I agree with a lot of what Fiddler said. 2-D gaming sort of leveled off with the Saturn generation as 3-D started to take off. With a few exceptions like Guilty Gear and Alien Hominid, there wasn't any definite improvement over the course of 2 console generations.
BA et al, I absolutely understand what you are saying, but I don't think anyone expects 2-D gaming to have the kind of light rendering you are talking about. 3-D engines do have the added benefit of keyframe animation and real-world effects like lighting and reflections, but the games that use them also require a higher suspension of disbelief. An ultra-sharp 1080p-ready "Super Mario Bros 4" or "Earthworm Jim 4" wouldn't require this kind of real-world rendering. Additionally, the benefit of modern effects technology would allow 2-D games to utilize particle and lighting effects as well (think SF III). I do see that higher costs would probably come from more fluid framerates and in-between animation but I think this would have a fairly limited effect. And for those games that do need a hightened sense of realism, there is the "Shattered Soldier" option of 3-D games on a 2-D plane.
The creative process governing 2-D game artwork doesn't consist of people opening up a graphics editor and drawing pixel art. Everything is generally hand-drawn, then scaled down drastically and color-optimized for sprites. In that respect, making HD-ready artwork is, in my opinion, an easier task.
While I was still working heavily in DC Homebrew dev, one thing I found was that I was constantly downplaying my artwork (whether sprites, backgrounds, or full-screen menus) to get it to work nicely. I was limited in my number of colors, sprite sizes, because of SDTV resolution and video memory limitations. (In fact, one can see this when comparing Screamcast game visuals on VGA and S-Video. It always looks better on VGA. Unlike professional developers, we didn't pare down every sprite to SDTV standards, or blow up small sprites to large sizes. While this was more a result of amateurism than foresight, it actually makes our games look much better by comparison).
On newer hardware and with HDTV's, these hardware limitations are largely lifted away. The new Street Fighter, Bomberman, and Alien Hominid HD are among the first games to begin taking advantage of this, and I hope many others follow suit.
Finally, I'm not so sure that 2-D animation really is that much more expensive. It seems that games are becoming more expensive to develop across the board, with massive dev teams with dozens of artist modeling, texturing, and animating. Even assuming 2-D games are more art-intensive, their programming and physics are not.
Videos presenting a game in motion usually are preferable over a simple screenshot, just not in this case. It's about 160x120 at best so don't hold your breath.
At least you can see that they didn't change the game itself, just the graphics. A really good decision imo.
I'm pretty sure someone at capcom has the equipment to capture video properly ugh. All you can really tell from that, is that they've recreated the original slowdown the game had, not sure how good a thing that is... it's authentic i guess
I'm sure this will make some other people here smile too:
Comment from: Brian Dunn [Member]
@ilazul,
This game uses the Dreamcast version as a base. Basically it uses the same base code (with improvements and new features and additions), with all of the "art" files replaced with new ones for the updated look.
Permalink 10/18/07 @ 17:49
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh mankrip Hell's end wgah'nagl fhtagn.
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impetus wrote:I agree with a lot of what Fiddler said. 2-D gaming sort of leveled off with the Saturn generation as 3-D started to take off. With a few exceptions like Guilty Gear and Alien Hominid, there wasn't any definite improvement over the course of 2 console generations.
Have you played SF3 or Fatal Fury: Mark Of The Wofves?
I don't think the Saturn, Playstation or N64 could show those graphics.
Also the elimination of load times thanks to powerful 6th gen hardware was a beautiful touch.
Well atleast in the orignal version you could see his blue eye!
BILAL_XIA wrote:Have you played SF3 or Fatal Fury: Mark Of The Wofves?
I don't think the Saturn, Playstation or N64 could show those graphics.
Mark of the Wolves looks very nice, but the game does run at 320x224 (on Neo); hardly a Saturn/PS1/N64-crushing resolution. If anything would be a problem, it would probably be the sheer number of animation frames filling up RAM; N64 with the Expansion Pak could probably handle it, though.
"You know, I have a great, wonderful, really original method of teaching antitrust law, and it kept 80 percent of the students awake. They learned things. It was fabulous." -- Justice Stephen Breyer
Everything is still wip. They particularly pointed out that the hud(health bars etc.) in the screenshots were quickly tacked on, and will look a lot different in the final build.
Are you serious? Have you even played the original Street Fighter 2? Because I highly doubt anyone with memories of that game will have trouble seeing the difference.
i say that both the original version and this version have good art in their own ways. While the new art is designed for high definition, it lacks a certain amount of expression that the original art has. Some jazz musicians would say that it would be like comparing the old records to the the modern compact disc.
sense-lacking is a tough job but somebody's got to do it
DuffMan wrote:I don't care what you say, I want SF2 DS with Online, Woot!
Are you following Ultimate Mortal Kombat? It's basically a DS port of UMK3, with online play, and the extra modes/side games from the recent console MK games thrown in.
...If I were to choose a fighter to get the HD treatment, though, it would be Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Great game, hard to find, and could seriously benefit from a touch-up. High-resolution art, a new soundtrack, and online support would breathe some serious life into that game.
Despite owning it on two different platforms (I currently have it for DC and Xbox...looking to trade the Xbox copy for a PS2 copy, if anyone's interested), I actually prefer a more illicit copy, just for the sake of plugging in a new soundtrack. I thought about making my own with some stuff from OC ReMix and old TV show archives at one point (putting in appropriate music for all the characters), but it involved doing weird things with disc images that I didn't want to spend the time figuring out.
I can honestly say the music to MvC2 does not bother me in the least. I believe I'm the only one. I do love that game though, I have it on DC and XBox.
DuffMan wrote:I don't care what you say, I want SF2 DS with Online, Woot!
Are you following Ultimate Mortal Kombat? It's basically a DS port of UMK3, with online play, and the extra modes/side games from the recent console MK games thrown in.
...If I were to choose a fighter to get the HD treatment, though, it would be Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Great game, hard to find, and could seriously benefit from a touch-up. High-resolution art, a new soundtrack, and online support would breathe some serious life into that game.
Despite owning it on two different platforms (I currently have it for DC and Xbox...looking to trade the Xbox copy for a PS2 copy, if anyone's interested), I actually prefer a more illicit copy, just for the sake of plugging in a new soundtrack. I thought about making my own with some stuff from OC ReMix and old TV show archives at one point (putting in appropriate music for all the characters), but it involved doing weird things with disc
images that I didn't want to spend the time figuring out.
I don't necessarily want it because of what UKM3 is doing, I would just like to have an easily accessible, online version of the game. If I had to choose what game I played the most when I was younger, I would have to say hands down it would have to be this. Just a lot good memories. Plus I don't have a 360 anyways.