Graphics and sound review for xbox VOOM, VOOT, and Force
Posted: 17 Apr 2015, 17:34
Even though it never went on sale like I was hoping, I just bought VOOM since my japanese microsoft points might have expired in a month. So I'll be talking about VOOM again, but for now I'll just start with my impression on the video and audio quality of its conversion. While I'm at it, I might as well talk about details and gripes we have had with VOOT and Force as well.
VOOM looks a lot better than the xbox store pics make it seem. I actually think it looks better than VOOT, even though the game graphics are themselves of course inferior. In terms of 3D rendering and lighting, the game looks pretty much identical to how it is supposed to look. In terms of video quality, the brightness is the correct level. There is a brightness control that lets you adjust from -5 to +10, but the default of 0 looks perfect to me. The biggest complaint might be that there is no widescreen option. Also by default, the game plays in a smaller window than the full screen, but you can change it to use the full screen and there is no reason you should not do that.
The small window is a stupid idea which was carried over from the PS2 version of VOOM, which was an excellent port. While it had similar resizing options, the PS2 version was reluctant to deviate from the original arcade resolution of VOOM, which was nonstandard, roughly 350 to 400 pixels vertically. The best way to play on the PS2 was therefore to use the small window, in which case the game rendered the arcade pixel-perfect and also in 60 frames progressive scan, a rarity among PS2 games. In the other screen modes of PS2 VOOM, the game might use the full screen but the image would be interlaced and also possibly upscaled, which is bad. (Meanwhile on PC, VOOM was changed to render in 640x480 but at 30 fps, which I heard could be upgraded to 60 fps with some hacks).
Anyway the small window carried over into xbox 360 VOOM for no good reason, as HDTVs have totally different resolutions now. And xbox VOOM is natively 3D rendered in HD which is excellent, with sharp crisp lines and fine pixels. The image will not upscale if you increase the small window to full screen, you'll just get that much more native resolution. Meanwhile, the 2D graphics of VOOM (lock-on target, lifebars, etc) are still at the original 300-ish pixel resolution, and are upscaled (therefore very pixely and also blurry looking). However, it is upscaled in a non-integer multiple of the original no matter whether you use the small window or the large window. Therefore using the large window only provides that much more pixels to work with, and therefore results in a better upscale quality of the 2D images.
In summary, I think xbox VOOM has the following video specs:
game resolution (new xbox-specific menus): 1280x720 ?
3D rendering resolution: 960x720 ?
2D images resolution: original 400x300-ish, upscaled
Now as for music, the game offers a choice between the original arcade tinny music and the arranged version, which is what all console versions of VOOM have always used going way back to the Saturn version. The PS2 version was the first game to offer a choice between the two, and I think I chose arranged when I played it long ago.
However I think there is a bug with the sound effects. They are ultra soft by default, which matters in VO games. Except for when the enemy dies, then suddenly it goes BOOOM BAGA BAGAGA!! as if the world is exploding. I do not recall any of the other versions of VOOM having this issue. The sound effects are supposed to be much louder when fighting, but when you die it is not supposed to go BOOOM BAGA BAGAGA!! I think this problem occurred because they are using sound effects from the original arcade version of VOOM instead of the console versions, and also perhaps it is not emulated correctly with regards to the death explosion. The sound effects sound very tinny. There is no option to switch between different versions of sound effects. There is an option to adjust the sound effect volume but it is useless. If you make the sound any louder, you can hear shots normally while playing but when the enemy dies your speakers may explode. If you adjust the sound to the minimum so that the explosion sounds normal, you will hear absolutely nothing in regards to any other sound effects or voices.
I could be imagining this, but I also think the original arcade tinny music in xbox VOOM does not sound like it is supposed to, either (i.e. the same as on the PS2 version, or in the Force memorial box CD soundtrack, the only other two sources for this music).
Considering all of that, my personal choices for xbox VOOM were to use default original arcade tinny music and default sound effect volume. I think the lousy and possibly improperly reproduced original tinny music somehow works better with the original and possibly improperly reproduced sound effects. This is sad but it is the best sounding balance I can come up with.
There seems to be no way to turn off autosave. You can turn it off in the menus but then there is no way to save that you turned it off, for xbox VOOM is mysteriously missing a manual save option underneath its load option. There is no patch for VOOM, unlike VOOT and Force which both have a patch that goes invisibly into your HD cache.
VOOM looks a lot better than the xbox store pics make it seem. I actually think it looks better than VOOT, even though the game graphics are themselves of course inferior. In terms of 3D rendering and lighting, the game looks pretty much identical to how it is supposed to look. In terms of video quality, the brightness is the correct level. There is a brightness control that lets you adjust from -5 to +10, but the default of 0 looks perfect to me. The biggest complaint might be that there is no widescreen option. Also by default, the game plays in a smaller window than the full screen, but you can change it to use the full screen and there is no reason you should not do that.
The small window is a stupid idea which was carried over from the PS2 version of VOOM, which was an excellent port. While it had similar resizing options, the PS2 version was reluctant to deviate from the original arcade resolution of VOOM, which was nonstandard, roughly 350 to 400 pixels vertically. The best way to play on the PS2 was therefore to use the small window, in which case the game rendered the arcade pixel-perfect and also in 60 frames progressive scan, a rarity among PS2 games. In the other screen modes of PS2 VOOM, the game might use the full screen but the image would be interlaced and also possibly upscaled, which is bad. (Meanwhile on PC, VOOM was changed to render in 640x480 but at 30 fps, which I heard could be upgraded to 60 fps with some hacks).
Anyway the small window carried over into xbox 360 VOOM for no good reason, as HDTVs have totally different resolutions now. And xbox VOOM is natively 3D rendered in HD which is excellent, with sharp crisp lines and fine pixels. The image will not upscale if you increase the small window to full screen, you'll just get that much more native resolution. Meanwhile, the 2D graphics of VOOM (lock-on target, lifebars, etc) are still at the original 300-ish pixel resolution, and are upscaled (therefore very pixely and also blurry looking). However, it is upscaled in a non-integer multiple of the original no matter whether you use the small window or the large window. Therefore using the large window only provides that much more pixels to work with, and therefore results in a better upscale quality of the 2D images.
In summary, I think xbox VOOM has the following video specs:
game resolution (new xbox-specific menus): 1280x720 ?
3D rendering resolution: 960x720 ?
2D images resolution: original 400x300-ish, upscaled
Now as for music, the game offers a choice between the original arcade tinny music and the arranged version, which is what all console versions of VOOM have always used going way back to the Saturn version. The PS2 version was the first game to offer a choice between the two, and I think I chose arranged when I played it long ago.
However I think there is a bug with the sound effects. They are ultra soft by default, which matters in VO games. Except for when the enemy dies, then suddenly it goes BOOOM BAGA BAGAGA!! as if the world is exploding. I do not recall any of the other versions of VOOM having this issue. The sound effects are supposed to be much louder when fighting, but when you die it is not supposed to go BOOOM BAGA BAGAGA!! I think this problem occurred because they are using sound effects from the original arcade version of VOOM instead of the console versions, and also perhaps it is not emulated correctly with regards to the death explosion. The sound effects sound very tinny. There is no option to switch between different versions of sound effects. There is an option to adjust the sound effect volume but it is useless. If you make the sound any louder, you can hear shots normally while playing but when the enemy dies your speakers may explode. If you adjust the sound to the minimum so that the explosion sounds normal, you will hear absolutely nothing in regards to any other sound effects or voices.
I could be imagining this, but I also think the original arcade tinny music in xbox VOOM does not sound like it is supposed to, either (i.e. the same as on the PS2 version, or in the Force memorial box CD soundtrack, the only other two sources for this music).
Considering all of that, my personal choices for xbox VOOM were to use default original arcade tinny music and default sound effect volume. I think the lousy and possibly improperly reproduced original tinny music somehow works better with the original and possibly improperly reproduced sound effects. This is sad but it is the best sounding balance I can come up with.
There seems to be no way to turn off autosave. You can turn it off in the menus but then there is no way to save that you turned it off, for xbox VOOM is mysteriously missing a manual save option underneath its load option. There is no patch for VOOM, unlike VOOT and Force which both have a patch that goes invisibly into your HD cache.