Ha I hadn't seen those PS3 adverts before, pretty funny.
Right, I'm getting. . .
- Thread starter Spoony
- Start date
I just got a ps3 for 160 quid, the 80GB fat one. It still has warranty.
Don't really need one but the price was right (same as Spoony) and I suppose it'll be used for GT5, God of War III and Heavy Rain.
So far I ordered off the internet FIFA 10, LBP and Heavenly Sword. Also I've set my eyes on Infamous, Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted 1,2 and Killzone 2. And that's about everything that's worth getting imo. (Hate MGS)
I don't think it makes any sense to buy multi platform games for the ps3. First of all - they look worse than on xbox, and second of all - if you've got a decent PC like me - most of these games come out for it eventually. And let's face it - computers now piss all over the consoles. - Higher resolutions, better graphics etc.
One thing that worries me now that I'm a ps3 owner and a fanboy is that there's almost next to nothing set up for ps3 after GT5 and Heavy Rain. And there's probably two years left in the current console generation before ps4. This cell thingy has done more damage than to actually help ps3 get more games developed for it.
Don't really need one but the price was right (same as Spoony) and I suppose it'll be used for GT5, God of War III and Heavy Rain.
So far I ordered off the internet FIFA 10, LBP and Heavenly Sword. Also I've set my eyes on Infamous, Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted 1,2 and Killzone 2. And that's about everything that's worth getting imo. (Hate MGS)
I don't think it makes any sense to buy multi platform games for the ps3. First of all - they look worse than on xbox, and second of all - if you've got a decent PC like me - most of these games come out for it eventually. And let's face it - computers now piss all over the consoles. - Higher resolutions, better graphics etc.
One thing that worries me now that I'm a ps3 owner and a fanboy is that there's almost next to nothing set up for ps3 after GT5 and Heavy Rain. And there's probably two years left in the current console generation before ps4. This cell thingy has done more damage than to actually help ps3 get more games developed for it.
Can I give you my take on it?
Firstly a load of people will tell you that Heavenly Sword is crap. It's not.
Secondly, the difference between the versions of the games is now a lot better than it was, it's almost up to parity in most cases, at least for what most people will be able to see. The upcoming release of Bayonetta however looks like it harks back to the bad old days, it's a quick port. Quite a few people now that own both systems are also now going for PS3 versions of the third party games simply because the online play is free.
Computers have always pissed over consoles, as they are an open platform than can keep evolving over time. Next generation might be different, because do you really need to go over 1080p with say 8xAA and AF with 60fps? It's now becoming a game of diminishing returns, especially with the Wii proving that 50% of the whole industry doesn't really rely on it. The shift now has to be towards better AI, interactive environments, more open worlds, better animation, etc. rather than pure graphics power. Also, a lot of people forget about sound, and there the PS3 will shit all over most high end PC gaming rigs. This all leads to your comments about the Cell processor and the current lifespan of the current consoles.
I wouldn't worry about the exclusives coming along, there is probably a lot that has not yet been announced, but Sony does have the largest group of development studios in the world, and a lot of them haven't released a game for quite some time.
Getting back to the Cell processor, you may say that it was damaging, but you need to take the longer term viewpoint. Yes, if you develop a game using the PC or the XB360 as the primary development platform, you are going to get yourself into serious trouble when porting to the PS3. If you develop a game that is GPU heavy, you are going to get into trouble when porting to the PS3, and this is what as happened. However, the whole industry is moving towards the approach that Cell took, be it GPGPU or fused GPU/CPU cores. Those development studios that took the time to investigate how to use the Cell in at least a basic optimal fashion, will next generation hit the ground running so to speak.
The XB360 CPU, Xenon, is poor (as is the PPU on the Cell, and XB360 basically has 3 of them), however AMD/ATI came up with a very novel solution in the GPU. It uses unified shaders and also has an eDRAM render buffer. What this gives it is under certain circumstances, almost free AA, and massive overdraw capability. What it gives it is very high bandwidth when it comes to the ROPs. Interestingly, something the graphics rendering silicon on the PS2 had, but that the PS3 does not have. PS2 had silly bandwidth in that regard, but it needed it, as there was a lot of multi-passes required to obtain certain effects. PS3 was designed very differently, its graphics capabilities are Cell and RSX combined, and it can be seen when both are used correctly in this context, the results are very good indeed.
Where does this lead in regard to PS4 and XB720? Firstly, I don't think that it's going to take that much to get both up to current level PC standards at 1080p, yet I doubt that we are going to see any really new consoles for quite some time, in both cases.
Let me deal with the PS4 first. If they can redo the RSX in a similar configuration to how it is now, but use a G80 instead of a G70 GPU, increase the VRAM, say 1GB, and the size of the bus, maybe add some eDRAM onto it, say 32MB, that should not be too expensive and provide ample performance at 1080p. Add to that 2-4 Cell processors, which by the time 2014 comes around should take up not much more silicon than the original Cell, and at a similar cost, you'll have something very capable indeed. Not only that, the thing should be 100% backwards compatible, all the tools and engines will work the same, just with added umph. The great thing about the Cell processor, unlike many other multi-core processors is that its compute power scales linearly with the amount of Cells that you add on. This whole arcitecture would be very easy for Sony to put together, and very cheap for them to do. Hardly and R&D is involved at all. I'm quite sure that they already have this running, and that they can scale it at will. They are just waiting for Microsoft to make the first move.
Getting on to the "XB720". Here Microsoft have a dilemma. They do not own the chip design for the CPU, lumping a load together doesn't make sense, and there are other competing architectures. A Cell in the XB360 would have blown the PS3 out of the water for example. A PS3 with a modified GPU in the XB360 would also have done similar. Microsoft have a lot more difficult questions to answer, they will have to pay again for both CPU and GPU, or something combined. I'm sure that they also have been investigating the differing paths available to them, but the situation is slightly more complex. For both companies now, backwards compatibility is surely very important with the move to paid digital distribution of content. You can now spend thousands on downloadable games and other content. What happens when it's tied to your online gaming account for DRM reasons? Quite a different situation to say the phasing out of the LP or the cassette or VHS. At least you can still buy machinery to still use your content.
As far as I see it, Sony will not move until 2014 at the earliest. It's only now that they have got the PS3 down to PS2 launch price. XB360 will relaunch next year with a different name, and the Natal system will be incorporated into the box. You may see a slight upgrade of the hardware in terms of say memory (maybe even the eDRAM in Xenos) and a bit more clock, but not much more. Neither Sony nor Microsoft want to go spending billions again developing consoles when the Wii has shown them that 50% of the market doesn't care less. Nintendo has updates the DS, they updated the GameCube to become the Wii (it is a GameCube), they did it cheap, and they made a lot of money. Microsoft makes a lot of money from charging for XB LIVE. Could Sony follow suit? What will a HD capable Wii do to the market?
I'm not writing any more than that.
They are too small to stick my willy through the hole in the middle if that's what you are getting at.
So in short, The XBOX 'while good' has massively inferior technology to the ps3 and that in the long run, Sony will save a bucket load, while Microsoft will completely have to redesign the core processors to compete with any advancements to the PS3 'say when the PS4 comes out'?
Weaste, my question is, would it be hard for Sony to develop a new add on system to the ps3, say new components where a customer could send their ps3 away and have a new board placed inside for $300 rather then buying a whole new console?
Ah, I've talked about this before. The question is, why does the PS3 have Gigabit ethernet? There is no valid reason for it to require a gigabit network card other than to connect to another PS3, as they have done to show off real-time raytracing, and GT5 running at 4k resolutions or at 240 frames per second. So, yes, I believe that it will be on the cards to have a slimline box that the PS3 can sit on, no HDD, no optical drive, just CPU, GPU, network, and HDMI out.
I don't really understand technical talk, but does that mean there is the potential to link two PS3's up and play GT5 linked like in an arcade?
good post though
we can only hope more developer studios will be brave enough (or be paid lots of money by sony) to explore the cell
considering the business side of things though - easier coding and less time for developing will always going to be the preferred way of doing things
Yes, they've already demoed it. Whether it will ever to be done at home, I don't know, but take a look.
https://www.redcafe.net/5410841-post116.html
I cannot wait for that game!
Yes, but at the end of the day, if you want more performance now, you have to go into massive parallel processing. The old super-scaler processors hit a brick wall. Cell went in one direction also to save power. XCPU is also an in-order processor.
it's a 120GB one apparently. Good or could've been gooder?
Don’t do it Spooney. Turncoat. I am definitely demoting you from poster of the year to worst poster.
How do you like them apples!!!
How do you like them apples!!!
Mine has a much bigger one than that in it, but as it uses standard laptop drives, you can stick whatever you want in it later on for minimal cost.
120GB will be fine Spoons.
Well to be fair, it may not happen, much depends on the phone co taking that woman's package back, if they replace it with another I'll get the PS3. . .but if they don't. . . To be honest, I don't even think I need one for gaming. The 360 has better games and I prefer its joypad. But I'll be using the PS3 as a BR player and I wouldn't mind playing GT 5. Aside from that I'm not too fussed about a PS3 from a gaming perspective. Most over hyped games machine, ever. . .thanks to Elv and his bum chum Weastey.
yeah this is a wind up yadda yadda yadda.
500GB, but it's never anywhere near full, as I stream my music, videos, and photos from my PC. Sometimes I have to copy the files over from the media server beforehand, because high bitrate video doesn't work very well over wireless and my PC is a bit old. It's a bit overkill to be honest, but I never bother deleting demos, etc. It's about 200GB full.
My only beef with the PS3 and 360 for that matter is the lack of quality exclusives.
A lot of it has nothing to do with hardware, or networking systems, it has to do with matters such that nobody in their right mind would develop something like this for XB360, spending a shit load of money in the process, because it's not going to sell silly numbers. But, it's all about beefing up and widening the catalogue. Only Sony takes risks like this.
The PS3 has a lot of quality exclusives Spoony. I'd worry if they didn't. XB360 has a lot too, but their first party isn't so large. You can forget the PS2 era, it got exclusives from the arse of everyone, it's probably the console with the greatest range of great and crap exclusives there ever was.
In the US it is, for the minute. People didn't like the idea of paying $599 for a games console, I'm quite sure. In Europe it's about even, maybe a little bit balanced towards PS3 (UK is the exception), and in Japan XB360 sells about 3,000 per week. Considering the difference in launch dates, PS3 will outdo the XB360 worldwide within a year. Wii has twatted the both of them.
Weaste; how do you copy files to the PS3 from your laptop using media server (I'm using TVersity). I can't run high resolution video streaming, and what file types does the PS3 frown upon (ie. won't play)?
The copying process should do the transcode in any case. I'm not 100% on this, but I'm quite sure it does. It might be a setting in TVersity itself, shall investigate.
Press triangle on the file, and select copy.
PS3 will not play MKVs, and it doesn't like badly encoded everything else. I turn most of my files into VOBs, then there never is a problem.
Thanks for the info, Weaste. My 10" laptop screen does not provide the ultimate viewing experience.
I turn most of my files into VOBs by the way, because then, TVersity never has to transcode, it just streams. It only transcodes what it thinks the PS3 cannot understand, the rest it just throws the data out as a stream no messing. So, if all of the data is PS3 friendly, it saves your computer a job.
I see. Are there any free software out there to change files that way? My laptop can't run HD files, I think it's the screen card that's too weak or something.
There are quite a few, yes. Are most of your files in MKV format?
I have some in that format yes but most are .avi and that's not a problem.