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PART ONE: WIREFRAME GRAPHICS AND HOW BEAUTIFUL THEY CAN BE.
i've really grown to love the look of Wireframe graphics in modern hardware / modern 'crawlers. There is something unbelievably appealing about the minimalism of straight white lines overlaid atop a void that really defines all sorts of shapes and allows the imagination to run wild by making the brain and the eye process and take in information in a way that is very similar to the effect that celluloid-sourced film has on our interpretation.
it has been theorized by many of the great film scholars that the primary reason film film will always be so entrancing to the viewer or simply put the reason why it will always "look so real" compared to the modern digitally-sourced film is because celluloid film strips were physical material that lack the digital ability to "shoot continuously"; as such there is a gap between every single frame of a celluloid-sourced film strip and while it is something so incredibly brief that were you not told about it one would never know it the fact remains that the human brain can and does "catch" the dark, blank void of the film strip that lies between each frame and when our human eyes are in the process of taking in the movie every time a frame cuts to the next frame we sub-consciously begin to anticipate each void of black lying in wait between each frame and, depending on our level of engagement, our human brain which will be at that moment actively suspending our disbelief begins to fill in the darkness between each frame of the movie with interstitial interpretation that continually unfolds as the movie progresses.
Paper Sorcerer showcases a masterful understanding of what i'm talking about and the developer as said that his primary goal witht he monochromatic art (which he did himself) in the game is an intentional homage to the Wireframe "look" of classic dungeon crawlers.
I think this is by far the closest a modern 'crawler has come to not only duplicating the immediate psychological effect and, of course, the sub-conscious interpretation of the classic Wizardry Wireframe graphics has on us is from the Windows PC 'crawler "Paper Sorcerer". Have a look at this marvel of art, texturing, musical scoring and master-class understanding of spatial interpretation and minimalism in architecture in the video embed, you'll thank me! You'll probably go away from this post and end up playing Paper Sorcerer just from that video alone :D
the stark, minimalistic look and feel of the Wireframes contrasted against the inky black of the dungeon halls create an equivalent feeling of immersion in the player as our human brains are actively filling in the blanks. I've found I can actually concentrate better on a dungeon floor's layout and that I actually exhibit a much greater degree of spatial awareness and orientation of myself when playing with Wireframe graphics on a 'crawler.
PART TWO: AN EXAMPLE OF A MODERN 'CRAWLER THAT LOOKS AND PLAYS BETTER IN WIREFRAME THAN WITH 3D GRAPHICAL TEXTURING.
Here is a another video of Elminage: Gothic featuring gameplay from the post-game Wireframe Dungeon:
Notice how the addition of equally minimalist musical scoring exemplifies and underscores the existing strengths of the Wireframe "look".
Here's Wizardry Empire 3 for PSP with Wireframe mode enabled:
notice how when playing with textures/graphics enabled that everything seems to muddle together? Obviously this speaks more to the art and texture department, i am aware of this, but 'crawlers as a general rule are games that feature long stretches of repetitive actions and long stretches of "sameness".
I think the best of both worlds would be a modern 'crawler with a fantastic art team working to duplicate the minimalist beaty, and more specifically, working to replicate the psychological effect that the absence of space has on our human eyes and brains but utilizing modern-day digital tools for texturing and rendering; simply because the origin of this comes from the strict and exclusive use of Wireframe graphics without usage of texturing does not mean that a similar and probably better effect cannot be achieved today by using it as inspiration with modern rendering tools.
A few modern 'crawlers that allow swithcing to wireframe:
- Wizardry Empire 1 (Playstation 1 / Windows PC w/ translation in progress!)
- Wizardry Empire 2 (Playstation 1 / Windows PC w/ a 100% completed translation patch available.)
- Wizardry Empire 3 (Playstation 2 / PSP w/ a "menu patch" coming soon as a patch for the PSP .ISO.)
- The Dark Spire (Nintendo DS system and it is an officially localized game.)
- Wizardry Gaiden 4: Throb of the Demon's Heart (SNES w/ a 100% completed translation patch available)
- And, obviously, all of the Wizardry 1-5 remakes for SNES/Playstation 1 feature a Wireframe mode option.
worthy mentions would be the some of the post-game dungeons in the Elminage series of games, although they don't offer a complete Wireframe option.
EDIT: YES PEOPLE I KNOW FULL WELL THAT WIZ's ORIGINAL REASON FOR USING WIREFRAME GRAPHICS WAS BECAUSE THEY COULD NOT AFFORD REAL GRAPHICS OK? I GIVE YOU ANOTHER FILM ANALOGY: THE JAWS SHARK.
PART ONE: WIREFRAME GRAPHICS AND HOW BEAUTIFUL THEY CAN BE.
i've really grown to love the look of Wireframe graphics in modern hardware / modern 'crawlers. There is something unbelievably appealing about the minimalism of straight white lines overlaid atop a void that really defines all sorts of shapes and allows the imagination to run wild by making the brain and the eye process and take in information in a way that is very similar to the effect that celluloid-sourced film has on our interpretation.
it has been theorized by many of the great film scholars that the primary reason film film will always be so entrancing to the viewer or simply put the reason why it will always "look so real" compared to the modern digitally-sourced film is because celluloid film strips were physical material that lack the digital ability to "shoot continuously"; as such there is a gap between every single frame of a celluloid-sourced film strip and while it is something so incredibly brief that were you not told about it one would never know it the fact remains that the human brain can and does "catch" the dark, blank void of the film strip that lies between each frame and when our human eyes are in the process of taking in the movie every time a frame cuts to the next frame we sub-consciously begin to anticipate each void of black lying in wait between each frame and, depending on our level of engagement, our human brain which will be at that moment actively suspending our disbelief begins to fill in the darkness between each frame of the movie with interstitial interpretation that continually unfolds as the movie progresses.
Paper Sorcerer showcases a masterful understanding of what i'm talking about and the developer as said that his primary goal witht he monochromatic art (which he did himself) in the game is an intentional homage to the Wireframe "look" of classic dungeon crawlers.
I think this is by far the closest a modern 'crawler has come to not only duplicating the immediate psychological effect and, of course, the sub-conscious interpretation of the classic Wizardry Wireframe graphics has on us is from the Windows PC 'crawler "Paper Sorcerer". Have a look at this marvel of art, texturing, musical scoring and master-class understanding of spatial interpretation and minimalism in architecture in the video embed, you'll thank me! You'll probably go away from this post and end up playing Paper Sorcerer just from that video alone :D
the stark, minimalistic look and feel of the Wireframes contrasted against the inky black of the dungeon halls create an equivalent feeling of immersion in the player as our human brains are actively filling in the blanks. I've found I can actually concentrate better on a dungeon floor's layout and that I actually exhibit a much greater degree of spatial awareness and orientation of myself when playing with Wireframe graphics on a 'crawler.
PART TWO: AN EXAMPLE OF A MODERN 'CRAWLER THAT LOOKS AND PLAYS BETTER IN WIREFRAME THAN WITH 3D GRAPHICAL TEXTURING.
Here is a another video of Elminage: Gothic featuring gameplay from the post-game Wireframe Dungeon:
Notice how the addition of equally minimalist musical scoring exemplifies and underscores the existing strengths of the Wireframe "look".
Here's Wizardry Empire 3 for PSP with Wireframe mode enabled:
notice how when playing with textures/graphics enabled that everything seems to muddle together? Obviously this speaks more to the art and texture department, i am aware of this, but 'crawlers as a general rule are games that feature long stretches of repetitive actions and long stretches of "sameness".
I think the best of both worlds would be a modern 'crawler with a fantastic art team working to duplicate the minimalist beaty, and more specifically, working to replicate the psychological effect that the absence of space has on our human eyes and brains but utilizing modern-day digital tools for texturing and rendering; simply because the origin of this comes from the strict and exclusive use of Wireframe graphics without usage of texturing does not mean that a similar and probably better effect cannot be achieved today by using it as inspiration with modern rendering tools.
A few modern 'crawlers that allow swithcing to wireframe:
- Wizardry Empire 1 (Playstation 1 / Windows PC w/ translation in progress!)
- Wizardry Empire 2 (Playstation 1 / Windows PC w/ a 100% completed translation patch available.)
- Wizardry Empire 3 (Playstation 2 / PSP w/ a "menu patch" coming soon as a patch for the PSP .ISO.)
- The Dark Spire (Nintendo DS system and it is an officially localized game.)
- Wizardry Gaiden 4: Throb of the Demon's Heart (SNES w/ a 100% completed translation patch available)
- And, obviously, all of the Wizardry 1-5 remakes for SNES/Playstation 1 feature a Wireframe mode option.
worthy mentions would be the some of the post-game dungeons in the Elminage series of games, although they don't offer a complete Wireframe option.
EDIT: YES PEOPLE I KNOW FULL WELL THAT WIZ's ORIGINAL REASON FOR USING WIREFRAME GRAPHICS WAS BECAUSE THEY COULD NOT AFFORD REAL GRAPHICS OK? I GIVE YOU ANOTHER FILM ANALOGY: THE JAWS SHARK.