Optimized Character Select to Reduce Lag (plus some redesign concepts)

I believe for season 3, IG should seriously rework the character select screen. Even thought it’s minor, the fact that there is lag on the character select bothers me. I think instead of the 3d models, they should use full rendered images of the characters and have portraits and icons so we know what costume and color we are choosing. What do you guys think?

Images came from Gustavo Zamboni on Behance.net

3 Likes

I’m sure it would speed up the responsiveness of the menu. The problem is with all the accessory options and colors you may not get a good idea of what your character is going to look like.

This is exactly my main problem with this. I don’t wanna have to memorize what every color looks like and how it matches with the accessories. Not to mention they stopped making hero art for the retros so those would probably be up to your memorization too. I’d much rather they just sick to the 3d models. (Also I really like that each character had an insignia thing displayed behind them, which this omits)

Eh, I’m not sold on it. Granted I hate the lag but seeing my outfits in real-time is a must. If they HAD to go to stills, they had better update all of the renders then because as it is, there is ZERO consistency in the hero art. Some have fantastic retouched renders, others just have concept art and then some like Glacius literally just have a terrible out of place pre-release screenshot facing one direction…

As long as there’s no/reduced lag and the character sounds still play to help in selection, that’s fine by me.

I love the real time aspect. Plus, I’m not worried about waiting for the character on the screen to pop up. IMO. I start a match, pick Jago and wait for the match to start. I kinda didn’t like the way Street Fighter 4 did it.

Perhaps there’s a middle ground that can be made. By itself, I do not like the idea. The characters unique animations in the menu help to to give a feeling for their personality, and the ability to see exactly how your outfits look is pretty sweet. However, I could see some ways that the idea be potentially helpful.
Perhaps it could show their art or icon while hovering over them, and then the character loads in when you select them?
Also, as an added bonus, perhaps there could be some little clips of gameplay/animations in the background when selecting the character?

Kinda in a Way like MKX? Maybe. If they have that, I’d like Jago to have his normal fighting pose, then when he loads in, have him slap his hands like he does in his intro, and Grunt. EPIC. :smile:

Love how this looks. The color behind the characters and how it shades them, and the art behind them as well. I wonder if there could be a middle ground though.

Say the above is a static image of the character art. Once you select a character, that menu that you see below Thunder’s name comes up and you choose which ones you want by pressing A, but if you press Y, a box will appear on the whole side of the screen showing you the accessories and outfit with color that you’ve selected. So if you already know what you want, you don’t have to look at these, but if you need to, the option is still there.

Once you confirm everything, the static image shatters like stained glass and falls, revealing the 3D model with the options you’ve selected, and they do some sort of animation that is unique to that character. From here, you have the option to confirm your full selection or go back. If you go back, the static image reappears and you start over.

Perhaps the static images would allow the select icon to move faster, then once you select a character, the 3D image loads in the background while you’re selecting your colors/accessory combos? This might make the outfit/color menu move more slowly, but hopefully this could be optimized from the get go to minimize lag.

Either way, I love the images above. Only thing it’s missing is a KI log somewhere. :grin: