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GTA PS4 emulated games are Android / iOS ports (with MONO sound) and run worse on non-US versions

Salt_The_Fries · 2015-12-09 02:08:03

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-grand-theft-auto-san-andreas-face-offWe've been looking at more PlayStation 2 titles running under emulation on PlayStation 4, and it now seems clear that all the UK code we've tested is running at 50Hz with a crude frame-blending 'upscale' to the 60Hz output. We made an error in the original analysis below - GTA San Andreas under emulation does have some frame-pacing issues, but much of the judder we encountered is actually a result of the frame-blending, registering to our eyes (and our analysis tools) as unique frames when in fact they are simply the interpolated results of two images - we did think that it may be an artefact of the emulator working with PS2's original motion blur effect, but this is definitely not the case. Credit goes to commenter Malek86 for noting that his copy of Twisted Metal Black is definitely European code, albeit outputting at 60Hz - a situation we have also confirmed with Dark Cloud. This was originally a 60fps game in NTSC territories, running at 50fps on the PS4 emulator, then frame-blended back up to 60fps. As you may imagine, this is not ideal.We decided to produce a GTA San Andreas analysis highlighting the difference between our 'NTSC' and 'PAL' releases. We also cleaned up a short section of footage to confirm that the base frame-rate of San Andreas on our UK PSN code is indeed 25fps. And to conclude, we re-ran the original frame-rate test between PS2, PS3 and PS4 versions of the game, all using 60Hz code.Obviously, for those of us in Europe, this is a somewhat disappointing state of affairs. The PAL territories were blighted with poorly adapted code that often featured letterboxing, slowdown or other artefacts in the transition from 60Hz to 50Hz. In terms of the PS2 titles emulated on PlayStation 4, performance is the only applicable issue here, but it does make a tangible difference. We've tested all three GTA titles now and it's clear that the situation isn't exactly optimal. In fact, we do recommend buying from the US store to get the best possible experience with the emulated PS2 titles. Now, there are perfectly good reasons why Sony has made this decision - foreign language translation for European countries for example - plus as Malek86 points out, there are some censorship issues to contend with. But it seems that Sony has had to get these titles re-certified by PEGI anyway, and we would hope that the firm does consider bringing native 60Hz titles to its current-gen 60Hz console in the future.And then there's this:It's a bit sad to see DF NOT mention anything about the audio here, the main downside to these remasters is that the games source audio is MONO! It's 2015 and here's a 'remaster' throwing out terrible audio quality.The original PS2 releases used 24Khz Stereo ADPCM for Cutscenes and Music and LPCM for SFX. The PC and Xbox versions used 32Khz Stereo OGG for Cutscenes and Music and LPCM for SFX. These 'Remasters' use 48kbps - 64kbps MONO MP3 for Cutscenes and Music and 32kbps - 48kbps MP3 for SFX.This presents a clear noticeable difference when playing the game, just listen to any weapon firing or any cop car with a siren, it sounds really bad on the 'remaster'. Plus there's also the fact that the original PS2 version could output up to a Dolby Pro-Logic II mix, the PC and Xbox versions could output up to a 5.1 mix but these 'remasters' only handle a Stereo output. They were clearly designed for nothing more than a Mobile release, which was then lazily ported over to consoles.And Richard, the 'remaster' is also emulation. It isn't redone for consoles, it's literally the Android version of the game in a emulation wrapper. Crack open the files to see the Android based OBB files untouched from the Play Store version, just with extra files for emulation and an extra DXT Cache for additional textures added into this version (Legal Screens, console specific textures - e.g. PlayStation Network, etc).There's also the fact that modders have fixed plenty of things wrong with this game and offered them to Rockstar Games, and were outright rejected, which is a shame as the work done on San Andreas was to restore the broken post process effects that's missing in the PC version onwards, and some even had an Xbox 360 SDK and got the game running perfectly fine at 1080p30!(Using the original PC version as the base). So the question being asked is why can a bunch of modders fix this game and get it running on consoles FAR better than Rockstar Games/War Drum can when they have the source and assets?This video is long outdated but was the done from the first WIP build of the render fix: Since then even more things have been fixed and corrected and this patch was released under the name 'SkyGFX' (SKY being the render engine name that RenderWare Used), along with SilentPatch (fixes most of Rockstar's broken code in the PC version) and GInput (Brings Xbox 360 controller support to the game PROPERLY) you have a perfectly ready base to take and port to consoles which Rockstar wanted nothing to do and instead give console users a bit of a, well, rubbish port, an emulation of a version designed for Mobiles. What do you think? Worth $15 price of admission?

tormentos

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#51 tormentos

Member since 2003 • 33793 Posts

I didn't know sonny owned GTA i am in shock.

So when did the buy out took place.?

9 years ago

mitu123

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#52 mitu123

Member since 2006 • 155290 Posts

@foxhound_fox said:

Sony dropping the ball yet again.

MS is offering true backwards compatibility with select titles and Sony is trying to SELL gamers bullshit mobile copies of their games.

Except these are the PS2 versions running in 1280x896 with missing songs due to licensing issues...TC really should update this thread as he compared the PS3 remaster which is the real mobile version to other versions.

9 years ago

mitu123

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#53 mitu123

Member since 2006 • 155290 Posts

@Salt_The_Fries said:

I think that Digital Foundry article is a clusterfuck and they originally did a comparison of PS2/PS3 versions and after 2 days they did an update and added a PS4 comparison to the article. That comment (the second quote in the OP) might have been refereeing to the PS3 port. However, there's still a problem with framerate / refresh rate.

Yep, the PS4 version is based on the PS2 version while the PS3 version is based on the Android version.

9 years ago

DrkeX

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#54 DrkeX

Member since 2003 • 645 Posts

LMAO cows flocking in here with excuses now

keep chuggin anything Sony throws at you

9 years ago

Mr_Huggles_dog

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#55 Mr_Huggles_dog

Member since 2014 • 7805 Posts

@charizard1605: Sigh...such antics.

Hermits have countless shit early access games but you'd think PC gave you the reach around going by this forum.

Yet..."omg Sony's perfect and can't do anything wrong.....he hur he hur....see guys I'm really hating Sony".

As if everyone's that stupid except the chosen.

9 years ago

Shewgenja

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#56 Edited By Shewgenja

Member since 2009 • 21456 Posts

@cainetao11: So, how did you feel about the 360 port of San Andreas? Go ahead, take your time with an answer.

9 years ago

ronvalencia

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#57 ronvalencia

Member since 2008 • 29612 Posts

@Salt_The_Fries:

In terms of efficiency, native Android X86 build with ARM CPU (just the user-side instructions) emulator virtual machine sandbox is faster than full machine PS2 emulator.

9 years ago