Since it takes so much work to convert just one game, Tran has to pick and choose where to focus his efforts. You heard it here first: The hardest thing to 3Dify is 3D itself. “3dSen will need a lot more work to be able to properly handle them.” “Games with perspective/pseudo-3D graphics and/or 3D gameplay are very hard to be 3Dified with the current 3dSen engine,” said Tran.

(And in fact, they might have the chance to do that, since one of the project’s next major phases will be releasing the 3dSen Maker tool so that users can 3Dify games themselves.)Īs many tricks as 3dSen has up its sleeve, some games present too many challenges to convert, at least right now. Another person could try and convert a given game and come up with an entirely different-looking result. You can see why a brute-force computer conversion wouldn’t prove compelling translating NES graphics into 3dSen is very much an art. “They have a high level of abstraction, so sometimes it takes a lot of time to fully understand what some graphic elements represent.”Īll of these touches exist solely because Tran took the time to carefully implement them on a per-game basis. “I often have difficulties to fully understand the pixelated graphics in NES games,” said Tran. What’s more, it’s not always obvious how to “read” the chunky pixels of a low-res sprite. In many ways Tran has to make it up as he goes, on both technical and artistic levels. For starters, adapting the 2D graphics of visually sparse 8-bit games to render in 3D is relatively uncharted territory. 3, The Legend of Zelda, Excitebike (3D gameplay element) required weeks or even months to be created.”Ī number of variables make the process difficult. Mario, Donkey Kong, Galaga only required several days of work, games like Super Mario Bros.

“For example, simple games like Mario Bros., Dr. “The amount of work really depends on the graphic complexity, gameplay duration… and if there is any 3D gameplay element in the game,” said Tran. The reason, as Tran told Kotaku via email, is because it’s actually a lot of work to convert all the graphics of even a simple NES game into voxels, polygons, and skyboxes.

3d nes emulator vinesauce