Arc System Works likes to facilitate conversation, and their latest effort shows Toshimichi Mori answering fan-submitted queries. The selected Twitter questions cover a variety of topics, with many asking about possible future projects that the company might tackle.
There’s a lot of questions about turning various anime franchises into fighting games, but he’s also asked about BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, the most recent fighting game release from the company. For now, there are no plans for a “second wave” of DLC for the game. Mori would like to solidify plans to introduce more RWBY characters (he likes Adam, while many staff members like Penny), but he says more fan support is needed. He does recognize that Central Fiction is its own, mainline game and that the support for it might not be over yet.
Make sure to turn on the Closed Captions function on YouTube for the following clips.
The second part drives at some other games Arc System Works has worked on. After working on Dragon Ball FighterZ, Mori isn’t sure yet what the next anime game could be. Someone specifically asks about turning Disgaea into a fighting game, and Mori gives a mysterious “I see, cool”.
When asked about the future BlazBlue: Central Fiction‘s Kokonoe and Sector 7 (the organization she’s part of), he points to Dark War, a mobile game that’s currently only in Japan, but Mori would “love it” if it was released internationally. Finally, when asked about the possibility of Persona 5 Arena, Mori says that he can’t say anything, and that the fans should ask Atlus instead.
SNK is currently hard at work at their new fighter SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. Set to arrive this September, the game features a unique new control scheme meant to make it easier for new players to pick up.
SNK, with the help of Japanese gaming news outlet Goziline, has released new footage of the tag team fighter. The video below features over 20 minutes of SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy gameplay with the Goziline staff and former SKE48 idol Sawako Hata. Here, they go over the game’s cast and features of the game as well as explaining a bit about how it plays, before getting into actual matches.
SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy hits PlayStation 4 and Switch on September 6 in Japan, and September 7 in North America and Europe.
With the release of character trailers for the next pair of DLC characters in Dragon Ball FighterZ, Base (or Black Hair) Goku and Vegeta, YouTuber IKevinX is back once again to document all of the anime and manga references that are present in each.
Both characters, Base (or Black Hair) Goku and Vegeta, harken back to the early days of Dragon Ball Z, before either of these mighty warriors obtained the powers of a Super Saiyan. Arc System Works has extensively drawn on many of the pair’s earlier fights during the Saiyan and Captain Ginyu Sagas, with Base Goku having several normal attacks that appear to be unique and based off of his early battles with Vegeta, the Ginyu Force and Frieza, in addition to debuting the Kaioken and Spirit Bomb.
Meanwhile, Base Vegeta maintains the dark brutality that characterized the early sadistic days of the Saiyan Prince, utilized the techniques he employed to murder Guldo, Burter, Jeice, Cui, and of course, Nappa. He looks to have Dirty Fireworks, his trademark Galick Gun, and the Destructo Disk, but unfortunately no Great Ape transformation. You can see the video, with all of it’s nostalgia-filled goodness, below.
Both of these characters will be available in mid-August along with the next balance patch. You can see our previous coverage of IKevinX’s work below.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam PC, with a Nintendo Switch version releasing on Thursday, September 27th in Japan, and Friday, September 28th in North America and Europe.
“The biggest barrier you could ever put on yourself is thinking there is a ‘right way’ to play.”
Few people had as a meteoric of a rise in the FGC at such an early age as Chris “CJ Truth” Jayson did when he made top 32 at Evo 2011 in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. The protege of Jebailey came out of nowhere and took out top players with his hyper aggressive Fei Long and has have a reputation of being a fearsome opponent ever since.
Seven years later, CJ Truth still has the same boundless energy that seemed to possess him before. But while his passion for fighting games (and Fei Long) is still as palpable and entertaining as ever, he’s gained some concrete insight from his years of tournament play that balance out BornFree‘s most recent interview.
“Personally, for me, she’s top 3… She’s very, very cheap. “
These bold words about Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition‘s Menat come from a man that’s seen some cheap characters in his time: the legend himself, Justin Wong. There are few better sources to find out about the nuanced cheap stuff around this orb-wielding character than the man himself, and that’s why he’s a guest on today’s episode of “The Lab”:
“She doesn’t really get crush countered that often,” Justin explains as he demonstrates the complete lack of hurtboxes on her st.HP to “The Lab” hosts UM|Tyrant and Method|Packz. Check out the video above for 30+ minutes of lessons from the Street Fighter prodigy — and if there’s other characters you have difficultly with, Frame Advantage has probably covered them, too!
UYU|Yuyu is one of the most recognizable Ling Xiaoyu players in the world right now in Tekken 7. The demand and expectation of being a high-level player might seem like a dream on the surface, but as she reveals in her latest interview with UYU, it has its own drawbacks and difficulties.
Drawing from her experiences at Wednesday Night Fights and Combo Breaker, Yuyu explains the different energy between the large American majors and the arcade experience she grew up in.
This weekend sees the next qualifying event in the RED BULL CONQUEST circuit descend upon Denver, Colorado on Saturday, July 28. Willful warriors out to prove themselves will face off in Street Fighter V, Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, and Tekken 7 to earn qualifying spots for the National Finals in Washington, D.C. in November. From the press release:
Red Bull Conquest’s journey to find America’s best fighting game competitors continues, as it makes its next stop in Denver this Saturday, July 28. In this brand new national fighting game tournament, contenders will battle it out in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, TEKKEN 7 and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 to see who are Denver’s top regional fighters.
On the stream, viewers will catch Colorado’s top fighting game athletes, including up-and-upcoming TEKKEN 7 player Mia “PitVyper” Uwanawich. At only 16 years old, PitVyper is one of the youngest and best performing female TEKKEN athletes, and is getting noticed for her stellar performance at such a young age. In addition, leading Street Fighter V players John “UrbanFlow” Villegas, the 2nd place winner of the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour Online Tournament, and his close challenger Ryan “Nguuhao” Ward will be battling it out, fighting for the crown.
FGC expert and personality Vicious will be hosting the event, sharing insider secrets, competitor strategies, surprising upsets, and all the way through the electrifying final matches of the tournament where 3 competitors will be left standing, ready to rep Denver at the Red Bull Conquest National Finals in Washington, D.C. in November.
Want to watch the fights? Streaming information is as follows:
Denver Red Bull Conquest Qualifier: Saturday, July 28
French computer scientist and fighting game wizard WydD explains Street Fighter V’s cyclical latency on the PlayStation 4, while netcode sleuth DigitalHalftones returns with additional videos to further explain the game’s rollback issues.
Editor’s note: Yesterday we peeked inside the Pandora’s Box that is input latency in Street Fighter V, both online and offline. But it seems that was only the beginning of this tricky subject; here’s a follow-up to provide a closer look at some of the lag issues that SFV players — and competitors — are dealing with while we play!
Fighting game player and tech detective DigitalHalftones recently uploaded a YouTube video dissecting Street Fighter V’s rollback netcode, and his findings revealed a shocking discovery: to make up for one-sided rollback, the game’s netcode would introduce lag to another player should their opponent experience even a slight drop in connection. By connecting a PlayStation 4 console and a PC to one network and manually lowering the framerate, DigitalHalftones was able to prove that the opposing connection would lag in turn. This meant that whatever latency was recorded at the end of a round would be introduced in the following round: in other words, SFV outright creates lag to even out the connection between two players. (Original video follows below.)
Fair’s fair in online play.
DigitalHalftones returned with a second, two-minute video (above) in response to comments about crossplay being a potential factor for the lag he recorded. As in the first video, he used the same setup of a PS4 and PC wired to a single internet connection. He began his subsequent experiment by lowering the framerate from 60 fps to 10 fps on his PC, observing that the PC character was skipping on the PS4 side. He then pushed the framerate back up to 60 fps, and while the PC side smoothed out, the PS4 continued to lag, with PC Cammy still skipping across the screen. However, upon the start of the next round, both sides were completely smooth.
DigitalHalftones explained that this event was due to frames dropped at the start of the round, not his connection’s latency between the two systems. “What’s happening is, at the start of the round, when it says ‘Fight,’ the game is looking at the latency, but it’s also looking at the framerate,” he states over the video. “What happens is, when the PS4 lags behind by a couple of frames at the start of the round, the netcode is thinking that’s actual lag. So, say the game is lagging 1 frame, 2 frames, 3 frames? They’re reading that as milliseconds at a time.” With a single frame being equal to 16.6 milliseconds, three frames would be equal to 49.98 ms of artificial lag, causing the opponent’s side to lag just as much in an effort to even out the connection.
“It’s not crossplay that’s the issue,” DigitalHalftones stated. “It’s the system not being able to run or maintain 60 fps, and the netcode. It’s because of the variable input time for the framerate on the PS4.” As is commonly known, PS4s tend to lag when loading — which explains why rounds get worse for players over time when fighting opponents on the console. Through this additional experiment, DigitalHalftones was able to prove that a variable framerate during the start of a round will incite additional rollback that isn’t part of the game.
The ebb and flow of input latency.
The term “variable” was also recently uttered by fighting game scientist WydD, who used it to describe his findings of Street Fighter V’s input delay on the PlayStation 4. So far, WydD has tested the game on PC, the PS4 Pro, and the PS4 Slim, where he discovered the game’s variable input latency. He now breaks down his findings in layman’s terms, explaining the cyclical nature of the delay and how it affects gameplay.
“Basically, the game has some kind of internal timer inside its engine,” he stated. “When you plot the amount of lag frames over time during my measures, you get this weird cycle.” The cycle in question looks like an active heart monitor, with lag cycling from 4 frames up to 7 frames, then back down to 4 frames once more. “Basically, when you play the game on a PS4 offline — like in a tournament setup — your input lag is around 4 frames, then goes to 5 frames after a while, then 6 frames, and finally 7 frames… to finally drop to 4 frames again.”
While the cycle is relatively constant, WydD observed that the exact time of the switches varies from session to session, resulting in literally variable input delay. “The timing of the steps varies between sessions, but the overall shape is the same, and the length of the cycle is always around a minute,” he explained. While he stated that he isn’t one hundred percent confident of his findings, he hasn’t observed this cycle on PC, citing colleagues Noodalls and DisplayLag as others who have found similar results.
The terror of the input lag cycle.
This variable input delay could definitely have negative effects on players as they duke it out on screen, particularly in regards to hit confirms and reaction timing. “It doesn’t interfere a lot in combos due to the input leniency of SFV,” WydD stated. “The game engine tolerates 5 frames of timing for a 1 frame link. If you’re lucky, you are at the beginning of the cycle and you are generally 3 frames faster in terms of reaction.”
While SFV’s leniency might help give players a fighting chance in this regard, instances can occur that tilt the scale towards saltiness. “There can be other weird instances, like someone presses a light punch and the opponent presses medium/heavy punch one frame after, and the medium punch actually hits anyway because you had a 7 frame delay on the light punch,” he said. “That’s never been seen in experiment, but technically, this could happen.”
WydD also created a series of images that visually represent his findings to better describe this phenomenon. Using Ibuki’s sprite from 3rd Strike, WydD pinpointed the exact frame in which delay begins. Once the command was executed, the screen lost color, and stayed gray until Ibuki’s attack animation was completed. This graphic utilizes his methodology as explained in his YouTube video, but he has since stated that he has improved this setup.
Both WydD’s and DigitalHalftone’s findings indicate that Street Fighter V still has a plethora of issues, at least on the PlayStation 4 platform. With frame drops resulting in actual netcode latency — and worse, the variable, cyclical input delay — the console version of the game leaves much to be desired. As seen in Brandon Chia’s loss in the SEA CPT Online 2, the console version’s build (which is also the CPT tournament standard) can definitely affect players’ performance, potentially leading to whiffed normals and botched reaction times — which, at worst, can cost a competitor a win during an important tournament.
A look at Street Fighter V‘s latency woes — online and off.
Since the release of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, many users have experienced a noticeable worsening of online connection quality. To discover the source of this sudden lag spike, reddit user SunTzu-81 put on his scientist’s gear and got to work experimenting with SFV’s notoriously poor netcode. His findings revealed an interesting development in the game’s netplay: when lag was introduced on one setup, the other created input delay to keep up with the lagging system.
However, his weren’t the only findings to uncover some of SFV’s secrets: French fighting game wizard WydD also broke down the offline input lag of multiple fighting games, discovering that SFV itself had input latency close to that of Dragon Ball FighterZ and the original Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-.
“All warfare is based on deception.”
SunTzu-81, known by his YouTube handle as DigitalHalftones, uploaded a video on July 1st that broke down SFV’s long-bemoaned netcode. To do this, he set up two systems in his home across the same network, one on PC and the other on PlayStation 4. By manipulating the game’s latency and framerate, he was able to discover the source of latency through SFV’s one-sided rollback. (To clarify, “rollback” netcode is a technique that doesn’t rely on input from another user before a game begins a subsequent frame; rather, rollback netcode predicts a player’s inputs, simulating the next frame without delaying the user’s experience. This type of netcode is common in modern fighting games, and good examples of it can be found in Skullgirls 2nd Encore and the PS3 version of Ultra Street Fighter IV.)
Before introducing artificial latency on one side, SunTzu compared the movement of the characters (here, the much-dreaded Cammy) across the network. Each side appeared to be moving smoothly, with no latency between the two platforms. However, after forcing the PC side to drop below sixty frames, the PC Cammy began to show delay on the PS4, displaying some of the signature “jitters” of latency. After moving around a bit, the PS4 likewise experienced a bit of skipping on its end, proving that there is a perceivable effect for the other player when one experiences a drop in framerate.
In the second round, SunTzu adjusted the latency so that the PC side received packets 150ms late from the PS4. Thus, the PC experienced rollback, causing the opposing character to delay and stutter across the screen. However, once the round ended and the next began (with the forced latency still initiated), the PS4 began to lag locally. Since turning on the artificial lag, the PC had dropped seven frames slower, and was lagging less harshly than its PS4 counterpart.
Illegitimate latency.
Based on his findings, SunTzu surmised that SFV takes the recorded latency at the end of a round and creates input delay based on that data, likely to sync players together in order to avoid total one-sided rollback. His PC was delayed seven frames in order to compensate for the PS4’s lag over the network, which caused the PS4 to skip frames in turn. “They must be adding some sort of artificial lag or input delay on the PS4 side in order to be doing this,” he stated over the video. “Whatever the connection is at the end of the round will determine how laggy it is for both players.”
SunTzu likewise noted that, since the lag was artificial, the PS4 continued to receive the PC player’s movements in real time. “I’m assuming that this still gives the PS4 or laggy player the advantage while visually ruining both games,” he wrote. “My guess is that they tried to compensate for the rift in in between rounds after seeing the GPO panel, and I bet they made this change with the AE release, hence the increased lag problems reported.”
While SunTzu’s findings took place over cross-platform netplay, he assures viewers that the platform didn’t make a difference. “This is video is not showing that PS4 is worse or better than PC, or that cross-play matters,” he explains in the video’s description. “It’s showing that frame drops on one side do not affect the other’s game at all. Only the latency does. In the remaining part of the video, I applied 150ms of lag to the PC from the PS4, and the result was [that] the game artificially delayed the PC game by 7 frames at the start of the next round. This artificial delay is applied by the netcode itself, and is determined by your connection to your opponent only at the start of the round.”
Investigating offline input delay.
SunTzu wasn’t the only FGC scientist to discover some of SFV’s hidden innards. While unrelated to netplay, French fighting game player and computer scientist WydD decided to take matters into his own hands to truly break down the game’s input latency, utilizing a unique input lag setup to record his observations. “The idea behind this was to replicate results I’ve seen on Twitter, coming from Noodalls,” he explained over the r/StreetFighter podcast. “He had trouble measuring SFV. He said basically, when he tries to make a measure, everything is blocked, and he doesn’t know why. I said, ‘I can’t do the measure with his method, but I have some spare parts — let me try to figure out how we can measure input lag.’”
WydD used an original capturing channel to produce his results. At its beginning, he used a PS3360+ PCB, to which he bound Cammy’s st.LK and st.MP (jeez, we can’t get away from that girl, can we?) in synchronization to a FC4 d-pad. This setup was connected to his PC via USB, which directly connected to the motherboard. An HDMI fed the information from the setup into a video component converter, which converted the HDMI inputs into a component — here as three separate plugs. These plugs operated three channels, labeled Y, Pr, and Pb. The Pr and Pb channels corrected a black and white signal, fed into the Y channel, to display colors. In essence, he bound a small circuit to the st.MP button that aimed to cut the signal to the Pr and Pb channels when pressed.
The plugs then went into a capture card, which was plugged into another PC on which SFV was being played. “If you cut the signal, you will have no colors on the screen,” WydD explained. “Because it’s analog, the image will turn gray right when you press the button.” While no discoloration occured as he pressed st.LK, stark discoloration occurred during st.MP., and would continue if he kept pressing the st.MP input. After recording his results, WydD would play back the footage frame by frame, using a ruler (reading each millisecond of a frame) attached to the side of the monitor to measure just when the latency occured by seeing where the color still remained on the screen.
The meaning behind the measurements.
By measuring exactly when he pressed an input between the amount of frames it took for the input to show on the screen, WydD was able to determine just how great the game’s input latency was based off Cammy’s st.MP. “Depending on when you press the button, you will have different results,” he explained. “And that is what I have recorded here.” Through recording the average latency of his button presses, he discerned that SFV has around 3.42 frames, or 57.1ms, of native (local) input lag. This is on par with Dragon Ball FighterZ’s latency, which measured at an average of 3.43 frames, or 57.1ms. Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- weighed in at 3.14 frames/52.3ms, while Tekken 7 had an average of 4.73 frames, or 78.9ms of lag.
While the PC’s latency wasn’t overt, the PS4’s lag for SFV sat on his “C” tier and was dubbed unstable. SFV weighed in at an average of 6 ms of latency, with an estimated 43% stability through his findings.
This data comes in the wake of an r/StreetFighter poll, asking the community which of SFV’s issues they feel should be fixed. According to the subreddit’s moderator Joe Munday, SFV’s netcode has been the number one choice since July of 2016. With SunTzu’s findings concerning the game’s artificial latency in online play, fans are certainly hoping for an adjustment in answer to AE’s “quick fix”. And as another DLC character will no doubt be revealed in the next two weeks, we can remain hopeful that Street Fighter V’s netcode may also receive some much-needed repair in the future.
In light of Ultra Street Fighter IV‘s inclusion in digital pre-orders of the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, I’ve decided to dedicate some time to examining the most slept-on online-capable Street Fighter title: Street Fighter IV: Omega Mode. Packaged as a free alternate version within the edition select of USFIV, Omega uses leftover game files, recycled taunts, and repurposed animations to completely change each character’s toolset; it’s essentially a completely new and unique Street Fighter title built within SFIV’s engine, with an entirely different balance philosophy than Ultra.
Omega was not popular at release due to some easy infinite combos — not to mention players’ interest in Ultra as a more serious, competitive game. I personally think Omega went woefully unexplored for being an extremely interesting venture, and I’ve started a series where I document each character’s Omega changes, and then show off some basic optimal combos.
This week I’m looking at Rose and Sagat. Rose’s defensive options were overhauled, with a new counter and invincible reversal, but a significantly nerfed backdash. She has a new special move that works something like a single-hit Aegis Reflector also gained the ability to combo Super into Ultra, giving her powerful burst damage. Sagat has a new special move based on his Tiger Raid from the Street Fighter Alpha series, and his combo routes have almost totally changed due to significant buffs to his normals, including a new target combo. It seems more emphasis has been placed on his elbow and knee-based normals, giving him a bit more of a Muay Thai flair. Both characters feel very similar in spirit to their Ultra versions, though they offer new bells and whistles through their gameplay.
