A modern approach for rendering 3D top-down games in pixel art

Abstract

The objective of this dissertation is to describe a method of transforming common 3D scenes in Pixel Art with top-down perspective in real time. This method allows default 3D scenarios and models to be converted into Pixel Art without the need of hand drawing them. Being able to perform such a thing would greatly improve productivity and open a new range of artistic possibilities to expand what Pixel Art is capable of. This subject has been visited some times up to the present moment and even though there are some techniques to achieve equivalent results, there is no graphics pipeline whose purpose is to create a Pixel Art landscape from a default 3D environment in real time. The current state of art contains several techniques that will be used together in order to obtain the desired result, but whose objective is to perform different tasks. Furthermore, techniques such as generating sequences of images (spritesheets) from 3D models in alternative softwares, applying full-screen pixelation effects, etc. have already been tested in existing titles and proved to work, although they bring along some complications like the excess of image files in the project and visual results that sometimes deviate from the commonly defined Pixel Art characteristics. The graphics pipeline to be presented tries to avoid these problems by defining the set of characteristics of Pixel Art and proposing real time shading techniques to handle the rendering of 3D objects as Pixel Art.