Major Leaps In PS3 Visuals For Next 4 Years

[Ascended_Saiyan]

An Interview with Insomniac Games Chief Creative Officer

"The amount of action we're able to put on the screen at 60 frames per second really dwarfs what we were able to do a year ago at 30 frames per second," said Hastings. "What's most exciting is the way things are headed right now I think we'll see just as big a leap from our second generation engine to our third as we did from the first to second."

Looking ahead, he was equally as optimistic: "We're already seeing a big leap in what people are able to do with the PS3 now compared to a year ago, and we're going to see just as big a leap between now and the end of 2008," said the Insomniac Games Chief Creative Officer. "I think we're going to continue seeing major leaps each year in what people are able to do with the machine for at least three or four more years."

"The tech and gameplay teams have moved tons of things over to the SPUs that used to run on the PPU," said Hastings on the improvements made to Insomniac's game engine. "Collision and physics are entirely running on SPUs now, which allows us to put much more on the screen at once than we were able to with Resistance. Moving more and more code to the SPUs is an ongoing process and I think we'll continue to see major benefits from this for several more years."

One more leap would be GREAT! But, 3 to 4 more leaps would be ....

[DealsR4theDevil]

Sounds promising, it's about time those blu-ray games produced better picture than 360's dvds.

[stockstar1138]

resistance 2 will look as good as Kilzone.

[CptGreedle]

I look forward to these advances.
I hope they someday figure out how to add 3D to this

[Sonny]

Ps3 games should look 6x better the old junkbox360 & have PCM audio mmmmmmm P-C-M

[FiReBiRd95]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

resistance 2 will look as good as Kilzone.

hopefully it will look better , but killzone 2 looks sick. COD4 looks badass. Games are only gonna look and get better my friend!

[Y3k Bug]

Sounds very promising, can't wait!

[Sonny]

By being Ps3 owners we are in for graphics & visuals that were never thought possible & are truly NEXT GENARATION & they truly will blow our minds in the very near future.

[Blu-Ray Buckeye]

These comments are a breath of fresh air because it's nice to get a little truth and logic in a world of spin and illogical thought.

People spend this much money on a "next-gen" console but then judge them based on "right-now" performance. It's completely stupid. You should just turn away anytime someone tells you:

- 360 is better because of the games out now
- 360 & PS3 have the same graphics and performance
- 9GB DVDs are just as good for the games as 50GB BDs (how?)
- etc.

All of those arguments above are based on short-term constraints of the gaming market:

- many games are ports from lesser consoles
- developers build for the lowest common denominator
- developers don't yet fully understand how to optimize for the PS3's cell processor
- the PS3 is still very new to the market
- consumers are buying current games so developers don't yet need to spend the time & $ required to blow their minds
- etc.

Once the short-term constraints fall by the wayside, the PS3 clearly has more room to grow. Shortsighted people get what they deserve.

[NutsAboutPS3]

It has always taken time for developers to get the best out of a console. PS games were WAY better several years into its life than at the start. Same happened for PS2. Same will happen for PS3.

[Luis_A51]

I hope that helps squash the rumors that the ps3 is "difficult" to program for. Its just DIFFERENT, and once you OPTIMIZE FOR THOSE DIFFERENCES it will become for more powerful than the 360. They arent even close to optimizing for all the SPUs yet. There is plenty of untapped power in there.

And I agree with Sonny, PCM is SO DAMN AWESOME!! That ALONE is worth having games on bluray vs dvd9, but I know bluray discs offer so many more possibilites (ie longer/better looking games)

[Blu-Ray Buckeye]

Originally Posted by NutsAboutPS3

It has always taken time for developers to get the best out of a console. PS games were WAY better several years into its life than at the start. Same happened for PS2. Same will happen for PS3.

Yes, and the point is that the PS3 has a far higher ceiling than the 360.

[WeApOn]

Seriously. Uncharted is using 1/3 or 1/2 of the SPU. AND I GUARENTEE you that is NOT optimized code. They probably threw it together and when they saw they had plenty of Processing Power left, why optimize? In knowing that, they can set their standards a little higher for the next game. Then, once the power is approaching its limit, optimizing code will be extremely important.

Seriously-- just look at what the PS2 is doing on it's last legs. Can you even imagine what the PS3 will do in 2-3 years even?

I've had my worries as well, because just the fact that things are in HD is very demanding for the system. So I was worried that the PS3 might just be a high-def PS2. I'm already proved wrong, and hearing things like "this game is only using 1/3 of the Cell's power" and knowing that no dev could have mastered the PS3 yet-- we're certainly in for some treats.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by FiReBiRd95

hopefully it will look better , but killzone 2 looks sick. COD4 looks badass. Games are only gonna look and get better my friend!

COD4 is not as impressive visually as people make it out to be. keep in mind too the thing only runs at 600p, thats barely over dvd resolution.

[Ascended_Saiyan]

Originally Posted by FiReBiRd95

hopefully it will look better , but killzone 2 looks sick. COD4 looks badass. Games are only gonna look and get better my friend!

Those games should be sharper than COD4 since COD4 is a 600p game.

EDIT: Didn't see your post, stockstar1138. You beat me to it!

[ikbradley]

What is good about this article is that it is coming from a great developer. Not Electronic Arts *****ing about the inherent problems they are having in optimizing SPU and memory because they take all their money and place it in advertising as opposed to relying on word of mouth.

This is great buzz and really the PS3 is starting to get its legs. COD 4 and Assassin's Creed are AAA multiplatform that shows the PS3 can do anything the 360 can. This is with a year of catch up and learning curve. It's only going to get better from here, especially since Sony should be providing a better tool kit very soon. Once the graphics are tweaked, I want the sixaxis to be properly implemented because there is no reason why sports games (such as tennis and golf) have not been using full motion control.

[pulliags]

Just get rid of the jaggies...Been looking at those things since the Atari 2600 days.

[Terjyn]

Originally Posted by Luis_A51

I hope that helps squash the rumors that the ps3 is "difficult" to program for. Its just DIFFERENT, and once you OPTIMIZE FOR THOSE DIFFERENCES it will become for more powerful than the 360. They arent even close to optimizing for all the SPUs yet. There is plenty of untapped power in there.

Different = Difficult when it comes to programming.

The PS3 is more difficult to program for than the 360, that is clear.

Where I have a problem is when a programmer basically says "It's too hard, so we half-assed it". They never use those exact words but that's exactly what they mean.

[WeApOn]

Originally Posted by Terjyn

Where I have a problem is when a programmer basically says "It's too hard, so we half-assed it". They never use those exact words but that's exactly what they mean.

I completely agree. I've heard some really great people(Bethesda dev, HL2 dev) slam the PS3 for being hard to develop for. For people who can put out such great games.... they sure sound like a bunch of babies.

Seriously though, it's like when you have a hard task at work or really tough homework, you just throw it and quit because it's "too hard".

It's annoying and degrading to see people do something like that. Man up.

[Teazle]

Originally Posted by Blu-Ray Buckeye

These comments are a breath of fresh air because it's nice to get a little truth and logic in a world of spin and illogical thought.

People spend this much money on a "next-gen" console but then judge them based on "right-now" performance. It's completely stupid. You should just turn away anytime someone tells you:

- 360 is better because of the games out now
- 360 & PS3 have the same graphics and performance
- 9GB DVDs are just as good for the games as 50GB BDs (how?)
- etc.

All of those arguments above are based on short-term constraints of the gaming market:

- many games are ports from lesser consoles
- developers build for the lowest common denominator
- developers don't yet fully understand how to optimize for the PS3's cell processor
- the PS3 is still very new to the market
- consumers are buying current games so developers don't yet need to spend the time & $ required to blow their minds
- etc.

Once the short-term constraints fall by the wayside, the PS3 clearly has more room to grow. Shortsighted people get what they deserve.

I totally agree. This is related to the shortsighted attitude re: 720p being "good enough" as an HD standard. It may have been good enough in 2005. Similarly, the spec of Xbox 360 didn't plan for the future almost at all. In fact it didn't even plan well for the present since the console was designed poorly wrt heat production and dissipation. Looking back, it wasn't truly next gen, at least not by comparison with the PS3 which most definitely is.