No More Heroes without cel-shading

[DeadlyNinja]

I thought this would be interesting to see. While I love the crazy style of No More Heroes' cel-shading, if I hadn't seen this, I wouldn't be able to really appreciate just how good the models look. For once, I actually think the cel-shading took away from the game. I mean the amount of effort done on the character models. This is done by someone on gamefaqs.

So a friend and I are working to port the models from No More Heroes into GarrysMod (a modification of HL2 that allows you to import source compatible models and pose them to your liking - or create things with the various props and tools that are available) and we ran across a stunning discovery: The models actually look really REALLY nice without the cell shading.

Now, don't get me wrong - the cell shading is part of the experience that makes NMH look so awesome and I wouldn't have it any other way, but I was outright amazed when he sent me the beta of BadGirl for initial testing. It really makes me wonder what the game would've looked like if the cell shading had been skipped completely (as all this is, is a model port without applying the cell shading filter as a specular or normal map). So, I figured that I'd just drop off this promo image here of the beta port as an example of what we're working with, and if any other characters make it to the beta stage of the porting process, I'll be sure to leave more screenshots (we're currently planning on BadGirl, Sylvia (not sure which version we're porting though) and Travis for sure - as it all depends on how long it takes to get these ports working).

NOTE: for those wondering, yes this image was edited in Photoshop - but the textures on the model were NOT modified whatsoever. This is only a "lighting and color tone" rework, nothing more (read: I don't have the time NOR skill to create a realistic looking fake for something like this, so please don't even go there).

Thread: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=933024&topic=47795726

 

[Rurouni]

I think for cell shading, you actually need more polys, because it emphasize on the model outline, thus when you use less poly for the model, you will really notice it.
With regular/realistic shading, you could use less poly and it would still look nice because the eyes focused more on the texture instead of the model itself.
I believe that in this case, this level quality of the model actually needed for the cell shading to work effectively. It it were made to use regular shading, then they could get away with lesser quality model.
One could say that this look good with regular shading, but other can say that regular shading would take away some identity of the game, thus making the game look like other game out there and not special.

 

[RudeCurve]

That is indeed very interesting. Thanks for posting that.