Joshes Assignment 1
BTEC Level 3 Games Design
Unit 78: Digital Graphics for Computer Games Alex Barber
Assignment Title - Understand Theory & Application used within Computer Game Graphics
Introduction
In this first assignment I will be comparing a 2D game Sonic the Hedgehog to a 3D game Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 in depth from the different artistic styles from the computer game graphics to the storage assets to back it up I will be using images and video clips to compare the artistic styles from both games.
2D Game: Sonic
ARTISTIC STYLES
Sonic the Hedgehog uses pixel art 8bit games now days at that time pixel art was common back then gaming consoles where less advanced they were on arcade machines and cartages which would cost a lot to make and they had to be optimise to be able to run on those machines which may in some cases games these days can be run and sold on disk as it can store more space for better graphics and performance.
Another example of an artistic style is this picture below this focuses on photo realism as it makes the player playing Forza driving a car.
COMPUTER GAME GRAPHICS
Sonic uses 2D pixel art sprites that was popular in those days they used it because it compressed into smaller Mb as it’s easier to compress into one game it uses gif images for the character sprite and objects in Sonic because is easy to compress and easy to optimise.
The environment is done by using bitmap, the vehicles were drawn using pixel art the environment was done by bitmap as well since the space you could fit on cartage back then it was limited what games could do for example the walls and forest and clouds all where done by using bitmap to keep it compressed.
The heads up display has a score and timer and the number of rings you have and the number of lives you have this is very common in arcade machines once you reach 10 minutes you lose a life and then you start over from the beginning or you go through checkpoints, the controls are very simple you have one action B for example on a Gameboy to gain speed keep pressing the button to charge up and press the A button to jump it was so simple and easy for people back in the day to learn and pick up and play.
This is the cover for sonic on the SEGA Genesis all cel shaded since it was cheaper to manufacture back in those days 
This is another example of another sonic game that later 6 years later they upgraded his design by adding in sharper details and colours as they had more resources and more time to add the features. 
PIXEL
A Raster image is where when you zoom into and image and edit it you then doesn't retain the quality the picture blow the bitmap image shows when you zoom in its pixelated on the right but on the left the vector image keeps its quality when you zoom in.
Sonic is used as an example of this if you zoom in it becomes pixelated, you also don’t lose the lossless compression if you recover it the file will contain all the data that you originally would have this would have done this to prevent data loss or corruption of the images and code.
They may of chose gif images over bitmap for the characters because gif images are more colourful and fluid animations as it’s a lot more use on a web browser so they would have been easier to make the sprites not only in sonic but in other games for example Dragon Ball Super Butōden 2 for the SNES is a 2D anime fighter much like Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 but the traditional pixel art used.
This is an example of how 2D fighting games used pixel art
FILE EXTENTIONS
A File Extension is a suffix at the end for example a .txt file most file extensions are 3 to 4 characters while they have 3 to 4 characters they can be shortened to 1 character which changes the compression, for example PSD file size doesn't compress the file because it saves the image in layers so it takes up a lot more disk space you would use it if you were to save an image background or sprites as a GIF image animations to save disk space which is what they may have to do for the Sonic character sprites to keep them compress onto the cartage.
This is an example of file extensions used in Sonic Mania
COMPRESSION/OPTIMISING
A Compression is a file that can be compressed to fit on a phone or camera you would use it if I was to fit games for example on a phone they would have to downgrade the images and sprites to make it run well on a phone in this case since the images and sprites on the sonic game had to be compressed onto the cartage they had to upgrade or downgrade the graphics to fit on the other consoles.
This is an example of The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker which used compression and optimisation of graphics from GameCube to the Wii U
IMAGE CAPTURE
Image capturing is where you capture videos and pictures from a phone or camera which can be later converted into different file formats videos into mp4 and pictures into jpeg image capturing can be used for when your designing levels when you take inspiration from land marks or it could be frames per second in video games where they capture the movements and motions of the character frame by frame sonic runs at 30 to 60 FPS roughly as they were developing it they may have had to test the game a few times in case of frame rate issues before they could distribute it.
STORAGE OF IMAGE ASSETS
Storage of image assets are just an easy saying of storing images not just images but texture graphics and text styles it would be used in the games industry as you will be able to transfer the files to your colleagues who are working on the game.
It could also mean the transferring of game data that is essential to the games mechanics which would include the lives of sonic for example which have to be transferred from level to level to make the gameplay fluent and not take the player out of the action.
Another example would be with Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 where it uses the characters outfits I which the users have chosen in order to give originality to their character and to expand on their own experience in the game this would be relevant as the game has to store and project the outfit to the character in each instance of the world.
3D Game: Dragon ball Xenoverse 2
ARTISTIC STYLES
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 uses cel shading 3d models which is used in fighting anime games although back when sonic was released they used 8bit pixels whereas Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 was released in 2016 where as sonic was released in 1991 which is quite a significant difference in the graphics and technology used which is more advanced now that they have more resources to use.
COMPUTER GAME GRAPHICS
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 uses 3d cel shading with YEBIS 2 engine for the graphic post processing effects which can be compressed onto a disk as you don’t need a cartage like sonic does because the space it has on disk compared to a digital download a digital download downloads all the assets and images unlike the physical version of the game where it’s all compressed onto the disk if back in the day it was compressed onto a cartage like sonic was it wouldn’t be able to fit half the assets that were used in Xenoverse 2 to fit onto a SEGA Genesis cartage. 
The box art for the game they would of cel shading from the anime on the front of the box they used bright colours even though they used a white background and it has a slight shadow effect to give the player that feeling that there’s more than one hero, the back of the box the arts more colourful and they used screenshots from the trailer which are assets from the game while adding some dark purple colours for the background to make the font and everything stand out.
Controls on Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 are very fluent compared to the prequel version because the controls on Xenoverse 1 where too clunky and stiff to use so it was harder for players to do combos with the characters
PIXEL
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 uses 3D Isometric Sprites using the unreal engine with cel shading the background graphics used in the game I assume they use the character and background sprites where made all in the unreal engine the graphics for the heads up display where all made using it with unreal engine but where most likely coded in but first had to be in the form of a concept art each pixel resolution had roughly 920x800 pixels.
TYPES OF DIGITAL GRAPHICS
Vector Images is when you zoom in the image doesn't become pixelated and you still retain the image quality for 3D or some 2D depending if they use Jpeg images or PSD file format used in adobe Photoshop the box art may had to cel shade it then used adobe Photoshop for the effects on the box art which would mean that the file would of have to been compressed first whereas with the sonic box art it would be pixelated because the Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 they would have used more advanced up to date software to make the graphics and image quality of the pixels cleaner.
FILE EXTENTIONS
For the file extensions for Xenoverse 2 they would of used file extensions for the Unreal engine is .obj. or.x which would have been saved for the objects even though 2D games like sonic wouldn’t use that file format because Xenoverse 2 is more up to date with the current technology that Sonic didn’t have at the time.
COMPRESSION/OPTIMISING
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 had to compress the character assets programming code for each character which they may have had to do from the uncompressed character files which may have of used lossless compression which would have been used for optimisation also they had update the sprites from its prequel game Dragon Ball Xenoverse even though Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is more optimised.
IMAGE CAPTURE
Image capturing in is used in Xenoverse 2 which captures the frames of a cutscene which play out with the audio of the character voices in the background which can be edited and compressed they may have animated or programmed the cutscenes in to animate them.
STORAGE OF IMAGE ASSETS
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 storage all together digitally is 13.12 GB of storage uncompressed from the disc or in other worlds a digital download of the game but 13.12 GBs also compressed onto one disc while the file size for the game may be bigger than Sonic it has more image assets then Sonic does but it does process it all when loading into the next area it keeps the health bar with a 2 to 3 minutes loading screen just to load up and process all the assets but it does load in the assets slower then sonic does since there is more to load in because of the different character outfits character skills and character models .
Video Links:
You will see sonic go through Greenhill Zone which takes inspiration from locations that have trees flowers and bridges.
You will see the player in the video going to the next level keeping the lives and score he had throughout the game.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2: Image Capture Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx9FCJzozkM&index=1&list=PLHp1rCLZKTVsM2J0W0-hSz46cm7wdWxMv from 8:19 to 8:49
You will see the background used in a rock area which is based off the location in the anime and in the cutscene.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2: Storage of image assets video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvqGcK7-_sg&list=PLHp1rCLZKTVsM2J0W0-hSz46cm7wdWxMv&index=2 from 4:06 to 4:16
You will see in the video the player going to the next zone keeping the outfit on.
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