/vr/ - Retro Games

I'm not a visual artist, but let me add my 2 cents.

In the early days of 3D, there just wasn't any of the tools or techniques we have nowdays for making models and meshes. The software and slow hardware of the time made it so that modelers used basic tools and primitives to make stuff out of. Because of this, artists were in the mindset of trying to evoke the feeling of what a particular object or room might be, since they didn't have the ability to bring it across literally. They focused on the most important aspects, trying to use every artistic skill they had to bring across their ideas.

Nowdays, we have so much processing power that its trivial to lay it all out perfectly. Instead of carefully considering what things they need to use to evoke a particular place or idea, modern designers are content with implementing things as literally as possible. In the 90s, a spacecraft corridor would use things like an unusual shape, colored lighting, bits of transparent textures and occasional breaks in the geometry to add interest. Nowdays, the same spacecraft corridor would be a bland plastic rectangle with an overly shiny floor. Instead of trying to evoke some place thats truly magnificent and straight from the imagination, we're left with an unconvincing imitation from life.