Naughty Dog: Uncharted 2 Could Lead 'Shift' In PS3 Tech Prowes

FlatulentGhost - 12 days 20 hours ago

"uniquely challenging hardware"

Hilarious.

A perfect example of why many gamers and the gaming media is still having trouble dealing with the massive graphical power advantage the PSs3 has this gen. A graphical power advantage larger than ever before in the history of the console market.

Back before the Xbox where Microsoft tried to throw a bunch of expensive desktop x86 PC parts into a big ugly black box and pass it off as a console, PC game developers and console developers stuck with their own areas of expertise. But as soon as Microsoft's PC in a console box arrived, suddenly every clown who kinda knows some stuff about home computers and home computer graphics cards thinks they are an expert on console hardware and console graphics engines.

The PS3 is in essence the exact same hardware design as the 140 million selling PS2. In other words, the console hardware that console developers have the most experience with and have spent the last decade working with.

A PS2 engine and PS3 engine are written in almost identical ways:

On the PS2 execution starts up on the EE.
On the PS3 execution starts up on the PPU.

Tasks are spawned off to the VUs on the PS2 - lighting, vertex transforms, animation, etc.

On the PS3 those tasks are spawned off to the SPUs.

Main game code runs on the EE on the PS2 while the VUs work in parallel.

On the PS3 it is the PPU and SPUs that are running parallel.

When the VUs have computed enough data to render, that data is fired off to the GS.

The same goes for the PS3, but from the SPUs to the RSX.

The split memory architecture makes it so the EE half of the PS2 can work full speed while the GS works on its own data.

The same goes for the PS3, the Cell side can work full speed on its data while the RSX is firing away without having to fight over the same memory/bus

In a good PS2 engine the EE, VUs, and GS are all cranking away in parallel.

In a good PS3 engine the PPU, SPUs, and RSX are all cranking away in parallel.

There isn't a single console developer who sat around wondering how to write a PS3 graphics engine. They were writing PS3 graphics engines in their minds all the way back in the PS2 days when we would imagine what a next gen PS2 would look like.

Not surprising since both machine were designed by master of console hardware design, Kutagari.

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Ps_alm3k - 12 days 19 hours ago

............................

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PirateThom - 12 days 18 hours ago

"We choose to go to the moon... we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

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MajestieBeast - 12 days 18 hours ago

So let me get this straight Nd pretty much redid their whole engine has a single-player of 12+ hours has coop and versus multi-player in a whole new way.

Infinity ward added a 5 hour campaign, maps and perks and the spec ops mode.

Well we can all see who went way beyond in the 2 years they had and the other slacked on the previous success. How do these games even have the same scores...

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Booch - 12 days 17 hours ago

Nothing but respect for the ND guys. Topping NDP this month, GotY by just about everyone, and considered the benchmark that all other console games are compared against besides Killzone 2.

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Thoreau - 12 days 17 hours ago

sometimes those guys are straight up simpletons. only a few of them actually know how to program for the ps3. the majority of them only knw the pc"way" to design a game.

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DigitalAnalog - 12 days 11 hours ago

Excellent, positive, game-related news.

-End statement

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rob6021 - 12 days 11 hours ago

In the end it's all about disk space, and the fact MS limits all developers to 1 or 2 disks, with royalties to MS increasing with each additional disk.

Nobody (outside PS3 exclusives) is going to be able to match the level of detail ND displayed, unless they're making a 3 hour game. Microsoft and 3rd parties are going to try to emphasize 60fps because they simply can't fit the textures on a disk like a PS3 exclusive can, so they'll say engine frame rate is superior to detail.

Gears 2 they cut out a level, they later sold as DLC, despite the game being criticized as short(not to mention the free dlc maps that should have been included as well) Halo ODST, short campaign again, even though multiplayer was on another disk. Couldn't fit forza 3 on one disk again. And go look at MW1/MW2's 'lengthy' campaign mode. It's a cycle that goes on and on.

Aside from that a good looking game is about animations and the number crunching to do adaptive animation(Killzone 2 exhibits a ragdoll/mocap blend no one's matched before, UC2 has an advanced method of blending complex animations together on the fly)

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kaveti6616 - 12 days 11 hours ago

Wow. As much as I love the PS3, I can't stand the massive circle jerk being conducted above my post.

You guys cannot possibly think that PC developers are just a bunch of idiots, right? I mean, I just have to put in one name and your entire argument is weakened.

John Carmack.

The guy is not an idiot. RAGE @ 60fps on consoles, and look at how great the visuals are in that game. The guy is an expert.

And as great as the PS3 is, you guys have to admit you are talking purely in terms of consoles and are doing a piss poor job at it as well, because you're bringing up PS2 and Xbox (Flatulent Ghost) to make your comparisons. Why not talk about how much more powerful PS3 is than 360? Like 20 percent? Maybe?

The PS3's SPUs are not very different from regular PC cores. They're just more specialized for media capabilities like video streaming. They're ideal for video games in that sense. The general purpose cores do a lot of things well, but not any specific thing very well.

PCs from 2005 totally destroy the 360 and PS3 hardware.

This is not to say that Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2 are mediocre. This is just to say that PC developers who look at games like UC2 and KZ2 don't really get what the big fuss is about. So if you PS3 fanboys are in disbelief that someone like Gabe Newell or Chet Falizek or John Carmack doesn't really drool over console hardware, then tough luck to you. You're like a bunch of kids arguing over who as the best bicycle. The PC developers are tuning Ducatis and Supercars. The only thing that interests them about consoles is which one has the largest marketshare and which console will be easier to port their games to so they can make some easy money.

That's why the PS3 gets shafted a lot. It's not because the PC developers are stupid and don't know how powerful the PS3 is. They're just more interested in their communities on PC.

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NecrumSlavery - 12 days 10 hours ago

PS3 Cell Tech is amazing. The more devs play with it, the better things become. Can't wait to see what U3/KZ3 look like.

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The real killer - 12 days 10 hours ago

"IT'S NOT THE HARDWARE, IT'S THE TALENT BEHIND IT"

With all do respect, ITS THE HARDWARE MAKES THAT POSSIBLE, and the PS3 has double the power over the 360 hardware maybe more than double powerful than a 360, even ND don't no if they reach the hardware limit from the PS3.

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TwistedMetal - 12 days 10 hours ago

you already missing out on AAA games and this gen will end up being the same as last gen. meansing you would be crazy to not have owned a ps3 just like you would have been crazy to not have owned a ps2 last gen. that is the amount of games you gonna be missing out on.

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Sigh - 12 days 9 hours ago

for giving competition with UC2. This will only help to motivate developers (hopefully most of em will) to push more effort into delivering big games. Just wish developers would swallow their pride and do their jobs--advance with technology at the same pace.

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GirlGamerEm - 12 days 8 hours ago

Naughty Dog = Class Act, Developers of the Year

Uncharted 2 = GOTY

And now it seems that their success is going to help future games. Win.

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tidort - 12 days 13 hours ago

yesterday and it was amazing! really!

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