Exclusive: Hands-On with PlayStation 3

Kikizo presents a detailed, early account of its first-hand experience with a little known console called PS3. Is it looking like a new generational leap, or emotion engine tears? We have some answers.

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RSX on a First Date

PS3's RSX graphics chip, dubbed "Reality Synthesiser" - a buzzword not tactically dissimilar from the "Emotion Engine" moniker given to PS2 - is based on Nvidia's cutting-edge Next Gen architecture, and allegedly twice as powerful as its GeForce 6800 Ultra. The goal announced back in May was to fully harness the mythical power and bandwidth available from the Cell processor, to use RSX's crazy multi-way shader pipelines and 128-bit pixel precision, and try to reach movie-quality visuals. Nvidia practically invented this shader stuff, so it's got to be straightforward from here. We expect the visual quality and vivid realism you get from pre-rendered special effects in movies, right now, in realtime on PS3, because that's what has been promised. Now that we've played it, have they reached that goal? Really reached it? The short answer is no, of course not - but it's not an ugly picture by any means.

Ken Kutaragi's plan for PS3 is shaping up quite well, but some features are in doubt, and things a little behind schedule.

As game technology moves on, so does CG animation, and it seems the former might never catch up with the latter. Our developer offers his view: "We will never reach [up-to-date] Pixar-quality visuals at 1080p, sixty frames per second [in games]. Realtime graphics [technology development] moves fast, but so does CG - you just can't compare realtime games with things that takes a team of 200 people working on render farms for 18 months to make a bunch of stills for a 90 minute movie. If you look at the first animation movie Pixar did, it's stuff that a demo coder could now make with little effort in realtime on a Nintendo 64 or even a PS1."

The Enemy of Graphics

Perhaps the biggest bombshell we've learned in the world of PS3 development right now is that many (if not most) games are simply running in 720p - not the ambitious, bleeding edge 1080p "Full HD" standard that Sony had us so excited about. And certainly, not two of them stuck together for a ludicrous 32:9 double-1080p.

MGS4 is the most impressive 'genuine' PS3 output to date

Nvidia was on the money with its President's comments last May: resolution is indeed the enemy of graphics. Our insider explains: "Sony wanted 1080p, but we're working at 720p and 1080i, same as on the Xbox 360. Even with [final hardware] in mind, reaching good frame rates at 1080p with next-gen graphics is almost impossible. Instead many developers, ourselves included, are reworking so they run at 720p. PS3's output takes care of upscaling it - so no native 1080p, but it still looks killer." Perhaps there was always a specific reason why Sony felt it should say "up to 1080p"?

The controller we used was a generic USB controller. Sony plans to change the unpopular concept design while retaining the familiar DualShock 2 layout, which all developers are working to

But the vast majority of PS3 gamers may not see this apparent hiccup as an issue; the tiny (projected) proportion of players lucky enough to own Full HD 1080p sets will see little difference; both 720p and 1080i are already visually stunning, and PS3 competently upscales. Even if it couldn't, most 1080p screens will supposedly upscale pretty well by themselves. Some developers even see this situation as a positive one: "It's not going to be a big deal for players, but it helps conserve CPU cycles so it's certainly a big deal to us."

So is the 1080p dream lost? It's hard to say for sure, but the developer suggests some games will still support it. "I think native 1080p games will be in the minority. Getting the best effects and performance is easier at lower resolution, so we can offer the gamers more thrills. I don't think this situation will change much."

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