Скачать или смотреть Hydro Thunder - Nile Adventure (PC vs Dolphin emulator)

A split-screen Hydro Thunder comparison on the Nile Adventure track, comparing the Eurocom PC version to the Nintendo Gamecube version on Midway Arcade Treasures 3 being emulated using Dolphin Emulator. The version on the Gamecube is in itself a port of the Dreamcast version.

The reason I decided to chuck this quick comparison together is because I was quite surprised to realise how different visually the 2 games are on this stage. The PC version is so dark compared to the GameCube Dreamcast port. It's so dark it actually made navigating some of the tunnels quite tricky. I'm not sure if I prefer it like that or not. On the one hand it definitely does make the stage more foreboding, but on the other it feels like you're missing out on some of the details of it. I don't know if the PC version being so dark is something they did intentionally or not...

Also, at around the 01:53 mark, you can see the issue I'd mentioned in a previous upload of the this track, about the shortcut that opens up there when you jump over the sarcophagus to get the red boost. Jumping the sarcophagus to get the boost makes some doors open at the end of this tunnel to get to a separate secret shortcut tunnel. Despite the shortcut cutting off a part of the track, resulting in an overall quicker lap time, it seems to cock-up the way the game calculates the AI ships position in relation to you when you come out of it. This means I always end up coming out of the shortcut in a lower position than if I'd just stayed on the track normally. In the GC version I enter the shortcut in 4th place and come out of it in 6th! In the PC version I'm also in 4th at this point, but I stay on the track normally and, despite it being a longer way around, I'm able to catch up and overtake the lead AI boats and finish the game in 1st. In the version where I take the shortcut I actually got a faster time overall but still only came third.

I think this is down to a peculiarity of the game's old school rubber-band AI. If you stay on the track and keep the CPU boats in sight you can eventually catch them up, as long as you're constantly boosting. But if you take the shortcut, they disappear off screen and the game seems to re-calculate their position incorrectly and puts them in front of you when you come out of it, even though, by the very nature of it being a shortcut, you should have overtaken them. Because of the rubber banding AI, getting knocked back to 6th place this late in the stage seems to make it impossible to catch up with the lead boat. In fact, if you're not in at least 5th or 4th by the end of the first jump shortcut (around the 01:16 mark), you may as well just give up any hope of coming 1st on this stage. It's a peculiar annoyance, but I can forgive the game for it, in view of it's age and its general awesomeness in all other respects.


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