2D Pixel Art Player/Character in 3D World (Like Paper Mario)?

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2D Pixel Art Player/Character in 3D World (Like Paper Mario)?

BeeTheLeaf12

I have an idea for a fan game that will be about a sport ( I haven't decided yet but it's between 3 different sports right now). The premise has to do with racing of some sort. I'm thinking I might want the player to appear as a 2D pixel sprite, and the background will be 3D ( The players intial view is of the characters back, unless he moves the camera). The only game I can think of that does something similar is Paper Mario. Any ideas on how I could implement this? Is there a specfic Node or shader I need to look into?

Also if anyone knows of other games with a similar 2D/3D pixel art dynamic to Paper Mario I would love to hear ( ESPECIALLY if its a sports games!), I am just wondering how other people may have done it.

TwistedTwigleg

You probably want to use Sprite3D nodes with a fixed camera angle (or having the sprites set to Y-billboard) to achieve the Paper Mario like effect.

Geuz

Many games in the 1990's, had 2d sprites in a 3d environment. In the way TwistedTwigleg said, a fixed camera position towards the sprite. Most of these sprites only had several images, like front, left, right, back, while where moving in an area that looked like 3d, although mostly a very limited 3d. Some of these sprites only had one image or animation, which would always face the player on front. At around 2000, textured polygon meshes started to replace the flat sprites.

So you can check Doom or Duke Nukem 3d, for example. Many more games had that system.

Wolfe

This post I spotted on the Godot subreddit may interest anyone interested in this style.

I started an attempt at a similar style and did not have much luck with the Sprite3D node out of the box. I was unable to figure out the desired look without the character sprite clipping through the floor or walls. I'd like to have the pivot point above the very bottom line of the image, whether it is between the character's feet or a vehicle in the style of the original F-ZERO or Super Mario Kart. Godot does not make that easy.

I've saved the Github link in this post to check it out later:

https://www.reddit.com/r/godot/comments/mcqzwc/almost_perfect_pixel_perfect_25d_pixelart_demo/