Current Events Skullgirls Second Encore Location Tests Going On Now In Japan

[Fizzxwizz]

Skullgirls is now available to be played in arcades at 12 locations throughout Japan from Osaka to Tokyo and Sendai from October 15th to the 20th to test SG's abilities to run on Nesica hardware. [prebreak]Click to read more about Skullgirls in japanese arcades[/prebreak]

If you're interested in reading more about Skullgirls on an arcade cabinet, want to brush up on your ability to read Japanese, or want to have a fun time mousing over stuff consider checking out http://sukaruga.com/ for lots of cool Skullgirls information.

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If you happen to be in the area, you might see arcade cabinets that look something like this.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/654203475958431744

 

[Number 13]

lol that same old SG trailer. Kind of nostalgic.

 

[Pickles]

are the cabs going to be running vanilla or 2nd encore? (I assume there wouldn't be any reason to run anything in between...) None of the promotional material (edit: from the pretty pictures i mean, I can't read japanese) seems to make any reference to the DLC characters and they're using the old trailer, is that just because of outdated sources or are these cabs actually going to be running old versions

 

[Cellsai]

It's running Second Encore with all DLC characters.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/654543922501279744

 

[Fizzxwizz]

are the cabs going to be running vanilla or 2nd encore? (I assume there wouldn't be any reason to run anything in between...) None of the promotional material (edit: from the pretty pictures i mean, I can't read japanese) seems to make any reference to the DLC characters and they're using the old trailer, is that just because of outdated sources or are these cabs actually going to be running old versions

the website and cabinet have movelists for all of the characters including fukua, who doesn't even get a page on skullgirls.com. It would make sense for it to be all up to date.

I'm curious if it plays the japanese version of In a Moment's Time when you beat arcade mode.

 

[Mike_Z]

I'm curious if it plays the japanese version of In a Moment's Time when you beat arcade mode.

I don't remember.

 

[earlfriend]

they're using the old trailer

That's because M2 didn't ask us if we had a more recent one, or even look all that hard to see if there was one, apparently.

 

[Cellsai]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/654979946125766656

Woohoo~

Game runs nicely. No major noticeable slowdown when Big Band is on screen like in the last loctest. However, that seems to have come at a price - 2D backgrounds :(

 

[Mike_Z]

However, that seems to have come at a price - 2D backgrounds :(

That was but a SMALL PIECE of the price...

 

[Cellsai]

That was but a SMALL PIECE of the price...

What else am I totally missing out on?

 

[Mike_Z]

What else am I totally missing out on?

The huge amount of work it took to get the game performing even semi-decently on a computer from the early 2000s.
(IIRC we also reduced the number of lights per character, which is the only other visual change.)
There are multiple versions of the Taito X2 board and they're all super old and um...some are way below SG min spec. :^P But it has to run on all of them...

 

[Wenzel]

The huge amount of work it took to get the game performing even semi-decently on a computer from the early 2000s.
(IIRC we also reduced the number of lights per character, which is the only other visual change.)
There are multiple versions of the Taito X2 board and they're all super old and um...some are way below SG min spec. :^P But it has to run on all of them...

SG on NeSiCa

Spoiler

 

[cherry blossoms]

Brb, will be spending all my yen at Akihabara. Awesome stuff

 

[gluemchen]

Atleast it's not on the level of psvita. It works is all that matters!

 

[andrewr]

We've actually improved the performance significantly since sending out the version that's currently in the location test. In addition to the other performance enhancements we've already made on the game, we reduced the amount of data that has to be copied back and forth between the CPU and GPU when streaming large palettized sprites, which is helpful for the old hardware that the TypeX2 is built on (it does not have much memory bandwidth). Especially when there are multiple large characters on screen, the game is less likely to drop frames.

You'll be able to play the version with the memory bus performance enhancements in the full arcade release.

 

[gluemchen]

We've actually improved the performance significantly since sending out the version that's currently in the location test. In addition to the other performance enhancements we've already made on the game, we reduced the amount of data that has to be copied back and forth between the CPU and GPU when streaming large palettized sprites, which is helpful for the old hardware that the TypeX2 is built on (it does not have much memory bandwidth). Especially when there are multiple large characters on screen, the game is less likely to drop frames.

You'll be able to play the version with the memory bus performance enhancements in the full arcade release.

I'm always impressed how people that work on skullgirls manage to squeeze as much performance they can out of older hardware. Will this optimisation find its way to other plattforms aswell in form of patches? I mean like will any of this by any chance help improve performance on any of the plattforms, if it even makes any sense. I mean achitecture on the taito type x2 is maybe way to different to make this an univeral upgrade. Would be nice though if it's could be implemented on each plattform.

Thanks for letting us in on this information!

 

[andrewr]

I'm always impressed how people that work on skullgirls manage to squeeze as much performance they can out of older hardware. Will this optimisation find its way to other plattforms aswell in form of patches? I mean like will any of this by any chance help improve performance on any of the plattforms, if it even makes any sense. I mean achitecture on the taito type x2 is maybe way to different to make this an univeral upgrade. Would be nice though if it's could be implemented on each plattform.

Thanks for letting us in on this information!

This patch has already been merged into the code base for the Windows desktop version of Skullgirls and will appear in released versions sometime in the future, as far as I know. It's a Direct3D9-only optimization, so it's not really relevant for the OpenGL versions of the game (Mac, Linux). For the 360 version of the game, the CPU and GPU share memory, so this optimization has no effect. PS3 and PS4 uses a different API and this optimization is not relevant.

Keep in mind you're really unlikely to notice any performance difference except on very old hardware running old drivers. Like, at least 9 years old. The bandwidth on modern hardware is so much higher that you're unlikely to be able to even measure a difference.

However, there have been other optimizations which win some extra performance in more modern hardware, and those have been merged as well.

 

[Mike_Z]

Yeah. For future reference, @andrewr is the MAN.

 

[ArgonBern]

Did the loctest go well though?

 

[Cellsai]

I was only in for a rather short time, but there was a handful of us playing on it during all of that. Plenty of people taking photos and whatnot too.
Remarkably little advertising that it was even in the arcade though. I had to do two sweeps of the floor to even find the cab.
It was just stuck on the end of the row of Persona/BB machines like a regular game instead of out in the open where loctests usually are.

 

[andrewr]

The game centers aren't supposed to advertise that they have "online location test" units. Also, nobody directly involved involved with Taito is allowed to publish a list of the known locations. These restrictions obviously won't exist for the real release. :)

 

[Cellsai]

The game centers aren't supposed to advertise that they have "online location test" units. Also, nobody directly involved involved with Taito is allowed to publish a list of the known locations. These restrictions obviously won't exist for the real release. :)

The last loctest had a live feed of SG on a TV out in front of Hey! and several posters directing us to where the machine was. The machine itself was cordoned off in its own section right in front of the main stairs on the FG floor with attendants on hand to organize the lines.

This test was as described above - zero indication it was even on and no special presence on the FG floor.

Do you happen to know why this one was run so secretively?

 

[andrewr]

The first one was the "offline location test", which was to gauge interest and get feedback on the progress of the port. This is the "online location test" where the port is feature complete and the NESiCAxLive features are enabled, but are still being tested for bugs. I don't know the reasoning behind the rules, but that's the way it is.

 

[earlfriend]

Heads up, everyone! It's officially out for Nesica on 10/29! Here's the press release from M2:

http://www.mtwo.co.jp/en/blog/2015/10/23/ゲーセンで会える！nesicaxliveで-『スカルガールズ-2ndアン/

Yay!

 

[BallotBoxer]

Wow, their official site (http://sukaruga.com/) is pretty nifty too! Movelists, bios, even the game credits.

I'm curious if the Arc System Works Japanese voice acting will eventually be incorporated into the NESiCAxLive build.

 

[Wenzel]

Heads up, everyone! It's officially out for Nesica on 10/29! Here's the press release from M2:

http://www.mtwo.co.jp/en/blog/2015/10/23/ゲーセンで会える！nesicaxliveで-『スカルガールズ-2ndアン/

Yay!

Hope this boost more interest on the SG, can´t wait to saw JP people play on arcades.

 

[erkicman]

Can't wait to see the A-Cho recordings. That's basically why I've been waiting all this time.

 

[Mike_Z]

I'm curious if the Arc System Works Japanese voice acting will eventually be incorporated into the NESiCAxLive build.

I doubt it, since Arc wasn't part of it.

Can't wait to see the A-Cho recordings. That's basically why I've been waiting all this time.

Same. :^P

 

[gluemchen]

Can't wait to see the A-Cho recordings. That's basically why I've been waiting all this time.

Omg! YES! I need to see this!

 

[gluemchen]

I do have one question concerning the arcade version down the line as soon as arcsys releases their console version. Will the JP voices somehow be able to find their way onto the Arcade version over there? Or will M2 have to figure that out with ArcSys. Oh and another question how are you going to handle eng voices and jap voices in the game in jp release. Will the consoile version release with soley JP voices? Because as it stands now the aracade version has english voices right now. Will these be replaced by the JP voices later on or will they just be added on top with the english voices? Because i can actually see some japanese players maybe not wanting to part ways with the english voices, because they have grown fond of them!? No idea. But i am sure there are a certain amount of people that care over there. I guess i'm asking a little too much here.... ima wait and see what people say on the interwebs i guess.

 

[Mike_Z]

I do have one question concerning the arcade version down the line as soon as arcsys releases their console version. Will the JP voices somehow be able to find their way onto the Arcade version over there? Or will M2 have to figure that out with ArcSys.

That'd be M2 and Arc, and VERY unlikely.
I highly doubt we'd add voice choice to the arcade.

Oh and another question

:^|

how are you going to handle eng voices and jap voices in the game in jp release. Will the consoile version release with soley JP voices?

In the Voice Settings menu, you choose English or JP per character. The JP announcer is added as an option along with Male/Female/Dazed/etc.
You can still choose an alt voice for Para/BB/etc by holding down the buttons, and that voicepack is in English even if they are set to JP.
You CANNOT choose normal EN vs normal JP for the same character at character select. Mainly because there was no good way to do it without adding another UI element and we're way past the ability to add UI elements.

 

[ArgonBern]

In the Voice Settings menu, you choose English or JP per character. The JP announcer is added as an option along with Male/Female/Dazed/etc.
You can still choose an alt voice for Para/BB/etc by holding down the buttons, and that voicepack is in English even if they are set to JP.
You CANNOT choose normal EN vs normal JP for the same character at character select. Mainly because there was no good way to do it without adding another UI element and we're way past the ability to add UI elements.

Oh, so no JP anime Peacock and such. Mkay.

 

[Mike_Z]

Oh, so no JP anime Peacock and such. Mkay.

Yeah. There were a ton of things recorded and rewritten, there wasn't any time to also rewrite all the alts.

 

[gluemchen]

So anime peacock is actually american cartoon peacock in japanese and will be engrish? Just joking! lol A Shame it ain't happening. I'd love to hear some japanese VA for peacock in english.

 

[Mike_Z]

A Shame it ain't happening.

No, no it isn't. Because when you say that it completely sweeps aside all the other work that was done.

 

[gluemchen]

True. Point taken.

 

[FakeangeL]

Japanese alt Patricia wouls be just normal peacock, anyway :^)

 

[erkicman]

Wait a sec, possible A-cho recordings on day one, pretty, pretty please?!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/658912119778250753

 

[andrewr]

Just giving a quick update -- for whatever reason, Taito hasn't released the big-character-memory-bus-performance-fix version today, it's the same version as the location test. They're saying that the version with the fixes will go out on Nov 10th. I'm out of the loop on this since I'm just the programmer, but apparently that's what's happened, and I was only told a few hours ago. Anyway, this version of the game should still be playable, but it'll probably drop frames when two Big Bands are performing actions. Same as the online location test.

Nov 10th version will have the performance fixes and a minor character select bug fix (just a small cosmetic oddity). Next update a few weeks later will probably have training mode and a couple more things (no promises, though).

 

[erkicman]

The curse is just comically strong... it's like cosmic clockwork

Thanks for the update!