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[sn00zer]

Im mean holy shit....

just amazing really hoping to see the same treatment given to environments next gen

oh and for discussion...Have awesome character models helped or hurt this gen?...sometimes they stand out way too much when compared to a relatively low poly backgrounds, and with animation not quite caught up it can have the puppet effect (Mafia 2)

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Not a generational thing in the slightest.

 

[Solo]

baldspacemarines

 

[MYE]

I see nothing special on that last pic

 

[TheJollyCorner]

 

[Pagusas]

Maybe they did, but surely not from your examples.

 

[udivision]

I see nothing special on that last pic

Low prices, 2 cartoons for just 15.99

 

[VeryGooster]

As much as I love AA and AC I hate Batman's roid rage design.

 

[fuzzyreactor]

lol @ batman as a example.

 

[sn00zer]

Not a generational thing in the slightest.

SH3 is a marvel in and of itself...its just about the only last gen game that has such impeccable quality

 

[Mithos]

lol @ batman as a example.

Batman is in some picture where? ;P

 

[fuzzyreactor]

Not a generational thing in the slightest.

how does this gif still look so good?

 

[snoopeasystreet]

how does this gif still look so good?

Its mad small

 

[scar tissue]

Yeah, they are awesome. Now give me better animations.
Kratos still looks silly with his double jump, and weapons still disappear from one frame to the next without a proper animation when doing certain things.

 

[iKeepPlaying]

how does this gif still look so good?

Just like the cars of GT5 gifs look like real life cars.

 

[MisterHero]

After Street Fighter 4, NO

 

[fuzzyreactor]

Yeah, they are awesome. Now give me better animations.
Kratos still looks silly with his double jump, and weapons still disappear from one frame to the next without a proper animation when doing certain things.

Agreed animation is so much more important than graphical fidelity. cant wait for the last guardian

 

[udivision]

Agreed animation is so much more important than graphical fidelity. cant wait for the last guardian

Not all the time. Animations take a back seat to control when tight control is important to a game. Graphcis, however, never interfere with control.

 

[Shahadan]

Hands are still abominations from nightmares though.

 

[GreggTheGrimReaper]

Not a generational thing in the slightest.

Yes!!! He's back! Been missing him.

 

[fuzzyreactor]

Not all the time. Animations take a back seat to control when tight control is important to a game. Graphcis, however, never interfere with control.

They do when the framerate is shit because of it. Of course gameplay comes first, that is a given.

 

[Irish]

Hands are still abominations from nightmares though.

The AC series fucking kills hands.

 

[Carl]

Harley's tits are alright, i'll give her that

 

[jim-jam bongs]

SH3 is a marvel in and of itself...its just about the only last gen game that has such impeccable quality

Also:

Silent Hill 2
No One Lives Forever 2
Half-Life 2
Devil May Cry 4
Resident Evil 4
etc etc

Point is, the skill of an artist is separate from generations. I actually think that character modelling has been getting less impressive because of the overuse of normal-mapping and under-utilisation of quality image-maps, but that's more to do with execution than underlying quality or skill.

Its mad small

Nah, Silent Hill 3 just still looks really nice:

 

[Grisby]

I've been pretty shocked in the last 2 weeks at Resident Evil Revelations models and recently, Uncharted Golden Abyss's. They look so damn good for handhelds.

 

[Raging Spaniard]

After Street Fighter 4, NO

Thats stupid, dont say stupid things.

Id argue SF IV has the best character models this gen. Dhalsim is exceptional, the real time facial animations that react to hits and anticipate supers/ultras, the quality of the animations, top notch.

Oh I see, they look like gorillas, right, yawn.

 

[sublimit]

how does this gif still look so good?

Team Silent.

 

[zkylon]

It's probably nostalgia, but I think character textures were a lot better in the last bit of the PS2 generation (SH3, FFXII, MGS3). Bar exceptions, of course.

 

[Warm Machine]

Fantastic modellers and Zbrush/Mudbox did wonders this generation.

 

[revolverjgw]

There have been exceptions, even in great games

 

[sixteen-bit]

After Street Fighter 4, NO

SF4 has the best animation this gen.

 

[CO_Andy]

Id argue SF IV has the best character models this gen. Dhalsim is exceptional, the real time facial animations that react to hits and anticipate supers/ultras, the quality of the animations, top notch.

Oh I see, they look like gorillas, right, yawn.

Yes, the effort put into the animations was sweet, but it doesn't excuse the actual character models.

You really think SF4 Ryu looks better than this?

 

[J-Rod]

You could probably make a topic arguing the complete opposite when you consider all the ridiculously out of proportion space marines with a toes the size of a human skull.

 

[GrayFoxPL]

Eh I dunno.

Tekken 6 has 10 times more polygons on characters but Tekken 5 models are vastly superior in style and art.

 

[szaromir]

Still love it, my game of the generation.

 

[sn00zer]

Yes, the effort put into the animations was sweet, but it doesn't excuse the actual character models.

You really think SF4 Ryu looks better than this?

Its technical skill not visual preference he's talking about

 

[Pimpbaa]

That Batman pic reminds of when the blond chick who is in ign's youtube videos dressed up as that version of Harley Quinn for Halloween. Unf unf unf!

 

[Durante]

Hair and clothes suck a lot this gen though. Mostly the same as in the previous gen, which actually looks worse compared to the improvements in all other areas. Alice was next-gen in this regard.

Not a generational thing in the slightest.

First reply wins, that's the first thing I thought to post when I read the thread title.

 

[KageMaru]

how does this gif still look so good?

low res gifs help hide flaws that would otherwise be obvious when viewing games on a TV. That's why it's usually pointless to post gifs as an example of graphics.

 

[MisterHero]

Thats stupid, dont say stupid things.

Id argue SF IV has the best character models this gen. Dhalsim is exceptional, the real time facial animations that react to hits and anticipate supers/ultras, the quality of the animations, top notch.

Oh I see, they look like gorillas, right, yawn.

Like the other person who quoted me said, they were at least animated beautifully. The quality of the animation has some part to do with the quality of the modeling, but I just hate the final aesthetic appeal.

For example, SFII's Sagat sprite actually looks lean and powerful. Definition doesn't just come from having muscles on top of more muscles, like the Alpha/SF4 version of Sagat.

On the other hand, I'm someone who preferred SFII's slightly-less chunky approach to character design over III and Alpha. One of the few merits I'd give to SF4's modeling is that the brought back SFII's exaggerated facial expressions. I even stood up for it when SF4 was just a few early screenshots.

I hope Namco's version of Ryu destroys the SFIV version

Its technical skill not visual preference he's talking about

I was talking about hating the aesthetic appeal, but Raging Spaniard's right about animation quality

Aside from outrageous character designs, I really like the modern Tekken/SoulCalibur models

 

[Raging Spaniard]

Yes, the effort put into the animations was sweet, but it doesn't excuse the actual character models.

You really think SF4 Ryu looks better than this?

As the other guy said, your beef is with the aesthetics, but regardless of style, the model themselves are stunning and from seeing the wireframes, perfectly modeled and rigged. Also a landmark in 3d modeling for fighting games, taking a more cartoony route, before that they always went more realistic (Tekken, VF, even SF EX)

Had they gone with the more cel shaded style, the model quality would have been the same and yeah, I prefer the style they ended up with because its more expressive and reads better as youre playing.

 

[Pimpbaa]

Hair and clothes suck a lot this gen though. Mostly the same as in the previous gen, which actually looks worse compared to the improvements in all other areas. Alice was next-gen in this regard.

Most clothes last gen was just flat textures for clothing. This gen had plenty of normal mapping to put appropriate wrinkles and folds in clothes.

 

[randomwab]

Its mad small

NAW, SON!

 

[jim-jam bongs]

People who think that SH3 only still looks good if you view it in massively downsampled GIFs should probably go and play it on PC at 1080p. It's like the poster-child for good art triumphing over technical limitations.

 

[fuzzyreactor]

NAW, SON!

wth. team silent are wizards

 

[Threi]

Yes, the effort put into the animations was sweet, but it doesn't excuse the actual character models.

You really think SF4 Ryu looks better than this?

yes.


*edit*

out of all the chars to use as examples, please don't use Sagat.

That is one character who, both by design and animation, is by FAR best represented in SF4. No other version of Sagat comes even close.

 

[perineumlick]

Is that SH3 gif a real time character model from game play, or part of a cutscene?

 

[stuminus3]

To be fair, running SH3 on PC back when it was released was probably similar to running it on hardware similar to current-gen consoles. The PS2 version doesn't quiiiiite look like that.

However, lol @ roid rage Batman as an example.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Is that a real time character model from game play, or part of a cutscene?

The old man? It's a real-time cut-scene, I don't think the old man is ever actually in a scene where the player has control.

 

[Durante]

Most clothes last gen was just flat textures for clothing. This gen had plenty of normal mapping to put appropriate wrinkles and folds in clothes.

Completely static wrinkles and folds, in 90% of the cases. Which IMHO looks worse in motion than just a flat texture would.