Friday, May 25, 2012

Model 3 SUPER Widescreen Mode

We knew that the Supermodel emulator permitted Widescreen (16:9 ratio) view without having to distort the screen, as such:



Another way you can tell it's widescreen if the HUD items don't conform to the screen edges, hence the gap.   But what some of us certainly didn't know about the aspect ratio is that you can go further than that.  Here, check this out.  Triple-screen, 16:3 ratio, 5760 x 1080 resolution!!!!!







It really is incredible.  And what makes it so unusual is that the game still renders objects way out of the normal field of view.  Technically, you could turn off the two side screens and still play the game like normal.  It doesn't "stretch to screen" like many other games do.  You're not supposed to have peripheral vision that wide yet it still draws the objects anyway.  But why???

I've been working with the UDK game engine for some time now.  It's rather flexible with whatever game resolution you choose but remember--this isn't UDK, this is Model 3.  Did Sega deliberately include this somehow?  And for what purpose?  There's only three Daytona 2 cabinets and they are the single, double, and deluxe versions, all of which use the standard 4:3 screen ratio.

Perhaps Sega was planning some sort of "widescreen" versions of Daytona 2/Scud Race.  A big fancy cabinet like the Virtua Formula or Initial D machines at Gameworks/Joypolis but with a wider screen.  Something so frickin cool & insane that only Sega could pull off. 

Unfortunately, if I played Daytona 2 like this with full audio, I think I'd black out from the excitement.

But maybe the inclusion of widescreen wasn't deliberate at all.  Maybe it was a useless feature included with the engine.  The HUD items don't move at all when you change ratios so that suggests Sega wasn't trying to set up anything fancy--they were anticipating 4:3 ratio always.  But after the recent discoveries such as 16-player car colors, Grand Prix modes, and Live Vision Cam, I don't doubt there's a few more trivial things left to discover with these games.  Maybe they had planned widescreen at some point but it was never used until now.  Who knows, I'm throwing out ideas here.

EDIT: NVM, it's due to third-party tool: check out this website here.  Would've been great if Sega could've implemented widescreen somehow but I guess it didn't cross their minds.  OH THE POSSIBILITIES!!!!!!

And it is still A DAMN SHAME that the fans beat Sega to the punch here.  We're the ones who brought Model 3/Daytona 2/Scud Race home, not Sega.  I can't believe we've had to put up with this crap for years.  Sega is such a sorry company and we're the only ones who can bail them out.  Nuff said.  To all you "cool" kids out into the Triple-B's (Blizzard, Bethesda, Bioware), just go play your platinum sellers and let me mourn in peace...I suppose.

4 comments:

  1. just so you know, it's not a hidden feature by sega, it's a camera FOV hack which has been done to add widescreen support to countless other games. the site "widescreen gaming forum" has plenty of info on this. the older need for speed games in widescreen are truly glorious, even if it's not native and they can't touch anything sega.

    semi related: you know about the discovery of hornet in battle on the edge? marubaku knew about this years ago and wouldn't tell anyone how to get it, but now it's been found and IT HAS A FAT HOOD SCOOP ON IT.

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  2. Yeah, that makes sense, thanks for pointing that out. It's still cool what the fans can do with games on their own. And the Hornet thing--oh snap I forgot to post that until now!!! Though I'm missing the part on how to unlock it besides hacks (if that's possible).

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  3. well, this is interesting..

    by the way, for the first time EVER!

    i finally got supermodel emulator working..
    and played all the games for the first time..
    daytona 2, scud race, etc, etc..

    it's too early..

    but i'm not digging the additions to the
    racing games.. yes, i'll be playing them
    a lot in the future (i think)..

    but i don't like how unrealistic the
    driving environments are.. there's too much
    eye candy and stuff going on that is distracting
    from the courses.. like in daytona 2.. oh well,
    can't please everybody.. and same with scudrace..

    somehow they seem cartoony.. the car handling is
    different.. but challenging..

    i'll post some more comments as i play the games
    more..

    later
    -1

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  4. Great to hear from you again! Seems you've cracked and download the Supermodel emulator. Daytona 2 & Scud Race were meant to be different in order to stand out against the wildly popular Daytona 1. So Sega embellished some things, including the environments. Not everyone will like it but it's good you got to try it out. This could make a good post topic someday.

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