![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.positech.co.uk\/blog\/federationcruiser.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSome people have asked me if the GSB ships are sprites or 3D models. They are put together by an artist in a 3D modeller, then rendered out as sprites top-down, with some fairly neutral lighting. The game then draws them as sprites. There are additional ‘damage’ and ‘hulk’ sprites for damaged ships, and the turrets are drawn separately on top, and flashing lights and engine trails are done separately too.<\/p>\n
As normal 3D models they look pretty good, like this in fact:<\/p>\n
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The problem is, these are VERY high poly models. You might be able to have a game with 4 or 5 of them, but not fity at once, and not with tons more going on, all on an older PC. I think space strategy games work better in 2D than 3D, unrealistic though that may be. I also think that using 3D models to do 2D sprites can give you a good compromise between high detail and decent performance.<\/p>\n
Having real 3D models in the art pipeline opens up more possibilities for editing and doing variants of those ships too. I’ll probably do a few renders for the loading screens and the website as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some people have asked me if the GSB ships are sprites or 3D models. They are put together by an artist in a 3D modeller, then rendered out as sprites top-down, with some fairly neutral lighting. The game then draws them as sprites. There are additional ‘damage’ and ‘hulk’ sprites for damaged ships, and the<\/p>\n