New technical info on the PS3 version of Oblivion

[Geo]

Is the CF feeling surly today? Lots of minor snotty type posts being reported today. How about everybody try a little transcendental meditation, or some aroma therapy, or one of those little water over rocks desk units, or maybe a nice warm bath, to calm the nerves a touch . . .

 

[AlNom]

Is the CF feeling surly today? Lots of minor snotty type posts being reported today. How about everybody try a little transcendental meditation, or some aroma therapy, or one of those little water over rocks desk units, or maybe a nice warm bath, to calm the nerves a touch . . .

"What, are you gay?"
-Zapp Brannigan

 

[El Leone]

Sorry to go off topic...But I love futurama, but I think you got the quote wrong. I think its goes...

"What are you, gay?"

 

[Geo]

"What, are you gay?"
-Zapp Brannigan

No, but as bitchy as its been in CF today, I'm beginning to wonder about y'all!


"Not that there's anything wrong with that."

 

[Rolf N]

Oh wee!
Are Oblivion on PS3 going to have HDR+AA??

There's no AA on the screenshot if you ask me.

 

[Arctic Permafrost]

For an SPE to do actual MSAA, it would require that the SPE handle all blending and backbuffer writes/reads. I suppose something different, like an edge-based blur filter over the final frame would be possible, though I don't know if that would just produce even worse results or not. (I don't even mess with photoshop, for reference)

FP16 + MSAA isn't possible, but in that case, I'd just bet on a different storage format instead. While they've been fixing the LOD algorithm, and they're working on a fixed platform, I wouldn't put it past them to work out a storage format. Or perhaps not.

As far as I know GRAW has also used the CPU to create HDR effects in the game. But I don't see Bethesda doing the same thing.

_________________________

"Unlucky in games, lucky in love"

Gamertag: Cyaneyes

 

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

As far as I know GRAW has also used the CPU to create HDR effects in the game. But I don't see Bethesda doing the same thing.

GRAW uses the CPU to do the tonemapping stage (for reference, mapping values outside of [0, 1] to the displayable range of [0,1], also dealing with how quickly these changes occur depending on changing averages between scenes and such). The GPU still has to be able to store HDR information in an acceptable backbuffer format.

 

[Rolf N]

While we're on the subject of HDR + AA, with a game like Oblivion probably not using the SPE's all that much, could you use an SPE for AA? Shouldn't be too hard, should it? I mean, maybe the RSX can't do HDR and AA at the same time, but does it have to? Or is AA something that you really can't leave to Cell?

If you want Cell to do the AA, you will have to use Cell to render the pixels, too!
AA isn't something you can just offload to another processor. The fundamental concept for all methods of AA is rendering stuff with more precision. And you know you want to use a proper graphics accelerator for that. That's what it was built for. Cell can't match RSX in graphics performance.

 

[btdvox]

Hi there this is my first post here- but Ive been reading lots of great info for a while- I just wanted to see if i was right about somethings-

a) the 360 version of oblivion uses fp10- thus also uses 4X AA i beleive, so when people say its using FP16 and AA that would be incorrect. I guess people automatically think people are talking bout FP16 when they say HDR- which i dont know is true?

b) The PC version uses FP16 thus if you have a nvidia chip or a ati chip older than X1000 series you cant use FP16+AA- from some benchmarks ive seen- the X1800XT can do 20-35FP with those two together.

c) I wanted to know if the 360 has any games yet that uses fp 16 with AA? it seems there sticking to using fp10 - I heard the PS3 is very capable of using FP10 and AA together? whats the big conspiracy and the whole ps3 cant do HDR +AA? its very capable of doing it-

Thanks! please let me know what ive said wrong

 

[Arctic Permafrost]

It may be but its the same with Fight Night on PS3 aswel, the HDR is alot more natural in that game aswel, again its FP10 vs FP16. Surely the extra range FP16 has would alter the lighting?

Can anyone of the tech guru's shed some light on this?

FNR looks better on the PS3, I won't deny it categorically, but, as far as I know you play the game in first person view, the view is brought in almost too close, like it's 80% closer than X360 version, so the engine can draw more polygons.

Even so, FP16 is not that great, XTS version has a more natural lighting (both direct and indirect), PS3 version lacks that and also boxers' clothes shine a bit too much to my taste, in contrast to X360 version, wich is almost real.

________________

"Unlucky in games, lucky in love"

Gamertag: Cyaneyes

 

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

Hi there this is my first post here- but Ive been reading lots of great info for a while- I just wanted to see if i was right about somethings-

Welcome!

a) the 360 version of oblivion uses fp10- thus also uses 4X AA i beleive, so when people say its using FP16 and AA that would be incorrect. I guess people automatically think people are talking bout FP16 when they say HDR- which i dont know is true?

Yes, those people would be incorrect, and many people do automatically assume that HDR implies FP16, which is very much false (Heavenly Sword, Half-Life 2, Halo 3, any Xbox 360 game).

b) The PC version uses FP16 thus if you have a nvidia chip or a ati chip older than X1000 series you cant use FP16+AA- from some benchmarks ive seen- the X1800XT can do 20-35FP with those two together.

Presently true, as far as I remember.

c) I wanted to know if the 360 has any games yet that uses fp 16 with AA? it seems there sticking to using fp10 - I heard the PS3 is very capable of using FP10 and AA together? whats the big conspiracy and the whole ps3 cant do HDR +AA? its very capable of doing it-

You (most likely) won't see any FP16 HDR on 360, as the GPU doesn't support framebuffer blending in that format. FP10 has full speed blending, which is why it's probably going to be a preferred format for most games. There's a 16-bit fixed point (FX16) format with half-speed blending which may see use. Some games will go for the custom formats though, such as Heavenly Sword on PS3 and Halo 3 on 360. FP10 is unique to the 360 GPU, to my memory. NAO32 is another 32-bits-per-pixel format that works for HDR, however, and does support MSAA. Unfortunately, as noted, people really are stuck on this idea that FP16+MSAA being impossible means that HDR+AA is impossible as well, which is totally and completely false. (For one, there's the fact that FP16 + SSAA is very much possible--though costly; and Two, there are better ways to do HDR than using FP16, they just tend to involve more work)

 

[Arctic Permafrost]

Welcome!

Yes, those people would be incorrect, and many people do automatically assume that HDR implies FP16, which is very much false (Heavenly Sword, Half-Life 2, Halo 3, any Xbox 360 game). (...)

(...) there are better ways to do HDR than using FP16, they just tend to involve more work)

Agreed. I remember Mintmaster stating rather grandly, with his great style, intelligence and writing skills, that FP10 is just great.

____________________

"Unlucky in games, lucky in love"

Gamertag: Cyaneyes