To take Copilot 3D for a spin, browse to the Copilot 3D website and sign in with your Microsoft account. To get some inspiration, you can view the existing 3D models generated by other people.

Defining The Action-Adventure Genre The original Tomb Raider introduced fully 3D environments and character models at a time when most games still relied on 2D sprites or pre-rendered assets to ...

ModDB user _chillo released a new mod this week that replaces most of the original Doom's 2D sprites with 3D voxels. One might think the change would clash with the game's visual identity, but if ...

Both of these games operated on a similar principle –- a 2D image of a track would be transformed into a scrolling 3D surface, while the sprites of vehicles would be placed on top to race around.

The new 3D model system looks much better, as there is no longer the need for abrupt transitions from one sprite to another as players move the camera around the battlefield.

Instead, they constructed “true 3D environments” from the 2D sprites in the games themselves. “This isn’t just a version number.

In a brief video, they highlight this issue by taking the modern 3D models for Gengar, Camerupt, and Kecleon and adjusting their coloring to match the colors of the Pokemon's late-2D-era sprites.

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.

Multiverse Network Developers of 3D virtual worlds and multiplayer games may soon have access to tools that would allow them to build connected, promotional 2D, Flash versions of the same games.