Great Visual Effects on the Sega Saturn

[Music] during the life of the sega saturn it was absolutely dogged by the notion that it was underpowered particularly at 3d polygon rendering time and time again game magazines of the era launched scathing opinions about its lack of prowess in this area often multi-platform games would look and run worse feeding the ravenous zeitgeist that often took joy in sega's undoing hell even sega themselves often contributed to it by releasing games that were simply well below the standards of their competition but if you were a gamer back then that really explored the saturn's library you know just as well as i do that these bad games were just one side of saturn's complicated architecture while it's true many multi-platform titles suffered it's also true that many games benefited from the machine's makeup and there are tons of examples to support why the saturn was an incredible machine in this episode we will be taking a look at some of these games i feel really show off what the saturn was capable of these games just didn't give you nice color and art but also showed off some serious technical effects as well from gorgeous transparencies to killer light sourcing we'll see all kinds of impressive graphics that will make you rethink what the saturn was capable of i hope you guys enjoy great visual effects on the sega saturn [Music] 3d fighters became extremely popular when the 5th generation machines were released based on the limitations of the hardware many of these games focused on giving us incredibly detailed fighters at 60 frames per second in lieu of 3d backgrounds when a fighter did use 3d backdrops they were often really simple and ran at 30 frames per second the gorgeous virtua fighter 2 tried to compromise they used 2d backgrounds that used heavy scaling effects to give the illusion of depth but it still wasn't quite the same when fighting vipers was released sega was able to give us 3d cages from the arcades but we still lacked the 3d environment in the background but it was finally last bronx that gave us the look and feel of 3d backgrounds in a saturn 3d fighter while they weren't made of polygons the combination of dual vdp2 textured planes gave us an impressive feeling of 3d space the stages that used this were spectacular and allowed the saturn to still give us gameplay at 60 frames per second of course last bronx didn't show up until late 1997 and the saturn was already dead in the west and even sega was pretty much done with it in japan by this point this sort of leaves last bronx as a reminder of what could have been had the saturn received the kind of life span other systems enjoyed a second generation engine of this for a title like fighters megamix 2 could have redefined how we viewed the saturn's abilities [Music] [Music] uh the first panzer dragoon was one of the lone bright spots when the saturn launched in the us and europe with so much negative focus on the virtua fighter and daytona ports this game right here showed saturn had the chops at the very least to compete with its competitors when the sequel showed up i was expecting another grade a performance and the folks at team andromeda delivered and then some vdp-2 is again the star of the graphics here for those that aren't familiar with it vdp-2 was the saturn's specialized background chip though it was capable of much more it could also scale and rotate two individual background planes that could be used for both the ground and sky in 3d engines it also gave the saturn some nifty transparency effects panzer dragoon 2 used it for all these things when you are dashing through the canyons that's vdp-2 taking care of the ground when your dragon leaps for its first big flight sequence vdp-2 is there again to help you glide back down to earth but it's when the game really gets going strong that these effects hit its stride when in the caves that's vdp-2 doing the transparent water that the balsa splashing around in the efficiency of the saturn's vdp-1 and vdp-2 architecture has long been debated but when it was harnessed by a talented developer the results could be quite stunning this was especially true when used for the ground and sky portions of an engine like we see here because vdp-2 could draw these planes all the way to the horizon given the effect of massive draw distances if you fire up panzer 2 in an emulator like ssf you can actually disable vdp-2 entirely showing you exactly what it's doing within the engine you can also disable vdp-1 which gives you a pretty compelling argument for just how important it was for some of the better 3d engines for the hardware in fact if you are curious to understand a little more how the saturn's architecture works across different games you should play around with an emulator feature like this the saturn really was an island when it came to software development but man could it do some incredible things 3d polygonal transparencies were the bane of the sega saturn from the very beginning you can find countless examples of the mesh effect rearing its ugly head giving the hardware a bad name even many of the games developed by siga themselves had them those of you that rocked rf and composite connections didn't see it too much but those of us on this video were better dealt with it regularly so you can imagine my shock when i saw sonic r not just show up with some nice transparency effects on the screen but make an entire track transparent the track radiant emerald features this effect for the entire race you can see the background through the track which also color cycles giving us sort of a rainbow style effect this was nothing unusual to see in racing games for the playstation and nintendo 64 but the saturn had never really produced anything like it before in a 3d engine traveler's tail set out to show you something you had never seen before on the saturn and they certainly succeeded here is like a new beginning [Music] power slave could be featured for a number of reasons in an episode like this it was a 3d metroid style first person shooter that ran smooth and had a number of great graphical effects among these were the colored light sourcing you'd see in everything from explosions weapon fire and even the ghost of king ramses himself i was so impressed with this i would run from enemies just so they would give chase and fire at me dozens of times later in the game you'd even see more great weapons to take advantage of the lighting engine the thing was that no other version of this game featured this effect quite as well as the saturn the pc game was completely different and the lighting in the playstation edition was far less bold and impressive duke nukem 3d and quake were impressive in their own right for the saturn but for overall visuals i still think power slave is a force to be reckoned [Music] with dragon force was a heck of a unique strategy role-playing game for the saturn there really hadn't been a lot like it something you could say today as well i always felt this one was the ultimate example of what the saturn could do under the right circumstances when you had a fully upgraded general you could have battles featuring 200 individual troop characters on the screen at once this was in addition to the special effects from the magic attacks and the two generals on each side the saturn never skipped a beat easily displaying all this action without any real hiccups or slowdowns there was a certain exhilaration seeing that many troops crossing the field of battle and clashing in the middle sometimes you even got enemy units that were translucent so once you did a magic spell it was transparencies on top of transparencies the previous generation could never have given us anything like this at least not at the scale and visual grandeur it was the kind of thing that made a next generation game feel unique and worth the investment of the upgrade and it was only on the sega saturn this one scares many people away because they either don't understand the mechanics or they ruin it by following strategies they learned on the internet go into dragon force fresh talk to no one and for god's sake stay away from people telling you how to play it self-discovery is this game's greatest [Applause] [Music] strength [Music] uh [Applause] [Music] sonic team did some pretty special games for the genesis so it was only natural that the trend continue on the saturn after they dropped knights into dreams their next unique product was burning rangers a futuristic firefighting game with a ton of neat touches like radio guidance and fully 3d environments it was a solid looking game too particularly the art style and color choices but what really made burning rangers stand out was the impressive use of fire effects similar to power slave there is colored light sourcing everywhere but here it's even more pronounced dark areas are lit up by your lights and fire environment lighting is everywhere and in various colors and the fire itself is gloriously transparent with only the smoke leaving behind the unsightly mesh effect it really was a hell of a good looking engine and something you wouldn't have expected it does have some clipping issues that hurt it overall but that gameplay really stays strong the entire way through i'm not ashamed to admit i do play this one from time to time just to see the fire and light sourcing at work sonic team really knew how to get a lot out of the saturn which makes me wonder what sonic could have been if they had been put on it from the very beginning there should be a switch near you stay alert until the fire is completely out one of the most pervasive falsehoods to dog the saturn in its lifetime was that it couldn't do transparencies be it 2d or 3d early mesh effects were almost always pointed out as being real transparencies on the playstation while the saturn had to fake it all while it was true that the saturn did have some complications when displaying transparencies it could indeed do the effect those of you that own large saturn library surely have many titles they'd do it just fine but if you're new to the platform just pop in ko flying squadron 2 for the grand tour this mixed genre platformer and shoot em up has many examples to choose from not to mention it's packed with a beautiful game in general luscious environments are loaded with gorgeously animated sprites you'll find plenty of water transparencies and even some hidden in the coolest of places if you find yourself in need of a showpiece look no further than this little gem here [Music] yes [Music] the sega saturn had a high resolution mode of 704 by 480 which was one of the highest resolutions a console could put out at the time a number of games used this mode and boy did they shine ditter alive used it for its breathtaking visuals as did sega's virtua fighter 2 but as good as these games looked with it i still feel it was decathlete that did it the best in combination with vdp-2 it gave you 3d play fields and some killer texture quality just look at how sharp this looks i mean this still looks great to my eyes now in 2020 to make things even better it all ran at 60 frames per second a buttery smooth presentation that easily ranks among the best for the platform you weren't just stuck with one athlete on the screen either as this engine could support multiplayer as well games like virtua fighter 2 command the lion's share of attention when it comes to the saturn's high resolution modes but i think decathlete here easily competes she's a beauty start to finish one of the really nice things about the saturn and playstation where they really started to give us near 1-1 arcade perfect ports in many instances among the more impressive saturn offerings was elevator action returns a two-player action game where you must gun down bad guys and dynamic play areas like buildings planes and sewers sometimes things would blow up half the play area crumbling entire sections of the screen with great animation and speaking of animation it was everywhere and on everything from the smallest enemy to the largest explosion it really did capture all the arcade had to offer the saturn nailed these effects like a champ a really nice result considering it didn't use any ram expansion cartridges it was so cool to see the saturn throwing around taito's f3 arcade games like they were nothing that board was only released a couple of years before the saturn yet saturn easily replicated one of its best games particularly that killer animation this one wasn't just a looker either as the gameplay is as solid as they come as well grab a friend bring your a-game and settle in this is the saturn doing what it does best [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] the saturn saw numerous model 2 arcade ports during its time they were often paired back in some form so the saturn could handle them typically losing detail lowered polygon counts and even reduced frame rates out of these games it's virtua cop 2 that i felt did the arcade the most justice side by side these two games are incredibly close the saturn reproduces every area and every enemy incredibly well right down to the car chases and train shootouts the action is fast moving the performance incredibly stable and the 3d engine very impressive the first virtual cop had been a really solid game but part 2 absolutely destroys it in both visuals and gameplay this is the reason to own a light gun for the sega saturn in my eyes and once you add a second gun and a friend it becomes one of the most replayable games you can get for the platform i often wish sega had put this team on the house of the deadport instead of farming it out i have a feeling it would have been a vastly superior product if they had so there we go guys 10 games with graphical effects i really thought were impressive while the playstation and nintendo 64 had games of their own that were really nice looking i find myself defending the saturn a whole lot more due to people's general lack of knowledge and experience with the library many of them would see the mainstream us multi-platform releases that often looked and ran worse on saturn never having the joy of playing the games they truly defined it even today with all the knowledge at our fingertips there are still those that continue to push the agenda that this platform had nothing worth playing you'll get no such nonsense here the saturn proved time and time again that it had the chops to compete and had a library of great games that were often exclusive the lack of financial success made things tough at times and it certainly didn't get the lifespan it needed to see its hardware fully exploited but for the five years i supported the saturn and its games i can honestly say it was a blast i was impressed many times by the visuals it was capable of a combination of great sega creativity and the uniqueness of the rendering methods themselves i would have loved to have seen what saturn games would have looked like six or seven years down the line but i wouldn't trade my time with this machine for anything i'm sigo lord x thank you guys for watching and i will catch you next time [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 70,949

Rating: 4.9564962 out of 5

Keywords: segalordx, sega lord x, sega saturn, sega genesis, sega dreamcast, mega drive, megadrive, game gear, 32x, mega cd, genesis, saturn, master system, sega, sega cd, gameplay, review, movies, retro games, retro gaming, video games, ps4, xbox, wii, nintendo, gamecube, n64, ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, vita, switch, atari, decathlete, last bronx, panzer dragoon 2, powerslave, elevator action returns, virtua cop 2, keio flying squadron 2, burning rangers, sonic r, dragon force

Id: 1dJQHjXkkAg

Length: 20min 31sec (1231 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 03 2020