This is kind of in response to @
Cobalsh
too. Similar ideas.
It's a visual thing. An essential part of the Chorus Kids' character is that they are part of a
Glee Club; they're in a group and they must stay in sync and mimic each other. Having multiple of them is keeping them true to character, and lends itself well to keeping rhythm, as I mentioned before.
Think 3 Olimar sized Chorus Kids, spanning the length of Bowser, programmed as one character.
It's more beneficial for 3DS development.
@
Phaazoid and @
Hong
may be able to help me talk from a game development standpoint.
It will vary so drastically on how this will be handled.
What we know about the beta build of Smash 4 is that the 3DS version is losing frames all the time under a wide range of circumstances. We can't know the specifics for why frame loss is occurring without knowing about everything that is going on under the hood, but that doesn't matter. All that matters is frames are being lost, and we need to look at the possible reasons why. Skip to the last paragraph if you want to know what this means for the Chorus Men.
There have been some common techniques used to handle graphical load, and not-so-common methods like what they did with Assist Trophies and Pokemon. All in all, a veteran team of game designers won't have a problem handling graphical load. They wouldn't have stages like Reset Bomb Forest if they didn't know a mix of very basic and very advanced optimization techniques. It doesn't take an expert to already see what they have done to reduce graphical load, so I won't go over that in detail.
Thus, CPU is of course what is in question. On all accounts, the 3DS could display even a graphically superior version of Melee, but it's not simple. A lot of people instantly jump the gun and say the 3DS is more powerful than the Gamecube, and in a lot of ways, this is true. That said, it is largely graphical tools, like how it manages shaders. As far as CPU is concerned, it going to run into issues. This is evident when there are a lot of calculations to make as a result of mostly physics, but as well as entity generation, anything that involves a lot of joints, and of course even memory access, for all that running on a chip can do. Of course physics is at the core of Smash Bros more than any other fighter, and there is only so much load you can reduce when you NEED physics to play the game.
Luma does not have a lot of strain on the system for a number of reasons. It scarcely has any joints, and a lot of the movements rely on basic distortions which will pass off just fine due to its simplistic shape. The environmental pushbox for the entity is very generous and makes fewer, less intensive calculations. Basically, if it looks floaty, it will never be a problem for the end-user. What is more is the facial expressions are essentially cycled images, or so it seems. Pikmin as well, while they do have physics calculations, are still relatively basic compared to most entities, and they've gone with as little movement as they could feasibly have to deal with.
So long story short, there is a technical strain on the 3DS version. That said they could still have Chorus Men operate in a number of ways. If all three exist at all times, it is possible that the animation parallax will be irrelevant with the actual graphical object. That is to say, if there are three, all forms of collision will be handled by just one. They can still fully program all the hitboxes and hurtboxes just like any character, programming them where appropriate for their actions. They can all stand together, stand on each other's shoulders, swing each other around and use animations that simulate realistic feel between the characters, when their actual physics are only reliant on one. In that sense, imagine if Ray Man was a character. Even if his body parts seemingly float around, his animations and the way the game handles it would treat him as one.
Those two don't know jack squat about game development.
Get @
Thirdkoopa
instead.
I'm so glad everyone on the Internet is an expert in game design.
But please. After you. Here, take my seat. I'm hanging up my hat and going on vacation!
