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Because realtime rendering is something completely different from pre-rendering. There are limits to how much you can render in real-time. Polygon limits, amount of textures that need to be loaded, lighting detail, shadow detail. All that stuff.
In a pre-rendered scene you could fill it up with details and make it look lifelike if you want. The final image would maybe take a couple of hours to completely render on a high resolution, depending on computer power.
Rendering a same detailed high res scene like that in real time is near impossible, that's the point I'm trying to make. You'd have to cut a LOT of corners to make sure the scene is rendered properly in a timely fashion.
I guess the best example I can give of this is Donkey Kong Country Returns. The original games had some awesome and 'detailed' backgrounds which were pre-rendered just like in AO (with smooth scrolling, might I add). In the new 2,5D version the backgrounds look a lot less lively to me, nowhere near how they used to look.
But hey, I guess we'll see how it turns out if you do decide to go with realtime. I really hope I'm wrong on this one.
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I think you are seriously doubting what
modern game engines are
capable of rendering.
But for arguments sake lets say you're right and that you can pack more objects into a shot that's completely 2D, that doesn't necessarily make it look better. The example you gave with donkey kong was a measure of "how much you liked" the backdrops, but there are a lot of things that contribute towards a scene being aesthetically pleasing. The amount of pixels or polygons on screen isn't necessarily the most important one. Let me give you an example.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PU-gVfGz1u...out+masks1.jpg
Doesn't look that good, does it? But this is the best example i could find of "loads of stuff on the screen" that realtime engines might have a problem with (they wouldn't, but i digress).
My point here is the quality of the backgrounds and environments that we make for AbeHD isn't going to be limited by technical ceilings, it's going to be directly in line with the artistic skill of the people who make it. The decision between 2d and 2.5d therefore comes down to gameplay reasons only, and the arena of 2.5d provides for a much richer gaming experience overall than flat 2d.
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We just gotta hope tda can pull it off  X |
I won't be tackling it alone, i hope.