When Virtua Fighter smashed its method onto the arcade scene in 1993, it brought about a helluva ruckus. Sega’s one-on-one fighter launched slap-bang in the course of the combating sport explosion, with titles akin to Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Fatal Fury already gobbling up the quarters in arcade centres whereas using excessive on the house launch charts. It was an unenviable market to enter, particularly when enjoying catch-up.
After all, Virtua Fighter had an ace up its sleeve, courtesy of Sega’s groundbreaking Mannequin 1 know-how, which allowed for the high-speed rendering of giant 3D polygonal fashions. This gave Virtua Fighter a hanging aesthetic edge over its competitors, and whereas Yu Suzuki’s extremely polished scrapper did not precisely wipe the ground with its arcade rivals, it definitely cemented itself as an thrilling different to its 2D brethren. In the present day, Virtua Fighter is extensively recognised as the primary 3D fighter, a groundbreaking launch that might pave the best way for franchises akin to Tekken, Soulcalibur, and… umm… Ballz 3D.
When it got here to house ports, nevertheless, Virtua Fighter was at a definite drawback to its contemporaries. Whereas 16-bit platforms may authentically replicate choices akin to Street Fighter II with ease, Virtua Fighter was a specialised launch, requiring highly effective, costly know-how past the attain of the Mega Drive.
In late 1994, with the discharge of the 32-bit Sega Saturn and the 32X Mega Drive growth, Virtua Fighter would lastly make its method into the house market – albeit in downgraded type. The Saturn {hardware} allowed for a comparable, not fairly arcade-perfect replication of the unique, delivering a stable port that (as a result of prolonged localisation of the Saturn itself) was wanting dated within the wake of PlayStation’s Battle Arena Toshinden, which had launched within the U.S. in early 1995.
However whereas the Sega Saturn port was a powerful feat, the 32X launch was nothing in need of a miracle. Sporting fast-paced gameplay, easy animation, cartridge-speed load occasions, and bold efforts in replicating the CD-quality sound and music of its Saturn compatriot, the 32X port of Virtua Fighter showcases the much-maligned {hardware}’s true potential when dealt with by builders who understood its notoriously impregnable coding construction.
Which brings us to 2026 and fan modder SEGA MODEL KING (aka “WangDrum”). Having already produced a trustworthy emulation of Virtua Fighter’s unique Mannequin 1 launch, WangDrum has turned their consideration to the 32X version – trying to remaster the Tower of Energy’s most interesting fighter in a brand new PC port that includes a crisp HD aesthetic.
The primary objective was upscaling the unique 320×224 decision, which in itself was a reasonably momentous enterprise.
“The 32X VF codebase itself locks vertex positions to a 320×224 pixel grid throughout closing rendering… Merely upscaling the show output meant the vertices remained trapped inside that 320×224 grid, proscribing their minimal actions.
To bypass this, I intercepted the camera-space floating-point vertices, matrices, bones, and digital camera knowledge in the course of the SH-2 interpreter’s vertex/half transformation part. I then reconstructed the coordinate house and re-rendered the 3D geometry extracted from the ROM utilizing a custom-built renderer working in pure floating-point house, free from the pixel grid.
The video you are taking a look at was rendered utilizing this engine – the Mega Drive handles the 2D components, whereas the {custom} renderer handles the 3D.”
As well as, WangDrum wrote new interpolation code, permitting the frames to render at 60FPS, moderately than the unique Virtua Fighter’s 30. Whereas this latter tweak positively feels a little bit uncanny to Virtua Fighter purists, the crisp new decision actually brings out the spectacular mannequin work carried out by the 32X crew again within the ’90s.
The upscale additionally reveals an enchanting shortcut, whereby the character fashions had been rendered with primary, simplified faces for gameplay, however had their options totally restored for the win poses, the place the 32X {hardware} may focus its rendering energy completely on a single character. Outstanding work.
WangDrum is already receiving praise online for his or her onerous work, with many followers prodding and poking as to whether or not they’d contemplate remaster tasks on different 32X releases, akin to Star Wars Arcade and Virtua Racing Deluxe. For now, nevertheless, WangDrum is clearly centered on the world of Virtua Fighter, shining the highlight on one of many groundbreaking collection’ most obscure ports, however additionally one in every of its most outstanding.