Why "Bad Graphics" Make You Feel Good...

let's go on a little tour to here here here here and here all of these are places you can visit in video games made from the 9s to the early 2000s today this graphical style is known as low poly or more technically low polygon mesh in three-dimensional computer Graphics back then this is what video games looked like early attempts at three-dimensional gaming as they made the jump in between pixel are in the incredibly realistic Graphics of today embracing experimentation and working with limited Computing capabilities some of my favorite childhood games have what people now refer to as the low poly aesthetic on consoles like the PlayStation 1 and 2 Sega Saturn and Dreamcast and the Nintendo 64 and GameCube I remember seeing N64 graphics for the first time at a friend's house and thinking wow this looks just like real life I was looking at this let's all teleport somewhere chill as we sit here in the Chow Garden I want to remind you to like comment and subscribe helps me keep making cool content like this that you can watch while you eat dinner or before you go to bed Mash that subscribe button right now like you're mashing a or X go ahead hit it press the button you know you want to in this video I'm going to be explaining low polygraphics exploring how technical limitations created Incredible characters Landscapes and memories further analyzing how those experiences evolved into nostalgic appreciation essentially how and why retro Graphics make us feel so warm inside get ready for a relaxing journey through '90s and early 2000s gaming Nostalgia this is danling the low poly [Music] athetic before we get into Aesthetics let's get some technical info out of the way first low polygon mesh is a term used to describe 3dimensional computer Graphics they use a smaller amount of polygons in modeling a shape in comparison to high poly Graphics that we see in most AAA games today polygons can have any number of sides but are commonly broken down using triangles for display the more triangles in a mesh the more detailed the object is making the object more computationally intensive to display according to this video by garbage each polygon model in this era was made up of around 500 or less triangles the textures that covered said models were also only about 128x 128 pixels which is literally this big developers utilized flat FL shading more than smooth shading in this era smooth shading being more rounded and blurred thus holding less polygons flat shading being more angular and blocky with each polygon further emphasized from my research it seems like Nintendo games were more likely to use smooth shading while PlayStation games generally utilized more flat shading which makes a lot of sense considering Nintendo games are more cartoonish and PS1 games like Silent Hill or Resident Evil 2 or more visually based in reality so we have two Divergent visual techniques commonly used cartoonish versus real here's tals from Sonic Adventure and here's snake from Metal Gear Solid both of these games came out in 1998 and were likely developed using similar technology but with very different approaches if we look back to a classic low poly game like Super Mario 64 we can see that only so many shapes can be displayed on screen at once especially as the camera moves dynamically to follow Mario around the entire scene shown on screen needed to be taken into account in terms of rendering including the character enemies ground walls and all environmental details all of this went into what is known as the polygon budget lighting was also a huge aspect of this look each game took very different approaches to the relationship between Shadow light and color instead of using Dynamic fixed lighting they displayed the base colors of the textures basically the models weren't shaded or lit in the same way they are today artists were responsible for creating realistic lighting by texture shading on polygon models but what tools were people using to create all these Graphics there weren't exactly industry standard programs at the time since this was brand new technology instead different Studios were expert in different programs such as nendo and 3D Studio running on mid90s computer software like Windows 95 and Doss as a reminder all this Tech was super Cutting Edge during this time period there's a word you've definitely seen online over the years that I feels incredibly loaded aesthetic which is defined as the study of the mind and emotions in relation to the sense of beauty the first time I saw this word was on the legendary 2010's Tumblr where people would put the word aesthetic under a photo of literally anything it didn't matter what it was it could have been this this or even this what the hell were people thinking back then I like I don't understand eventually the word left Tumblr and people started using it in real life saying that someone had a great aesthetic if they looked cool some now use it as an itive saying that something is aesthetic like wow Lil uert your car is so aesthetic yes this is actually Lil Uzi vert's car respect right now Zoomers and Millennials alike use the word on social media platforms like Tik Tok as an attempt to show off their possessions or overall look literally go on Tik Tok right now and type in any descriptors you can think of followed by the word aesthetic here's 1990s aesthetic [Music] or cyber go the b in your face this sound must be loud B in your face Aesthetics are such a thing online that they even have their own Wiki some of the top Aesthetics on there are coet a hyper feminine aesthetic that incorporates elements of Youth and teenage girlhood and dark Academia which revolves around classic literature the pursuit of self-discovery and a general passion for knowledge and learning the actual two most Search terms on this Wiki are frutiger arrow and Y2K both are rooted in early 2000s Nostalgia a period we're now about 20 years removed from if you're washed and almost 30 years old like I am the '90s and early 2000s were your childhood so these Aesthetics are the perfect segue for us to get into the low poly aesthetic which exists somewhat within the larger Y2K aesthetic let's dive into some examples of low poly games ones that depict stylized spaces objects and characters realistic or not and that meant creatively forming shapes using low polygon meshes to form everything limitations were clearly the Catalyst for the low poly athetic they couldn't have existed during any other era of computing and thus feel deeply rooted in the 9s and early 2000s here we go into the world of shenmu for the Dreamcast this is the low poly athetic at its finest shenmu takes place in the city of Yokosuka Japan which is depicted masterfully as a backdrop for this action-oriented game we see our main character Rio hazuki traversing the city well it's not an absolute perfect realistic detail we still get a sense for what makes Yokosuka unique visually as Rio Sprints through a side street we're experiencing the scale of the city taller skyscrapers in the background as well as a dense concentration of homes and shops in the foreground there are neon signs motorcycles snack stands unique NPCs and more all of these are basically low pixel textures plastered purposefully onto different polygon shapes it took careful art Direction and a strong sense of literal World building to combine all these elements together to make a living breathing City we look towards the characters in shenmu we can see their 3D depictions of anime designs which is a smart way to allow them to exist as cartoons in a somewhat realistic world people playing shenmu felt they were in an uncanny space between anime and real life that to me is the Special Sauce of low polygraphics a lack of cohesion that felt unique to the media landscape of this specific era games like shenmu have aged pretty well in my opinion their characters are expressive and active even in a flat world heck even games that haven't aged that well are kind of charming if my Nostalgia goggles are tight [Music] enough moving over to a contemporary of the Dreamcast we've got the PlayStation 1 home to the sub athetic known as PSX when most people think of low polygraphics they think of the PlayStation 1 and 2 Sony is a company that's constantly trying to push the envelope with their games graphically the play was their first foray into the gaming market so they needed to do it big this was one of the gaming world's first experiences with an entire 3D graphic producing console and Sony was first to jump into the deep end ahead of Nintendo Sega and others across the PS1 Library you see a huge variety of experimentation graphically this was a time of pure innovation in the realm of visuals there was the Moody Cutting Edge hideo coima stealth Adventure Metal Gear Solid the vibrant rhythmic paper cutout PaRappa the Rapper and who could ignore IGN or the classic jrpg Final Fantasy 7 this game was advertised at the time as having some of the most mind-blowing Graphics ever during this early stage of gaming they were completely right the creative choices here led to an advanced gaming experience this game changed everything for jrpgs in the west due majorly to the Cinematic cutcenes blocky but lovable characters and a dramatic story in my opinion the characters in Final Fantasy 7 look like little toys moving through the world of midgar it reminds me of those scenes you create in head when you're a kid playing with action figures and dolls with the added nuance and cinematic drama that still is being adapted and remade today each location is an explorable diarama players were able to squeeze every detail of play out of fight scenes were turn-based and somewhat static but Lively enough to provide a sense of danger and urgency moving on to a more light-hearted PS1 game we've got ape Escape in huge contrast to Final Fantasy 7 this game is literally about catching Crazy Monkeys it's a silly but important game in the PS1 Library when it comes to Graphics a fully realized cartoon universe that's colorful playful and expressive more Ain visually to rare franchises on Nintendo platforms like Donkey Kong and banjo kazui AP Escape was actually the first game to use a dual shock controller allowing players to control their character using the two joysticks constantly shifting the axis of vision graphically this game is in no way trying to be a realistic environment like Final Fantasy and shenmu as one of the best Platformers on the PlayStation 1 AP Escape has an exciting core to it when dropped into each individual map players are hungry to explore what makes it special in an effort not only to find the craze monkeys but to run swim and solve their way across a purely fun 3D animated World completely separate from our own that's the Brilliance of AP Escape it's Tom and Jerry with its own Grand story line and a spiky-haired anime protagonist which brings me to our next sub genre so we've talked about Nintendo and Sony a little bit but what about the giant blue Hedgehog in the room Sega the former Giants behind the Sega Saturn Genesis Dreamcast and more have some of the more Niche but iconic games of this era many of which belong in the sub athetic known as Sega blue sky this low poly sub athetic is literally named for its vibrant Clear Blue Skies an idilic feature of many key Sega titles of this time period like Sonic Adventure Crazy Taxi Jet Set Radio and more these games are capped by a gorgeous saturated blue sky with dancing fluffy white clouds sometimes taking up almost half the screen during gameplay blue skies give players an energy reminiscent of a beautiful blue summer day where the possibilities of fun are Limitless and life is simpler it provides a portal into an instantly energetic environment which matches the action of these games well Sega blue skies are far more idic than many dystopian PlayStation titles which featured mood or gray green and brown color palettes for someone who needs a touch of Happiness the Dreamcast is a great place to start let's let's take Crazy Taxi for a ride obviously our blue skies sit at top the screen as we race through the streets we Breeze by familiar branded locations like Pizza Hut KFC and Tower Records just little ads used as texture to give these areas more lived in flavor one of the main goals of this game was to give players the feeling of an arcade game at home as the title dropped on the Dreamcast just one year after the arcade machine sega's goal was realism and high frame rate action as the Dreamcast was incredibly Advanced for this era but that didn't really help with SA what separated Crazy Taxi from the wide array of racing and action sports games on the Dreamcast was its hyper euphoric gameplay music and undeniable swag which shows from the character select screen that displays anime inspired characters clothing and cars we see flat- shaded palm trees skyscrapers food stands and more that we now know are simple polygons with lowres images fitted onto them still the gameplay and visuals definitely stand up today which brings me to our next Sega Blue Sky title the Sonic Adventure Series this was the second attempt at a 3D Sonic title following Sonic 3D Blast on the Sega Saturn the newer Hardware of the Dreamcast provided an opportunity to create the Ultimate Sonic game truly creating a rift between the classic pixel art Sonic and a new era of 3D gaming this meant updating the old character designs to a newer edgier more Western look Sonic and his friends were all made taller Slimmer and ready for the new millennium but it wasn't just the characters that got an update Sonic's world did as well the the team did a ton of boots on the ground research across the globe to give these environments a more realistic feel they visited several locations across Central America including temples jungles and ruins in the past the design team had to draw artwork by hand and approximate it pixel by pixel but now the Dreamcast allowed them to use scale down photos as textures apparently the blue skies are actual photos the team took while in Mexico this resulted in one of the best reviewed Sonics of all time many hold Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 in incredibly high regards especially within the confines of the Dreamcast one of the internet's favorite aspects of this game is of course the Chow Garden a virtual pet simulator filled with mini games a game within a game within a game this gives people a break from the non-stop action of Sonic's Adventure and simply provided players with a cute and fun place to hang out and chill with their little pets for many the Chow Garden subg game was just as memorable as the gameplay of Sonic Adventure 2 I feel like Chows are some of people's favorite low poly characters they're round Kawai and packed with personality and fits super nicely into their idic little island with gorgeous blue skies as a background just look at these little critters wow just look at them I love him so much I can remember a time when I thought low polygraphics looked awful it was around the Xbox 360 or PS3 era so likely from 2006 to 2012 I was a cynical middle schooler SL early high schooler completely entranced by by my new 360 and its awesome array of games like Fallout 3 Bioshock Skyrim and of course Kung Fu Panda I could not fathom someone's stomaching such lowres textures and undetailed character models but oh how the sands of time change everything as life went on the 9s and early 2000s grew ever more distant as soon myself and a lot of people online would gain a whole new respect for the low poly athetic let's jump into what I call the Nostalgia Canyon a graph that explains how nostalg Works especially in this case on the left side we have interest or how much the subject captures attention conversation and respect on the bottom we have time from 0 to 25 years a product like video games have a ton of interest when they first release because it's in such a fast moving everchanging industry conversation around it likely recedes after a few months to years there are few exceptions to this rule like free online games that regularly update like fortnite League of Legends and the Sims 4 but that's a convo for another time as we travel forward through time interest completely dips down creating what I refer to as a canyon of nostalgia typically people won't have a supreme reverence or appreciation for something that came out 3 to 5 years ago it still feels a little too recent even in today's fast moving world but something peculiar happens around 10 to 15 years after something releases slowly but surely interest picks right back up I can remember getting to college in the early 2010s and a lot of people had their n64s and GameCubes with them we all were from the same generation and thus collect itively had built Nostalgia for a game like super smash BRS or Super Smash Brothers Melee which had been released in 1999 and 2001 respectively if we return to the Nostalgia Canyon we can apply our learnings to our '90s and early 2000s low poly games which have been late Growers but are now seen and appreciated by a new audience mainly due to genz discovering these games for the first time many of them weren't even born during the PS1 Dreamcast and N64 era so they've been able to access videos discussion and emulations of these games creating Common Ground between Generations I'm back in the CH gard and vibing here to thank you for watching this video as a reminder please like comment and subscribe so I can keep making cool stuff like this we've gone on an awesome Journey Through Time specifically exploring '90s and early 2000s low poly video game artwork breaking down what low polygon Graphics are where they came from and why we love them Nostalgia is one hell of a drug anyways got some Chows around here to attend to and a Pomeranian all right I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Dansplaining

Views: 186,164

Keywords: explainer, explainer video, gaming, DIY, howto, history, naming, branding, video games, nintendo, sony, playstation, rare finds, antique, historic, nostalgia, y2k, 90skids, 90s, deep dive, problem solving, gameboy, psp, aesthetic, interior design, design, graphic design, brand, influencer, New York city, brooklyn, new york, best of, streaming, commentary, designer, architecture, treasures, memory, products, product, product design, japan, japanese, german, tokyo, berlin, box art, versus, rare, rarity, generations, wii

Id: 9E0XPzB9wZU

Length: 17min 48sec (1068 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 15 2024