Resident Evil Graphics

  • Resident Evil Playstation

    Shinji Mikami was hired by Capcom to create an RPG for Sega's new system, the 32-bit playstion. He wanted a real horror game, that was more cinematic and scary than action based. His biggest influence was a French game called "Alone in the Dark". He liked the idea of pre-rendered backgrounds with 3-D characters- which was a new perk of Playstation's blooming technology. The playstation had 2 MB of RAM, 1 MB of VRAM, with a GPU that processed the 3-D graphics seperate from the CPU. Revolution
  • Resident Evil 2

    Still working with the 32-bit playstation, the sequel proved to be the biggest hit in the Resident Evil franchise. The graphics team payed more attention to the prerendered environments, making them more interactive, with more attention to subtle details to achieve eerie realism. The GPU took care of the 3-D characters, and actors were brought in for the animators to study and emulate. The cut scenes were 3-D motion designs that pushed the technology of the playstation to it's potential.
  • Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

    This was released for Windows PC, Playstation, and Dreamcast. There was more attention to 3-D modeling of the characters, yet less to the background. It had lower reviews than the second installment because the story lacked, the cut scenes were lower quality. When re-made for the Dreamcast and Gamecube, they went back and enhanced the graphics to be much more defined
  • Code: Veronica

    Initially released for Sega Dreamcast, this is the first of the series to use 3-D backgrounds. Before the player walked by 2-D pre rendered backgrounds, but with the upgrade in technology, they were allowed to start experimenting with a more realistic, interactive environment.
  • Resident Evil 4

    It was designed and released for the PS2, utilizing the platforms graphics card, and high speed. They spent more time on development of this game than any other in the series and paid a great deal to the 3-D design of characters and backgrounds. They used motion capture with real actors to boost the reality factor. The came out looking very good and was nominated 2005's game of the year.
  • Resident Evil 5

    Released for the x-box 360 and PS3, the game payed more attention to simulating reality. They took ideas from cinema to capture higher resolution textures with lighting and a sense of environment. The cut scenes had never been better, and gamer critics felt the graphics were a work of art, not so much for the story though.
  • Resident Evil 6

    Not yet released, this is set to be the best of the bunch. Capcom hired over 600 people to work on this game, which is their biggest crew to date. It sets itself in 2013, where the world faces threats of Bio-terrorism.. wierd. I watched a cut scene and it's hard to define real cinema from video games because the graphics are so spot on.