Virtua Fighter 2 was a disappointment visually compared to the arcades. VF2 did one thing great though. The animation was top notch, a next gen leap. Thats something Tekken 2 could not compete with.
But Tekken 2 had nice lighting effects, totally absent from VF2, and maybe even in polycounts too. Can't really say I was a fan of the floating stages in VF2. But yeah what the VDP2 could do with the infinite floor was great.
Now regarding Tekken 3 arcade vs PS1, you can't really judge it.The arcade board was stronger than both the Saturn and the PS1 and it wasnt able to do infinite floors either as it lacked completely anything remorely similar to VDP2. Actualy the draw distance of the floors are very similar (between arcade and console). The PS1 version still looked better than anything on the Saturn and it was running at 60fps with lighting effects, high polygon characters and the res was above average. Since Tekken 3 had 3D backgrounds on the arcades Namco used an altenrative solution for PS1. The backgrounds aren't a flat image like in Tekken 2 but a wrapped around texture which I think it was achieved by a textured polygon room. Maybe someone can shed some light on this, but really you can't talk about layers for the backgrounds since it was a different approach. Its like comparing an apple to a ham.
Megamix and Fighting Vipers I think were quite impressive
So Virtua Fighter 2 on Sega Saturn was a disappointment? According to who? And why was it a disappointment? Is it because it doesn't have 3D-backgrounds (
nor does Tekken 1, 2 and 3 on the PS1 hardware, right?)? Doesn't use gouraud shading or doesn't have the different color lightning effects that we can see on for example on Fighters Megamix?
The arcade version of Virtua Fighter 2 doesn't use gouraud shading or doesn't have any particular lightning either. So it must mean that Tekken 2 (
due to the lighting effects) on PS1 shows that the PS1 is more powerful then the Model 2 hardware, right? But we we all know that the Model 2 hardware is more powerful even when compared to the Namco System 12 hardware (
the arcade board that Tekken 3 is running on). Virtua Fighter 2 on Sega Saturn is running in a resolution that is
higher then the arcade version, that doesn't make the Sega Saturn to be more powerful then the Model 2 hardware. The resolution that VF2 on Sega Saturn runs in is not even supported by the PS1 hardware. Come on Tekken 2 is not running with a higher polycount on PS1 compared to VF2 on Sega Saturn. Look at the characters arms and legs and the even if you don't like the "floating" stages they still has to be constructed with polygons with 3D-edges (
and where is this geometric polygon area visible in Tekken 1,2 and 3 on the PS1 versions, nowhere as it just is a flat ground with no edges).
You seem to misinterpreted me why I'm talking about the multilayered planes in the background. I'm not comparing the Sega Saturn hardware VDP2 chip against the Namco System 12 (
or the Model 2) as those two arcade hardware is much more powerful to render 3D-graphics compared to either consoles. If you take a look at Tekken 1 and Tekken 2 on PS1 there is only one low resolution 2D-plane in the background compared to the multilayered planes that you can see on VF2, Fighting Vipers, Fighters Megamix on the Sega Saturn. And YES the reason why Tekken 3 on PS1 have choosen a wrapped texture background around a polygon room is just because the PS1 cannot replicate the layered planes in the background, and the PS1 just as the Sega Saturn is to weak to render those backgrounds in fully 3D. According to you Tekken 3 on the PS1 version still looks better than anything showed on the Saturn due too it was running at 60fps with lighting effects, high polygon characters and a resolution that is above average, that's nice but that is only your opinion. VF2 on Sega Saturn still is running with a higher resolution, animated faces, high resolution textures on the characters and just take a look at the ground (the "floating" plane with different textures on the ground and the edge), the animated backgrounds like the floating river on Shuns stage and so on.
By the way take a look at Tekken 3 on PS1 during the real time intro and you can clearly see that the draw distance on the floor is shorter then compared to the arcade version (
look at the floor when you see Hwoarang). Every stages looks like you are fighting in a "box" kind of..
PS - You still haven't provided us or anyone else for that matter a game on PS1 that shows a replicated 3D distortion effect as we can see on Tomb Raider on the Sega Saturn version. A free roaming 3D-adventure game where you can jump into the water, swim around, see the characters body distorts, when looking up in the water it distorts the view above, when looking down it distorts the content in the water, when lookin at the transparent surface it has waves (
looks a little bit like jelly, but hey it still at least is not just a flat transparent plane).
/ Ken
