After about a week of tinkering with it i have to say it has its positives and it has its negatives.
Positives,
1. From a graphical standpoint a higher resolution is always better. i find that stages with color loss shine in this hack, it makes it harder to see any color loss.
2. As well you can use standard Hires screens. Yes they will be smaller because of the higher resolution, but , they look a lot sharper and it allows you a lot more room to be creative. Look at it as a way to add on to existing stages, or make newer stages in a higher resolution.
3. Allows for future expansion for rippers. Newer games such as Basura X , Kof XiII , Blue Blaze and GG all run HD sprites. Now when they are ripped there is less reason to downgrade them to fit into the current system.
Negatives
1. Even though this runs at a higher resolution it is still the same engine, limited by the same problems it always has. We are still for the most part limited to 8 bit indexed images at 256 colors. (I have managed to get better results tinkering with 16 bit indexed pngs. )
2. Plenty of users who look for source material tend to find them on the internet. ALL of these (unless it is a direct download) are at 72dpi. Now any designer will tell you 72dpi is not good for print, so source material need to be between 150-300dpi. this also helps greatly when doing higher resolution material. Every one has blown up an image from the web and has seen the pixelation. But sadly this just narrows the pool of available resources. (that is unless you create your own) 72dpi can look good with some processing but for the most part looks bad.
3. Low res stages are all but obsolete here, it is not that they don't work but they are so small they are unplayable.
Some people say that this is a resource hog. Well i did some benchmarks.
My current machine for testing :Athlon AMD 64 bit proces. 2.29 Ghz with 2gig of ram and a radeon 9600 ati card. both running the King of streets sp.
CPU:
Winmugen HD: & Winmugen plus both topped my cpu out at 100% in 1280x960 resolution windowed.
Memory usage:
WinmugenHD used on average through 1 round 530MB of memory
WinMugen+ average through 1 round about 545MB of memory
Both averaged about the same, Both run fine with no problems. So the idea that Winmugen HD takes up more resources is wrong, Wm+ actually took slightly more.
I know i am not the authority when it comes to this stuff, but all i have seen is opinions with no fact. I am writing this as an unbiased review of the new hack. Take it as you will.
Cost is also not that much of an issue if you want to upgrade. Here are some links to more than acceptable components. Prices are taken from Pricewatch.com at time of writing.
Memory:
$ 34.33 - ddr pc3200 2gb kit
$ 17.48 - ddr pc3200 1gb
$ 51.25 - ddr2-667 pc2-5300 4gb
Graphic Cards:
$ 33.00 - radeon hd 2400
$ 37.99 - radeon 9800
$ 96.99 - geforce 7900
$ 158.24 - geforce 8800 640mb
Monitors:
LG
$205.99
Incl. Shipping L222WT Black LG L222WT Premium 22in Widescreen LCD w Hardware Acceleration DVI 5000:1 5ms
Conclusion
As i stated before i am not the authority on all of this. That is why i leave it open to you the users to decide what is better for you.
If you can thing of any more positives or negatives let me know ill update this list. But please take an unbiased stance on this. If you got a positive try to leave a negative, and vice verse.
D-Day