Sega Virtua Processor

The Sega Virtua Processor was Sega's answer to Nintendo's Super FX chip. Both of these were made to increase the graphical capabilities of certain games for the Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive and SNES; Sega has Virtua Racing, Nintendo has Star Fox/Starwing, Doom, and other titles (Doom uses an upgraded version called the Super FX 2 chip). I've wondered what the original Virtua Fighter and Doom would have been like in terms of graphics and audio if Sega used the SVP chip instead of making Virtua Fighter and Doom 32X video games.

I wonder what Sonic would have looked like if Sega had used it, as it was planned in the early development of the game.

SFX was actually one of many special chips used for SNES games.

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Originally Posted by youloute

I wonder what Sonic would have looked like if Sega had used it, as it was planned in the early development of the game.

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Did they really consider using it? That would have been interesting. They probably would have used a couple of vector lines for bosses and stage elements, and maybe a few sprite scaling here and there.

Who are we kidding? They would have wasted it on bonus stages.

I'd imagine Virtua Fighter and Doom running with only one 16-color palette and generally looking like crap. Doom might be better than the 32X version if they let Carmack spend enough time porting all of the textures and levels, but that would only be in gameplay. I doubt even Carmack would have gotten the digital samples sounding clear. ;)

Did someone say 16-colors? Fake or not, its amusing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khuyZdgYxlc

Well the SVP Virtua processor has been discussed quite a few times on these boards, its a Samsung DSP chip. Apparently its much much much faster than the Super FX chip, the Super FX is actually quite gimpy in a lot of ways. Its slow at very basic instructions.

To be honest most 3D Super FX games didn't use all that many colours other than on backgrounds, we could have had some kick-ass SVP games folks, faster and better looking than the Pretendo enemy!

Proof is in the pudding TVC, and since Sega only had a single cup, your statement is kind of moot.

A single cup that went down smoother than Star Fox though ;)

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Originally Posted by youloute

I wonder what Sonic would have looked like if Sega had used it, as it was planned in the early development of the game.

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Uhm source.

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Originally Posted by TVC 15

A single cup that went down smoother than Star Fox though ;)

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Oh so that's why Virtua Racer spawned a bunch of sequels and spin offs, and became ingrained into the mind of the gaming public, while Star Fox faded into obscurity, never to be heard from again.
...oh wait.

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Originally Posted by Bastardcat

Oh so that's why Virtua Racer spawned a bunch of sequels and spin offs, and became ingrained into the mind of the gaming public, while Star Fox faded into obscurity, never to be heard from again.
...oh wait.

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"Smooth" as in framerate

Jeez louise, get down from that high horse. I KNOW how 'great' Starfox is, I love the bloody thing. I don't need it hammering into my skull.

Lighten up.

Well I wouldn't know about frame rate. Unless I'm mistaken Genesis's VR frame rate wasn't documented.

VR SVP is 15fps. I'm not sure about Star Fox, it never seemed too framey to me. What killed me about Star Fox was that the grounds weren't anything but color gradients. Even the Master System and NES managed to make simple lines scroll towards the screen. Other than that, I like Star Fox quite a bit, mostly for the music.

The only music I remember from Starfox is the epic first level theme.

Yeah, that and the title screen are all I remember too. ;)

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Originally Posted by Jadty

Did they really condider using it? That would have been interesting. They probably would have used a couple of vector lines for bosses and stage elements, and maybe a few sprite scaling here and there.

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*points at Chaotix*

The only game proven to have been planed for the SVP that eventually didn't make it (ended up as a 32X game instead) is Parasquad (the prototype versions have the SVP signature in the header). Unless some old magazine scan or interview I don't know about says otherwise, that is.

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Originally Posted by Bastardcat

Well I wouldn't know about frame rate. Unless I'm mistaken Genesis's VR frame rate wasn't documented.

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15 FPS.

I've seen Starfox being quoted at 20, but I'm not sure.

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Originally Posted by Bastardcat

I've seen Starfox being quoted at 20, but I'm not sure.

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No way. Starfox's framerate has to be around 10, its so slow. Couple that with laggy controls and you've got a game that's aged like milk. All the 3D SFX games have those common flaws. VR may offer a lot less longevity and content, but it's still very playable.

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Originally Posted by Da_Shocker

Uhm source.

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One of the guys who wrote the book about the history of Sonic told me that.

If he was the guy that actually wrote the source code of Sonic it would be relevant. Otherwise, it sounds like tosh.

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Originally Posted by zetastrike

No way. Starfox's framerate has to be around 10, its so slow. Couple that with laggy controls and you've got a game that's aged like milk. All the 3D SFX games have those common flaws. VR may offer a lot less longevity and content, but it's still very playable.

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Starfox still pisses on anything Gen has, including VR

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Originally Posted by STONEDSTONER

Starfox still pisses on anything Gen has, including VR

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http://files.sharenator.com/oh20noes...-49735-580.jpg

Seriously, VR is pushing a lot more polygons at a higher and smoother framerate than Starfox. VR was one of the pioneers of 3D racing in general, and Virtua Racing SVP is an excellent conversion. Starfox is Galaxy Force II with ugly low resolution polygons and static backgrounds, the music is the best thing about it.

Yeah Gen VR is awesome also, and i know SVP is actually the faster chip, but i love starfox!! the game is legendary and i still play it at least once a week

These older polygon games a really special for me,even going way back to Hard Drivin

I still remember the day hiring them out from the videostore , i was blown away

Shame the flat shaded polygon era of games was so shortlived, they have a special look to them and they sure as hell age better then early texture mapping

These games are the main reason ive been getting back into buying retro consoles again :)

To bad VR sucks on saturn and Ps2, what the hell were they thinking with the handling on ps2 ver... garbage, could have been the best port, but that goes to 32x

I love the flat shaded look, and yes Starfox is an awesome rail shooter in its own right. It is ridiculous that the Saturn and PS2 versions of VR aren't Arcade perfect. I also love Stun Runner, Harrd/Race Driven' and any other early non-textured polygonal games. I think the 32-bit era would have been better suited to more non-textured-but-lit polygon games really, texture warping on the PS1 is particularly bad.

Not sure what is wrong with you guys eyes but looking at Model 1 games compared to Model 2 games is like day an night. But I guess to each his own.

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Originally Posted by Bastardcat

I've seen Starfox being quoted at 20, but I'm not sure.

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Originally Posted by STONEDSTONER

Starfox still pisses on anything Gen has, including VR

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When I see stuff like this said, it makes me think that a lot of people who tout how great Starfox is have only played it in an emulator. In an emulator it's a lot more passable, but on a SNES it is so choppy.

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Originally Posted by xelement5x

When I see stuff like this said, it makes me think that a lot of people who tout how great Starfox is have only played it in an emulator. In an emulator it's a lot more passable, but on a SNES it is so choppy.

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If you use a buggy emulator like Zsnes, i suppose that's true. Frame rate becomes higher but that's only because the game runs on fast forward, literally, with only the music and sound playing at the correct speed (so its not that noticeable that something is off). It runs so fast that the music doesn't even have time to loop once on level 1.

Personally, i can't stand the low framerate but for some reason i enjoy Starfox. Maybe its the soundtrack and the atmosphere.

A lot of people also grew up on 8-bit systems where you were lucky to hit 6 FPS, so 10-15 seemed WAY SUPER FAST!!! People who complain about VR or SF being "choppy" probably also complain that their PC shooters "only" get 140 FPS. ;) :lol:

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Originally Posted by Chilly Willy

A lot of people also grew up on 8-bit systems where you were lucky to hit 6 FPS, so 10-15 seemed WAY SUPER FAST!!! People who complain about VR or SF being "choppy" probably also complain that their PC shooters "only" get 140 FPS. ;) :lol:

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Chilly is winner of thread once again!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8WLomwc6Wk...ulofthread.jpg

Excuse the mild grave dig.

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Originally Posted by Bastardcat

Oh so that's why Virtua Racer spawned a bunch of sequels and spin offs, and became ingrained into the mind of the gaming public, while Star Fox faded into obscurity, never to be heard from again.
...oh wait.

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Man, I don't think Nintendo fanboyism will last long here haha.

Sega has multiple racing franchises, so its not like they care that Virtua Racing will be dead for a couple years.

Star Fox is the only rail shooter of Nintendo, so of course they wanna keep it somewhat relevant.

Star Fox 64 is pretty awesome, but the SNES Star Fox is practically unplayable. I can still be entertained by Virtua Racing on the Genesis.

But both Star Fox and Virtua Racing are still technical achievements that still blow our minds to this day.

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Originally Posted by azonicrider

Star Fox 64 is pretty awesome, but the SNES Star Fox is practically unplayable. I can still be entertained by Virtua Racing on the Genesis.

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This. For me Star Fox, F-Zero and Pilotwings only started on the N64. However, the unreleased SF2 is a OK game.

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Originally Posted by maxi

This. For me Star Fox, F-Zero and Pilotwings only started on the N64. However, the unreleased SF2 is a OK game.

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Uhm, f-zero on the snes is perfectly smooth. I suppose you think mario kart started on the n64 too.

The Virtual chip, much like the 32x, was an idea used too little, too late.

And damnit....why Virtua Racing and not a Virtua Fighter port?! :(

Was Virtua Racing EVER that popular? When i think 3D racers of the time, its all about Daytona USA.

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Originally Posted by Saturn Fan

The Virtual chip, much like the 32x, was an idea used too little, too late.

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It was a knee-jerk reaction, that's what it was, just like the Sega CD.

Virtua Racing was gigantic up until Daytona and Cruisn' USA came out.

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Originally Posted by zyrobs

It was a knee-jerk reaction, that's what it was, just like the Sega CD.

Virtua Racing was gigantic up until Daytona and Cruisn' USA came out.

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I don't feel Crusin' USA is anywhere in the same league as Daytona USA. Its more like a crude rip-off of Outrun.

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Originally Posted by Drakon

Uhm, f-zero on the snes is perfectly smooth. I suppose you think mario kart started on the n64 too.

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Of course not, Mario Kart born as a perfect game but keeps getting worse on every new version, except by Super Circuit and DS. F-Zero on snes indeed had good pace, but was not a good game and only a shadow of what it became latter on N64 and arcade/GC.

Star Fox doesn't hold a candle compered to Virtua Racing

Star Fox 64 that's a diff Story

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Originally Posted by Saturn Fan

Was Virtua Racing EVER that popular? When i think 3D racers of the time, its all about Daytona USA.

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Yes it was. Remember that it came out pretty much two years before Daytona. Hell, the MD/Genesis version of VR was released at about the same time as the general release of Daytona.

Personally I'm glad they went with VR over VF. The 32x version of Virtua Fighter looks a little chunky although it plays great, and I can't help but feel that an even more graphically cut down version, running at a poor framerate, might not have been so good on the SVP. Would a poor looking conversion of VF running at 12fps really have cut it? VR has the benefit of speed to make it look good, but VF is pretty static and the gameplay requires perfect timing that I imagine would be pretty difficult to achieve at a low framerate. Don't get me wrong, I'd have loved to have seen a port as well as VR but I'm just not sure that the SVP could have done it justice.