PS2 vs Dreamcast Graphics

[HalfBit]

(Ahem) (clears throat) hello, gentlemen. As my official first post/thread, I have decided to make a ps2 vs dreamcast thread. To begin: I own a dreamcast. I do not own a ps2. I believe the dreamcast could have easily matched the ps2 given more time. (Actually, I wish homebrew would focus more on dreamcast 3d but oh well.) so, welcome myself to sega 16 and let the fanboy carnage begin! (75 million polygon claims XD)

[HalfBit]

Hi, HalfBit! Glad do welcome you to the site! Honestly, I like dreamcast better.



XD

[KitsuneNight]

do new members talk to themselves these days ?

and we already have numerous dreamcast vs ps 2 threads another one isnt needed we dont need more fanboy carnage

and if you dont have the ps2 how exactly can you compare the two then and then claim the dreamcast is superior ?
other then you know arbitrary fanboi logic

[Gogogadget]

PS2 is better and has a larger library of games, and a better controller.

Dreamcast has better graphics... apparently.

Yeah, not sure I see much of a fight here?

[WuTang]

The PS2 will go down as the console with the best back catalog of any system produced ever

[KitsuneNight]

PS2 is better and has a larger library of games, and a better controller.

yes except for the D pad thats still arse

Dreamcast has better graphics... apparently.

does it ? im not seeing it unless he measn that the dreamcasts graphics are less "milky"

Yeah, not sure I see much of a fight here?

more of a limpwristed noodle slapfight

[The Jackal]

PS2 has a better controller.

That's...debatable.

[KitsuneNight]

^ better then the dreamcast then with its mushy d pad and questionable analouge stick

come on all sega had to do was recreate the nights analouge pad for the dreamcast and they ballsed it up

[The Jackal]

I prefer the DC thumb pad and dpad to the PS2 equivalents. The PS2 dpad is rubbish imo and I'm not really fond of the analogue sticks; had to buy some of these just to make them acceptable.

[KitsuneNight]

arent those the orginal ps2 thumb sticks ?

[The Jackal]

arent those the orginal ps2 thumb sticks ?

No they're grips that make the sticks more comfortable to use.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

does it ? im not seeing it unless he measn that the dreamcasts graphics are less "milky"

It does when it comes to texturing and how it can handle it's memory. PS2 has more Memory that's unified, but it can't do any kind of texture compression. Textures have to be stored uncompressed in RAM. Dreamcast has 8MB of dedicated VRAM and it can do texture compression. So Dreamcast can use it's memory more effectively in this aspect. If you have say 20MB of textures you can easily compress that down to say 5MB on the Dreamcast where as on the PS2 it takes of 20MB of your unified 32MB. So on the PS2 you reach a point where you need to reduce the amount of stuff you have in your game so you have more room for textures, or reduce your texture quality.

A good example of how the PS2's Memory set up really limited a game is Phantasy Star Universe. In some aspects this game took a few steps backwards compared to the original PSO on the Dreamcast. Texture variety took a hit so instead of having lots of different textures giving a really colorful area, we got a lot of bland and repeating textures.

Another big step back was that areas were broken up into smaller blocks and each block could only have 3 enemy types. This was a huge step back from PSO where we had huge maps with 8 or more enemy types. While PSU did allow 2 more players in a party, there were a few issues that arose with it. You could no longer quickly equip any weapon in your inventory. You had to place them in an action palette and you only had 6 at a time.

To make matters worse, on PS2 there was horrific loading when switching weapons on your weapon palette for the first time while all the weapons loaded in. So PS2 players would essentially have to manually go through their weapon palette every time they entered a new area to ensure all their weapons were loaded in. If this wasn't done you could find yourself having no weapon to fight with for about 5-10 seconds while it loaded in. Switching a weapon onto your palette would cause a similar issue.

[KitsuneNight]

oh

okay

im expecting the dual analoge controller one of these days

[HalfBit]

I'm just curious what people think. Me, I think that dreamcast is better in SOME areas, and easily matches the ps2. But I'm trying not to be completely biased.

[HalfBit]

And, the ps2 may be better but in 20 years who is going to remember any of this anyways?