Hi all. Obviously this post is about 1080p. Personally, i'm extremely upset over it. Not in the context over whether or not a particular games uses it, but more over how Sony and Microsoft both sold us bowl full of empty dreams in regards to the capabilities of their consoles. I'll get to the point.
When the PS3 and 360 began development, there were no 1080P televisions in households. The standard HD resolution was 720p, which in itself was underused because dvd's run at 480P so, with exception of those with HD cable/satellite, our HD tvs were not being used the way they were intended. But it was fine, because it was felt that when HD did come out, our tvs would be ready to go. Thus, both companies basically took a snapshot of what was considered an medium to high end PC at the time, and basically set a target performance point at these levels. It is no secret that the graphics chips used in the PS3 and 360 were lifted directly from what ATI and Nvidia had in circulation at the time, except that they were customized for console use.
At this point, Microsoft and Sony both decided they were going to aim for a 720P console, with the capabilities of scaling to 1080i if the tv supported it. But 720p was the sweet spot, as this was the "native" resolution of most HD tvs in existance at the time and was ideal. There was nothing wrong with that. In fact, HD-DVD was designed with this in mind also, which is why it didn't support 1080p at release, as it wasn't necessary..considering 1080i televisions operate at 30 FPS if you consider that each half takes up one frame (60 FPS for progressive) and that movies run at 24 FPS.
The major issue came when blu-ray was announced. Sony decided that they would release a new standard that would run at 1080P. This was a ballsy move, considering that 1080P televisions were not mainstream...but it was a ploy to downplay HD-DVD, which had a max resolution of "merely" 1080i.
Now to the LIE.
With sony pushing blu-ray it was announced that the console would support 1080P, in order to bring Blu-ray into the mainstream on the backs of its buyers. This is why the console was delayed. If they had stayed DVD and stayed the path with Microsoft, they would have been released concurrently, probably with less problems...and the PS3 would have decimated the 360, which during its first year had horrific problems. What saved it was Sony's bad business decisions, which later saved the 360. The 360 is doing well now, and rightfully so, because there is no questions the catalog is strong, and a console is worth the sum of its parts. The PS2 would have died without its games, because it had massive problems at launch also.
The truth is that the 360 and PS3 were designed and optimized for 720P gameplay. They were never supposed to do 1080P. At least the 360 is honest about it, and Microsoft went public with the fact that the 360 scales ALL games up to 1080P (which may I add it does beautifully). Also, with a 1080P performance point, sony gambled on saying that the PS3 was better than PCs because it could do 1920X1080 (1080P) where most computers were running at 1280X1024 or 1600X1200. (Some other pcs run at 1024X768 due to limitations, but notice its still higher than 720P).
Well, today my computer can do 1920X1200 at 60 FPS, and thats not even a super high end PC. Why is this important? Because earlier on with the release of 720P games such as Rainbow Six : Vegas 2 and Uncharted, no one complained because the box was honest about it...they ran at 720P and the game would default at that. No harm no foul.
Well, Grand Theft Auto IV is release. The box claims it can play at native 1080P. Guess what, it doesn't. Its a lie. Rockstar admits its a 720P game. In fact, the only way to run at 1080P is to "force" the console by removing options from its resolution selector. Why would they post of the box that it supports this if it was designed that way. Second, even at 720P, it is obviously the PS3 (and 360 for that matter) is too underpowered to play the game as visioned. Excessive mip-mapping, low res (blurry) tectures, low LOS (line of sight) distance. Prologue supports 1080P, yet we must deal with tearing, popin, and any number of other problems no PC player would ever let fly. Terms like V-sync, anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering mean nothing to Sony and Microsoft, because these consoles can't do it...or they can only if they limited the area (Ninja Guiden Sigma..beautiful but notice how little is actually on screen). Tearing is apparent.....the fix is simple...force v-sync (bioshock), but they can't...why? because they only put 512 MB of SHARED memory in the console...the same for the X-box. For V-sync to run properly, you need triple buffering, which was an oversight at design considering you require a bit more ram.
In order to prevent tearing, there is an attempt to keep the FPS as close to 60 as often as possible, but it is not perfect, and a poorly optimized engine will also reveal v-sync problems..which is a newly quantified issue that showed up as CRTs were removed and LCDs became mainstream.
What is the truth? We will never see non-scaled 1080P game play with the PS3 and 360, simply because they are neither powerful enough or have enough memory to store the high resolution textures necessary for 1080P native. Storage capacity in the form of disc space is completely irrelevant. Blu-ray doesn' t make the PS3 more powerful...it only gives the developer more space to store data that is be used later during gameplay.
Scaling is a way of faking it, and players should not be satisifed with "good enough" or "you really can't tell unless you look". Corners are being cut in order to make it work. Its time to beat down the door and tell Sony and Microsoft to give us what we paid for....True native 1080P games, and if it can't be done, we want our money back. Sony knows the weakness because in an interview the CEO said that the PS4 will not be released sooner than Januard 2010. Notice its only about 2 years. Even if its 3 years, thats a farcry from the life the PS2 enjoyed.
I own a PS3 and 360 so i'm not partial. I'm just going for the facts. Every time I start GTAIV I cringe. not because the gameplay sucks, but because every time i see though low res graphics, yet they claim 1080P. I think about how much I just got shafted when my two year old PC and play Crysis at 1920X1200..........personally I think its BS.
This is not a format war. I am simply trying to bring to light a trend where companies are either not telling us all the facts or making promises they can't keep. All I ask is honesty. If a game is created for 720P, stick only that on the box. Its common sense that it can be downgraded to Standard Def. Don't make me feel like I have to run out and buy a 1080P TV to play the latest games at max potential only to find out that its not necessary. It feels like SLI all over again...LOL If a game only has to "support" 1080p in the form of scaling or maybe they have some video that plays at that...then i consider that misleading to put it on the box.
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