Pre-Rendered Graphics Tiles Which of the above two are artists at this community more likely to be able to create for me as a programmer? I''m not currently recruiting for a project, I''m just curious. Examples of what I mean are; Pre-renderings such as those seen in Icewind Dale, and Tiles such as the older Final Fantasy and Zelda games. If I was to consider doing a project with either of these techniques rather than try to use 3D, I would be looking to have a quality to the graphics not unlikely the above games. I would appreciate some feedback as to the development time of certain peices, and any extra help would be great. Thanks, Ad

Well, I can provide a limited insight into which to use.

I am speaking with reference to creating a map in a strategy game, using Direct Draw. Tile based maps are good for generic maps. Tiles can be made as pretty as you want them, but the prettier you want, the more tiles you will have to create. Also, tile based maps are great from a memory standpoint.

I decided to do a pre-rendered map in my current project because my map requires a little precision, as far as landmasses. I have been able to make a great looking map in PSP, fairly realistic. The downside is that I had to develop some fairly complex algoritms, because I had to break the map into smaller parts. Also, at this point, my program briefly sticks from time to time when scrolling as the different parts are loaded into memory.

Hope that helps a little. Im not an expert, so weigh this post accordingly.