• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

PS1 Graphical Leaps

B

Barkley's Justice

Member
I was watching a video of Wipeout XL/2097 and recalled the first time I saw it in person. The graphical leap from Wipeout to Wipeout XL was massive:

Wipeout 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukOU1FpKTOM

Wipeout XL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SJ27_uIHKs

This was fairly common on PS1.

Tekken was another example. The leap between Tekken 1 & Tekken 2 was massive:

Tekken 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUtEr25l928

Tekken 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci3I9xrNF9c

And then of course came Tekken 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnvKM2Ycdu0

Ridge Racer is another good example:

Ridge Racer 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkR-B5np6R0

Ridge Racer Revolution was a fairly decent upgrade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_RtwNK5R2E

But then Rage Racer came along and we had another massive leap forward:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaC6CbImTH8

Not to leave out, of course, R4 which was jaw-dropping:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNrwmxB4OW8

What about Tobal?

Tobal 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPlUJh8Iu_Y

Tobal 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TzqbiIZDqQ

What other PS1 sequels completely out-did their predecessors visually?

I feel like this was a very prominent phenomenon on PS1. If I look at, say, Gears of War 1, 2, and 3, sure there are pretty big differences. But they feel less notable?

What do you think?
 
U

Uncle Rupee

Banned
Final Fantasy VII -> Final Fantasy IX was a pretty big jump (basically going from almost no textures on any of the character models to fully textured) and from three party members in battle to four

There was also a pretty noticeable leap from Brave Fencer Musashi -> Threads of Fate (not the same series, but the same team I think)
 
C

cancerdancer

Member
Have to assume people were still figuring out how to make 3D games and comfort with the tech lead to much bigger gains. Maybe VR will be the same as developers get more used to the idea of designing around 1:1 vision.
 
L

liquidtmd

Banned
The clipping and glitches during Rage Racer made it not that impressive for me at the time. R4 was a good step up though.

I think with Ridge Racer the best side by side improvement is the original to the High Spec 60fps demo. Sogood.gif
 
O

ocean

Banned
Uncle Rupee said:
Final Fantasy VII -> Final Fantasy IX was a pretty big jump (basically going from almost no textures on any of the character models to fully textured) and from three party members in battle to four
Click to expand...
Came to post this one. Massive difference. Tekken 1-3 might be the best jump though.
 
R

rjc571

Banned
MBS said:
Τekken 3 and RR4 actually looked much better than many of the early PS2 titles.
Click to expand...

Why do people say stupid shit like this? Lets compare Tekken 3 to the worst looking PS2 fighting game, Street Fighter EX3:

OZr4Et7.jpg

zKtFhPY.jpg
 
S

Soul_Pie

Member
Watching the old WipEouts just depresses me, they were always such brilliant showcases for the hardware. It's just a shame that we'll likely not see a PS4 game, imagine what they could achieve! Every game in the series has been a stunner.

There's a significant improvement in the Final Fantasy games over just a couple of years as well. Compare the blocky, kind of inconsistent look of FFVII compared with FFIX which looks like an illustrated, fairy tale world.
 
R

RK128

Member
The Crash series is a great example of this :D.

Crash 1 vs. Crash 2 vs. Crash 3

The leap from Crash 1 (stiff animations, older Crash model, more blocky character designs) to Crash 2 (Crash looking MUCH better, the animations looking increadably smooth, the worlds having tons more detail, ect) was huge :D!

Crash 3's leap from Crash 2, while not nearly as huge as Crash 1 to Crash 2 was, still was a great one :). The animations got even smoother, the levels visual designs are much more varied, and so on :). I think Naughty Dog was even able to use higher resolution tools from Sony for Crash 3 (not sure if that is the case, but I think that is what happened :l).

The crazy part? The games came out only a YEAR apart from each other XD! Naughty Dog were wizards with hardware even back then :).
 
P

poopninjamvc3mk

I sucked six dicks to get this tag.
Phediuk said:
Delta Force: Urban Warfare was very advanced for a PS1 shooter. Came out in 2002, right at the end of its life.

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

This is what COD4 would have been like on the PS1.
Click to expand...

Played more like Soldier of Fortune 2 fused with Goldeneye than COD but I kinda see what you were going for.

Phediuk said:
Sports games took a HUGE leap in presentation over the course of the PS1's life.


Madden 97: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFe8gyFb6Ck

Madden 05: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiwQd18FNjk
Click to expand...

Still amazed they made madden all the way till 05 on PS1
 
R

RK128

Member
Uncle Rupee said:
Wholeheartedly disagree. Crash 1 was already a brilliant looking game to begin with, there wasn't much room to improve with 2 and 3.
Click to expand...

Okay, the first one still looks great to this day, but the Crash 2 and 3 just look amazing :D! I say it is a big leap due to how much they could improve the games visually in just one year apart from each other :).

Part of why Crash 1 looks so good today is due to how Naughty Dog designed the visuals. Distinct colors that pop out, linear levels used to give the game a huge graphical buff then it would of had if it was more open, the animations getting smoother and smoother from game to game (due to more experience with the PS1 hardware), ect. Naughty Dog did great work with Crash :).
 
T

The Praiseworthy

Member
Each generation have a HUGE graphical leaps from start to finish... I mean:

FFVII ---> FFIX

ICO ---> SOTC

Uncharted 1 ---> TLOU

Uncharted 4 ---> Thinking of this gives me the chills :O !!!!
 
D

Dio

Banned
King's Field 1 (the one that never came out in the States):
koHp7Tw.jpg
9pkuzsK.jpg
z3Q6cWI.jpg
ignOJ3z.jpg


King's Field 2 (KF1 in the US)
CzJcEbh.jpg
Zgbdasz.jpg
8HiZzEv.jpg
JGiPhvv.jpg


King's Field 3 (KF2 in the US)
dwfxfB8.jpg
Wa0YeXV.jpg
GuekVpM.jpg
dVw1rlN.jpg


The texture differences are especially apparent. KF1 had a ridiculously low amount of texture variety.
 
G

GorillaJu

Member
Not to get on your case OP but you can't exactly give a fair comparison when you're showing poor quality Playstation 1 footage and then showing emulator footage for the sequels.
 
P

Pachinko

Member
1994-1995 you'd get the odd arcade port or FMV game ported from 3do or sega cd but no one really knew how to push polygons properly that early. Well, outside of AM2 with their arcade boards I suppose. (early ps1 games such toshinden or ports like road rash/need for speed)

By 1997, most studios that were still around had figured out how to build a polygon based 3D engine, by 1998 software mip mapping was available to push PS1 games even further. Programming tricks by developers like naughty dog also lead to some very impressive visuals in games like Crash Bandicoot 3. (obviously FF7 came out in 1997 but you also saw a small leap forward with stuff like jet moto 2 or twisted metal 2)(1998 we got to see resident evil 2)

By 1999/2000 you started to see game engines that pushed the PS1 just a bit too hard, they'd have better models and more textures than ever but extremely choppy framerates would start rearing their heads again. (some exceptions though , RE3 Nemesis managed to look as good if not better than 2 while also displaying more enemies on screen but then you have FF9 and Chrono Cross with their absurd load times during battles and 12 fps framerate)

I don't think we'll see such an obvious jump forward for quite awhile now. On paper, a PS4 game is doing quite a bit more at a resolution around double the number of pixels as a PS3 game but people outside of a place like neogaf won't really notice that difference for a while.
 
W

watershed

Banned
I loved the graphical leap in ps1 games over time. I feel like the N64 didn't have the same leap in visuals though Perfect Dark did look much better than Goldeneye.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
Phediuk said:
Screenshots above native resolution should be banned ITT.
Click to expand...

You get screens that aren't native res because of how difficult it is to find native res PSone screens. I was going to use Twisted Metal and Twisted Metal 2 as an example in this topic, but searches just bring up emulator shots.
 
B

blankempathy

Member
Firing up dino crisis the other day I miss how everyone used to talk and would move their arms all erratically. It was really noticeable in the resident evil games.
 
T

Timu

Member
SolidSnakex said:
You get screens that aren't native res because of how difficult it is to find native res PSone screens. I was going to use Twisted Metal and Twisted Metal 2 as an example in this topic, but searches just bring up emulator shots.
Click to expand...
I could do direct feed at native res if I had the games.=O
 
R

Ravek

Banned
FFX to FF XII.

People will disagree because theyre really comparing the art style.

Im not TOTALLY sure, but I think Mega Man Legends 1 to 2 was noticeable too.

Resodent Evil 1 to 2 as well.
 
U

Uncle Rupee

Banned
Sectorseven said:
I don't know if this counts, but Soul Reaver looks way better than Blood Omen.

2.jpg
626878bf289eecb32af32105f4fcf4051332319299_full.jpg
Click to expand...

Well it would considering that shot is either from an emulator or the Dreamcast version. No warped polygons, and more detail on the columns than PS1 would have.

Here's a more accurate PS1 Soul Reaver shot:

ZHTlk6Y.jpg


However given that Blood Omen and Soul Reaver were made by totally different developers, it's not a good comparison.
 
MrCunningham

MrCunningham

Member
Not a very good comparison video, but Ridge Rcaer Type 4 came with a second disc called Ridge Racer High Spec, which was the original game that ran at 60FPS, as apposed to the 30 of the original game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukOU1FpKTOM Though the 60FPS version only features one enemy car.

It also did have better textures, and improved car models ..
 
X

XANDER CAGE

Member
It's been mentioned already but FF7 to FF8 is a huuuuge leap forward. FF7 sticks out so clearly as "this was really the first time we tried this" with its inconsistent style and bizarre character models.
 
D.Lo

D.Lo

Member
Yeah Tekken 1-3 was amazing. PS1 sucked so bad to start with.

Hard to believe the system that did that turd of a Ridge Racer port eventually did Metal Gear Solid.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Digital Foundry: Retro Marathon: Sony PlayStation/ PSOne - Every Launch Game Tested!
32
1K
sachos replied
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged | Review Thread
News
5
1K
AndrewRyan replied
Sony’s attempt to ‘improve’ its 50Hz PS1 games on PS Plus is creating a ghosting effect (VGC)
Opinion News 2
94
6K
Xmengrey replied
DYNASTY WARRIORS PlayStation Evolution PS1 - PS5
Retro Trailer Platform
0
734
IbizaPocholo replied
  • Locked
How The Last of Us became 'the greatest story' ever told in video games
Opinion Analysis 2 3 4 5
203
17K
Elysium44 replied
Top Bottom