PS3 smoothing beyond that of high-end PC graphics card

[Monkeywoman]

The PS3 is truly an amazing piece of hardware that is surprising everyone as time passes. Digital Foundry recently conducted an interesting analysis on the tech used in the game Saboteur, which revealed that the PS3 is capable of producing something even a high-end PC graphics card has difficulty with.

As a software developer by trade, new and intriguing tech has always been like crack to me. I recall the mystery and awe when hyper-threading was first introduced and one of our major clients requested that we upgrade our latest version of the software to take advantage of HT.

In a similar vein, the Cell processor is cutting edge stuff. The Cell in conjunction with the GPU is capable of squeezing out 2.0 trillion floating point operations per second on the fly, which is super-computer worthy and out performs the Xbox 360’s 355 billion floating operation points/second. This is the type of tech running on the latest IBM Blades residing in our maximum security data centers near DC.

Digital Foundry recently did an analysis showing that the post-processing tech, once thought to be MSAA, on the PS3 apparently is far more advanced than anything seen. Anti-aliasing or edge smoothing has always been a challenge even on the PC front.

The Xbox 360 can do up to 4x MSAA via the built in graphics card. However, the PS3 has an NVIDIA card which really doesn’t do much in the post-processing department as it was initially intended to be left off the console. The Cell processor was originally supposed to handle all graphics processing, but due to concerns that it would be difficult for the developers to program on, a decision was made to incorporate a limited graphics card.


However, Sony’s intent was for the developers to utilize the Cell processors eventually leaning off the graphics card crutch. We have seen developers like Naughty Dog who have mostly moved off the graphics card in the PS3 and are now utilizing the SPUs fully in the Cell processor as seen in Uncharted 2. According to DF, the developers for Saboteur also utilized one of the SPUs to do the post-processing work resulting in edge-smoothing beyond the capabilities of a 16x MSAA found on high-end PC graphics card.

The PS3 rendition of Pandemic’s The Saboteur is different though. It’s special. It’s trying something new that’s never been seen before on console, or indeed PC, and its results are terrific. In a best-case scenario you get edge-smoothing that is beyond the effect of 16x multi-sampling anti-aliasing, effectively delivering an effect better than the capabilities of high-end GPUs without crippling performance. Compare and contrast with Xbox 360 hardware, which tops out at 4x MSAA.

Note: DF made a correction, there are a few titles that have tried this but not to the level of success Pandemic has had.

With only a few studios attempting this tech, it will be interesting to see more developers relying on the Cell processor in the future.

source; http://gamer.blorge.com/2010/01/05/ps3-smoothing-beyond-that-of-high-end-pc-graphics-card/

more info here on the tech : http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-saboteur-aa-blog-entry


All in all, its interesting to see that the ps3 does have more head room, IMO whats keeping visuals on par with 360 are developers porting titles and not exploiting these techniques...but it all comes down to money.

[Xyllian]

Yep, the PS3 truly is a masterpiece, and trust me, if the games were designed on PS3 and ported to 360 the bad graphichs and the horrible quality of the box would make like zero sales.
And M$ would look like idiots for betting everything on the 360 and thus killing PC gaming as we knew it.

IMHO ofc.

[Raiden]

The Ps3 rocks , but some people think Xbox360 has better graphics , i think their similar , i got both (x360 and ps3) like them both :D

[Starscream]

The Ps3 rocks , but some people think Xbox360 has better graphics , i think their similar , i got both (x360 and ps3) like them both :D

its true that most xbox games have better grafix then the PS3 but like Xyllian said thats because most multi platform games are made for the Xbox360 and are then poorly ported for the PS3.

If the multiplatform games r made equally for both (so no cheap porting) then PS3 games should look better then Xbox360 games.

[zanzabar]

The Ps3 rocks , but some people think Xbox360 has better graphics , i think their similar , i got both (x360 and ps3) like them both :D

the 360 has better graphics on cross platform as most devs use it as the primary platform since its easier and came out 1st. but exclusive to exclusive the ps3 has some better stuff.

on topic the ps3 is tapped out when gow3 comes out i dont see how they can do anything better with the POS gpu just imagine the ps3 if MS didnt sign an agreement that ati couldent make a gpu for sonys console or if they had a power vr chip (like was announced for the ps4) instead of a weak throw away NV part

[eBoy0]

the 360 has better graphics on cross platform as most devs use it as the primary platform since its easier and came out 1st. but exclusive to exclusive the ps3 has some better stuff.

on topic the ps3 is tapped out when gow3 comes out i dont see how they can do anything better with the POS gpu just imagine the ps3 if MS didnt sign an agreement that ati couldent make a gpu for sonys console or if they had a power vr chip (like was announced for the ps4) instead of a weak throw away NV part

I live GOW :D

[Starscream]

i dont think that GOW3 wil max the possibilities of the PS3.

I do hope that the MGS thats coming for both the PS3 and Xbox360 will give the PS3 a proper version so that it wil look better on the PS3 then on the 360 and then finally the fanboys wil shut up.

[damha]

It's best to be critical of a SONY sponsored site.

[Scubar]

Like we all knew, The PS3 is a very powerful machine.

Unfortunately its very difficult to develop games for which costs time and money and thats something Companys like EA just dont want to waste the time on doing as that lowers their profit margin.

The Xbox360 is very easy to code for as its just DX so no different from a PC, this is why it has such a big advantage as it means Game devs can create a game for Xbox and PC and then just port it over to PS3 meaning very little effort involved for big $$$ in profit which is what the gaming industry is all about.

Hence why the game titles on the Xbox360 are so much better than the PS3s and then of course you have XBox Live which is absolutely massive now and puts the PS3s gaming network to total shame.

[TJ TRICHEESE]

I have 1 watercooled 360 elite, 1 360 super elite (250gb hdd) and 2 60gb ps3's (backwardly compatable) and i have to admit mw2 looks far better on ps3's and so does gta IV

and Xbox live is horrible, my xbox live stops working at about 9:30 gmt whereas psn seems to work fine, the only reason i use live is coz all my friends do (this is coz i have the worlds slowest broadband)

[Soulburner]

Hence why the game titles on the Xbox360 are so much better than the PS3s
Where have you been? 2009 was a great year for the PS3. There were more PS3 titles at the top of the charts (look at GI's Top 50 Games of 2009) than there were for the XBox.

I don't even need to start naming titles - anyone could do that.

[yaddam205]

Where have you been? 2009 was a great year for the PS3. There were more PS3 titles at the top of the charts (look at GI's Top 50 Games of 2009) than there were for the XBox.

I don't even need to start naming titles - anyone could do that.

Begins with "Un" and ends with "charted 2".

:)

Hands down one of the best games I have played on any platform.

[Scubar]

Where have you been? 2009 was a great year for the PS3. There were more PS3 titles at the top of the charts (look at GI's Top 50 Games of 2009) than there were for the XBox.

I don't even need to start naming titles - anyone could do that.

Yea the PS3 did have a fairly good year last year on games as there werent many Xbox exclusives. But they just released Mass Effect 2 a couple of weeks ago which although is PC & 360 is such an unbelievably good game. Easily the best game thats come out on this gen of Consoles, atleast untill ME3 comes out.

[zanzabar]

Yea the PS3 did have a fairly good year last year on games as there werent many Xbox exclusives. But they just released Mass Effect 2 a couple of weeks ago which although is PC & 360 is such an unbelievably good game. Easily the best game thats come out on this gen of Consoles, atleast untill ME3 comes out.

there is no way that ME2 is the best for this gen, l liked ME1 better but more than that u would have to go against MGS4, infamous, fallout3, batman AA, and some others

[[XC] Lead Head]

Funny how its blatantly obvious that the 360 has greater texture resolution and better lighting. Yes it appears the Cell can do good post processing effects, but garbage in - garbage out. The GPU does most of the lighting and texturing work, and there is no magic the Cell can work to clean that up. It should also be mentioned that the 4x MSAA on the 360 comes at no tax the hardware. So its (limited) resources can be used elsewhere.

Also,
In a best-case scenario you get edge-smoothing that is beyond the effect of 16x multi-sampling anti-aliasing. I'd take anything in this article with a grain of salt.

IMO, the PS3 is going to end up like the N64. Its a powerful platform, but extremely difficult to program and balance the processing out. (N64 was similar to the PS3 in that the CPU and GPU operations weren't set and stone, the CPU could do GPU work and vice versa) The system really won't start to be utilized to its potential until the end of its life.

[David-Duc]

PS3 is awesome, but I don't think it can beats high-end PC. For instance, most PS3 games don't have AA while one or two GTX295/HD5970 can perform full HD 8x AA gaming with ease.

[Chumbucket843]

that article is ridiculous if it thinks a ps3 is capable of 2 teraflops. cell is 200gflops and rsx is 240gflops.
most games on 360 have 2x AA for free because it is a TBDR and has 10MB eDRAM for cache which the tiles fit in. this is basically what they are doing on the cell except it is separate from the gpu rendering pipeline. this could be ported to pc if they implemented MLAA in opencl. AA on xbox requires no work on the programmers part though.

here is a 8800GTS compared to consoles. notice how consoles use blur to hide aliasing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epx3JBvErfk

here is how its done.
http://visual-computing.intel-research.net/publications/mlaa.pdf
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/5427/mlaa.jpg (http://img32.imageshack.us/i/mlaa.jpg/)


The Xbox360 is very easy to code for as its just DX so no different from a PC, this is why it has such a big advantage as it means Game devs can create a game for Xbox and PC and then just port it over to PS3 meaning very little effort involved for big $$$ in profit which is what the gaming industry is all about.


game industry is only very profitable for a select few studios like infinity ward. some studios make programmers work 70 hrs a week getting game ready on time and porting code is a massive PITA so i dont think its fair to blame software companies for having poor ps3 ports and forget about optimizations like cell spu's.
only 3 out of 10 games break even!
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19780

[Blacky]

I guess PS4 won't be a "masterpiece" then since they dropping the cell processor arch, and going like MS did, putting a "normal" cpu on it...I find difficult to belieave this statement though "interesting analysis on the tech used in the game Saboteur, which revealed that the PS3 is capable of producing something even a high-end PC graphics card has difficulty with" PC gaming right now is lagging thanks to consoles that simple, devs cannot create this game with uber graphics because since consoles are their priority, is really limited right now on capabilities...I own a PS3 though, is a great multi-media platform!

[cling]

i sold my ps3...i was going to use it to actually learn coding for the cell architecture. However, i got lazy and I traded it in for money much needed for the 295GTX :D

[Blkout]

I own all three current generation consoles and the PS3 doesn't even come close to doing what my high end PC can do. This is nothing but a buch of fanboy nonsense. The PS3 hardware is not advanced anymore, its always that way with consoles, they're old before they even get released.

Not to say I don't enjoy the 360 and PS3, but comparing them to a high end PC is just nonsense.

[Sushi Warrior]

Doesn't matter how good it can look if only top of the line studios with huge budgets can actually code for it... PS3 is simply to hard to code for, give 2 devs the same small amount of time for PS3 and 360 and the 360 game will look a lot better.

[Soulburner]

Doesn't matter how good it can look if only top of the line studios with huge budgets can actually code for it... PS3 is simply to hard to code for, give 2 devs the same small amount of time for PS3 and 360 and the 360 game will look a lot better.
I don't agree with this at all. Good developers have their kits down by now. Look at Infamous, Uncharted, Killzone.

The best developers have software that allows them to build games for multiple platforms at the same time - how FFXIII was made.

[Xello]

Begins with "Un" and ends with "charted 2".

Well when you put it like that, yeah lol360.

[|Oc|REvO_HsArC]

God of War 3 looks unbelievable.

no jaggies. Super clean. I downloaded the entire 46 720p gameplay videos on youtube. You have to see it to believe it.


To me, the first 10 minutes redefined the meaning of graphics.