Talk:Neon Genesis Evangelion (video game)

Pre-rendered video

I've played this game, the only thing I've seen that comes close to 'pre-rendered video' are animated GIFs of scenes from the anime. I think this is merely mistaken for 'pre-rendered video' by people who haven't actually played the game.

Perhaps that detail sould be removed, since I doubt its factuality.

An answer to the question of pre-rendered video

→ I have played the game too, with the help of a Nintendo 64 an emulator (Project64), and I must admit you have a point there. The fact is that, with all the good will in the world, you could not change one of the Nintendo 64's major inconvenients: the fact that it lacked the essential components for reading any kind of video file or video system. Thus, most cut-scenes on the Nintendo 64 were pre-rendered animations of polygonal models. In the case of Evangelion 64, the technique used is rather unusual.

→ All depends on what it is your definition of "pre-rendered video". Let us define "video" in the first place: I think everyone will accept easily video as, in this particular context, "the reproduction, processing or reconstruction of a moving picture, hence movie". If we accept this as "video", then "pre-rendered video" is a term that we would use only for a restricted range of media, video game being part of this classification. In the case of video game, "pre-rendered video" is then the "reproduction, processing or reconstruction (perhaps the term reconstruction is ambiguous here) of a moving picture, film or movie existing in the form of a different media format. Final Fantasy games of the PlayStation One era, when they introduce one of their well-known and acclaimed in-game cut-scenes, use pre-rendered videos.

→ What do the developers of Evangelion 64 actually do ? If my interpretation is correct, the in-game cut-scenes use mainly two different types of format. The first format, which is not the one that interests us at the moment, is in the form of these pre-rendered animations of polygonal models, which are already known to us and are common to Nintendo 64 users. Along with polygonal models, it is notable that the game uses images for background that are neither background images nor textures, but image files transcribed in the polygonal space. More clearly, the image is displayed as we would display a painting, and the camera is fixed behind this image, and behind the polygonal models, so that we are stroke by the illusion of background.

→ Illusion is the key word here. The second format, which is precisely the one which interests us, are these pseudo-prerendered videos. Let me put it like this: as I said before, but my knowledge is rather unsufficient in the field to be certain of any element, I would not say that the Nintendo 64 actually used processing systems which allowed it to read movie files (countrarily to the PlayStatio One). The Nintendo 64 certainly lacked, and this is most evident when we see the profusion of polygonal cut-scenes and the absence of XenoGears or the like pre-rendered videos, the concept of media player. The media player which would, on a computer for instance, to read a type of movie file, such as a .mpg, an .avi or a .wmv. Evangelion 64, thus, had to create, if I may express myself in this manner, the illusion of anime, the illusion of film.

→ The anonymous writer who started the thread was indeed right. He was sensitive enough to sense the key word: "'pre-rendered video' are animated GIFs of scenes from the anime. To create the illusion of a true animation, the developers probably worked their pseudo-prerendered videos as follows: taking .gif images from anime scenes (Neon Genesis Evangelion & The End of Evangelion), they incorporated them into a pre-calculated sequence that will be processed just as a real movie. By adjusting the camera over the image file, they created the sense of panning over the landscape. Changing the frame-rate or the speed of the sequence created the illusion of action. The music or background music and sound effects were adjusted to the sequence. When the sequence was finalized, they simply wrote the reproduction code, and so the program reads it each time it has to reproduce a video. It was not exactly 'pre-rendered video', but the method was inventinve, even unique. I have not heard of this technique being used anywhere else, even on the Nintendo 64.

→ The end result were both polygonal and .gif animations that looked lively, dynamic and arty, along with reproducing with great accurateness and attention the thrill of the GAINAX work. In fact, even this detail of production is sensitive enough to qualify Evangelion 64 as the most brilliant anime adaptation into video game of the era. And probably, one of the best anime adaptations ever.

→→ Thanks and congratulations for the careful observation of the anonymous creator of this thread. Somebody should change the article now.

User:Bertola, (evening of August 30th, 2006).

NOTE: I will receive the book The Notenki Memoirs shortly. This book, an autobiography and dossier by a GAINAX member, discusses, amongst other GAINAX-related themes, the Neon Genesis Evangelion production phase. If anything interesting shows up about the video game adaptations (including Evangelion 64), I will update it here.