I've seen many and played many 3-d games since the PSX era and i never seen them any different so whats the difference?

Prerendered is something that isn't done in real time. I'm guessing by 3d you mean in game (two different things) and that means that it is being done in real time.

Uhm...

Pre-Rendered means the backdrop, or certain assets of the scene are already rendered to a set location, and cannot move, change, or have any changing properties (for the most part).

PSX games used this VERY heavily since it was easy to use the vast amounts of space that PSX CDs had, to make the graphically inferior CPU/GPU "look" better compared to other games on the N64, and somewhat on the Saturn. FFVII and RE 1-3 were great titles that used it.

A game fully produced in 3d has no such properties - each object can be seen, and viewed from each and every side, and has to be rendered on the fly depending on where the camera is.


Easiest way to explain it is that your comparing a painting, to a person. One is flat, the other isn't.

Ah lol, I thought he meant cut scenes >_>

Also, think about some parts in Zelda Ocarina of Time, like the Castle Town. It was a pre-rendered background in 2D and your character moved over it.

Two good examples of it would probably be FFVII and FFXII

See the backround. That is pre-rendered. See the characters and stage.They are not.  It takes alot less power to produce a prerendered picture.  

So do you mean that game developers used the same technique as animators to save space and money in using celloids or something dunno the term what animators used in doing animations?

HOW? I can see happening in counter strike, you can even change the backgrounds but I cant understand it in FFVII and Resident Evil series, seem its a part of the environments to me.

I think there is a little bit of confusion on what exactly pre rendered scenes are.

@OP, if you are ever in doubt , use wikipedia, the source for everything.


I would answer your question or try to; but I really don't understand what you are trying to ask.

^ The posters here already answers some of my questions, the problem is how Resident Evil series and FFVII have pre-rendered backgrounds. Resident Evil games have small map to be pre-rendered anyway, and most objects there can be touch or interact with the character so I dunno what pre-rendered and whatnot.

And yeah, I dont trust wikipedia that much anymore, theyre not reliable they always edit their article every 5 days or weekly :)