Virtual On from Hasegawa

[Penguin]

Just a heads up for anyone else who, like me, is a fan of Hajime Katoki's mecha designs for the game "Virtual On". Hasegawa has announced a 1/100 scale model for the Temjin 747-J from "Virtual On: Marz". It's up for pre-order at Hobbylink Japan.

[Stamen0083]

Old news.

http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/43sh/hs1.html

[Penguin]

Old news.

http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/43sh/hs1.html

Killjoy.

"If you haven't seen it before, then it's new to you!"

Edited April 19, 2004 by Penguin

[Dat Pinche Haro!]

that's news to me

i've wanted more virtual-on stuff...have a temgin action figure...kinda wish bandai made the model though...i know they'd make something that's as poseable as an action figure

[David Hingtgen]

I just saw those yesterday---I will buy any and all models they make of Fei-Yen or Angelan. Just gotta hope they do them, and not 100 Temjin/Raiden variants. Wave already did a bunch of them.

[Druna Skass]

I will buy any and all models they make of Fei-Yen or Angelan.

If those come out and you get your hands on them tell me what they're like, those two are my favorite designs from Virtual On. Go ask Dat Pinche Haro how many times I've horse-whipped his ass with those two units...

(Sorry man couldn't help it... )

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

I am soo glad Hasegawa is delving more into sci-fi/games genres. I'd be one happy modeler if they ever make a Cypher variant. And seeing all this talk makes me wish VOOT or VOM had online support. I would love to take you guys on with my Fei-Yen or Raiden .

[Jolly Rogers]

I am surprised Hasegawa picked it up - Wave had the Virtual-On license since the beginning and didn't seen to be doing very well with it.

[drifand]

I used to love VO designs - very sleek and cyber-futuristic. Then Katoki kept piling on the kibble. Now I can't make out what the latest Temjin looks like unless I step back 2 meters from my monitor.

[MSW]

I loved the designs from the first two games...especialy from VO:OT ... But the new designs in VO:M do absolutely nothing for me

[Jolly Rogers]

I agree. With the hardware being able to push more polygons than ever, Katoki's designs haven't really caught up with increased horsepower. Just adding more polygonal patterns on existing limbs doesn't do much for me either.

[CoryHolmes]

Can anyone post some pics of the old and new style VO mecha?

[MSW]

Can anyone post some pics of the old and new style VO mecha?

Here you go...source images came from HLJ website...

[Stamen0083]

I agree.  With the hardware being able to push more polygons than ever, Katoki's designs haven't really caught up with increased horsepower.  Just adding more polygonal patterns on existing limbs doesn't do much for me either.

There's only so many polygons you can slap on a design before it starts to look stupid.

Besides, isn't the mapping of complex textures on polygons pretty CPU intensive, especially when the complexity involved is on the level of the VO: M Temjin? Every movement requires recalculation and reprojection, unless, of course, some fancy mapping algorithm was involved.

Edited April 20, 2004 by Stamen0083

[mk16]

I agree.  With the hardware being able to push more polygons than ever, Katoki's designs haven't really caught up with increased horsepower.  Just adding more polygonal patterns on existing limbs doesn't do much for me either.

There's only so many polygons you can slap on a design before it starts to look stupid.

Besides, isn't the mapping of complex textures on polygons pretty CPU intensive, especially when the complexity involved is on the level of the VO: M Temjin? Every movement requires recalculation and reprojection, unless, of course, some fancy mapping algorithm was involved.

No mapping textures on anything is not cpu intensive. Mapping a texture on these times to anything, momatter how complex looking the texture is should be no problem for modern hardware. Texture mapping is not a problem, now the size of a texture is the factor that matters, and even that isnt mutch of anything, some games right now push 1024 by 1024 tetxures into a videocard at high FPS, and newer generations can do even more crazy crap. Has anyone noticed the unreal3 engine video, it runs on nvidias new gencard, it was mentioned that a scene at the beggining had over a 1,000,000 polygons running, yeah thats 6 zeros, all in real time. wWth insanely detailed perpixel lighted, normal mapped textures.

Now if these games ran on a PS2 then texture size should be a limiting factor, and no texturemapping is no problem, its all handled by the gpu. No cpu power is ever used on that.

Edited April 20, 2004 by mk16

[wolfx]

As the temjin evolves, it gets more yellow spots.

[David Hingtgen]

Hmmn, plesantly surprised to see so many VO fans here. I use (in order) Fei-Yen Kn (I own no less than 7 different Fei-Yen models/toys, they out-number my valks), Angelan, Temjin, and Cypher.

A while back I was so strapped for cash I had to sell my DC twin-sticks.

Also, everything I read (from people who actually KNEW what VO was, not some catering-to-the-masses mag) basically said VO:OM was ruined for the US release, so I passed on it. I will not play a slow Fei-Yen.

So I'm pretty much a VO:OT (JP) player, and still waiting for a nice good sequel. (Only current system I can play imports on is my GC, though I am considering a JP PS2 if I find one cheap)

Yeesh, 6AM, should have gone to bed hours ago...

[Dat Pinche Haro!]

I will buy any and all models they make of Fei-Yen or Angelan.

If those come out and you get your hands on them tell me what they're like, those two are my favorite designs from Virtual On. Go ask Dat Pinche Haro how many times I've horse-whipped his ass with those two units...

(Sorry man couldn't help it... )

gee...thanks for reminding me

[Penguin]

Hmmn, plesantly surprised to see so many VO fans here. I use (in order) Fei-Yen Kn (I own no less than 7 different Fei-Yen models/toys, they out-number my valks), Angelan, Temjin, and Cypher.

My favourite in "Marz" has got to be the Apharmds, especially the model with the assault rifle and machete. Nothin' like choppin' up the competition with that machete. The HII heavy-armoured Temjin is also a lot of fun. That sucker has more armour than a Raiden, with tons more mobility.

[Druna Skass]

Is it just me or does the Temjin bear a strong resembelence to the Strike and Duel Gundams?

[David Hingtgen]

Every VO mech directly parodies another more famous anime character, not always mecha though. I can never remember what the Apharmd's are though...

From what I can quickly remember:

Temjin: Gundam obviously

Specineff: EVA-05

Fei-Yen: Sailor Moon

Angelan: Belldandy

Cypher: nothing specific IIRC, besides being a variable fighter.

Pretty sure if you google the subject you'll find a definitive list.

[flyboy]

Is it just me or does the Temjin bear a strong resembelence to the Strike and Duel Gundams?

You have a point there, but...

I think you have it the wrong way around.

VO has been around for years. Gundam Seed hasn't (though with the derivative, unoriginal mecha designs in the series, you'd think that it has).

Any resemblance between the designs and color schemes of the Temjin and the Gundam Seed mecha is purely the fault of Sunrise/Bandai.

[Penguin]

Any resemblance between the designs and color schemes of the Temjin and the Gundam Seed mecha is purely the fault of Sunrise/Bandai.

Of course, the fact that the designer of the VO mecha, Hajime Katoki, also does tons of Gundam designs has nothing to do with it...

[drifand]

Every VO mech directly parodies another more famous anime character, not always mecha though. I can never remember what the Apharmd's are though...

From what I can quickly remember:

Temjin: Gundam obviously

Specineff: EVA-05

Fei-Yen: Sailor Moon

Angelan: Belldandy

Cypher: nothing specific IIRC, besides being a variable fighter.

Pretty sure if you google the subject you'll find a definitive list.

Apharmd = Guile from Street Fighter... camo slacks, flat-top etc.

[Jolly Rogers]

I agree.  With the hardware being able to push more polygons than ever, Katoki's designs haven't really caught up with increased horsepower.  Just adding more polygonal patterns on existing limbs doesn't do much for me either.

There's only so many polygons you can slap on a design before it starts to look stupid.

Besides, isn't the mapping of complex textures on polygons pretty CPU intensive, especially when the complexity involved is on the level of the VO: M Temjin? Every movement requires recalculation and reprojection, unless, of course, some fancy mapping algorithm was involved.

There lies the problem with Katoki's thinking - instead of slapping on more polyons on the surface of the basic design, he should smooth out the overall design using curves. Whereas the old systems like the Sega Saturn lacked the power to push enough polygons and thus limit his design to simple geometrical shapes, today's systems like the PS2 have enough horsepower that objects can appear curvy instead of polygonal without sacrificing speed.

I don't think there's much texture mapping used in VO:M - look at the design, it's all polygonal. PS2 is very lacking when it comes to RAM for texture mapped games (2D fighters in particular). The programmers of Sega (or any good developer) wouldn't rely on texture mapping for a PS2 title if they can help it.

[MSW]

I don't think there's much texture mapping used in VO:M - look at the design, it's all polygonal. PS2 is very lacking when it comes to RAM for texture mapped games (2D fighters in particular). The programmers of Sega (or any good developer) wouldn't rely on texture mapping for a PS2 title if they can help it.

No, most of the detail is texturemapped...just like it was on the other VO games...the reason 2D fighting games seem to be lacking on that platform is because it needs a LOT of memory to store all the frames of animation for each character...this can use more memory then the amount required for the average 3D game (level, characters, textures..all of it)

Current console systems only have to deal with 640 by 480 resolution...which is about the highest resolution one can get on regular TVs (most any higher screen resolution is a complete waste...a single white pixel on a black background in 800 by 600 shows up perfectly clear on a computer moniter or HDTV...but not on regular TVs)...simularly a 10,000 polygon 3D model is a waste of rendering time if it is only 50 pixels tall onscreen...which is why most modern game engines use different "levels of detail" depending on how far away the particular 3D model is (it doesn't make much sense to take the time to calculate and render a polygon that is less then a pixel in size, and on a 10,000 polygon model there could be many of them ... so for a game like VO:M where that characters arn't going to be in extream closeup for most of the game it doesn't make much sense to flood memory with 10,000 polygon 3D models plus sub models with varying levels of detail plus multiple 3D animation keyframes when hardware enabled mip-mapping is available

[David Hingtgen]

Don't think this has been mentioned yet: Temjin test-shot. Seems they'll be 1:100.

http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/VIR/ank/ANK2.html

Looks to be all 'extreme closeups' not any overall pics.

[Angel's Fury]

....From what I can quickly remember:

Temjin: Gundam obviously

Specineff: EVA-05

Fei-Yen: Sailor Moon

Angelan: Belldandy

Cypher: nothing specific IIRC, besides being a variable fighter.

Pretty sure if you google the subject you'll find a definitive list.

You took the words right out my mouth. The VO: M temjin's foot lookslike it's wearing some type of Nikes.