Fascinated at the quality of original assets!

[joques]

Digging deeper into my library and trying out more games on PCSX2. (As well as Wii/GC with Dolphin)

I am just stunned at the quality of assets, especially textures, that were generated for these games that the developers knew no one would ever get to see when playing in SD on original hardware! I just ran GTA III, and apart from a quirky issue with the fonts (It seems like the outlines of the fonts are offset slightly, giving the letters a "dirty" look), the textures, the storefronts, the posters all over the city, they are all pretty goddamned stunning, and nothing like the muddy mess you get on original hardware.

Super Mario Galaxy 1/2 also, just insanely detailed texture work that could never be truly appreciated on the jag-fest that is the Wii. I am simultaneously elated and saddend - it must have been heartbreaking for the artists to see their work so badly served by the hardware.

Paper Mario for the GC is just insane. Even without HD texture packs, but with anisotropic filtering on - at my viewing distance I am unable to see the jagged edges of the textures. It blows me away.

Even SMT Lucifer's Call/Nocturne, which is after all a fairly budget niche title. Playing at hi-res with AA and anisotropic filtering is just gorgeous, and akin to what I'd expect from a well-polished indie title on modern consoles. (with one exception - for some reason the protagonist's body tattoos are really lo-res textures - but they only really stick out in close-up cutscenes.)

It seems crazy to me that all these assets were generated at this level of quality  - but I am not complaining! This is truly the way to go back and rediscover these games!

[AlphaKennyWhere]

I heard somewhere that Okami was developed in 4k for some reason. Or maybe that was the HD Version on the PS3 that was in 4k but toned down to 1080p.

[joques]

I guess one hypothesis is that the artists work at the resolution of their pro software - and then downscale the art to fit the capabilities of the hardware - but still, you'd think they'd downscale it precisely to the resolution that is needed and not some higher resolution. If nothing else, then to optimize performance.

[Atros]

Digging deeper into my library and trying out more games on PCSX2. (As well as Wii/GC with Dolphin)

I am just stunned at the quality of assets, especially textures, that were generated for these games that the developers knew no one would ever get to see when playing in SD on original hardware! I just ran GTA III, and apart from a quirky issue with the fonts (It seems like the outlines of the fonts are offset slightly, giving the letters a "dirty" look), the textures, the storefronts, the posters all over the city, they are all pretty goddamned stunning, and nothing like the muddy mess you get on original hardware.

Super Mario Galaxy 1/2 also, just insanely detailed texture work that could never be truly appreciated on the jag-fest that is the Wii. I am simultaneously elated and saddend - it must have been heartbreaking for the artists to see their work so underserved by the hardware.

Paper Mario for the GC is just insane. Even without HD texture packs, but with anisotropic filtering on - at my viewing distance I am unable to see the jagged edges of the textures. It blows me away.

Even SMT Lucifer's Call/Nocturne, which is after all a fairly budget niche title. Playing at hi-res with AA and anisotropic filtering is just gorgeous, and akin to what I'd expect from a well-polished indie title on modern consoles. (with one exception - for some reason the protagonist's body tattoos are really lo-res textures - but they only really stick out in close-up cutscenes.)

It seems crazy to me that all these assets were generated at this level of quality  - but I am not complaining! This is truly the way to go back and rediscover these games!

I guess one hypothesis is that the artists work at the resolution of their pro software - and then downscale the art to fit the capabilities of the hardware - but still, you'd think they'd downscale it precisely to the resolution that is needed and not some higher resolution. If nothing else, then to optimize performance.

Yea i got the same feeling playing soul calibur III, its the main reason i keep downloading every build, like every time, u get to see something new! those textures easily fit nowdays games, what even more surprising is, how could the ps2 poor memory handle those textures!
More interesting in soul calibur is the clothes physics, nicely done in software mode (respond to the wind, with no clipping at all), way before Nvidia claim to introduce the feature or the company that Nvidia bought to implement that feature in its hardware.

[joques]

Yea i got the same feeling playing soul calibur III, its the main reason i keep downloading every build, like every time, u get to see something new! those textures easily fit nowdays games, what even more surprising is, how could the ps2 poor memory handle those textures!

Does the PS2 downsample the textures on the fly? Seems like an unnecessary extra step.

... I realize that I sound like a third-grader in a college calculus class, knowing literally nothing about the subject, yet talking abvout it as if I know anything