I have a question about the resolution that 360 and PS3 games can display at. Whenever I look at the back of a PS3 game it usualy says the max resolution is 720P. When I then compare this to the 360 version of the game (Fallout 3 for example) it states that it can display at 1080p. Now there is no doubt in my mind that the PS3 can handle 1080p for its games so why dont any of the game makers actually take advantage of that ability?
PS3 Xbox 360 Question
- Thread starter clint g
- Start date
It's a marketing trick by Microsoft. The 360 can display all games at resolutions upto 1080p and that's why the game case states the three highest modes which are 720p, 1080i and 1080p.
The actual game itself will render at a lower resolution for the game to run properly, examples include Halo 3 running at 640p, CoD4 at 600p etc. The 360 then upscales the image so that it looks okay on your screen.
The two systems are just not powerful enough to render all their games at 1080p natively.
The actual game itself will render at a lower resolution for the game to run properly, examples include Halo 3 running at 640p, CoD4 at 600p etc. The 360 then upscales the image so that it looks okay on your screen.
The two systems are just not powerful enough to render all their games at 1080p natively.
Yeah, only a few of the full retail releases actually run at 1080p.
The only one I can think of off hand is Virtua Tennis 3, because they made a big deal about being the first "true" 1080p game.
I imagine a lot of the arcade games/PSN games are 1080p though.
I imagine a lot of the arcade games/PSN games are 1080p though.
Here's a partial list
Xbox games
Tomb Raider Underworld = 1024×576
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion = 1024×600
Halo 3 = 640p
CoD4 = 600p
PS3 games
Dark Sector 1152×640
MX vs ATV 1024×576
Grand Theft Auto IV 1152×640
Fracture 1152×648
Haze = 1024x576
CoD4 = 600p
Xbox games
Tomb Raider Underworld = 1024×576
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion = 1024×600
Halo 3 = 640p
CoD4 = 600p
PS3 games
Dark Sector 1152×640
MX vs ATV 1024×576
Grand Theft Auto IV 1152×640
Fracture 1152×648
Haze = 1024x576
CoD4 = 600p
The 360's specialised built in scaler can upscale lower resolution games pretty well, so you'll find the 1080p label on the back of most of the games I believe.
In that case it's ironic given the initial Full HD marketing push Sony employed that the PS3 doesn't scale all (or even most) of its games.
Probably the most graphically demanding true 1080p game on PS3 is Wipeout HD which runs at 1080p, 60fps... most of the time. The framerate never dips but the game is coded so that if it "senses" things are getting too hectic, it dynamically reduces the games rendering resolution for a few seconds. It's an exotic and frankly brilliant solution that's invisible to the gamer, one I wish more studios would consider.
Gran Turismo Prologue, Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Sony's MLB and NBA games also look great and supposedly render at 1080p 60fps, but I'm not sure how true that is.
Fact is that both consoles can render games in Full HD, but in most cases developers would rather devote the extra horsepower to something else and render their games at 720p. This suits me just fine, especially if special attention is paid to image quality.
In that case it's ironic given the initial Full HD marketing push Sony employed that the PS3 doesn't scale all (or even most) of its games.
Probably the most graphically demanding true 1080p game on PS3 is Wipeout HD which runs at 1080p, 60fps... most of the time. The framerate never dips but the game is coded so that if it "senses" things are getting too hectic, it dynamically reduces the games rendering resolution for a few seconds. It's an exotic and frankly brilliant solution that's invisible to the gamer, one I wish more studios would consider.
Gran Turismo Prologue, Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Sony's MLB and NBA games also look great and supposedly render at 1080p 60fps, but I'm not sure how true that is.
Fact is that both consoles can render games in Full HD, but in most cases developers would rather devote the extra horsepower to something else and render their games at 720p. This suits me just fine, especially if special attention is paid to image quality.
To repeat what others have said for the sake of redundancy, very, very few games will actually render at 1080p - they'll simply be upscaled to 1080p by the console (and they'll typically still look great).
I hadn't heard of the strategy that Wipeout employs ... sounds brilliant. Instead of locking the framerate by rendering the game sub 1080, just render it in 1080 for the majority of the time and let the game drop the render res when it "senses" the frame rate is about to drop. Brilliant!
I hadn't heard of the strategy that Wipeout employs ... sounds brilliant. Instead of locking the framerate by rendering the game sub 1080, just render it in 1080 for the majority of the time and let the game drop the render res when it "senses" the frame rate is about to drop. Brilliant!
Forget 1080p this Generation game wise, 720p is the way to go, not that we had much choice, and unless your sitting with a massive TV over 42in plus you would not really see any diffrence in games anyway.....
Its not so much that it looks better or worse, the annoying thing is that its another example of both camps flat out lying and misleading their customers.
And yet it was still game of the year on both major consoles. Go figure.
Rii
Rear Admiral
Its not so much that it looks better or worse, the annoying thing is that its another example of both camps flat out lying and misleading their customers.
I prefer to think of it as the triumph of the developers over the marketroids. If Microsoft and Sony had stuck to their guns and mandated native 720p/1080p respectively for all titles, they'd be uglier (reduced effects, geometry, textures, etc.) for it.
I think you must be remembering something incorrectly, Sony would never state what resolution a third party multiplatform developer would be aiming for. Also, GTA IV doesn't even run 720p native on PS3.
That said, I'll take a sub-720p resolution in exchange for a game with the sort of immaculate image quality Ratchet and Clank sports any day.
Ok, here's a question. Probably a stupid one.
If I have my PS3/360 set to 1080p while attached to my 1080p HDTV, and then I play a game that runs natively at 720p, the console will upscale it to 1080p, right?
Does this have any effect on performance versus if I had the console set at 720p and just playing native 720p games at that resolution?
If I have my PS3/360 set to 1080p while attached to my 1080p HDTV, and then I play a game that runs natively at 720p, the console will upscale it to 1080p, right?
Does this have any effect on performance versus if I had the console set at 720p and just playing native 720p games at that resolution?
Yes. Oddly IIRC the 360 will do it through scaling hardware (a chip, effectively) and the PS3, lacking scaling h/w, will do it purely through software (but don't quote me on that).
Games rendered sub-720 are meant to be upscaled by the console to 1080 - so if the game advertises 1080 on the back of the box, you should NOT get any performance degredation if you allow the console to upscale to full 1080p ... that's the point! The game renders at a natively lower resolution to achieve a solid framerate - it's the console's job to upscale - and both the 360 and PS3 do it well.
I read upthread somebody complaining about developers effectively "lying" when they claim their game is HD. Yes, it's a bit of a "depends on what the definition of the word is is" type of thing ... but technically the game IS in HD when you're playing it - so it IS an HD game ... it just doesn't natively render in HD. A technicality. If it rendered in 1080p natively, it would look a little better, but not enough to warrant the huge burden that would be on the system.
The PS3 actually does have a hardware scaler... sort of. The situation is oddly complicated.
Here's how it is:
- if you've got 720p disabled (and 1080p enabled) then games will either upscale to 1080p (the ones that can like GTA4) or downscale to 480/576p (Burnout Paradise)
- if you've got 720p enabled (together with 1080p) then most games will run at 720p
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