WipEout HD UK Hands-on

I started downloading it last night but it was so slow I had to finish the download this morning. Had 1 race on it before setting off to work, looks really nice, plays well too.
 
This is interesting, apparently the game is chaging the size of its framebufer depending up the amount of rendering to do on a frame by frame basis to try and keep it at 60fps, so it fluctuates between 1280x1080 and 1920x1080, but spends most of the time in 1920x1080, obviously with the PS3 scaler kicking in when it has to reduce the horizontal resolution below 1920 to get the image back up again.

I've never heard of this trick being used before. You know of any other examples RedLambs?
 
WeasteDevil said:
This is interesting, apparently the game is chaging the size of its framebufer depending up the amount of rendering to do on a frame by frame basis to try and keep it at 60fps, so it fluctuates between 1280x1080 and 1920x1080, but spends most of the time in 1920x1080, obviously with the PS3 scaler kicking in when it has to reduce the horizontal resolution below 1920 to get the image back up again.

I've never heard of this trick being used before. You know of any other examples RedLambs?
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Although before HD tv's this was never really the same, yes I've heard of and experimented with tricks like this. I can't say if it's ever been done, but then again I've not had to pull off something like 1080 at 60fps, but I do know it's not this particular 'technical' reasons that the game was delayed.

Back on the PS1, I was doing something similar with a tank game I designed at high res (640x480). The difference was with every frame that had above a certain amount of elements (shots, explosions,etc...) the game would render certain elements lower, the main stuff higher then merge. Of course it would have been at 30fps though.

This method seems to me to be a fix for a game like Wipeout, and one so they could boast about the 1080@60fps stuff, but I doubt it's viable for much else. Clever all the same.
 
WeasteDevil said:
It seems to be very clever in that the frame buffer resizes to all sorts.

http://insidethedigitalfoundry.blogspot.com/2008/09/wipeout-hds-1080p-sleight-of-hand.html



How the hell are they predicting the amount of rendering going to happen at this type of speed?
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Clever, but one advantage they have is direct art control. They know things like physics going on plus the cars about, but the true trick is knowing exactly what background is on show and when.

Add that to the one thing they can rely on is that the processor can probably react quicker than the graphics output, thus they can determine what amount or cars they can show on any certain part of the track, before buffer drops (using simplistic terms of course, it could even come down to visual effects, i.e particle amounts rendered).

I'd wager that on those shots taken where the buffer has dropped, the next few times they take those screens it differs. It's very clever indeed, but not necessarily a new concept.
 
Yes, I also suppose that they will be using the processor to prepare the scene for the GPU also - backface culling etc. so before it even gets to the GPU pipes they will basically know the amount of polygons in the scene. The GPU would also have to know what the aspect was before it did anything, as it would have to take the level of anamorphic stretch into consideration or simply render the isostatic 16:9 1920x1080p.

It also comes down to 30fps in the 2 player splitscreen.
 
I must say, to all PS3 owners, if you do not buy this, then you are a total fool. For 12 quid, you will not come across a better game even if it cost 40!

This game is fabulous in every respect, and needs to be seen on a 1080p display.
 
Will definitely be getting this one day soon.

Have you tried out the online mode yet?
 
No, shall try to do so. Nobody on my friends list has the bloody thing though, so I suppose I'll get dumped in with a load of 13 year olds from America screaming "feck you up the fecking arse you gay English Limey Twat" at me.
 
WeasteDevil said:
I must say, to all PS3 owners, if you do not buy this, then you are a total fool. For 12 quid, you will not come across a better game even if it cost 40!

This game is fabulous in every respect, and needs to be seen on a 1080p display.
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pass
 
If you had chose not to deliberately ignore me on the PSN yesterday you would know.

When I went into the PS Store I found I had £10.04 in my wallet, so I just added £5 and got it.

I look forward to giving you a game sometime:D
 
i started playing this properly last night, really got into it, its so addictive, especially once i had read the manual to see what things do, i kept pressing absorb at first so i wasnt using any power ups lol
 
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/06/01/wipeout-hd-fury-expansion-pack-details/

The WipEout HD Fury expansion pack will increase the content of your current game with 8 new tracks, 13 new ship models and 3 new game modes, 2 of which will be available for online play! In addition there will be new trophies to attain, a re-styled front-end and a selection of new & improved multiplayer functionality!

The Eliminator game mode will allow you to release all that pent-up aggression as you use the full arsenal of Wipeout weaponry to destroy your opponents. Forget those racing lines; this is all about destruction, with the victor being the first to reach the target score!

Zone Battle is about risk and reward! Acceleration is automatic as you swoop over zone pads to fill your zone bar. Your choice is whether to use the bar to increase your speed and boost your ship ever closer to the target zone or absorb it to replenish vital lost energy. Warning, avoid the ‘zone barriers’, obstacles left on the track by your opponents as they boost towards the target zone, hitting these can literally destroy your hopes of victory!

Our Detonator mode introduces a brand new ship model to the game that will test both your piloting skills and your shooting accuracy as you accelerate through as many as 14 stages. Score points by destroying the mines that have been strewn along the track and take out the bomb on each stage to earn additional points. The more accurate you are the more points and bonuses you will score!

Just like the original WipEout HD, all the new content will be released in glorious 1080p resolution and will run at a smooth 60fps.

Take a sneak peek at the track and ship visuals in our WipEout HD Fury trailer and selection of screenshots.
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We really need to sort out a tournament for this over summer.
 
Has anyone downloaded the Fury extension pack yet, it was released on Thursday ($9.99, €9.99, £7.99). I'll get it next weekend, as I've no time to play right now, but it looks interesting, less than 20 quid for HD and Fury, making one of the best value games this generation.

The pack will provide three new race types – Eliminator, Zone Battle and Detonator, 12 new tracks, 13 new ships, 6 new music tracks, a redesigned menu system, a new campaign to complete as well a host of new trophies to win. Oh and let’s not forget the additional ranks for you to achieve online. We are really excited about the content and hope you enjoy all the new features.

Also, on Tuesday July 21st, we are releasing a free update to the existing game. If you boot up WipEout HD at around 5pm GMT, you will be prompted to download the update. It will add a number of new features and tweaks to menus of the game including a brand new statistics section, new redesigned ship and track select screens and some new community/online features.

Now let’s get back to what I’ve been up to since HD was originally released. I’ve been busy working on the new game modes, mostly Eliminator and Zone Battle but also a bit on Detonator.

Eliminator mode was relatively easy to get in since it was taken from WipEout Pulse but we wanted to make it even better. Someone came up with the idea of having the 180 degree flip, which allows you to flip your ship, fly backwards down the track and fire your weapons at on coming opponents, like the Quake, which I know some people missed being able to do like they could in Pulse.

We also didn’t want people doing all the hard work of reducing an opponent’s shield, to then have someone else steal the kill and you receive nothing. So rather than the straight forward kills system seen in Pulse, we have introduced a points system where you are awarded points for completing laps, inflicting damage and getting the kill. The winner is the first player to reach the target score.

Playable as both a single player game as well as online we are really pleased with the end product and hope that players will enjoy the new mode.

Zone Battle, our 8 player version of Zone mode, was a bit more difficult to get right as it went through several iterations and name changes. We started with just a one on one duel mode, which was basically a split screen version of Zone which you played until one person lost their entire shield. The initial idea of the zone bar was to speed up the other player so they go faster which hopefully meant they would crash more often and be destroyed sooner than if they were travelling slower. Unfortunately this idea didn’t really work as we had hoped and we returned to the drawing board.

As we wanted the game to be played online with up to 8 players, we had to come up with an idea that didn’t have people sitting around waiting until everyone else had been eliminated, so we introduced the idea of racing towards a target zone which meant the race would end at the same time for everyone.

With this in mind the zone bar was changed to increase your own zones so you can reach the target quicker. To add a bit of variety we wanted some obstacles on the track which is where the zone barrier idea came from.

Every time you use your zone bar to boost you leave a zone barrier on the track to try and slow down your opponents. This means that players have to constantly look out for the barriers and try to avoid them or use up their zone bar to shield themselves.

I think it turned out very well and hopefully people will enjoy playing it in the Fury expansion pack!
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Haven't bought it yet, but then I have hardly touched my PS3 this past month. Though we do need to get that game of WipEout sorted Weaste.
 
€9.99 to buy this...think i'll give it a bash since i really like WipeOut.

This will inpire to give the game another bash i think.

Anyone else get it?
 
I'm actually downloading it now. Its 738MB in size. If i remember correctly wasn't the full game only about that big in the first place?

EDIT : Corrrection just managed to check, the full game is a gig after install
 
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