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[Oberstein]

A really interesting full article on pre-rendered backgrounds: https://www.jmeiners.com/pre-rendered-backgrounds/

Lots of examples for FF7 : imgur.com/a/ff7-backgrounds-shRaP

And for FF8: imgur.com/a/ff8-backgrounds-Jp9AY

And upscaled images for Legend of Dragoon: https://imgur.com/gallery/legend-of-dragoon-upscaled-gallery-1-rgZYcVA

Legend of Dragoon Upscaled Gallery 2

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users like meshivir.

imgur.com

Sogood.gif

Beyond the timeless beauty, I'd almost forgotten how imaginative the JRPGs of those years were. With every setting, there's a style, ideas, bold angles and so on.

 

[Trilobit]

A really interesting full article on pre-rendered backgrounds: https://www.jmeiners.com/pre-rendered-backgrounds/

Lots of examples for FF7 : imgur.com/a/ff7-backgrounds-shRaP

And for FF8: imgur.com/a/ff8-backgrounds-Jp9AY

And upscaled images for Legend of Dragoon: https://imgur.com/gallery/legend-of-dragoon-upscaled-gallery-1-rgZYcVA

Legend of Dragoon Upscaled Gallery 2

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users like meshivir.

imgur.com

Sogood.gif

Beyond the timeless beauty, I'd almost forgotten how imaginative the JRPGs of those years were. With every setting, there's a style, ideas, bold angles and so on.

I wouldn't mind more games like this on Switch 2. I love this kind of style on handhelds.

Edit: The contrast on some of the link pics are absolutely gorgeous! My favourites:

Spoiler: Pics

 

[Alexios]

Why did they limit it to PS like it did something special or different compared to the other platforms of that era in regards to that? Pre-rendered is pre-rendered, it was cool when done well on any system, like in all the PC point & click games (that probably popularised its use) or even CRPGs.

 

[adamsapple]

A really interesting full article on pre-rendered backgrounds: https://www.jmeiners.com/pre-rendered-backgrounds/

Lots of examples for FF7 : imgur.com/a/ff7-backgrounds-shRaP

And for FF8: imgur.com/a/ff8-backgrounds-Jp9AY

And upscaled images for Legend of Dragoon: https://imgur.com/gallery/legend-of-dragoon-upscaled-gallery-1-rgZYcVA

Legend of Dragoon Upscaled Gallery 2

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users like meshivir.

imgur.com

Sogood.gif

Beyond the timeless beauty, I'd almost forgotten how imaginative the JRPGs of those years were. With every setting, there's a style, ideas, bold angles and so on.

Wish it was possible to mod these into the PSX ISO's somehow, for emulation cases like Legend of Dragoon that don't have PC versions.

 

[Unknown?]

Love his channel

I wish modern JRPGs went this route

You could take it further with these modern Consoles/PCs

Prerendered backgrounds could be completely photorealistic. Look at scapes on GT7, putting a 3D car in a real photograph. This could be done in a jrpg with today's technology and look amazing!

 

[Celine]

Baten Kaitos has gourgeous pre-rendered backgrounds:

It's insane how good it looked at the time, it made the leap from SNES to PS1 feel much bigger. As, even with the SNES having games like DKC using similar techniques, the overlap of the 3D models above those backgrounds made everything come together beautifully.

The polygonal models on top were useful to allow different camera angles from screen to screen, and of course the higher number of colours on screen enhanced the quality of the assets displayed on video, but the number one difference between CGI graphics on SNES and PS1 (aside the obvious of software tools to produce CGI improving over time) is that on SNES developers were limited on the storage front so they converted the CGI graphics in chunks of tiles and put them together on screen, repeating a lot of objects, to create the backgrounds instead the CGI backgrounds on PS1 games were big images full of any sort of unique details and with sporadic animations to lively up the scene.
Compare Squaresoft first RPG fully in CGI that happened on SNES (Super Mario RPG, 1996) with Squaresoft first RPG on PS1 (Final Fantasy VII, 1997) and the first thing it's immediately noticeable is that the former had to repeat a lot of CGI objects to compose the scene whereas the latter crancked up the level of unique details:

 

[rsouzadk]

The fondest memories I have are from FF8 on the PS1. The graphics, the music, the aesthetic—everything was just brilliant.

 

[Oberstein]

I wouldn't mind more games like this on Switch 2. I love this kind of style on handhelds.

Edit: The contrast on some of the link pics are absolutely gorgeous! My favourites:

Spoiler: Pics

I hope they won't be forgotten. Seeing upscaled pre-rendered again shows how it still has a future.
And yes, the Legend of Dragoon ones are pretty incredible.

Why did they limit it to PS like it did something special or different compared to the other platforms of that era in regards to that? Pre-rendered is pre-rendered, it was cool when done well on any system, like in all the PC point & click games (that probably popularised its use) or even CRPGs.

Let's just say that the PS1 JRPGs made a big impression, and that doesn't take away from what was done on PC, but my memory retains the PS1 ones more easily.

Wish it was possible to mod these into the PSX ISO's somehow, for emulation cases like Legend of Dragoon that don't have PC versions.

I don't despair of seeing a LoD remake one of these days, but it would be nice, yes...

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Baten Kaitos has gourgeous pre-rendered backgrounds:

The polygonal models on top were useful to allow different camera angles from screen to screen, and of course the higher number of colours on screen enhanced the quality of the assets displayed on video, but the number one difference between CGI graphics on SNES and PS1 (aside the obvious of software tools to produce CGI improving over time) is that on SNES developers were limited on the storage front so they converted the CGI graphics in chunks of tiles and put them together on screen, repeating a lot of objects, to create the backgrounds instead the CGI backgrounds on PS1 games were big images full of any sort of unique details and with sporadic animations to lively up the scene.
Compare Squaresoft first RPG fully in CGI that happened on SNES (Super Mario RPG, 1996) with Squaresoft first RPG on PS1 (Final Fantasy VII, 1997) and the first thing it's immediately noticeable is that the former had to repeat a lot of CGI objects to compose the scene whereas the latter crancked up the level of unique details:

Damn need to play BK.

 

[JimmyRustler]

I would love for Capcom to do another RE spinoff with prerendered backgrounds on todays hardware just for shits and giggles. That thing could prolly be photorealistic.

 

[Celine]

Damn need to play BK.

Looking at your avatar: yes, you should!
Masato Kato and Yasuyuki Honne (of, among others, Chrono Cross fame) worked on it.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

This is REALLY making me want to re-experience the original FF7. I haven't played it since the original PS1 days. What's the ideal way to play that nowadays? PC and mods I assume?

These are all gorgeous.

 

[Shifty1897]

This is REALLY making me want to re-experience the original FF7. I haven't played it since the original PS1 days. What's the ideal way to play that nowadays? PC and mods I assume?

These are all gorgeous.

PC and mods. I don't think they have a full HD background mod as good as Miguri Mod for FF9 (if you havent seen the screenshots for those, holy crap) but I'm sure there's something.