is mostly about 3D in video games, but I want to give a shout out to Mainframe Studios, who were true pioneers in the field, creating the first all CGI show _Reboot,_ as the video mentions, and continuing to improve the craft as _Reboot_ became more sophisticated, and more shows like _Beast Wars_ and _Shadow Raiders_ continued to push the boundaries.
It's crazy how much has changed within those few years of early 3D modelling. I will most likely always underestimate the 90s and everyone's commitment to the future. I really appreciated the deep dives on how most of these softwares worked and how difficult it was to adapt to them, again makes me appreciate the stories that much more. 27 minutes of pure visual entertainment and massive knowledge as per usual from this channel!
You can literally buy a couple of cheap laptops and run Blender in parallel wireless render mode and have the same, if not a much better result than that million dollar render server from the early 90s lol
It's truly a blessing to have a channel dedicated to documenting such compelling stories from the gaming industry. Growing up in the 90s, I read about so much of this in gaming magazines of the era. Seeing so much authentic imagery in this video from those days gives me the feels and helps me relive one of the most special times of my life. The additional insights no doubt enrich my experiences of these games, both my memories of them and the memories I've yet to make. Undoubtedly one of my favorite channels on RU-vid!
Just yesterday I checked if there was a new video, just to be surprised with one today :) My Strafefox clock is still finetuned 😁 Just started watching it and I already know I'll like it!
Excellent work! You always find so many videos and images I haven't anywhere else. On top of that, your videos feel in depth without getting lost in the weeds. Awesome stuff!
This video brings back so many memories. The 90s were amazing: videogames going 3d, internet, CDs, CGI intros and extros, cinematic games, memory cards... gaming changed every year for the better
Pre rendered CGI cutscenes in the 90s was a treat to the eyes. I was obsessed with them to the point of recording all of Tekken 2's endings on a VHS as well as all RE2 cutscenes.
And it's funny now how we're slowly going back to pixel art. Not only for indie games but for AAA too. Octopath Traveler paved the way to gauge the interest to show studios that pixel art games still have their place. Also, the production value of your videos always blows my mind.
Early 3D really was a wild blend, 2D artists were still flexing their strengths in vertex shading and strong texture work to work around the limitations which created some truly magnificent looking art.
I feel so lucky that I get to watch your videos. It’s always so exciting when a new one releases. The quality is absolutely incredible. This video took me right back to that era and really captures the essence of the art form while educating us on the greater ecosystem that brought it to life.
The arcade version of Killer Instinct was the biggest graphical leap I personally saw during that era. I remember walking into the arcade and hearing "C-c-c-combo Breaker!". It was loud, fast paced and it looked better than ANYTHING else in the arcade.
You are one of those creators that I would mark in the tv guide if this was still in the 80's just to be sure not to miss the episode, and of course also record it on vhs and rewatch it way to many times. Keep up the amazing work
Can't watch this video till later but I gotta give it a like & comment so the algorithm gods take a hint! Love your channel and everything you come out with! I know it's an overused phrase, but you guys really are criminally underrated.
I always watch youtube video in a faster speed, yours are among the only one I really want to gouge myself in and enjoy your rythm and the effects you work on while listening carefully to the lesson. Thank you and i'll be there for the next video and the next and so on
Blown away at how well researched this is and at all the incredible visuals on display here. I lived through this era and it was pretty insane watching arcades and home consoles make so many rapid leaps in just a handful of years. I feel kinda bad for my kids where gaming has been more or less stagnant or the tech improvements are marginal or entirely under the hood for pretty much the whole time they've been alive. Hard to imagine how every Christmas felt like a new generational leap, to see things like NES Mario going to Mario 64 or Sonic 1 to Sonic Adventure in under ten years. It's all quaint now with PS1 blocky polygons being a retro throwback look for indie developers now, but videos like this remind me how cutting edge it all was at the time and how each big jump looked like "real life" to a kid until the next one came along and raised the ceiling higher.
I think an often overlooked component to the overtaking of 3D over 2D in the early 90s was Atari/Namco collaboration that resulted in beating to the market Sega before they made their deal with Lockheed Martin. They were doing research into the entire field of 3D and even Atari inhouse had created I,Robot almost as a test case for the future of graphics on hardware that was readily available, just needed very dextrous programming to get the bits talking to the bops and so forth. That said, the academic area of research into 3D which began in the 60's at some point realized to further fund research they needed to commercialize some of the results of their projects. A lot of the first developers of 3D tools came directly out of the academic sphere in the research phase.
I lived during this transition and it was magical. By the way we kept playing pixel art games normally and of course realized that some of the 3D ones were bad. Still, seeing Virtua Racing, Ridge Racer or any 3D fighting game in the arcades was a mesmerizing experience.
I love your videos, mate. As a graphics nerd, the segments where you talk about graphics in your videos are always the most interesting to me. To have a video FULLY dedicated to graphics- I've never clicked on a recommendation so fast !! !!
Oh my god, i just had to watch this before going to bed. I’m going to need to rewatch a few times, so much nostalgia. I remember vividly at least half of these games as well as messing around in 3d studio 😌 thank you so much for producing this world class piece of historic video game documentary, i enjoyed every second of it!
Another incredible video, and this time on the most exciting period in gaming ever, with perhaps the sole exceptioit's the first or second generation due to sheer novelty. There's certainly never going to be a time like this again.
Incredible level of quality in your videos and scripts, like always ! your channel is the best for me in term of video games history! thanks for all your works !
20:59 Limitations were so important to the expression of aesthetics that when we technologically rushed through to get rid of them we didn't realize that we were losing both. It felt so infinite.
What a journey to the past! I was lucky to be there when the 90s gaming era rised and evolved. Also I've played/seen almost all games showed in this video. Thanks!
I truly appreciate the effort you put into your videos. They are always enjoyable and educational. I'll never forget the experiences of playing Sonic 2, Mario RPG, and Donkey Kong Country when they transitioned to 2.5D/3D. And then there was Final Fantasy VII, which left me in awe with its stunning CGI and captivating story.
The work and effort put into this video is evident from the first second. Amazing work and great story telling mixed with history. I absolutely loved this.
Just want to say that I absolutely love your videos. It’s some of the best content I’ve ever came across online. This particular episode totally captured my youth. You had to be there during the early 90s during the switch from 2D sprite era to 3D polygons to fully appreciate how huge of a leap it was. Back then me and my friends watched the intro for Tekken and Wipeout and fantasised about if we would ever be able to play games with these type of high end graphics! One thing I’ve thought about in recent years: Did studios like Rare keep all the original assets for Donkey Kong Country, before they were compressed down to fit the 16 bit cartridge? Imagine if they released an updated version of the game but with all the original assets. What a fantastic move it would be!
Even though most of these images dont hold up today, it was truly like living in the future during this era of gaming and cartoons. What a time. Long Live Sega Saturn!
This channel is so criminally undertated. Thanks for this awesome documentary like video. Loved every second of it. Perfect combination of nostalgia, new information and entertainment.
That was a great time to be alive! Voodoo graphics made me stunning. The first time I saw Unreal in 98 i think. Just great. and unbelievable at that time.. the fly by scene over the castle.. 🥰🥰
I'm glad you highlighted FF7. It has occurred to me several times over the years that FF7 really was the biggest leap in gaming tech we will ever see. It was literally jaw dropping not only the first time you saw it, but again and again. I had friends who LOATHED rpg's who were totally addicted to ff7 and couldn't stop talking about it.
Fantastic video. I remember living and playing through this era, and following the games mags of the time always spruiking the latest tech that was just around the corner. It was an exciting time to be playing games. I remember DKC, Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing were truly impressive games and the home port of Tekken was mind blowing for the time
Amazing documentary. Top quality as usual! The CGI era was amazing. I love the way developers came up with solutions to fit their game assets into the cartridges.
8:32 I love synth-based tracks. You can watch how it's driven, the first 2 bars use G and the third bar use F# and G at the same time, closing with G in forth bar. It also uses silent sfx and drums in background, serious stuff for an intro.
A critical and curious age/change. I always wondered about the details of going from 2D to 3D and each piece of info is golden. That means this video is a treasure chest.
