The Video Game Critic

I've been a staunch defender of the Jag because it actually had clean (can you believe that) 3d graphics compared to the distorted mess it became with the PS1 and the over digitized graphics that basically ruined everything. But, I just saw comparisons of Starfighter on the 3do and the PS1, and it's shocking how pathetic (and as always, headache inducing) the PS1 one was compared to the beautiful 3do version. I find this incredibly significant. This is where it all went downhill. It's crazy to think that the first few years of 3d it was beautiful and had a natural look to it. Is that a natural progression? To go from beautiful 3d graphics to terrifying, headache inducing, unimaginative garbage that continues to this day. It's really astonishing. I mean, I didn't know that the 3do was better at 3d than the PS1, its just crazy.








https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Jh79AdVSo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm8KPzlCLys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLXK8xubtic

C'mon now, Jon. The draw distance in that first video is hilariously bad. The frame rate is sub-20fps and tearing abounds. And that visual palette has like...4 colors? 5?

While your "digital hell" theory is unquestionably scientific, and your evidence of one obscure, non-licensed 3DO port undeniably sound, I raise you the following 3D titles as definitive evidence that neither the 3DO, nor the Jaguar, nor anything contemporaneous could contend with the PS1 in 3D rendering.

I raise you Tekken 3, Chrono Cross, and Gran Turismo 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWmDv-xOhpY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR5-EsWEIzk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DQt2CuMIHY

Yea but those games are ugly and don't spark the imagination at all. The PS1 is like a girl that came from a good family but she's ugly. But this isn't about just the PS1. This is about how 3d got hijacked and has been crap for 20 years, dragging down the industry with it. 3d began as an art form and now it's a nightmare.

I can certainly relate to preferring the clean, direct look of early 3D games to later efforts on the same consoles. But Star Fighter is a terrible example since it's an infamously botched port on both the PS1 and Saturn.

Quite a few of the 3DO > PlayStation ports were downgrades, partly because they were rushed (hurriedly trying to recoup losses?), but also because the 3DO was actually better than the PlayStation at a few, relatively subtle things.

Former 3DO devs ewhac and gammadev have a nice series of Let's Play videos where they talk about some of the specifics. IIRC one of them had to do with the 3DO being more flexible about the number of colors an object could have, which allowed in turn for more dynamic/efficient VRAM usage (or something like that). When the game in question was ported to the PlayStation, the color count dropped as a result.

To be sure, there are loads of butt-ugly games on the PlayStation, with texture warping and innumerable other issues. That said, I've been playing the PlayStation US launch title Kileak: The DNA Imperative recently, and it really looks quite good to me: clean textures, consistently high framerate, smooth transitions, short loading times, etc. It all makes for a pretty polished experience (purely in graphical terms). Comparable titles I've played on the 3DO, like Escape from Monster Manor, just don't have the same smoothness to them.

Regardless, the 3DO, Jaguar, and 32X (all of which I own) seem roughly in the same ballpark to me when it comes to 3D games: sometimes fun and sometimes surprisingly respectable, but constantly chugging at the limits of their own capabilities, and only able to excel in very specific situations. There's no question that the PS1 and Saturn represent a major step beyond that, but both systems have plenty of titles with that 1993-1996 early 3D look if that's what you like -- and I do.

I'd recommend Steel Harbinger on the PS1 if you want a game that seems tailor-made...for the 3DO. Seriously, it really feels and plays like a 3DO game, somehow.

[QUOTE=Jon]Yea but those games are ugly and don't spark the imagination at all. The PS1 is like a girl that came from a good family but she's ugly. But this isn't about just the PS1. This is about how 3d got hijacked and has been crap for 20 years, dragging down the industry with it. 3d began as an art form and now it's a nightmare.[/QUOTE]

Not sure if this is self-parody or what, but none of what you're saying makes any sense. 

Jon, is your main complaint with the PS1 the way it used pixelly texture-mapping as opposed to the earlier system's smoother (but far simpler) gourand shading? There is a certain appeal to that older look, but I think most of the PS1 era's graphical hiccups were remedied from the Dreamcast on.

I think, I sort of see Jon's point. I too like the pre-texture mapped looked but as alluded to earlier, both the 3DO and the Jaguar struggled with frame rates. Put Virtua Racing 32x next to Chequered Flag and the frame rate is night and day. Also I would say Virtua Fighter 2 3D graphics still stand up well on the Saturn because they don't go for the 'digitised' look. Likewise Ridge Racer and Daytona CCE due to smooth frame rates and a fantastical arcade style still hold up reasonably well.

But also as Zetax has said the texture mapping pixelation ended with the Dreamcast.

When I look at those pics, the PS1 version looks better to me than the 3DO version...

LOL at the hilariously atrocious cardboard that is Die Hard Trilogy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7oXmZNCHQ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GppCTw_6f6I

[QUOTE=Jon]LOL at the hilariously atrocious cardboard that is Die Hard Trilogy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7oXmZNCHQ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GppCTw_6f6I[/QUOTE]

That second video actually looks really good--you have actual textures, visual effects like lens flare, and multiple transparency layers: things the Jaguar could rarely if ever pull off. Not to mention the palatable frame rate.