Not exclusive to the Japanese version, but I've always wondered why the textures, models, and even some of the shaders are more detailed on the Xbox version than the PC version, and this applies to all of the games within the GTA III universe.
The Xbox is quite a lot faster than the PS2, so between those two it makes a lot of sense, but for the PC version I sorta fail to see why they couldn't just include the PS2 assets as a "low detail" setting, with the Xbox assets being used for higher settings, and IIRC that's how they now do it with the phone versions.
Was Rockstar paid off by Microsoft to make the Xbox versions visually superior, or was the PC team just denied access to the Xbox team's assets for some other actually pragmatic reason, and then they just went 'fuck it' and used the "default" ones instead?
[QUOTE=Rixxz2;53007877]Not exclusive to the Japanese version, but I've always wondered why the textures, models, and even some of the shaders are more detailed on the Xbox version than the PC version, and this applies to all of the games within the GTA III universe.
The Xbox is quite a lot faster than the PS2, so between those two it makes a lot of sense, but for the PC version I sorta fail to see why they couldn't just include the PS2 assets as a "low detail" setting, with the Xbox assets being used for higher settings, and IIRC that's how they now do it with the phone versions.
Was Rockstar paid off by Microsoft to make the Xbox versions visually superior, or was the PC team just denied access to the Xbox team's assets for some other actually pragmatic reason, and then they just went 'fuck it' and used the "default" ones instead?[/QUOTE]
AFAIK They had to change textures and models to release it on Xbox because they had an exclusivity agreement with [URL="https://www.gamespot.com/articles/e3-2002-sony-gets-grand-theft-auto-exclusive/1100-2866884/"]Sony for GTA Series[/URL]. But for shaders, I think they complete the missing features they want on the engine and maybe put some assets from new projects. Maybe they had to make it look better on Xbox to sell it well. Because there was already a PS2 version in place.
[QUOTE=Rixxz2;53007877]Not exclusive to the Japanese version, but I've always wondered why the textures, models, and even some of the shaders are more detailed on the Xbox version than the PC version, and this applies to all of the games within the GTA III universe.
The Xbox is quite a lot faster than the PS2, so between those two it makes a lot of sense, but for the PC version I sorta fail to see why they couldn't just include the PS2 assets as a "low detail" setting, with the Xbox assets being used for higher settings, and IIRC that's how they now do it with the phone versions.
Was Rockstar paid off by Microsoft to make the Xbox versions visually superior, or was the PC team just denied access to the Xbox team's assets for some other actually pragmatic reason, and then they just went 'fuck it' and used the "default" ones instead?[/QUOTE]
I don't think they made the xbox version visually superior to ps2, at least not intentionally. San Andreas on the PS2 had post processing effects like car reflections, bloom and colour correction, whilst the PC and Xbox versions didn't.
See the comparisons here
[img]http://insidermedia.ign.com/insider/image/article/624/624202/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas-head-to-head-20050609071048803.jpg[/img]
[img]http://insidermedia.ign.com/insider/image/article/624/624202/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas-head-to-head-20050609071051334.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=Rixxz2;53007877]Not exclusive to the Japanese version, but I've always wondered why the textures, models, and even some of the shaders are more detailed on the Xbox version than the PC version, and this applies to all of the games within the GTA III universe.
The Xbox is quite a lot faster than the PS2, so between those two it makes a lot of sense, but for the PC version I sorta fail to see why they couldn't just include the PS2 assets as a "low detail" setting, with the Xbox assets being used for higher settings, and IIRC that's how they now do it with the phone versions.
Was Rockstar paid off by Microsoft to make the Xbox versions visually superior, or was the PC team just denied access to the Xbox team's assets for some other actually pragmatic reason, and then they just went 'fuck it' and used the "default" ones instead?[/QUOTE]
All the 3 era GTA games came out like a year later on the Xbox than other platforms. So they probably simply didn't have those improved visuals running when they released the PS2 and PC versions, especially with the PC versions usually just being ports of the PS2 ones.
[QUOTE=Rixxz2;53007877]Not exclusive to the Japanese version, but I've always wondered why the textures, models, and even some of the shaders are more detailed on the Xbox version than the PC version, and this applies to all of the games within the GTA III universe.
The Xbox is quite a lot faster than the PS2, so between those two it makes a lot of sense, but for the PC version I sorta fail to see why they couldn't just include the PS2 assets as a "low detail" setting, with the Xbox assets being used for higher settings, and IIRC that's how they now do it with the phone versions.
Was Rockstar paid off by Microsoft to make the Xbox versions visually superior, or was the PC team just denied access to the Xbox team's assets for some other actually pragmatic reason, and then they just went 'fuck it' and used the "default" ones instead?[/QUOTE]
The only versions with better assets (than the PC version) was 3 and Vice City, because they came out much much later than both the PC and PS2 versions, when the exclusivity deal with Sony ended.
[QUOTE=Rixxz2;53007877]
Was Rockstar paid off by Microsoft to make the Xbox versions visually superior, or was the PC team just denied access to the Xbox team's assets for some other actually pragmatic reason, and then they just went 'fuck it' and used the "default" ones instead?[/QUOTE]
I suspect it's mostly because Rockstar's PC team was worse than Xbox/PS ones.
I mean, a lot of their games are usually better only in resolution on PC, while controls/technical stuff/stability usually suffer (and in case of San Andreas - even quality of assets)
[QUOTE=DoktorAkcel;53009414]I suspect it's mostly because Rockstar's PC team was worse than Xbox/PS ones.
I mean, a lot of their games are usually better only in resolution on PC, while controls/technical stuff/stability usually suffer (and in case of San Andreas - even quality of assets)[/QUOTE]
It's pretty impressive how bad all the old 3D GTA PC ports are. They're all missing effects, all have weird stability and framerate issues, and just generally suck
Guess a lot of people never paid attention to the port quality as kids (including me) since framerate and graphics at the time was something a lot of young players never paid attention to much, but in retrospect Rockstar really only started to provide a good PC port with Max Payne 3, and GTA V being the most stable and best PC port they did so far. Arguably even despite a shoddy launch, GTA IV was a better port than the original 3D trilogy.
Just want to mention too I love the alternate skins for Tommy the Japanese versions have.
I like how the Vercetti mob characters were supposed to look like Yakuza guys
[I]"Forget about it Mario-san"[/I]
Games being more finished in certain regions was always fascinating to me. The Japanese version of Wario World actually gave the final boss a second phase and the European version of Luigi's Mansion made the postgame mansion different by flipping it horizontally instead of it being exactly the same mansion.
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[QUOTE=a-k-t-w;53008306]I don't think they made the xbox version visually superior to ps2, at least not intentionally. San Andreas on the PS2 had post processing effects like car reflections, bloom and colour correction, whilst the PC and Xbox versions didn't.
See the comparisons here
[IMG]http://insidermedia.ign.com/insider/image/article/624/624202/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas-head-to-head-20050609071048803.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://insidermedia.ign.com/insider/image/article/624/624202/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas-head-to-head-20050609071051334.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Undoubtedly because they couldn't port over those effects (as they were on the PS2) without a lot of time and effort. DF Retro talks about it for the [URL="https://youtu.be/mH2ZVlOLPNI?t=1790"]Metal Gear Solid 2[/URL] and [URL="https://youtu.be/nna2yt1c9gI?t=496"]Silent Hill 2[/URL] ports and has made it pretty clear that ports of PS2 games would lose features in the transition because of the engine differences.
[QUOTE=NachoPiggy;53009757]Arguably even despite a shoddy launch, GTA IV was a better port than the original 3D trilogy.[/QUOTE]
GTA IV's PC port is a bit heavy on resources and doesn't handle multi-core rendering well, but other than that, is pretty stable. Disabling the frame limiter in the ports for GTA III and Vice City (because they normally run at 30 fps but don't have any kind of vsync) will make the game run at such a high framerate that in-game physics will break and the game will eventually lock up or crash.
Also, the replay system in both of those games couldn't have taken more than a day to program, and it shows. What were they thinking with that?
[QUOTE=Axznma;53010329]Undoubtedly because they couldn't port over those effects (as they were on the PS2) without a lot of time and effort. DF Retro talks about it for the [URL="https://youtu.be/mH2ZVlOLPNI?t=1790"]Metal Gear Solid 2[/URL] and [URL="https://youtu.be/nna2yt1c9gI?t=496"]Silent Hill 2[/URL] ports and has made it pretty clear that ports of PS2 games would lose features in the transition because of the engine differences.[/QUOTE]
The necessary values for this color correction are available in-game, they just fucked up. A few modders managed to return it to the game, it was a pretty big deal:
[Media]https://youtu.be/44UwCksl4gc[/media]
[QUOTE=halfer;53010691]The necessary values for this color correction are available in-game, they just fucked up. A few modders managed to return it to the game, it was a pretty big deal:
[/QUOTE]
Yes, because color of the sky is set with XYZ coordinates by game engine.
In PC port, the value of Z is set to 0 for some reason.
[QUOTE=halfer;53010691]The necessary values for this color correction are available in-game, they just fucked up. A few modders managed to return it to the game, it was a pretty big deal:
*video*[/QUOTE]
Holy shit, how did they mess up that badly?
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