Not too long ago, the official TEKKEN Facebook Page sent out the call for ALL Tekken fans to compile their questions that they’d like to ask the TEKKEN 6 development team! They took your questions and the team has responded! They touched on everything from game controls, to display resolution (a touchy subject these days, lol), and even online netcode! For the full story, click below!
Originally found on the official TEKKEN Facebook page, here.
Hi everyone! A few weeks ago, we asked you to present us with questions for the Tekken 6 development team. The response we had from the fans in the Tekken community was incredible!!
Today, we are pleased to present the first batch of answers provided directly from the Tekken developers. This week’s list of questions focuses on the technical side of Tekken 6, covering items like the game’s resolution, cutscenes, and game installation.
In the coming weeks leading into Tekken’s launch, the development team will be answering more questions from the fans, so if your question isn’t in this list, don’t despair! There’s still more to come.
1. What improvements have you made for the online mode of Tekken 6? Can you tell us the details? Has there been any improvements to latency issues players experienced in T5:DR Online and even Soul Calibur 4?
We completely rewrote the netcode this time so it is different from Tekken 5 DR. I would say the performance is better than before.
Generally speaking, for online fighting games, most netcode is tuned to either provide a stable game for various connections of differing quality or on providing a better experience for matches in which the connection compatibility is better than average. The latter approach seems to be more popular among fighting game fans.
2. There is concern that the Xbox 360 controller will not be sufficient enough due to the unresponsive D-Pad. As members of the development team…is there something you can tell the Xbox 360 owners to ease their anxiety?
First, I want everyone to understand we only make the software, there isn’t much software-wise that we can do about hardware already on the market.
For Tekken 6, there will be a bundle that includes a wireless fighting stick, and we also have plans for a licensed wired fighting stick with Hori. The Tekken franchise was born in the arcades, so we would like to recommend the fighting sticks to fans, rather than fuel discussion about the merits/demerits of the D-Pad.
3. Is there an optional installation feature to speed up loading process?
We plan to include this feature.
4. There is info out on some sites that the resolution for Tekken 6 will only be in 720p. Why not 1080p?
Tekken 6 is the first fighting game to implement variable animation blur to the character models while still maintaining 60 frames per second, making the animations smooth and dynamic. As such, this requires a lot of processing power.
Besides that, other aspects of the game have changed quite a bit from Tekken 5 DR, requiring more processing power on that front as well.
90% of games today, meaning most of them, run at 30 frames per second. If it were OK for Tekken to run at 30 fps, it would be easy to increase the resolution to 1080p. There is more time for processing as a result. One shouldn’t be so quick to judge resolution of 30fps and 60 fps games on the same scale.
I don’t think there are many fans out there who would want to play a 3D fighting game running at 30fps. On the dev team, we’ve tested this several times and the results were extremely poor. Rather than resolution, character animation and the frame rate are the most important aspect of a 3D fighting game; this is the conclusion we reached.
5. How many minutes of CGI footage have been created thus far for the story mode of Tekken 6??
There are also a lot of real-time movies in addition to the CG. The total minute number is a secret.
6. Will in-engine graphics be used for character endings, ala Tekken 4?
The character endings aren’t done using the in-game engine. The real-time demos in Scenario Campaign are done using the in-game engine, though.
Stay tuned for more answers to your questions!
SDTEKKEN.COM - TEKKEN News Resource! 
lol I posted a few times thier :)
dang,I meant there :|
wow,Im getting good at posting first :)
Thats a cool picture of Jin throwing those papers…
So is the Console version finished??
IT should be :|
I like how he dodged the question about the resolution.
Well, glad to hear them clarify some of the key points.
YES! There are CG endings and in game cut scenes! I guess the resolution point makes sense…though I’m surprised that the hardware wouldn’t be able to handle it. I feel like the power of these systems is so over hyped sometimes. Oh well. XD
Can’t wait to playyyy!!!!
Devs sometimes are way to lazy, look at Uncharted 2, a bigger game, better looking game, with motion blur, at 720p, while Tekken 6 is just a fighting game and yet sub-HD?
I agree Chang3. Its not going to be a deal breaker, hardly seems next gen if its not hd.
May as well port the psp version to ps2 and just play that.
nah PS3 isnt underpowerd he just didnt want to make those 360 pussies cry, thats why he said that.
so they wont go a commit fucking suicide cause thier system is shit.
but anyway as long as the game looks good,and is HD im good to go.
I have been dying to know..since console versions are in the hands of a few..will the trophy info be released soon?
well quite a lot of us at TN sent questions…
a lot of asked for a downloadable ttt for XBL and PSN
hopefully they answer them as well
Wah! I only have a 360 (my PS3 YLOD’d!) and I can’t afford an arcade stick. What’ll I do!?!?
LOL!! I love how they totally dodged the question about the xbox controller. They know it’s shitty… that’s more then why their pointing out to buy the joystick if ur an xbox owner.
LMAO dead n treehugger.
its like he was saying : well shit look i just make the fucking game ! its not my problem bill gates made you guys shitty controllers.
TEKKEN IS NOT AN FPS !!!!! IM HARADA DAMMNITTT!!!
4 all you people complaining about sub-hd.just read this
Tekken 6 PS3/360: The resolution gameOctober 4th, 2009In Saturday’s Digital Foundry “not so high definition” feature, we talked about the technical reasons why some console games don’t actually appear to be running at the lowest HD standard: 720p. We revealed that Namco-Bandai’s forthcoming Tekken 6 is one of those games, but also stated that the additional graphics processing introduced at the lower resolution, surprisingly, produced a higher overall image quality than the game’s in-built HD mode which actually runs in excessof 720p.
Our analysis was exclusive to the Xbox 360 version of the game, and we promised an update on the PS3 rendition, so let’s get going. To put it simply, there’s good news and bad news here. Let’s get the bad tidings out of the way first: while there is the option to switch between 1024×576 and 1365×768 modes on Xbox 360 (via tweaking the motion blur setting between on and off), the PS3 version is locked exclusively to the lower resolution. The good news is that even so, the PS3 version still manages to command a slightly higher image quality overall ifyou can do without the motion blur.
Let’s get the pixel measurements out of the way first, courtesy of DF contributor and image quality specialist, MazingerDUDE
Removing the motion blur filter frees up a lot of resources, and Namco has chosen to deploy these in two different ways on each console. Xbox 360 gets an enormous resolution boost to 1365×768, while the PS3 gets 2x multi-sampling anti-aliasing. In terms of overall image quality across the two modes and two consoles, the PS3 gets the nod in “blur off” mode thanks to decent enough upscaling based on an anti-aliased image, while in default mode with the motion blur active, the 360’s enhanced texture filtering gives clear image quality advantages.
So why did Namco choose 1365×768 on 360? If the dash is set to 1360×768, you don’t get close-to-native resolution as you might expect. Indeed, the image is scaled down to 720p internally, then scaled back up by the Xenos GPU. Namco’s methodology here is to smooth off edges by rendering at a higher resolution then scaling down – the developers have done it before, not just in Soul Calibur IV, but also in Ridge Racer 6. It’s an attempt at some form anti-aliasing without needing to tile video data out into main RAM. At 1365×768 with no AA, everything remains inside the 360’s 10MB eDRAM, ensuring maximum performance.
Despite that, we can conclude that Tekken 6 at sub-HD resolutions gives a better-looking display at 576p. So, what’s going on, particularly in the Xbox 360 game? How can the sub-HD mode give clearer, sharper detail when it’s running at nearly half the resolution of the “motion blur off” mode? Time to call in an Xbox 360 development expert, someone used to pushing the hardware in obscure directions: Trials HD lead coder Sebastian Aaltonen.
High quality motion blur consumes a lot of performance. If you want something else than camera motion based blur, you have to save the motion vectors for each pixel, so the render target memory requirement rises as well. 88 (16-bit) would be enough for 2d screen space motion vectors, but for practical reasons you need an 8888 buffer.
1365×768 resolution 8888 color + 24S8 depth = 8386560 bytes, while 1024×576 resolution 8888 color + 24S8 depth + motion vectors = 7077888 bytes
Both configurations fit well inside the 10MB eDRAM. The 1024×576 is kind of a strange choice, as it’s only around half the pixels of the 1365×768 and the cost of the blur filter comes nowhere close to the performance gained from the resolution decrease, and they are not eDRAM limited either. The resolution reduction itself is not something I consider strange, but a reduction this large means they have something else going on than just the motion blur. The better texture detail you are seeing could mean they have enabled anisotropic filtering for the lower resolution.
So, as we previously discussed, sub-HD is most often used to make up for performance deficits, but with Tekken 6, Namco-Bandai has opted to effectively include two different performance profiles.
In terms of how this works out during gameplay, the motion blur itself is quite a subtle effect, but pleasing nonetheless. Blur works best as a means of making motion look smoother than the frame rate suggests, but Tekken 6 is effectively locked at 60FPS any way, so the overall impression is not as impactful as the similar systems employed in Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2. However, the game includes at least two boss-style battles that pitch your fighter up against enormous, screen-filling opponents. And in those cases, the blur is much more evident. But in truth, as effects go, we can take it or leave it.
Overall, although there’s really nothing in it in the heat of gameplay, we’d take the PS3’s blur-off 576p 2xMSAA picture as the best IQ option available across both versions, the realisation of which suggests that the whole game would’ve benefited a lot more with the more traditional arrangement of native 720p and MSAA. Screen-filling bosses aside, there’s nothing to suggest that this wouldn’t have been possible. It’s interesting to note that even when Tekken 6 is running at an HD resolution there is the sense that the game isn’t quite all it could’ve been visually.
So, while we’re here are there any other technical issues of note? There’s a lot of Soul Calibur IV DNA in here, that’s for sure, extending beyond the native resolution of the Xbox 360 game. Just like Namco’s previous fighting game, the PS3 game gets an “install to HDD” optional feature (around 3.6GB in our preview code) and this is well worth using – load times can be laborious without it. It is worth pointing out that stuff like disc layout issues are optimised in the final period of development so in this case, the non-final nature of the code may be an issue, but there’s nothing here that we didn’t experience with Soul Calibur IV too. We’ll be updating from final code in a future Face-Off, but with the game just weeks away from release, we’re not expecting major changes.
One thing that is admirable is that there’s also obvious evidence of Namco making use of the extra space on the Blu-ray disc. Tekken 6 data weighs in at around 20GB. Bearing in mind the size of the install, it’s fair to assume that the rendered movies get the benefit here. That said, in the Tekken Force “Scenario Mode”, cut-scenes are generally engine-driven using in-game assets, running at 60FPS on both consoles and are of essentially equal quality. Intro and ending movies tend to get the full-on CG treatment beloved of the Tekken series, and it’s good to know that Namco-Bandai has taken a zero compromise approach to them, using the maximum bandwidth available that the freedom of a 25GB Blu-ray disc offers.
Wow this is really useful ,My question is how did they fit 20 gigs onto a dvd for x360
That means the 360 verion will be a two disc set. . .or downloadable content. . .BLU-ray rocks!
HMM. . .THAT MEANS THE 360 VERSION WILL BE A TWO DISC SET ;)
summary please.
Hey markman,
bit off topic but what do u think of the tank-stick?
jin is soooooooooooooooooooooo hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…(max)oooo’t in that picture!
MarkMan when are you putting up the review.
where did you got the pic baby jin? T_T plss markmann tell meee
..Tekken 4 didn’t use in-game graphic endings…
its used higher version of the ingame engine on tekken 4
Yes it did, they were just like the interludes from T5.
No it didn’t. It was CG done by the guys that did the CG for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpRHB173dhw
(Digimon World)
Unless you’re talking about the stuff like Heihachi entering the ring. Or Kazuya talking to Heihachi before they fight.
:( i want this picturesssss T____T
Jin looks happy. ^_^
T_T pls markkkkk plss
i want this pictures
Well it looks like the online is going to suck, again. =(
Until I found out about GGPO, I had given up to ever play an authentic fighting game experience online. GGPO proved me wrong. We have waited four years for this game and the tecnology has been available to achieve this all this time. Yet it seems Tekken will not utilize it.
Expect input delay, when your playing the dev’s answer to the online question seems to confirm it else he would have mentioned input lag masking. Criminal for this game, it’s even more important here than it is for streetfighter.
Oh well fingers crossed but at this stage it looks like my hopes for online are dashed to the rocks.
Tekken 6 was never watered down if the ps3 version will be in one disc and the 360 version will be in a two disc. . .set
They have too make the 360 version two disc. . .blu-ray EXCEEDS the dvd format. . .plus the ps3 version was the lead platform and namco promised that 360 development would not affect the ps3 version.
Markmann plsss i want this picture :(
i want this pictures.
I really doubt Tekken 6 will be two disks on xbox 360. There is this little thing called the magic of compression trickery, if you havent heard about it in layman’s terms they will use a compression technique and codec’s on the xbox 360 version to get it to fit on the disk. Probably the CGI video’s in particular which I guess are taking alot of that 20 gig’s up…. They simply don’t need to do this on the ps3 version hence the size. it would have been a task but I can almost garantee the xbox version will come on one disk because of compression technology.
Also I know it’s convenient to blame the resolution issue on the 360 inclusion but I think people just need more fire to fan the console fanboi wars.
The truth is both systems have their strengths and weaknesses and both are a little over hyped power wise. I like both systems for different reasons, but the reality is a console will never compete long term with the PC industry. The class of Graphics card in both console’s was what my PC was running around 4 years ago, and things have moved on….
So, The PS3 is a great machine but it’s power is a little over hyped. In fact it’s pretty common knowedge that the 360 has a more powerful graphics chip and better use of memory management here.
The Playstation has the more powerful processor, the cell, so really good developers can push the hardware to impressive degree’s if they have the talent and know how. This is why the major impressive games graphically so far on the ps3 have been by “pocket” developers such as naughty dog and the MGS4 team.
Any computer enthusiast knows to truly get a good machine you need to balance memory, CPU and graphics with good choices which complement each others power otherwise you get bottlenecks. Both of the current generation consoles are pretty lacking in the memory, Graphics area’s these days.
I believe what harada and co have said on this issue. Remmeber Tekken 6 is running 60fps. Most games dont get anywhere near this on the current consoles regardless of resolution. I doub’t any true HD games are at a constant 60fps.
As for the arcade verison sure it’s supposedly running on PS3 archicture, but that doesn’t there is a PS3 sitting in the cabinet, there isnt and thats a huge difference….
Like one of my people on youtube said:Or it means they are replicating the data on the disc multiple times to compensate for the slower drive speed of the PS3’s Blu-Ray drive so to circumvent an install. If the game required 20gbs of space it wouldn’t be done on the 360 and it wouldn’t make sense that the 360 version to look better if they were tight on space.
Oh, I just read, I think the PS3 version gets an optional “Install to HDD” feature that would exceed the resolution of the 360 version. So basically, Which would be good, because if it didn’t get that, that would mean that Tekken 5 DR for PS3 would have a higher resolution, which would be dumb. Tekken 5 DR is capable of running at true HD, so Tekken 6 should be able to too.
Jin finds papers ridiculous.
link to post image: http://hakupa.deviantart.com/art/Selling-with-high-price-139438410
Aw, this was a very nice post. Finding the time and actual effort to
create a really good article… but what can I say… I put things off a whole lot and
don’t manage to get anything done.