Well hopefully that got your attention. There is an old animated 3D porn game around that you've all probably seen called 3D Sex Villa by Threexxx. Probably circa 1994. The game is crap but there is something about it that really intrigues me. You've all told me on here how it is impossible to get clean animation with high polygon count meshes and how the bigger the sprite the poorer the animation etc... etc. So what I want to know is how come way, way, way, back in 1994 some bunch of porn clowns could get such clear animation of 3D Models and how they do it???? I would really, really like to know how that animation is done. Not for porn but just to know how they get a high polygon mesh of any type and of that size to animate cleanly. Everybody on here keeps telling me it can't be done yet I have this old cheap and nasty game that did it way back in 1994. Well that's what it looks like anyway. If you haven't seen the game and can't find it on the net then let me know and I'll try to find the installer I have for it somewhere. Am I allowed to upload the cracked version for people to check out? -m0ng00se (NZ)

It was probably pre-rendered.

I have never seen the game before (which is understandable since I was 14), but there are a number of ways I am betting it can be done. From you description I just assume low polygon model with very smooth animation. Simple and easiest way is the way Quake games did it. All you do is basically make key frames of the model and then interpolate (using b-spline or another method) through the frames. If it was dynamic animation then I am going to assume they used a simple bone/skin system. There are a lot of amazing methods people have come up with that are quite genious.

Yeah, I am going to stick with my gut on this one after seeing a screenshot:

NSFW

[Edited by - Ravuya on January 3, 2008 10:43:58 PM]

Yeah, definitely looks pre-rendered, you should be able to get a real time render to look like that (or very close) with today's normal maps. Now, real time sub surface scattering, that would be nice. [smile]

Okay I can see you all know what I'm talking about so I have a few questions for you experts (I am a total newbie just learning this stuff).

If pre-rendering gives you that clarity and speed then why aren't all games pre-rendered? I realise that is probably a really stupid question but I'm more familiar with 2D stuff where I pre-render all my sprites anyway.

And how do you pre-render a whole animation anyway? Can somebody point me at a tutorial or something that describes what you guys are talking about. I understand the "on the fly" rendering built into most modern game engines but I know nothing about pre-rendering a whole action sequence. Surely that would slow the game down a lot?

I want to learn how to do a clear animation like in 3D Sex Villa with big 3D models that look nearly real but not porn. More a guy sitting at a bar drinking a beer for example. I write chatterbot AI stuff, so for example you could then go into the bar and chat to my beer drinking animated sprite using my AI engine.

Just to give you an idea of what I'm trying to do here.

-m0ng00se (NZ)

Actually looking at other screen captures it may not be pre-rendered, are you able to move (orbit) the camera freely? if so, then its not pre-rendered.

Quote:
If pre-rendering gives you that clarity and speed then why aren't all games pre-rendered? I realise that is probably a really stupid question but I'm more familiar with 2D stuff where I pre-render all my sprites anyway.

Many reasons, pre-rendered assets take a whole lot more disk space than 3D assets, you are stuck with a single camera angle, it takes more time to produce, etc.