The team ninja engine hiearchy goes as follows-
team ninja engine 1
1)buys the VF2 engine from sega
2)modifies the hell out of it and releases the first DOA
3)DOA gets ported from arcades to saturn
4)DOA gets ported from saturn to psone, engine needs to be rebuilt mostly , runs at a higher resolution and higher framerate but has 2d backgrounds
5)DOA psone is tinkered into an arcade re-release called DOA++ so it has the best aspects of all the version in 1 package
team ninja engine 2
6)using middleware as a base, time team ninja codes up a new engine mostly from scratch to make doa2 on the naomi arcade hardware
7)DOA2 naomi is ported the the dreamcast with minimal losses
8)doa2 gets ported to the japanese ps2 , rushed out the door to make launch and is a bit sloppy
9)doa2 hardcore released in international markets , this version is much more polished with 90% of the graphical problems of the japenese version cleaned out. Still uses a ps2 modified naomi engine
10)the ultimate version of doa2 arrives- japan only and on dreamcast in the form of DOA2 Limited edition
11)tecmo is handed a few xbox dev kits to entice them into making games for this new platform, team ninja , as a test takes DOA2 hardcore and simply ports the code to the xbox, it runs at 180 fps and they fall in love
team ninja engine 3
12) the same engine from the naomi is practically rebuilt from the ground up to run in the xbox directx8 based environment, it now supports much more detailed models, far better textures and better physics.
13) The doa3 engine was still somewhat hacked togethor based on prelaunch devkits , further development occurs and the engine is split and retuned for use in 2 different games, doax and ninja gaiden
14) DOAX is completed and if you ask me heralds the launch of version 3.5 of their engine, brighter colors, sharper images and more effective use of the xbox platform
15) ninja gaiden is finally released, having tweaked the engine in different ways, it's probably best to call this version the "ninja gaiden engine" rather then a doa engine. It started as the same tech but it's far enough removed from how the doa engine works as to be it's own thing- made for rendering more particle effects, more objects/characters and AI and a full in game cutscene featureset.
16) Dead or alive 2 ultimate- TN engine 3.5 is further tweaked to enough of a degree that it's easier to just consider this version 4.0. The visuals put out at this point are some of the best seen on the original xbox console, it now supports full lighting , more particles, more colors at the same time as having better physics and animation....
17)ninja gaiden black - no engine tweaks really made, just the same game with additional content
18)The xbox 360 launches, having only months to move from doa ultimate to the new hardware , the doau / 4.0 engine is simply ported to the 360. It doesn't recieve the typical polish and time needed to properly integrate it onto the new hardware. In fact, doa4 in particular, outside of some character models and a couple of stages is better summed up as utilizing engine 4.0HD. It runs at 1280X720p @ 60fps with rare tiny dips below. It uses higher resolution textures and throws around perhaps 10 times as many triangles but without the finesse spent on pushing the xbox 1 to it's limits the payoff is lower. The physics engine recieves an overhaul allowing for hair/clothing/arena objects to be mathematically affected but again... it doesn't seem to be obviously pushing the hardware.
19) and so, you'd think with the second game released they'd tune that engine up a little bit but not as much as the first xbox got.... if doax bumped the team ninja engine from 3.0 to 3.5 then it's safe to say doax2 bumped the engine from 4.0hd to 4.2hd. They added even more physics, built in their own water /wave simulation table and self shadowing but at the same time the lighting model was still the same one used on xbox and because doax2 was even more rushed then doa4 it had to knock the framerate down to 30fps. Still atleast it kept 1280X720p...
20) Around this same time, the team responsible for polishing off doax/ninja gaiden black is handed a goal of getting ninja gaiden onto the ps3. The ninja gaiden engine is way out of date compared to the standard engine so this second team has alot of catching up to do. Using the NG engine as a base they simply build upon it slowly adding and tweaking things to test the ps3's abilities. Bumping the resolution up to the nexgen 720p standard prooves effortless, adding in better textures still doesn't falter the hardware much, so they redo the lighting model with some of the techniques present in doa2ultimate along with new code and finally they have an engine that uses light sources as they should work. Alas, like team ninja in general these guys are a bit rushed so around 30 % of the way through this rebuild they are overbudget and rush the rest of the games ps3 port out the door , hastilly add a new playable character and hope for the best.
21) Finally , ninja gaiden 2. The same engine developed for doax2 is tinkered with and morphed into a new engine, the first upgrade worthy of calling it 4.5hd. Unfortunatly with the internal workings of the company falling apart, the 24 months likley needed to properly finish this engine and polish off the game are cut down to 15 months and at month 12 a big dispute arises that forces most of the team to force the game out the door at month 13 in a barely finished state. And so the legacy of the engine started years back on the dreamcast comes to a sad finale, stuck at below 720p, running at 30fps most of the time, placeholder textures left in the game all over, placeholder backdrops left in the game all over and even place holder unplaytested levels left intact. Had it recieved that final few months of time it might have been a fantastic looking game in all areas, alas the best description one can really give out is "inconsistent"
22) now, more then a year after team ninjas breakup the remnants have taken the ninja gaiden 2 engine and slapped it's assets into the ps3 "sigma" engine. Tweaks to both the gameplay and the engine itself have meant that finally, after a 4 year absence the team ninja visual wizards appear to be on their way back.
I am with many others though... hayashi seems to be on the right path, he was mentored heavily by itagaki afterall.. but I'd like to see a "from the ground up" team ninja game to see what he's truly capable of. So far he hasn't made a game completly on his own yet.
He came aboard the ship with doax, was in charge of repackaging the hurricane packs into black and also rebuilt black into sigma for the ps3. The closest he came to making his own thing was dragonsword for the DS but even there, itagaki was like a sith lord behind his dark apprentice. So bring on a ninja gaiden 3 or a DOA5.