Why are most PS3 games 780p?

blueboxer

Just noticed that almost all of my PS3 games are limited to 780p, I thought this was really odd considering one of the main selling points of the PS3 is its blu-ray capabilities. Seems really odd to limit their games to 780p and dolby digital. Are these just the older games or did I miss something?

AsSiMiLaTeD

I've never heard of 780P, so you've got me there.

polkfarmboy

Its 730p lol

leroyjr1

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

I've never heard of 780P, so you've got me there.

Its 720p. My call of duty black ops is 1080p. Some are some aren't.

bobman1235

Yeah, they should really update to 1020i.

/snark

GoBigBlue

It's the developer's choice to go either 1080p or 720p - my guess is to save on time and money.

kuntasensei

blueboxer wrote: »

Just noticed that almost all of my PS3 games are limited to 780p, I thought this was really odd considering one of the main selling points of the PS3 is its blu-ray capabilities. Seems really odd to limit their games to 780p and dolby digital. Are these just the older games or did I miss something?

It's because despite the power of the Cell processor, the RSX chipset from Nvidia wasn't exactly "cutting edge" when they implemented it. With all the consoles, they have to make tradeoffs depending on their available CPU/GPU budget. In many cases, developers can either do 1080p with minimal anti-aliasing or 720p with 4x AA, which may look better, for example. It's up to the individual developer to decide how to use the available power so the game looks its best.

Xbox 360 is no different, except it has a dedicated scaling chip that lets them output 1080p even if the game itself is internally rendering at 720p or lower.

cheddar

blueboxer wrote: »

Seems really odd to limit their games to ... dolby digital.

Several games support 7.1 uncompressed PCM which is basically lossless since it isn't compressed in the first place with Dolby or DTS.

blueboxer

kuntasensei wrote: »

It's because despite the power of the Cell processor, the RSX chipset from Nvidia wasn't exactly "cutting edge" when they implemented it. With all the consoles, they have to make tradeoffs depending on their available CPU/GPU budget. In many cases, developers can either do 1080p with minimal anti-aliasing or 720p with 4x AA, which may look better, for example. It's up to the individual developer to decide how to use the available power so the game looks its best.

Xbox 360 is no different, except it has a dedicated scaling chip that lets them output 1080p even if the game itself is internally rendering at 720p or lower.

My bad, sleep depravation has gotten to me, but thanks for an actual answer. I just assumed that putting out 1080p on a blu-ray movie would require the same processing power as a video game. I do notice a improvement whenever Dolby HD is available, but think I still rather buy a title offered for both consoles for my 360.

jbooker82

kuntasensei wrote: »

Xbox 360 is no different, except it has a dedicated scaling chip that lets them output 1080p even if the game itself is internally rendering at 720p or lower.

So wouldnt that be the same thing as playing a 720P ps3 game and having my onkyo avr upscale it to 1080P? The xbox is just upscaling it before it hits the avr or tv.

Joe08867

720 721 whatever it takes.....

kuntasensei

jbooker82 wrote: »

So wouldnt that be the same thing as playing a 720P ps3 game and having my onkyo avr upscale it to 1080P? The xbox is just upscaling it before it hits the avr or tv.

Yes and no. The Xbox 360 does some post-processing/AA in the scaler chip that can often make games have less jaggies than if they were just upscaled directly in your display or AVR. For the most part, the differences would be subtle, but a lot of times when you see those silly comparisons of the same game on PS3 and 360, that scaling and processing is what makes it appear that the 360 has the smoother picture even if both are rendered at the same resolution internally. Either way, no big whoop... Both consoles rarely render directly to 1080p, so you're scaling it somewhere in the chain no matter what.

cheddar

blueboxer wrote: »

My bad, sleep depravation has gotten to me, but thanks for an actual answer. I just assumed that putting out 1080p on a blu-ray movie would require the same processing power as a video game.

Actually playing a blu-ray is much easier on the ps3 than playing a video game. The 1080p video off the blu-ray is pre-rendered and the ps3 just has to display what it reads. Video games change as the game is played. The ps3 first has to calculate the changing game state (as a player moves around and shoots things for example), then it has to calculate how to graphically represent it, then it displays it.

All those extra game capabilities make the ps3 overengineered as a blu-ray player and that's why it was firmware upgradable to keep it current with dedicated players all these years.