VF3tb - Dreamcast versus Arcade.

It is well-known that the Dreamcast port of Virtua Fighter 3tb was outsourced to Genki, and many fans attribute the conversion's imperfections to AM2 having not developed it.

But... what are those imperfections, exactly? How flawed is VF3tb (DC)? Are its problems merely cosmetic, or are there scary things like frame drops and inaccurate frame data?

 

The best one I remember was being able to flip the boat on Shun's stage by repeatedly hopping on the edge. I think it worked best with Taka.

 

I remember in the Versus Battlecast video the narrator said that Genki had to port the Model 3 game to be Naomi compatible and that quadrilateral polygons had to be used instead of triangular ones. I haven't played the VF3 arcade version in a looooong time, but I still play the DC version quite often and the differences are likely pretty subtle. I've noticed that some characters' leg joints can look wierd, mostly Shun's when standing still...it's hard to explain. Down to the nitty-gritty, there's some wierd stuff, too, like Shun's snowman victory pose in Wolf's stage, which was probably also in the Model 3 original. The secret Jacky/Kage peace sign winpose is still there, but I don't remember if the pan drops on Akira's stage. Also, I'm not sure if it's a problem with my disc, but the Dural version of Aoi's stage will load in training mode but refuses to in Arcade Vs. Mode! Keep in mind that I'm playing the JP version, the PAL/NTSC-U versions might have additional features beyond the added Vs. Mode. Personally, I don't really know anything about frame data at all but I can confirm that VF3tb DC plays great. Hopefully this long-winded post was helpful

 

While I usually prefer the arcade version over the console version, I don't really pay attention to the imperfections much unless they really stand out. I just have too much of a value for both versions to care. Love my Dreamcast.

 

In Shun's stage in the dreamcast version, Taka is so heavy, that when he jumps and then lands, or lands in certain places of the floating platforms, he sometimes flips the entire water arena over. The cpu beat me a couple of times by doing that. I wonder if that happens in the arcade version?

 

The game runs at 60hz on Dreamcast compared to 57.5Hz on Model 3. This means the timing on some things is tighter than intended. I think this partially results in Wolf getting a guaranteed pickup after Giant Swing in Dreamcast.

Texture quality is noticeably lower. Also the character select animations are bugged.

The hurtboxes also got messed up so throw attempts are even harder than they were in Arcade (you still have to dash forward for throw attempts, but sometimes in open stance your throw will still not land).