[PS3] PlayStation 3 Discussion Thread

Yeah, I'm sure most people keeping abreast of PS3 news would've seen them. It's not unlikely that Sony will have the best BC out of the three.

It's just that specifics matter, and so do demonstrations, so we have to wait a bit more for that.

How ya doing, buddy?

Haven't they [Sony] said that the PS3's anti-aliasing capabilities will transfer over to PS1 and PS2 titles, making the jaggies appear less in number and smoother?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Vash

Question, I plan on using the PS3 solely for games and movies (since I hear it has other functions, none of which really interest me, personally), so is the 20GB version fine for that? Or is the 60GB version better just because it has more memory for games?

20gb is way more than enough.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by SouthJag

Haven't they [Sony] said that the PS3's anti-aliasing capabilities will transfer over to PS1 and PS2 titles, making the jaggies appear less in number and smoother?

They mentioned there will likely be enhancements that could be applied to PS1 or 2 titles played on the machine. One of which is assumed to be AA, but what level of AA is unknown. This one alone would make many PS2 games look much better (SOTC) and it'd help the vast majority of PS1 games become playable.

I imagine the other may have to do with textures, loading, etc.. Not much you can add, though a more technically oriented person can chime in to point out other potential benefits.

Here's some fun Motorstorm gifs:





What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

i'm def getting the 60 GB (don't have a choice since i live in Europe) and hopefully in the first year the piracy gods have found a way to store games ^^

Jam it back in, in the dark.

You might even consider purchasing the games you play to like, you know, support the industry and all that jazz. Especially some of the smaller guys. I can't be positive but I'm pretty sure this world doesn't owe you a living.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Although I fully agree with you there Jacky, that argument doesn't hold a lot of weight around here. Most people shrug it off or flat out ignore it. The primary draw of this place for a lot of people is music piracy, after all.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Metal Sphere

They mentioned there will likely be enhancements that could be applied to PS1 or 2 titles played on the machine. One of which is assumed to be AA, but what level of AA is unknown. This one alone would make many PS2 games look much better (SOTC) and it'd help the vast majority of PS1 games become playable.

I imagine the other may have to do with textures, loading, etc.. Not much you can add, though a more technically oriented person can chime in to point out other potential benefits.

Well, since PS2 games will be run through hardware, there likely aren't as many upgrades they can offer to it. If it was just software emulation they could probably offer additional features, but since PS2 hardware will effectively be running the games, they'll likely be in their original form. PS1 emulation I'm not sure about, potentially they could add a lot more to that since they aren't limited by the original hardware.

Assuming that they do offer enhancements (to the PS1 at least), they could easily enable AA for edges and anisotropic filtering for textures (basically makes the textures much sharper and detailed when viewed at an angle). Possibly higher resolution as well, or at the very least upscaling to HD, and progressive scan support for all games (hopefully even those that didn't support it originally). Increased disc reading speed as well, but like the PS2 with the PS1 it would have to be kept as a toggleable feature in order to ensure compatibility.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Solis

Well, since PS2 games will be run through hardware, there likely aren't as many upgrades they can offer to it. If it was just software emulation they could probably offer additional features, but since PS2 hardware will effectively be running the games, they'll likely be in their original form. PS1 emulation I'm not sure about, potentially they could add a lot more to that since they aren't limited by the original hardware.

Assuming that they do offer enhancements (to the PS1 at least), they could easily enable AA for edges and anisotropic filtering for textures (basically makes the textures much sharper and detailed when viewed at an angle). Possibly higher resolution as well, or at the very least upscaling to HD, and progressive scan support for all games (hopefully even those that didn't support it originally). Increased disc reading speed as well, but like the PS2 with the PS1 it would have to be kept as a toggleable feature in order to ensure compatibility.

Wait, but if they're running ps2 through hardware, then why such low backwards compatibility? It should be up in the high 90% mark then, right?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by JackyBoy

You might even consider purchasing the games you play to like, you know, support the industry and all that jazz. Especially some of the smaller guys. I can't be positive but I'm pretty sure this world doesn't owe you a living.

I love rpgs,most of them are never released in Europe (or months later). Importing costs TOO much and i don't like to have original games where i have to apply the swap magic method. I download the games and if the games i like (shin megami tensei dds,KH2, Okami,...) are released here i buy them. I really hope with the next generation consoles things will be different,but i doubt it....Europe will always be left behind.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by JazzFlight

Wait, but if they're running ps2 through hardware, then why such low backwards compatibility? It should be up in the high 90% mark then, right?

Actually, on the slide where I got this information from, they expect a 95-98% compatibility rate. Many games on the PS2 were made by working all the way down to the metal and these titles would literally not work (or become buggy) if it was tried via software emu. Of course, only select devs did this to achieve certain visuals or effects. Plus, the Dragon chip is ridiculously cheap and small to put in the PS3.

If there's compatibility problems, I'll expect it from the software side of things, no doubt.

And, as I'm sure there will be a PSThree, there will be a drastic size decrease this time due to two things:

1. Internal power supply. This will be moved to a power brick outside, making the console far smaller and lighter.

2. Process shrinks will get the PPU and SPEs working well enough that they'll be able to make smaller boards. IIRC, the PS3's PPU is 90nm now though it's predicted they'll switch to 65nm sometime next year.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Metal Sphere

1. Internal power supply. This will be moved to a power brick out side, making the console far smaller and lighter.

You really think so? Granted, I know they did this with the PStwo, but then again the PStwo was also the original design -- they went with the larger box in order to cut costs.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Yup, moving the power supply out of the machine would solve two things:

• Space
• Heat

Without it inside, there will be far less heat to be exhausted. Even though the Cell itself was designed with thermal management in mind (this was the reason why the 3.2Ghz spec was chosen, the best compromise between performance and heat), it would only benefit from this. You'd need a far less robut (read: expensive) cooling setup, which would no doubt save even more money. The shell itself will require less material.

And lastly, it'll help the console's aesthetics. While it looks nice now, there's quite a bit of room for it to improve.

Apparently Capcom did some last minute texture/polish:





DMC4 Conference rundown While it says emulator there, all 12 PS3s running the demo showed no signs of slowdown.

Here's some full resolution (720p) screenshots, considering there are actually folks out there who believed the game was running at something wonky like 1000 x 620.















Jam it back in, in the dark.

Quote:

As the image shows, the OS will be run off the flash memory that is on the PS3 instead off the optical media like the PS2. There is also another seperate install of OS on the HDD (Linux), the Cell OS will be locked from the Linux OS to prevent piracy. But Sony is promoting homebrew on the PS3 (unlike the PSP), the article states that they want the PS3 to be a computing platform like Windows/Mac and Linux. Also confirmed that cell Hypervisor will be included on the flash memory of the PS3, which I guess is kinda like Microsoft's Virtual Server and EMC's VMware.

Also the article goes into some hurdles PS3 developers had to go through. First it goes into "SDK 0.93", article says SDK 1.00 was suppose to be released by TGS, by the latest release was 0.93. Also states developers were using 7800GTX, says the shader performance is very good but the memory interface of the RSX is 128-bit with 8 ROP, they are stating they are having memory bandwidth problems are have some bottle necks. Says developers are having exact opposite problems with the PS3 compared with the 360, where they aren't having no memory bandwidth problems due to the 10BM eDRAM but have shaper performance issues compared to the PS3. Saying they are lacking in Shader ALU performance and having stalls due to not having enough "threading resources".

I'm not coherent enough to understand any of that, but I figured tech-heads like Metal would get a kick out of it. So just let me know if all that jargon equals "good" or "bad".

There's nowhere I can't reach.

My goodness, that little "tech-heads" part got a chuckle out of me because of my username.

Basically, Linux will be installed on the consoled flash memory and will be seperated from the default OS. I remember reading way back about how Sony built security measures into the metal or hardware itself. Too foggy now, but this reminds me of that. Hopefully Cetra chimes in, since his comments are often especially insightful on these matters.

Here's confirmation of $60 PS3 games (you can rest easy guys worrying about N64/SNES-level prices)

The entire article, translated by Dr_No of GAF:

Originally Posted by Dr_No

Put it in the other thread. . .sorry for the delay:

Edit: more translations added.




Sorry, I should have translated on my original post, but I'm at work and didn't have time then (I was posting from a meeting). Here's quick run-down, some of the stuff we already knew but is further confirmed. The article itself is actually a summary of interviews, information taken from WatchImpress' TGS coverage. I'm not a technical person as far as graphics are concerned so excuse me for translation errors.

As the image shows, the OS will be run off the flash memory that is on the PS3 instead off the optical media like the PS2. There is also another seperate install of OS on the HDD (Linux), the Cell OS will be locked from the Linux OS to prevent piracy. But Sony is promoting homebrew on the PS3 (unlike the PSP), the article states that they want the PS3 to be a computing platform like Windows/Mac and Linux. Also confirmed that cell Hypervisor will be included on the flash memory of the PS3, which I guess is kinda like Microsoft's Virtual Server and EMC's VMware.

http://www.research.ibm.com/hypervisor/

Also the article goes into some hurdles PS3 developers had to go through. First it goes into "SDK 0.93", article says SDK 1.00 was suppose to be released by TGS, by the latest release was 0.93. Also states developers were using 7800GTX, says the shader performance is very good but the memory interface of the RSX is 128-bit with 8 ROP, they are stating they are having memory bandwidth problems are have some bottle necks. Says developers are having exact opposite problems with the PS3 compared with the 360, where they aren't having no memory bandwidth problems due to the 10BM eDRAM but have shaper performance issues compared to the PS3. Saying they are lacking in Shader ALU performance and having stalls due to not having enough "threading resources".


Also predicted that there will be a dramatic reduction of high-end PS3 sales due the 20GBs added feature of HDMI. Looking at the user who is looking to buy the PS3 for a Blu-ray experience as well, the 20GB model has become much more attractive with the addition of HDMI.

Looking at the situation of increased PS3 game prices, as originally reported on WatchImpress, later spreading to all corners of the internet (sometimes very negatively), regarding high PS3 game prices. Increased prices for games from the previous generation is inevidable. Third party developers have stated licening fees for the PS3 may be more expensive then PS2. However, discussed is that Sony cannot take licencing fees from applications made for Linux, however there are still questions about how the entire dynamics of the licencing sytem will work.

Ridger Racer 7 shots from ruliweb, as well as some IGN screens.























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$60 isn't that big a deal for me, since I'm usually selective with my game purchases anyway. If it guarantees that all games will have widescreen, 1080p, and an online mode, then I'd say it's worth the extra 10 bucks.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Oh, I just put that up there because of a particularly nasty rumor going around. One that says that since Japan is getting a price hike, we'll be seeing one too. They forget that Japan's getting the same hike we got ($10).

Best quality Motorstorm gameplay video so far.

More hilarious gifs of Motorstorm:





I was speaking idiomatically.

You know what would balance things out? If Nintendo's Wii games were $10 less. Then, in some crazy indirect way, they'd be working together for our benefit.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yeah, that would actually make them a very attractive second console, at least more so than they already are. But we all know that's grossly unfair and could sink Nintendo.

Here's confirmation of Motorstorm having custom soundtracks as well as applying post processing to make it seem like the sound is coming from the speakers around the track.

Quote:

Acknowledgement that games these days are dependent on more than just the quality of the gameplay comes in the addition of custom tracks in MotorStorm. Smith says you'll be able to import your own music, which will undergo post-processing on the fly, integrating it more fully into the game.

FELIPE NO

I've been wanting to customize the soundtrack since the Xbox touted that feature. Hopefully it will be an option in most games, including the ones from certain snobby RPG companies who insist that the experience can never be enhanced without the original music.

Demo kiosks coming in October 20th!



Wonder what they mean by pre and post sales? I wonder how long it will take to find out what specials they'll give for their systems. I'd rather reserve the system in Best Buy if it means some cool bonus like a free game or movie.

And the PS3 is going to be hooked up to a sweet setup to boot.



Expect huge lines, but it'll still be entertaining to merely watch.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

That's going to get people REALLY amped for this machine. But won't there be a shortage of demo kiosks and set ups like that? Fear not, for Sony is literally going for the jugular in terms of exposure with the PS3. They've just announced that they're going to spend $30 million to put 5x the number PS2 kiosks in stores. There are 3,000 PS2 kiosks and they're aiming for 15,000. With setups like the above and these in quite a few EBGames and Gamestops, there will be a lot of impressions rolling in.

And like SOLDIER said, they'll start appearing Oct 20th.

Source

Quote:

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp. will use five times the number of U.S. demonstration booths to promote the PlayStation 3 as it did for the last console, part of a plan to keep users from defecting to Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox and Nintendo Co.'s Wii.

Sony, the world's largest maker of video-game consoles, will spend $30 million to put the consoles in 15,000 U.S. and Canadian kiosks during the holiday season, said Jack Tretton, co-chief operating officer of Sony Computer Entertainment America. The 2000 introduction of PlayStation 2, which dominated the last generation of game consoles, used 3,000 demo booths.

``Once the consumers get their hands on a PS3 and understand what's under the hood, I think price will not be a factor in the decision-making process,'' Tretton said in an interview.

Microsoft and Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo combined will sell four times as many consoles as Sony by year-end, partly because of the new PlayStation's $500 starting price and limited supplies, estimates analyst Evan Wilson of Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Oregon. Executives at Tokyo-based Sony will use the booths to convince gamers to wait.

The PlayStation 3's Cell processor, 40 times more powerful than the predecessor, allows game developers to give characters the ability to ``learn'' from experience and change their response to gamers' strategies, Tretton said.

High-Definition

The PlayStation 3 also contains a Blu-ray high-definition DVD player, giving the console the ability to double as a home- entertainment center, Tretton said.

U.S. depositary receipts of Sony rose 23 cents to $41.06 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading and are little changed this year. One depositary receipt is equivalent to one ordinary Sony share.

Nintendo shares rose 840 yen to 23,400 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. They have gained 64 percent this year. Shares of Microsoft rose 25 cents to $27.20 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They have gained 4 percent this year.

PlayStation 3 isn't expected to dominate sales the way the earlier model. Sony's share of the $20 billion game-console market may drop to 40 percent from 60 percent over the next five years, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter said. PlayStation 3 will sell for as much as $600 in the U.S., compared with $300 and $400 for Xbox models and $250 for Wii.

``Consumers aren't sure whether or not they need this amount of technology,'' Wilson said. ``But they're sure $600 seems like a lot of money for a game console.''

Worldwide Forecast

Evans predicts worldwide holiday sales of 4 million units each for Wii and Xbox 360. Sony plans to ship 2 million new consoles in the U.S. and Japan, starting on Nov. 17 in the U.S. In Japan, Sony last week dropped the price of PlayStation 3 models to $430 in response to consumer complaints. Sony has no plans to drop the price in the U.S., Tretton said.

Sony on Sept. 6 delayed the introduction in Europe to March from November because of a shortage of parts for the Blu-ray player.

About half the televisions sold in 2007 will be high- definition sets, a trend that will make the PlayStation 3's high-definition capabilities more attractive, Tretton said.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, said on Sept. 20 that it will sell a high- definition DVD player based on Toshiba Corp.'s rival HD DVD technology for use with the Xbox 360.

Action-Packed

Nintendo, meanwhile, is trying to get children off the couch. The Wii (pronounced ``we'') will offer simpler games, such as tennis and baseball, played with a motion-sensor wireless controller that players can brandish like a sword or swing like a racket, with the movements replicated onscreen. The company's strategy is to appeal to parents who want their children to get more physical activity.

``You don't have to have a consultant to play it,'' said Mike Hickey, an analyst with Janco Partners in Greenwood Village, Colorado. ``The new control system is very innovative and easy to use.''

The real test of PlayStation 3's popularity will come after the holiday season, when the company has worked out the kinks in its production schedule, Tretton said.

``These are the first few steps in a very long marathon,'' he said.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

About the Blu-Ray Player, is it true that it can only be played on Sony Television?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Sepharite

About the Blu-Ray Player, is it true that it can only be played on Sony Television?

That's false. That's gotta be false....That'd better be false, Because if it's true, Sony just dug it's own grave.

But it's false.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The dumbest shit I've ever heard in relation to televisions. If anything, it sounds like something someone from TeamXbox would spout.

Blu-Ray or HD-DVD will play on whatever TV (even SDTVs).

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I mean, specifically PS3's Blue-ray. Not in general.

My teacher mentioned it when describing evil corporations. =S

I was speaking idiomatically.