THIS IS SICK! 3DRipperDX

[ReNo]

The Resident Evil remake and Resident Evil Zero were both pre-rendered, IIRC. The devs could easily have made a fly through of course, but all the cameras were static. They were animated backgrounds though, which made it seem a lot less obvious. Lightning flashes, rain effects, curtains flapping around, the shake of the train carriages, etc...

crazy.. is there any info on the web about how they did it, or just an article/interview with the devs?

Not that I've read, I'm afraid. Its quite interesting I agree, as it's an area of game development that not a lot seems to get written about. I guess there aren't all that many games using pre-rendered scenes intensively these days.

I just had a look at some RE0 trailers to remind myself how it looks and I'm certain its pre-rendered. There's not a moving camera in sight (other than the occasional screen shake or pan - perfectly do-able with pre-rendered backgrounds), and the detail in the environment models was far too high for the Gamecube to handle in real time. It really does look stunning in places, particularly when on the outside of the train seeing the scenery fly past.