The theoretical polygon count of Sony's PlayStation was around 360,000, but in actual games, that had to be heavily discounted to guarantee the frame rate.
Sega had pushed that number straight to one million.
This technological iteration was another show of muscle from Sega to the industry.
"Just talking numbers may not give you all an intuitive sense of it." Hisao Oguchi turned slightly, yielding the visual center of the screen. "Let's watch the real-machine demo."
The title for Virtua Fighter 3 cut in.
Akira Yuki stood in a venue where the shallow water just covered his ankles.
The ripples were no longer a simple scrolling texture, but real-time physical waves generated by the character's movement.
Sunlight pierced through the leaves overhead, casting mottled light and shadow across his gi.
The folds of his clothing, the lines of his muscles, even the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed in his idle state, were all clearly visible.
What shocked the developers on-site even more was the terrain system.
It was no longer a flat ring, but steps that rose and fell, slanted rooftops.
Akira Yuki launched a Bajiquan Tieshankao, sending his opponent flying viciously into a stone pillar in the background and smashing it apart.
Chunks of stone sprayed everywhere, each piece of rubble running its own independent physical collision calculation as it rolled down the slope.
The pen in David's hand stopped in midair.
He thought back to what he had noted down earlier at Capcom's press conference.
The 2D visuals of the CPS-3 board were indeed stunning, but before the violent level of 3D visual expressiveness shown by the Model 3, they seemed a little thin.
"Yu Suzuki really is an out-and-out madman," Paul muttered beside him.
The demo ended.
Applause from below the stage rang