Someone I know from another forum has acquired SGL OS 3.2, with all the development tools. 3.2 was the final Saturn dev kit ever made. The following are all his words. I am posting this because a couple of you might find it interesting,
Did you know that SGL OS 3.0 supported real-time bump mapping and anti-aliasing effects? These were previosuly thought impossible on the Saturn (and most other hardware of the time, for that matter) so why would Sega implement such features if developers were not going to be using them? The desert stage from Fighters Megamix was exactly how it would have looked in Saturn VF3, exect that a bump-mapping effect was applied to the floor surface to give it the same undulation as seen in the arcade version of the game.
Also, SGL 3.2 could produce in excess of 1,000,000 polygons per second - this is almost double the Saturn's normal geometry maximum and around the same level as the Model 3 arcade board! The technique known as AVR processing was definitely built into this software, but since I don't have a Saturn development system then I can't investigate this any further for now. The later builds of SGL (anything about 2.1, to be precise) could handle curved polygons in real-time game environments - this was being used as the base for STi's "Sphere Renderer" engine which would have powered Sonic X-Treme and the Sonic 3D Pool special stage collection.
A document included with SGL OS 3.2 compares the potential performance of the Saturn to Model 3, and guess which system comes out on top? The video footage of Saturn Virtua Fighter 3 and Shenmue Saturn Version is definitely real, and it's now even more of a shame that these games were not released. Besides, the PSX conversion of Tekken 3 was anything but perfect while Saturn VF3 would have not only matched but perhaps even exceeded the arcade game on which it was based - if released in 1998 (as planned) then this title would have kept the console going for at least a year on its technical achievements alone!!
---
Anyway, I had never even used a Saturn programming tool until SGL OS 3.2 and it's no surprise that many developers were complaining about how Assembler or C++ were so difficult to use - Sega's own programs are incredibly easy in comparison (it's just a shame that very few people ever got to work with them)!
Along with Sonic X-Treme and Saturn Virtua Fighter 3, there are also files relating to other games. I have even managed to find models of the Sega Rally cars, the Feisar vehicle from WipeOut 2097 and even Solo Wing Dragon as seen in Panzer Dragoon Saga! These titles were obviously considered good enough by Sega to have been included as samples of the Saturn's potention on their official development software discs.
--
I remember an interview with Rob Harris of STi (printed in SSM #9) in which he said that Sonic X-Treme was not being developed using SGL, but this was during the game's earlier stages when it was still being produced with the BUG! engine. There was a screenshot of the very same area that is in the SGL OS 3.2 sampler (a picture of Sonic fighting against Fang if I recall correctly), so if I can find a copy of this picture and compare the Sonic model (this was 3D polygons for the boss stages and 2D sprites for the rest of the game) to what I have then I can prove that STi were indeed making their final Sphere Renderer version of Sonic X-Treme with SGL and not something else as thought before!
The model of Akira I have found has a full VF3 command list which I checked against Fighters Megamix, and the background files are definitely not the same as the basic wireframe grid that was used on the Aoi tech demo shown on UK television all those years ago - this is either from the completed game (first version) or an incomplete test copy.
Si alguien no entiende algo.que lo pregunte y se dice.... suena bastante nuclear