PlayStation 4 (codename Orbis) technical hardware investigation (news and rumours)

Same... I bought a WD10JPVX 1TB Blue drive. It will probably be a bit faster than the stock 500GB and it was just over $80.

 

What would be the point? Old games weren't programmed with caching in mind, there's no mechanism for them to indicate what to pre-load, and once a level is over and done with there's no point in retaining it in a cache. Also, it's a feature which would have to be tested, debugged, maintained and so on for no genuine gain - why would anyone want to burn money implementing it?

 

I got a mov file. Looks very, very slick!

 

Those 60fps direct feed videos usually look smoother than what I get from 60fps games I experience first hand

 

Pretty much all OS`s implement automatic caching, I dunno if you are deliberately trying to misinterpret my posts?
If you want an explicit example, the PSP had a hardware revision that doubled its RAM. Resulting in games loading considerably faster since the OS would use this excess RAM for filesystem caching (dont think any game had an issue with race-conditions).
Even if you have a perfect game where all your data is accessed exactly once, you would still want the directories cached...

 

the extra 32MB of the PSP revision doesn't change the max allowed memory for titles though, they are still limited to 32MB for compatibility reasons.

 

https://twitter.com/MvdLeeuwGG/status/397478482868858880

KZ SF use FXAA et TMAA

 

Nope. But it did use the extra RAM for chaching the UMD drive I think. And run Skype, of course.

 

Consoles aren't exactly OSes though. Caching is useful when re-using the same data several times, as is often the case in regular desktop computers. You start a program, do something, close it, second time you start it again it starts up faster if it's cached. Consoles don't work like that, and since you're on a fixed hardware that realistically isn't going to change in its entire lifetime (fragments the user base), you would want to use any free'd up RAM for something more useful than just caching data which you could just as well simply load when you actually need it.

 

Could someone expand what TMAA is?

 

In terms of 'what to use the RAM for', here's a video from GAF of a Taiwan demo.

The user 'alt-tabs' out of Knack to the XMB, starts a browser, returns to knack then alt-tabs back to the browser at a later point... (there's also a vita bit and the IQ is not so great!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spEqbZmDcng

Very smooth UI.

 

There is something called transparency multisampling AA (to reduce aliasing in transparency because MSAA can't deal with it). But in KZSF case, it probably means something else because you don't need transparency AA if you use FXAA. My guess is they use some form of temporal anti aliasing combined with FXAA.

 

Nice !

 

That looks great, I've just updated my Vita with v3.00 firmware and Call of Duty arrived this morning. Now I've only got to wait 24 days to play it...

 

Can someone explain me whats the difference between this and snapping on the XB1?

 

Snapping lets you place the OS Apps & Game on the screen next to each other for multitasking.

 

In other words both consoles are running multiple apps simultaneously? The only difference is that they are all visible on screen simultaneously on the XB1?
I dont see what is so unique that Sony wont be replicating in the future. The only thing impossible to replicate is displaying something that comes directly from an external source. Its so close, both appear almost identical to me and I wonder why Sony hasnt done it too.

 

I haven't seen any indication that game and OS app are running simultaneously o the PS4. The X1 is running them simultaneously while snapped, and I imagine certain aspects in the background as well.

 

I think the smart phone model of app switching is fine. I'm not sure how a gamer can play a game and web browse or watch youtube at the same time.

 

This would jive with my understanding of whats going on, PS4 O/S would appear to 'tombstone' the app while the game is running and then load it again when the app is swapped into focus. 'Tombstoning' is when an app and its running state are saved to disk or RAM (likely RAM in the PS4 O/S) when focus is lost, when focus is regained state + app are loaded so it seems as if its been running the whole time. Most commonly seen in mobile O/S where you want to minimise the amount of resources used at all times to extend battery life. To enable multi-tasking APIs are offered to app developers instead that allow the app to update/play music/do whatever without actually having to load the app and all its UI code, etc.

Of course I'm pretty sure I've grossly oversimplified the whole tombstoning concept and look forward to being corrected