Still can't believe my eyes as I try out games with 3dSen PC, with it converting classic NES games into 3D and it just feels like magic. Currently in Early Access, this amazing emulator is truly like no other. In real-time it converts your favourites into full 3D with a properly adjustable camera. One such emulator, the 3DNes V3, takes the concept a step further, converting classic 2D NES games into full 3D experiences that look especially fantastic while in VR. In a post made on Reddit earlier this week, the developer claims to have successfully ported over 40 classic NES games into 3D with a high quality standard. These updated renditions feature new layers of depth that add immensely to the visual quality of each title shown. Download and play the Sonic 3D Blast 6 ROM using your favorite NES emulator on your computer or phone.

The world of NES emulation hasn't been all that exciting since the late '90s, when NESticle provided 'good enough' emulation accuracy and stability for any NES game out there (though there has been a lot of subsequent work to get that final bit of true emulation accuracy). So it was a bit of a surprise this week to stumble across a new NES emulator that provides a genuinely new perspective on decades-old games by rendering them in three dimensions.

The 3DNES project, as the name implies, extends the 2D sprites of the NES into the Z axis, letting players rotate the camera around to see the sides and back of the formerly flat sprites. This isn't just a conversion of every pixel into a uniform voxel, either. In a game like Super Mario Bros., for instance, 3DNES converts pipes to into cylindrical 3D models, with bulging piranha plants embedded in the center. In Mega Man, ladders remain in the background while wall-hugging enemies are accurately placed on the sides of thick blocks.

The emulator's developer, who goes by the handle 'geod' online, has been posting videos of the work-in-progress emulator for months. This week, he finally took his work public, posting a playable beta version that runs through the Unity Web player and can load arbitrary (and definitely legally obtained) ROMs from the cloud.

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Searching for shapes

The beta is still quite rough (and it only works in Firefox for the time being), but the fact that it works at all is pretty impressive. How exactly does an emulator take the flat 2D images produced by the NES and intelligently convert them into a 3D model?

Your first assumption might be that geod has hard-coded specific algorithms for each supported game, training the emulator in how to detect specific objects and create good-looking 3D models for them. But in online postings, geod insists that his algorithm, while 'still far from perfect and there are still many things to improve,' is generalized enough to work on any NES game. 'Everything is calculated automatically in runtime. Nothing is done manually,' he wrote on emutalk.

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The core, geod writes, is a simple shape-detection algorithm, which looks at each part of the 2D image generated by the emulated PPU and determines what kind of 3D object it should be. 'Basically, game objects contain full of blocks and cylinders [sic],' geod wrote on TASVideos. 'The pipe in SMB is determined to be a cylinder like many other game objects. There is not any specific code for any game.'

Geod went in to a little more detail on the algorithm in an NESDev thread, saying, 'The rendering mechanism is not just based on [an] 8x8 [pixel sprite] tile, but based on 'shape'—[a] meaningful collection of consecutive tiles... Consequently a 2D tile is not always mapping to a '3D tile.' For example a 2D solid tile can be used in the introduction cube at the begin of SMB but [could] also be used in grass or cloud. The corresponding 3D tile in each case is completely different.'

'Shape recognition—like any recognition problem—is hard and does not have an ultimate answer,' geod continued. 'On NES system, fortunately, we can choose color pattern as the main factor for shape clustering, it works for 90% case [sic]. It's still an open problem for improvement though.'

The current algorithm definitely could use some improvement, as it works better on certain games than on others—geod notes that Super Mario Bros. works particularly well because it's the main game used for internal testing. Some games are internally inconsistent; in a quick test of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, characters like Glass Joe and Doc had a somewhat believable (if angular) 3D shape, while Little Mac appeared like a thick, woodcut block without any real 3D definition.

Going forward, geod says he plans to release his emulator as a Unity3D-powered executable, which should be a bit more stable than a Web-based plugin. He also wrote about specific improvements he's working on for the 3D detection engine.

'In the future, more semantic info will be collected from [the] 2D scene, more predefined patterns will be added, more rules will be created to make the emu more robust,' he wrote. 'And when the emu becomes mature enough, the optimization for a specific game is as simple as values assigning for a set of coefficient. That's how I see things. ... You say it right there will never be a perfect solution for this kind of problem but [a] better solution is always possible.'

© Gif: Geod Studio / YouTube

A strange new product appeared on Steam last week: a Nintendo Entertainment System emulator that translates the 2D pixel graphics of classic 8-bit games into 3D worlds built with voxels. It’s called 3dSen, it has standard and standard+VR versions, and it lets you experience a select slice of the NES library from unusual new perspectives.

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3dSen didn’t just pop up out of nowhere. When creator Tran Vu Truc started the project over five years ago it was called 3DNes, and even the first demos turned heads. 3dSen is considerably more polished and usable now—so much so that Tran decided it was finally good enough to sell on Steam. (He also sells the VR version on Itch.io.)

3dSen is an NES emulator, so you need game ROMs to run on it. (Only the emulator is included in the Steam package.) It can run most NES games to a fair level of accuracy, but that’s hardly the main draw. 3dSen’s claim to fame is its ability to “3Dify” about 70 different games from the beloved console’s massive library.

That’s a relatively small number. The reason, as Tran told Kotaku via email, is because it’s actually a lot of work to convert all the graphics of even a simple NES game into voxels, polygons, and skyboxes.

“The amount of work really depends on the graphic complexity, gameplay duration... and if there is any 3D gameplay element in the game,” said Tran. “For example, simple games like Mario Bros., Dr. Mario, Donkey Kong, [and] Galaga only required several days of work, [while] games like Super Mario Bros. 3, The Legend of Zelda, [and] Excitebike (3D gameplay element) required weeks or even months to be created.”

A number of variables make the process difficult. For starters, adapting the 2D graphics of visually sparse 8-bit games to render in 3D is relatively uncharted territory. In many ways Tran has to make it up as he goes, on both technical and artistic levels. What’s more, it’s not always obvious how to “read” the chunky pixels of a low-res sprite.

“I often have difficulties to fully understand the pixelated graphics in NES games,” said Tran. “They have a high level of abstraction, so sometimes it takes a lot of time to fully understand what some graphic elements represent.”

In the project’s early days Tran experimented with automatic, algorithmic conversions. But while he considers that an interesting topic for theoretical future research, he quickly learned that only painstakingly handmade conversions could offer a pleasing level of sophistication and polish.

This recent trailer shows off a variety of visual effects now possible in 3dSen.

Source: Geod Studio (YouTube)

One reason is because 3dSen’s rendering engine offers an ever-increasing number of tricks for interpreting games’ flat bitmaps as 3D objects. For example, if you watch the emulator’s latest YouTube trailer, you’ll notice details like Super Mario Bros.’ title screen and suspension bridges morphing and bobbing smoothly, a Castlevania background skeleton swaying on its chains while casting a shadow, the Super Mario Bros. 3 royal palace’s floor extending “out” of the screen, and so on.

All of these touches exist solely because Tran took the time to carefully implement them on a per-game basis. You can see why a brute-force computer conversion wouldn’t prove compelling; translating NES graphics into 3dSen is very much an art. Another person could try and convert a given game and come up with an entirely different-looking result. (And in fact, they might have the chance to do that, since one of the project’s next major phases will be releasing the 3dSen Maker tool so that users can 3Dify games themselves.)

As many tricks as 3dSen has up its sleeve, some games present too many challenges to convert, at least right now. “Games with perspective/pseudo-3D graphics and/or 3D gameplay are very hard to be 3Dified with the current 3dSen engine,” said Tran. “3dSen will need a lot more work to be able to properly handle them.”

You heard it here first: The hardest thing to 3Dify is 3D itself.

Since it takes so much work to convert just one game, Tran has to pick and choose where to focus his efforts. Once he weeds out the technically difficult games, Tran uses several criteria to help decide which games to do next. These include how popular a game is on the internet, how often 3dSen fans request it, and how nostalgic Tran himself is for it. Tran plans to convert as many games as he can. Unsurprising, considering that the 3D visuals are 3dSen’s main attraction.

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Playing through The Legend of Zelda in the VR-headset version of 3dSen.

Source: Mike Matei (YouTube)

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Another area that may get more attention in the future is alternate control methods. 3dSen’s VR version already supports standard VR controllers and offers what is by most accounts a very pleasant virtual lightgun experience. Potential exists for adding motion-based punching to a game like Punch-Out!!, for example, but that’s on the backburner for now.

3dSen is the rare emulator that focuses not on accuracy or compatibility, but a completely unique feature all its own. While translating 30-year-old NES graphics into 3D voxels probably won’t spark a larger trend, the best 3dSen conversions really are neat to look at and play with, and people seem to dig the idea of experiencing childhood favorites from a new perspective.

3dSen Maker’s release will add some exciting creative potential, too.

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“Please keep in mind that we can have many profiles with different 3D interpretations for each game,” said Tran. “It will become interesting to see different 3D interpretations from different people.”