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The 3D revolution

Games stepped into the third dimension — but honest 3D on 1990s hardware rested on precomputation. Doom faked volume with a 2D BSP and sectors; Quake did real 3D by moving visibility (PVS) and lighting (lightmap) into offline map compilation. The theme of the era: what to compute ahead of time and what in the frame.

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1993–99

Rendering, visibility, networking

From Doom's 2.5D to Quake's real 3D and beyond: how to draw a world that doesn't fit into a frame all at once, and how to keep it in sync across a network.
Doom and BSP rendering~25 min
A 2D BSP, sectors with heights, an integer column rasterizer. "3D" with no GPU and no z-buffer.✦ example
Quake: real 3D~22 min
A 3D BSP, PVS (precomputed visibility), baked lightmaps, perspective-correct textures.✦ open
The 3D rasterization pipeline~18 min
model→world→view→clip→screen, projection, the perspective divide, the z-buffer + 🏠 a mini cube rasterizer (lab).✦ open
Client-side prediction~16 min
QuakeWorld: the client draws movement immediately, the server confirms later; reconciliation, interpolation, lag compensation.✦ open
Cameras: from fixed to dynamic~15 min
Prerendered angles + tank controls, Mario 64's Lakitu, Zelda's Z-targeting; the spring arm, collision, damping.✦ open