Editing 2.5D (section)

===Billboarding===
In three-dimensional scenes, the term billboarding is applied to a technique in which objects are sometimes represented by two-dimensional images applied to a single polygon which is typically kept perpendicular to the line of sight. The name refers to the fact that objects are seen as if drawn on a [[billboard]]. This technique was commonly used in early 1990s video games when consoles did not have the hardware power to render fully 3D objects. This is also known as a backdrop. This can be used to good effect for a significant performance boost when the geometry is sufficiently distant that it can be seamlessly replaced with a 2D [[Sprite (computer graphics)|sprite]]. In games, this technique is most frequently applied to objects such as particles (smoke, sparks, rain) and low-detail vegetation. It has since become mainstream, and is found in many games such as ''[[Rome: Total War]]'', where it is exploited to simultaneously display thousands of individual soldiers on a battlefield. Early examples include early first-person shooters like ''[[Marathon Trilogy]]'', ''[[Wolfenstein 3D]]'', ''[[Doom (1993 video game)|Doom]]'', ''[[Hexen: Beyond Heretic|Hexen]]'' and ''[[Duke Nukem 3D]]'' as well as racing games like ''[[Carmageddon]]'' and ''[[Super Mario Kart]]'' and platformers like ''[[Super Mario 64]]''.