Z-Order Glitching: Rendering Sprites and Breaking Dimensions

In classic two-dimensional video games, depth is an elaborate and fragile mathematical lie. A television screen has no physical depth; it is merely a flat grid of illuminated pixels. To create the illusion that a hero is standing in front of a tree, programmers must dictate a strict rendering order. This hierarchical system is known as the Z-order. The engine must calculate, frame by frame, which...