Pretty sure I know why MKHD was cancelled . . .

@Patrick I am SO keen for those graphic filters you mentioned. Give me the scanlines, overscan, color bleed, everything that resembles what I used to play these games on. The classic MKs were designed on old monitors and intended to be played on old monitors. I think that optional graphic filters would definitely make the experience of MKAK more authentic. Much better than the plain bilinear.

@b,b,b,lp I don't know man, I think MKHD probably got the graphics right, just not the gameplay. I say that because MK always had the best art direction when it came to digitized actors, and that aspect would've been given special attention to for this project, to translate that art direction into HD. Would've been just the different actors messing things up, as well as a 16:9 ratio possibly.
 
Before I take anyone's opinion into consideration, find me an HDish 2d fighter that looks all right.


ssf2thdrle.png


:D
 
It was going to look ugly as ****.

Now here me out before you go all Flame Mammoth on my ass.


MK looked good in the arcade days, because the graphics were shitty.

Its hard to explain but unnaturally fast animations with HD realistic looking people just look wrong.



Before I take anyone's opinion into consideration, find me an HDish 2d fighter that looks all right.

.



I can't understand what you're talking about. These screenshots look awsome. And the idea was great. And really, this is Mortal Kombat - alive actors in 2D! Well, OK, MK9 is good, these 3D models look much better than MKDA-MKA, but it's still not MK we know from the very beginning. They still look cartoony. Why? OK, I believe this Sonya is Alive, she is real.

Mksonyaow1.jpg


And i don't believe this Sonya is real, she is cool and cute and very well done, but not alive obviously.

840386722.jpg
 

YOU WIN! PERFECT!

Tattoo Assassins looks like ass for several reasons. First, the backgrounds were poorly made. They're really flat and look more like something you'd see in a cartoon than a live-action production, so the fighters don't look like they're actually in that world. They look like they're fighting in a green-screen room with shitty backdrops. The costume designs are pretty bad, too. If anyone has actually seen TA in action, you can blatantly tell that animation is horrible and the whole game is just appalling to watch, let alone play.

I don't even know what that other game is (I do not want to), but that game suffers from outright crappy costume design. I doubt the backgrounds were any better that TA's since the fighters look that bad.

The digitized MKs always looked great because they didn't suffer (not much, at least) from these issues. Ed & Co. knew how to create backdrops that the characters meshed well with, and that's why MK looks so much better. Since the HDK was based on these same designs (and from what we've seen of the game), it's safe it would've looked great.
 
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It was going to look ugly as ****.


MK looked good in the arcade days, because the graphics were shitty.

Its hard to explain but unnaturally fast animations with HD realistic looking people just look wrong.



Agree! If MKHD exists. The sprites would move fast like it is out of place, out of line, out of grid, out of dimension. Their moves would look like real-time.. And maybe their would be loose like Street Fighter: The Movie Game...

But still I want MKHD for granted.... Cause of it's coolness.... hahaha
 
everyone is missing the point. all digitized or digitally captured mk needs is a few more frames of motion, and some slicker computer generated effects. that's it. a game like that would be revolutionary all over again. plus, like i've said, it would cost 10 times less to produce than mk9 or 10 or 11 or whatever and it would generate the same , or more, revenue.

what's annoying is that the game makers ,who are the only game makers to have ever made a successful digitized fighting game, refuse to even discuss the prospect of such and endeavor. and the only thing ed has discussed publicly came via tweet; to paraphrase "have you ever played street fighter the movie game?". really? he expects everyone to believe that if they tackled mkhd that it would resemble sf the movie game? did he forget the fact that none of his mk games have ever looked like sf the movie game? not even mk1. alan noon's blog about making that game said over and over that they didn't have the slightest idea how midway made those mk games look as good as they did, and aside from a few of the making of videos, and the daniel pesina videos, no one has ever talked, in detail, about constructing mk1-umk3.

does it really matter? no. mk9 made money, the trash 3d games made money, and mk10 will make money, but there's no substitute for those live actors. seriously, watching the daniel pesina mk1 video was like finding video of michaelangelo painting the sistine chapel. lol. yes, it's an exaggeration, but it was a magical surprise. we all knew how it was done, but seeing it in person, unedited, and unscripted was such a treat; it really brought back the mesmerizing feeling those games evoked in me as a kid. which is really what this is all about. mk has never looked like mk since 1996.

I know you're very passionate about this topic, actually I think about the only posts I see from you are on this topic. I understand what you're saying too, but you're under the impression that it'd be just so easy to make another digitized MK game. I'm telling you that it's not.

It would've been hard in the first place to capture the classic look in HD, and I'm not doubting they pulled it off, like I said it would've been the gameplay that brought down the project. If you're trying to recreate the classics, the graphics are only half the work, and if you can't get the games to play the same then it's really all for nothing. Using different actors, adding extra frames of motion, changing the aspect ratio, those things all change the game. I guess those problems couldn't be resolved in time, or at all.

Now if you're talking about a new MK game, using digitized actors in HD, that really becomes something else. The art direction that the digitized actors were part of in classic MK - it's an outdated, retro look. I'm not saying it wouldn't have looked good in HD, it probably did, and it would've been accepted because it was supposed to emulate those classic games. But if a new MK game were made using that same art direction...I'm betting it'd be scrutinized for it. Compared to modern games it just wouldn't hold up. IMO the only successful way to use digitized actors in a new MK game would be a new, modern art direction. It would have to be realistic as **** to warrant that style. If that actually happened, I agree it'd be revolutionary. But it's probably stupidly expensive, or impractical, or both.

My advice - put this idea out of your head for a while. More than a while, actually. Be happy with what we have and that MK has finally returned, even if it is using 3D models. 3D itself is making impressive progress in realism, and perhaps the next MK game will take advantage of that. You may end up eventually getting what you want, without even the need for recorded footage.
 
One day more will be said about this project, but it's not too interesting really. What bbblp said is probably dead on, the quality was likely never there. It's a nice idea but as that leaked concept art shows it didn't look quite right. There is more reasons behind why it was troubled but quality is the best answer to go with.

I'm glad we're still getting the arcade games emulated for all consoles, it's a nice thing to have and hope a lot of major issues with the prior releases are taken care of.

I still think they could've at least cleaned up the UI though (like 3rd strike online).

I do wonder how many of the original recording sessions NRS has hanging around. If they still have the MK3 sessions, I assume they are still in good shape as they started using some new recording technology at that point, and it looked like the quality was digital 480i based on the making of MK3 video they put out. I could see those captures easily being upscaled to 1080p and cleaned up and holding up really well.

I just hope NRS hasn't decided against doing a digitized actor game again. They just need to do it in house so that they can keep the quality high.
 
I want to play this game, (Mainly UMK3) because I don't like the DS version anymore. I hope that repeat pulling will result in victory for the other side. Its only fair rather than the DS version resulting in a lame disconnect for the party, which means its just another number.

Hey is anyone picking up the PC version? Do you guys have your PC controllers ready?? LOL. This should be fun at the end of the month or so.
 
digitized actors - ugly?.... Omg...:(
Really, these plastic dolls look better??
Jax_versus.png

Except no one compared those two.
HD remakes of sprites in MK1-UMK3 would look shitty. I'm sorry, but it would.
The early MKs are old and the graphics are dated.. but does that means it's bad? No, it doesn't.
I am so tired of seeing "HD" remakes. All of your favorite movies and games will be changed to HD, then 3D, then whatever the "new" fad is. Then the whole point of those forms of entertainment will have lost their value altogether.
 
Except no one compared those two.
HD remakes of sprites in MK1-UMK3 would look shitty. I'm sorry, but it would.
The early MKs are old and the graphics are dated.. but does that means it's bad? No, it doesn't.
I am so tired of seeing "HD" remakes. All of your favorite movies and games will be changed to HD, then 3D, then whatever the "new" fad is. Then the whole point of those forms of entertainment will have lost their value altogether.

I'm sorry, but... how is it possible? You say new digitized actors would look shitty. Why? Even old ones were good for that time, they were just perfect, as we know, MK1 was created only by 5 persons! Sorry again, I just can't believe that Boon with all his NRS studio, with WB and hundreds talented freelancers (just look MK9 credits) could NOT make them look perfect for tomorrow. Anyway... whatever comes out, I'm sure, it would look much better than these plastic-like cartoony dolls we see in MKDA-MKA. OK, MK9 models are much better, but still not absolutely alive-looking.
Look at Kitana's or Sindel's hair. Do you believe it's real hair?..
I work with 3D graphics and I know the following: to create a near-photorealistic model is not so hard for the real 3D master (i'm sure they have real masters!). But rendering it in real-time needs something much more powerful than PS3. Maybe, in future, with PS4 or PS5 this will be possible, but for today it is just IMPOSSIBLE to make 3D models in games absolutely life-like. That's why actors are better, anyway.
 
I am so tired of seeing "HD" remakes. All of your favorite movies and games will be changed to HD, then 3D, then whatever the "new" fad is. Then the whole point of those forms of entertainment will have lost their value altogether.

What "whole point" of entertainment are you referring to? When it comes to games, then it's true that a remake could never be exactly the same as the original. It is literally remade because the original assets are low quality. When it comes to movies though, that's simply not true, because movies are just restored to a higher quality version. 35mm can reach a resolution well past HD, so they're not being pushed to a format where they don't belong in, but to a format that's closer to their original presentation.

A game that's authentically remade in HD can be like a restored movie; it just depends on how much attention is given to matching the original assets as closely as possible. That takes time and money and so it ultimately depends on the budget of the project.
As for 3D conversion, IMO the only 3D movies that should be released are the ones that were actually shot in 3D. Remade games in 3D, however, I don't have a problem with. There's no conversion going on, it's natively developed for 3D.

The way I see it, all remakes are fine, as long as the original versions remain available. If they do then there's no reason to complain, if you prefer the original then you can always turn to it instead.
 
I'm sorry, but... how is it possible? You say new digitized actors would look shitty. Why? Even old ones were good for that time, they were just perfect, as we know, MK1 was created only by 5 persons! Sorry again, I just can't believe that Boon with all his NRS studio, with WB and hundreds talented freelancers (just look MK9 credits) could NOT make them look perfect for tomorrow. Anyway... whatever comes out, I'm sure, it would look much better than these plastic-like cartoony dolls we see in MKDA-MKA. OK, MK9 models are much better, but still not absolutely alive-looking.
Look at Kitana's or Sindel's hair. Do you believe it's real hair?..
I work with 3D graphics and I know the following: to create a near-photorealistic model is not so hard for the real 3D master (i'm sure they have real masters!). But rendering it in real-time needs something much more powerful than PS3. Maybe, in future, with PS4 or PS5 this will be possible, but for today it is just IMPOSSIBLE to make 3D models in games absolutely life-like. That's why actors are better, anyway.

It seems you have missed my point entirely. I never said it wasn't possible, of course it is.
Ok, let's just take MK1 for example.
You saw the video on the first page, and you think that looks good?
I can't see it being anything but shit.
Because Mortal Kombat 1 DOESN'T need a "new, HD" look.
It's an old game.
It should be left. alone.
It's just like when someone remakes a movie and updates it's features to fit the era.
The Early MK's should not be f*cked with.
But this is all my opinion, no offense.
 
What "whole point" of entertainment are you referring to? When it comes to games, then it's true that a remake could never be exactly the same as the original. It is literally remade because the original assets are low quality. When it comes to movies though, that's simply not true, because movies are just restored to a higher quality version. 35mm can reach a resolution well past HD, so they're not being pushed to a format where they don't belong in, but to a format that's closer to their original presentation.

A game that's authentically remade in HD can be like a restored movie; it just depends on how much attention is given to matching the original assets as closely as possible. That takes time and money and so it ultimately depends on the budget of the project.
As for 3D conversion, IMO the only 3D movies that should be released are the ones that were actually shot in 3D. Remade games in 3D, however, I don't have a problem with. There's no conversion going on, it's natively developed for 3D.

The way I see it, all remakes are fine, as long as the original versions remain available. If they do then there's no reason to complain, if you prefer the original then you can always turn to it instead.

You have your opinion and and I have mine.
 
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