Digital Foundry Retro Discussion [2022]
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- cell is dead
I guess PS3 is more Retro than current...
DF looks at PS3 Emulation @ https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfo...ted-revisiting-metal-gear-solid-4-at-4k-60fps
PlayStation 3 emulation tested: revisiting Metal Gear Solid 4 at 4K 60fps with RPCS3
Plus: the challenges in running PS3 games on PS5 become clear.
There's a wealth of PlayStation 3 exclusive games that remain locked to the system - console-exclusive titles that sold millions of copies in their day that are no longer playable natively on modern systems. Sony itself has a system in place to make them accessible at least - the streaming-based PlayStation Now - but what you're looking at are compromised versions of the original experience, marred with image quality and latency problems. However, there is a route forward, albeit to a limited audience. The open source RPCS3 emulator allows PC users to access the PlayStation 3 library, and I've been playing Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots at 4K resolution at 60fps, with 16x anisotropic filtering. It's a remarkable showcase of what could be, whether it is via local emulation on a PlayStation console, or via a Bluepoint-class remaster.
At Digital Foundry, we always desire the highest possible frame-rates with new game releases but also understand this isn't always possible, but Metal Gear Solid 4 is an interesting case as it's a game that teased us with the possibility of 60 frames per second only to stomp on our dreams with its eventual release. Flash back to the Tokyo Game Show in 2005 and we saw a game trailer running flat out at 60 frames per second - a far cry from the final release, that mostly operated in a 20-30fps window. The game did run unlocked, however, so there were sparing sections where 60fps was possible - a teaser of the game it was supposed to be
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DF looks at PS3 Emulation @ https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfo...ted-revisiting-metal-gear-solid-4-at-4k-60fps
PlayStation 3 emulation tested: revisiting Metal Gear Solid 4 at 4K 60fps with RPCS3
Plus: the challenges in running PS3 games on PS5 become clear.
There's a wealth of PlayStation 3 exclusive games that remain locked to the system - console-exclusive titles that sold millions of copies in their day that are no longer playable natively on modern systems. Sony itself has a system in place to make them accessible at least - the streaming-based PlayStation Now - but what you're looking at are compromised versions of the original experience, marred with image quality and latency problems. However, there is a route forward, albeit to a limited audience. The open source RPCS3 emulator allows PC users to access the PlayStation 3 library, and I've been playing Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots at 4K resolution at 60fps, with 16x anisotropic filtering. It's a remarkable showcase of what could be, whether it is via local emulation on a PlayStation console, or via a Bluepoint-class remaster.
At Digital Foundry, we always desire the highest possible frame-rates with new game releases but also understand this isn't always possible, but Metal Gear Solid 4 is an interesting case as it's a game that teased us with the possibility of 60 frames per second only to stomp on our dreams with its eventual release. Flash back to the Tokyo Game Show in 2005 and we saw a game trailer running flat out at 60 frames per second - a far cry from the final release, that mostly operated in a 20-30fps window. The game did run unlocked, however, so there were sparing sections where 60fps was possible - a teaser of the game it was supposed to be
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davis.anthony
Veteran
Didn't think emulation speak would be covered in here considering the nature of them needing illegal BIOS files to function.
They aren't illegal. They use Sony's own BIOS, downloaded from Sony.
Sony could stop this if they wanted so they are clearly okay with PC emulation of old consoles.
Edit: Furthermore, work on emulators like these have ended up powering official paid-for products, so it's in Sony et al's interests to let hobbiests work out how to create these emulators for free for them to then use in later years to sell nostalgia products.
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Free development and time for Sony, only good.
There was a post on Reddit from someone who worked on the game that has some interesting bits in it.
A bit annoying how the person there assumes we mean "real specular" when we are saying the word as if we are ignorant. The game's menu labels the environment maps as "specular" which is why we say that and we at one point even say it is environment maps and not real specular.
A bit annoying how the person there assumes we mean "real specular" when we are saying the word as if we are ignorant. The game's menu labels the environment maps as "specular" which is why we say that and we at one point even say it is environment maps and not real specular.
Yeah, his comment on "specular" made me wrinkle my nose. Your usage of it was perfectly valid, especially considering it was clearly being used as a catch-all for the effect rather than a reference to any particular method. It's not like the phong model has any kind of claim to terms relating to specularity, diffusion, etc. Rather than 'specular' you could have said reflective, mirror, shiny metallic, not-diffuse, not-lambertian, etc. To throw him a bone, I imagine that he just got a bit bristly over the video and picked a silly hill to make his point.
Is that running in Excel without VB/scripting, or is it just using Excel as an output? This guy encoded a Doom engine in Excel in an alternative coding paradigm, it seems...
Regarding mipmaps and texture filtering on Soldier of Fortune... Isn't there a console command to turn off filtering? I know you can do it in Sin. In fact you can have mipmaps with unfiltered textures so you don't get a bunch of shimmering in the distance but you get sharp texels. Maybe I'll buy the game again on GOG and find out.
OK, I did it. I bought a game I already own because I was too lazy to get the disc and hook up an external optical drive. You can in fact turn off mipmaps. There are options menu has settings for no filtering, bilinear, bilinear + mipmaps, and trilinear. I will say, though, I think I like filtered textures in this game. In Sin, I like the unfiltered look, but in SoF, the textures look really noisy at a distance even at high resolutions. Also, the GOG version work pretty well on modern systems, from my 1 computer sample size anyway. Although it doesn't support widescreen without mods. And unlike Sin, it doesn't change resolutions between gameplay and the menu.
Ive done that so many times
Its so dirt cheap (gog, steam etc) not worth the hassle to search snd install discs. Usually via steam/gog its patched and all aswell. Faster too
Yeah, it was on sale. They got me for about $40 though because there were other games on my wishlist on sale.
I also have a feeling it will be on Gamepass once the Activision sale goes though, but I didn't want to wait.
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