The Sega Model 3 and Dreamcast

I’ve been thinking about the relationship between the Model 3 and the Dreamcast. The more I think about it, the more it seems like the Dreamcast was Sega’s attempt to make a home version of the Model 3. Put another way, the Model 3 was intended as a preview of what might be possible with their new console.

First of all, they were very different platforms. They used very different hardware; whereas the Model 3 used a PowerPC processor, the DC used the custom-made Hitachi SH-4. The Model 3 used the Real3D PRO-1000, which was co-developed by Sega and Lockheed Martin – and based on technology used in simulators for the military and space programs. The DC used the PowerVR chipset, which was licensed from another company and manufactured by NEC.

It’s difficult to compare the two based on hardware, considering that there was really no relation between them in terms of the technology that went into them. One bit of information we can compare is the clock speeds of their CPUs: The DC was 200Mhz, faster than the Model 3's 66Mhz. But one must keep in mind that they were different archictectures.

However, just from a subjective standpoint, it seems there are some similarities in the kind of graphics they were able to produce. It’s hard to describe, but there’s something about the textures used in Model 3 games and DC games that seems vaguely similar. They have that clean, mottled look. I think part of that is just Sega’s style, but part of it probably has to do with the limitations of the hardware.

I don’t have any information on the maximum polygon count of the two systems, but if I had to guess I would say the Model 3 was capable of more. Objects in Model 3 games seem to have a bit more complexity to them than DC games. On the other hand, the DC was had games that were much larger than any Model 3 game, so it's hard to say how the Model 3 would handle scenes like that.

One pretty glaring difference is the systems’ ability to do reflections. Look at the reflections on the cars in Scud Race. I can think of few DC games that can compare to that kind of effect. There are a couple, like Shutoko Battle and Daytona USA 2001, that have some pretty impressive reflections, but not quite as impressive as Scud Race.

Nonetheless, it is my general feeling that there was a spiritual connection in Sega’s mind between the Dreamcast and Model 3. It was as if Sega wanted to give arcade gamers a chance to get a taste of the future. Sega was at the forefront of graphics technology before they got out of the hardware business. Some people forget that for a long time the technology available in arcades was years ahead of home console technology.

It was my view at the time, and I still think it’s true, that Sega and other arcade manufacturers saw arcades as a way to showcase and demonstrate technology that was currently too expensive for home hardware. It was a way for customers to see the future of videogames without needing to pay excessive amounts of money.

Anyway, it’s a shame that there weren’t more Model 3 to Dreamcast conversions. And it’s even more of a shame that the few ports it did get were poorly done. Maybe I'm a little biased because I love both systems so much. You might also argue that the Dreamcast was a direct successor to the Saturn in that they used Hitachi SH-based CPUs.

Those are my thoughts. What are yours? Please let me know if there are any factual inaccuracies in what I’ve said.

 

x

 

I read all about this back in the day. Model 3 was nothing to do with Dreamcast. Sega's arcade hardware was the best on the market however it was expensive. Sega wanted to produce something that would still have an impact on the arcade workd but was cheaper for arcade operators to buy. The result was the Naomi which was less powerful than Model 3 in some areas however could pull off just as impressive visuals at a much cheaper price. As we know, Naomi became Dremcast for the home just as System 32 evolved into the Saturn / STV and how the Mega Drive was based of earlier Z80 arcade hardware.

Yakumo

 

x

 

Well, think about it; the first DC devkits were called Katana. Obviously at that point they saw it as a console. The idea of the NAOMI came later in the development stage.

 

Apparently the Model 3 is emulatable now

 

I belive that the model 3 is more related to the saturn then to the dreamcast, has if sega for the dreamcast went with a more saturn similar tech it would be a model 3 console version due to the multiple cpu structure and such.

 

x

 

I think you need glasses because the model3 couldnt push half the stuff the Dreamcast did.

Odds are you played most model3 games on those big projection screen cabinets and because the screen was cloudy as shit you couldnt see the polygon edges and the jaggies, so it looks great because you cant see anything.

The irony for me is that while the model3 used tech so expensive it was near impossible to use in a console the model2 used parts that by 1995 werent that rare nor expensive. The CPU the most popular microcontroller in the 90s, and its still being used, specially by the military. Even AMD had a version so if Sega couldnt get a fair price from intel they could go to them.

When shit got real after sony showed the PSX Sega should have gone to the lab throw all the saturn hardware through the window and try to cram a model2 into it. 1 CPU and 1 coprocessor, easy as pie to program (there were lots of non-sega arcade games running on it) it would have killed the PSX and cornered the market before the N64 came out

But the model3 was experimental shit, if you recall the Edge article Sega had to go through a lot of hoops to get it done.

And by the time of the Dreamcast most graphic cards had already rendered the model3 obsolete, which is why Sega went to the big names at the time: 3dfx and PowerVR.

 

x

 

Personally, I'm glad the Saturn was released as it was. Sure, it wasn't great for 3D stuff, but developers were still able to manage some pretty cool 3D stuff on it. More importantly, it was great for 2D, and really the last 2D console. We'd have lost out on a lot of great 2D games without it.

 

x

 

Yep, the Supermodel emulator. Scud Race has near-perfect emulation now, and Daytona USA 2 is supposedly pretty accurate too, although I haven't tried it yet.

No, not really. If anything, the Dreamcast is somewhat related to the Saturn in that they both use the Hitachi SH series CPUs.

Uh, no. I can see Scud Race perfectly clearly on my LCD, and it looks amazing. I will say that The Lost World, which I enjoyed greatly at the time, doesn't hold up very well graphically. But Scud Race and Virtua Fighter 3 still look great to me.

 

I believe Supermodel 3 was actually made to emulate Scud Race first, and it sure pulls it off. Some textures though are screwed up on track 2 and onwards.

I love scud race plus though XD

 

I forgot the details, but the Model 3 used a completely different approach to 3D graphics than any other hardware on the market at the time, so it's not actually similar to either Dreamcast or Saturn at all. That's why the port of VF3 on DC was so bad, and why there weren't more ports from Model 3.

 

Not sure if you are aware of this, but the PowerVR in the Dreamcast used deferred, tile-based rendering, which was (and still is) quite unlike traditional polygon rasterization.

 

Yup, and the PowerVR's in the iPhone, the PSV, etc. use the same rendering method.

 

"It also allows for correct rendering of partially transparent polygons, independent of the order in which they are processed by the polygon producing application."

So is that why transparencies in Shenmue IIx had to be significantly reworked, mostly with inferior results? I know many things about the Dreamcast were introduced to show that Sega had learned lessons after its past mistakes, such as it being a single processor design that was much easier to program. However, could this particular feature have been a direct response to the commonly-held belief that its predecessor couldn't handle transparencies? In this particular instance they might have tried a little too hard to rectify previous errors, as it seems to have made porting to other systems later quite difficult!

 

Reading all this makes me sad, just wish SEGA had the juice they had back then today...

 

This thread is dumb.