Awesome job Segata... Brilliant. Yeah, those AM2 fellas are something spectacular... The texture work is mind boggling.
Evanft: Actually, I'm pretty sure the entire models are in there. I remember seeing shots of a hack some guy did on shenmue dojo where he placed the high res characters into the normal game... And yeah, they show awesome power... Hell, the PS2 STILL can't do proper Full Screen AA.
Cid: Those ain't contact lenses... That's real time refraction and reflection... It blew me away the 1st time I saw it... Hell, it could be just a reflection map, but the refraction is real... And that is freeking amazing.
I'm also in the digital/multimedia design field so I inspect these things closely too. Haha. I think Shenmue started the trend of having multiple character libraries of the same character/anatomy... Swapping bits and bobs for others depending on how many polys the scene contained... Extremely clever design.
I rememeber reading reviews of SOA and thinking it looked like crap... Then I borrowd my mates import US copy and was totally blown away... 'Cept for the random battles... Grrr.
I'm overseas now, have been for 3 months, away from my DC... And like you Segata, I've got an extremely unhealthy obsession. Haha. Most of my mates do now too... Nothing like drinking, playing 4 player Virtua Tennis (Or 8 player California Games) before a night on the town...
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)