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[RetroGamingUK]

For 1998 hardware theres some unbelievably good looking games.

My top 10 based purely on graphics

1. Dead or Alive 2
2. Ferrari F355 Challenge
3. Sonic Adventure 2
4. Virtua Striker 2
5. Shenmue
6. Resident Evil: Code Veronica
7. Soul Calibur
8. Ecco the Dolphin
9. Metropolis Street Racer
10. Jet Set Radio

 

[PaintTinJr]

PS2 2001 holliday lineup alone is that infamous image that people keep trotting back to prove how much better it was than every consecutive console to date, so yea - you'd have to be pretending most of the library didn't exist to claim there was only 'a few' exceptions in that time-frame.
And. to add to above - we also got BG: DA, SSX/SSX:T, Splashdown, Jak1, Bouncer, ICO, AC4 and many more during the same period (and this is just listing software that was technically interesting in some way).

It's also the period where we finally started moving from 'clearly early PS2 title' (like FFX) to 'ok PS2 can do interesting things not seen before' (like BG: DA or Jak). Though even in the former bracket - I still think Bouncer was doing more with the hw than FFX did despite launching a year early - but I digress.

Bomberman Kart was also a 2001/2002 game with 4 player splitscreen lots of fill-rate heavy fx IIRC, I have my doubts such generalised camera work with that gameplay was possible on Dreamcast without methods to fake the generalized camera work into partial pre-calculated workloads for 4 player split..

 

[simpatico]

Losing baked lighting hurts. Real GI lighting can never look as good because it has no mind for aesthetics. Devs just think they don’t have to work on lighting because GI will handle it.

Proper baked lighting will take GI into account, but can override where it is needed to make a scene look a certain way

 

[Xaeroxcore666]

For 1998 hardware theres some unbelievably good looking games.

My top 10 based purely on graphics

1. Dead or Alive 2
2. Ferrari F355 Challenge
3. Sonic Adventure 2
4. Virtua Striker 2
5. Shenmue
6. Resident Evil: Code Veronica
7. Soul Calibur
8. Ecco the Dolphin
9. Metropolis Street Racer
10. Jet Set Radio

My visuals top 10:

1. Shenmue 2.
2. Dead or Alive 2 LE
3. Test Drive Le Mans.
4. Ferrari F355, specially with the rear view camera mod.
5. Headhunter.
6. Ikaruga
7. Virtua Tennis 2
8. Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs Zeon.
9. Ecco the Dolphin.
10. Hokuto No Ken (Atomiswave). For me, its the best looking 2D game i've ever seen on DC.

Not sure where to put GTA 3...But also would be fair to put it when Beta build or some sort of final version gets done and released.

 

[Alan Wake]

1. Shenmue II
2. Soul Calibur
3. Sonic Adventure 2
4. Metropolis Street Racer
5. Headhunter
6. Resident Evil: Code Veronica
7. Phantasy Star Online
8. Jet Set Radio
9. Ferrari F355 Challenge
10. Virtua Tennis 2

 

[cireza]

As to doability of DMC 1 for Dreamcast without very significant concessions, i doubt it pretty strongly. The game relied quite extensively on PS2's hardware strengths like its crazy high bandwidth/fill rate to achieve all kinds of lighting/transparency effects in a quite dense environment with high geometry and texture detail, that's not a good fit for Dreamcast hardware. I think DMC 1's technical achievements is a bit underappreciated these days, to me it's a better looking game than both of its sequels on PS2, 'cleaner' and more consistent looking than DMC 3 at least.

That's the point of having different hardware : you adapt your game to the strengths of said hardware. If DMC was ported to Dreamcast, it would maybe lose something... and probably gain something else. People are obsessed over the idea that DIFFERENT hardware should run the EXACT SAME games. This is stupid.

Look at your hardware, what are its strengths, develop your game engine and visuals in consequence.

 

[KimDongHwan]

Guys sorry not derailing the conversation, but is funny to me that this thread keeps popping up every month or so, discussing performance of the Dreamcast on 2025, that's what neogaf is all about

 

[RetroGamingUK]

I can’t believe how well Dead or Alive 2 has aged, it looks absolutely gorgeous on my OLED via Kaico HDMi

 

[Xaeroxcore666]

Guys sorry not derailing the conversation, but is funny to me that this thread keeps popping up every month or so, discussing performance of the Dreamcast on 2025, that's what neogaf is all about

You said it bro, that's what NeoGaf is all about. Also, its because DC 25 yrs after is still receiving games that defy its limitations, so..

 

[HoodWinked]

someone necro'd this thread but something did come to mind as I saw this thread appear, Dreamcast probably also had the two edge sword of having mature hardware, some studios were already familiar with Naomi hardware so with the Dreamcast some devs were already pushing it pretty hard. But the downside to that is there isn't much more head room for improvement.

This actually can be seen in the year1 games like Soul Calibur and Sonic Adventure, they looked incredible for the time but by the end of the Dreamcast's lifespan the fidelity wasn't that much greater in late cycle games.

 

[MrCunningham]

Alpha port version of an unfinished decompiled project, made with homebrew tools running on hardware from 1998, yes it was powerful at launch.

Wow. The home brew devs are really figuring out how the Dreamcast hardware actually works. There are far less sorting issues with transparencies, the lighting actually looks really impressive.

 

[Esppiral]

More progress

 

[RoboFu]

Wow. The home brew devs are really figuring out how the Dreamcast hardware actually works. There are far less sorting issues with transparencies, the lighting actually looks really impressive.

I think this one isn't even the best way to do it. from what I understand it's just using the windows ce compatibility .

 

[Esppiral]

I think this one isn't even the best way to do it. from what I understand it's just using the windows ce compatibility .

No, it is using kallistiOS a community created hombrew SDK.

 

[Xaeroxcore666]

someone necro'd this thread but something did come to mind as I saw this thread appear, Dreamcast probably also had the two edge sword of having mature hardware, some studios were already familiar with Naomi hardware so with the Dreamcast some devs were already pushing it pretty hard. But the downside to that is there isn't much more head room for improvement.

This actually can be seen in the year1 games like Soul Calibur and Sonic Adventure, they looked incredible for the time but by the end of the Dreamcast's lifespan the fidelity wasn't that much greater in late cycle games.

Have you compared Sonic Adventure 1 vs 2? Soul Calibur vs DOA 2? Have you seen Shenmue 2 or Headhunter? Are you watching this GTA 3 and VC alphas?

 

[MrCunningham]

I think this one isn't even the best way to do it. from what I understand it's just using the windows ce compatibility .

That would be extra impressive if true. I guess there was a WindowsCE development kit that leaked to the public quite a while back. I know it exists.