Video CD card FMV

[EliteEvi;]

I read somewhere that the VCD card could be used to show higher quality cut scenes in some games

"It was used in games like Lunar to provide very high quality FMV" - http://www.classicgaming.com/saturn/conten...mpatability.txt

Can someone please tell me what games support this?

 

[RockinB]

Gun Griffon 1: intro video

 

[Rysley]

And Lunar Silver Star Story Complete.

That's all...

 

[ExCyber]

I think there's a racing game that supports it as well, but I can't remember the title.

 

[CyberWarriorX]

The only ones I've been able to confirm are the two already mentioned: Gungriffon(japanese version -only-) and Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. Most other games I've checked out seem to use MPEG Sofdec and not the mpeg card. There's still 3 I haven't been able to figure out one way or another. They are: Ultraman Zukan 2 and 3, and Wangan Deat Heat Real Arrange(supposedly the extra disc supports the mpeg card). There might be a couple of other obscure games that supported it.

Cyber Warrior X

 

[G. Borisz]

the Mogitate Sega Saturn demo discs had optional mpegs on them. There were most likely other japanese demo discs taking advantage of the vcd card too.

 

[dj898]

sega SATURN CG Collection vol. 1

It is after all VCD so...

 

[Madroms]

Chisato Moritaka Watarasebashi / Lala Sunshine

Falcom Classics Special CD from Limited Edition

Gun Griffon ~The Eurasian Conflict~

Lunar Silver Star Story MPEG Ban

Sakura Taisen Hanagumi Tsuushin

Sakura Taisen Jouki Radio Show CD2 Only

Sentimental Graffiti CD2 Only

Ultraman Zukan 2

Ultraman Zukan 3

Yuukyuu no Kobako Official Collection

Maybe some other ones...

And some demo discs.

 

[CyberWarriorX]

Chisato Moritaka Watarasebashi / Lala Sunshine

Falcom Classics Special CD from Limited Edition

Gun Griffon ~The Eurasian Conflict~

Lunar Silver Star Story MPEG Ban

Sakura Taisen Hanagumi Tsuushin

Sakura Taisen Jouki Radio Show CD2 Only

Sentimental Graffiti CD2 Only

Ultraman Zukan 2

Ultraman Zukan 3

Yuukyuu no Kobako Official Collection

Chisato Moritaka Watarasebashi / Lala Sunshine, Sakura Taisen Hanagumi Tsuushin, Sakura Taisen Jouki Radio Show, and Yuukyuu no Kobako Official Collection are all Sofdec, so no MPEG card support.

I just spent some time looking at Sentimental Graffiti, and yes, it does indeed use the MPEG card.

As for Falcom Classics, I'd have to check out the special CD.

Cyber Warrior X

 

[Madroms]

List given according to their internal peripheral codes only. I didn't have time to check them.

 

[antime]

AFAIK the Sakura Taisen games will take advantage of an MPEG card for better-quality output, but don't need one.

 

[EliteEvi;]

Were there any benefits to developers to use the card rather than software support? Royalties or something?

 

[antime]

Better-quality video and the fact that the machine isn't completely tied up decoding video. The obvious downside was that since so few people had the cards it would have been economically unbearable to make games that required them, meaning that they couldn't be used to their full potential. In that respect, Sony's integrated MDEC was a much smarter move.

 

[CyberWarriorX]

Actually another benefit not mentioned is that it was also license-free. Last I checked developers had to buy licenses separately for using cinepak or truemotion. I'm also willing to bet Sofdec also required an extra license.

 

[G. Borisz]

I believe Sofdec is one of the many middleware tools created by CRI, who also created the ADX technology among others.

 

[CyberWarriorX]

I believe Sofdec is one of the many middleware tools created by CRI, who also created the ADX technology among others.

Indeed it is What really amazes me is why Sega didn't promote those technologies more given that they were already available in '96-97.

Cyber Warrior X

 

[antime]

I think they didn't start pushing these technologies until CRI was spun off into a separate company. Before that, it was the AM2 technology/research division and I'm not even sure if they licensed their software to other companies. (I wonder if the roots of ADX lie in the streaming libraries from SGL/SBL..)

 

[G. Borisz]

Speaking of which, are the mpeg streams in Sofdec using games mpeg 1 or mpeg 2? Playstation 2 titles use Mpeg2, but i would be surprised if the Saturn could decode that.

 

[RockinB]

So CRI Sofdec and ADX were developed by SEGA?

And on Saturn, you often find ACX audio files (don't mix it up with ADX). Where does ACX come from?

 

[G. Borisz]

ACX: multiple ADX files inside one file, similar to AFS (but without anything that would resemble a filesystem).

It became irrevelant later on (I guess) as you could store multiple audio files inside a simple ADX file. Not to mention the AFS container.

I've no idea whats the technical difference though, ACX has its own header AND has adx files inside that, while ADX with multiple songs just seems to be many ADX files appended after each other (with a changed flag in the header of each song to notice the player that the next subsong starts here).