Playstation3 unveilment: next E3. Now, official.

[nazlec]

keep in mind, PlayStation2 came down something like this:

Jan or Feb 1999 - PS2 CPU revealed at IEEE @ 250 Mhz

March 1999 - full Next Generation PlayStation (PS2) specifications unvieled, including Emotion Engine, Graphics Synthesizer and SPU2.
with real-time tech demos.

E3 1999 - repeat of March tech demos. at least one stand with interactive / playable demo (GT 2000 i think?) - NO CASING shown

Fall 1999 - (TGS?) PS2 console casing unvealed

Feb 2000 (?) - PlayStation Exibition, PS2 games playable?

March 2000 - PlayStation2 launches in Japan

E3 2000 - PlayStation2 on show floor with playable games

Oct 2000 - PlayStation2 launches in the United States

Don' be so pessimistic and rather look at his:
Kutaragi Ken said playable at E3 so...

On the matter of a release date, Ken would not commit to an exact date, but said the machine will follow a similar schedule to market as PS2.

Using this theory, considering the PS2 was first unveiled in playable form at TGS Autumn 1999, followed by the official 'PlayStation Festival' launch event in February 2000, and then finally releasing in Japan one month later in March, we could see the release of PlayStation 3 in Japan as soon as November 2005 - an equal six month measure from the scheduled unveiling.

Source
http://games.kikizo.com/news/200407/015.asp

 

[ysoya]

like curved surface in PS2 and PSP.

PS2 has no hw support for curved surfaces.

What I mean is not a hardware feature but a marketing feature Kutaragi favours.

 

[Guden Oden]

I find it interesting slash humorous how you dismiss PSP's curved surface support as being worthless even before the machine is released, or indeed, before the specifics of the feature having been made public.

That strikes me as somewhat premature/immature.

 

[Qroach]

Guden,

I find it interesting slash humorous how you dismiss PSP's curved surface support as being worthless even before the machine is released, or indeed, before the specifics of the feature having been made public.

If you've tried to make a game using bezier patches you'd know it's not a great idea. Not only that but the patch support on PSP tesselates everything in teh scene, so you can do localized tesselation.

PS2 actually support bez patches.

 

[Guden Oden]

If you've tried to make a game using bezier patches you'd know it's not a great idea.

But has Sony actually SAID bezier patches is what PSP uses? I expect them to know just as well as you do the shortcomings of those particular curved surfaces.

PS2 actually support bez patches.

Hmm? It has no more support for it than any x86 CPU you might care to mention... IE, support can be programmed in software, but there's no hardwired stuff dedicated for it.

 

[London Geezer]

^^ That was my understanding too. Curved surfaces are not "hardware accellerated" in the proper sense by any architecture out today, you still have to transform those curved surfaces into polygons. But i could be wrong. I'm sure i've read something about this some time ago.

 

[Qroach]

But has Sony actually SAID bezier patches is what PSP uses? I expect them to know just as well as you do the shortcomings of those particular curved surfaces.

Actually sony has been pushing for people to use bez patches on PSP development. There's been quite a bit of info released on it already, (even in this forum).

Hmm? It has no more support for it than any x86 CPU you might care to mention... IE, support can be programmed in software, but there's no hardwired stuff dedicated for it.

Well actually you can just give the vector processor a bez patch and it will "basically" handle it for you in a way that's much faster than most intel cpu's could handle it. You of course still need to write the support for this yourself, but the VU is damn fast at it.

 

[ysoya]

In fact, curved surface leads bunch of exceptions and limitations in art pipeline. It cannot replace or even compete with conventional polygon modelling. It's much slower, not effective for usual props like boxes, cannot be applied to skinned animation, hard to mix with polygon, hard to deform, and causes tons of other problems...

Hardware designers or game enthusiasts may want to see NURBS on games, but not developers. Now we have enough (24MB) space on PSP, and no need to fight with messy curves to squeeze memory.

 

[Simon F]

cannot be applied to skinned animation, hard to mix with polygon, hard to deform,

Would you care to explain why you think that is the case, because I can't see there's any problem with them in either of these areas?

 

[Paul]

"We will hold a premier announcement of its specifications and details about the next-generation machine sometime during this fiscal year" to March 2005, said Koichiro Katsurayama, spokesman for the game unit of Sony.

"We will showcase playable models of the new machine at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in Los Angeles next year," he said.

"We also hope to announce software titles for the new machine at the Tokyo Game Show," he said.

No other details, including the name, specification, price or schedule for sales of the new machine have yet been decided, Katsurayama said.

http://seven.com.au/news/worldnews/99855

 

[pc999]

Nintendo cautious on PS3 announcement, Rev. prepares for war

at least we got something to read

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=56023

 

[Lazy8s]

Guden Oden:

I find it interesting slash humorous how you dismiss PSP's curved surface support as being worthless even before the machine is released, or indeed, before the specifics of the feature having been made public.

That strikes me as somewhat premature/immature.

That the level of tesselation can't be varied across a model without cracks forming between patch edges and that LOD support is limited to just interger levels takes away from its potential usefulness.

 

[Guden Oden]

Lazy, I think you simply complain too much.

The screen of the PSP isn't a PC monitor. That LOD levels are integral isn't likely to be very noticeable when the total image is smaller than the page of a standard pocketbook.

 

[ysoya]

cannot be applied to skinned animation, hard to mix with polygon, hard to deform,

Would you care to explain why you think that is the case, because I can't see there's any problem with them in either of these areas?

1. Lack of support. (could be resolved someday..... )
2. Certain kind of animtions are impossible with control points : sphere <-> donut , breaking off, ...

IMHO, though there exist a few areas that NURBS work well, it's not the way to go for the present.

 

[PC-Engine]

Well it's been confirmed that none of the games were running on real hardware. Only the tech demos were.

Confirmed? Would you mind to back it up, with something more solid than your word? How about a link? TIA.

The games that were displayed were not interactive. They were just videos. Only the tech demos were interactive...

 

[ChryZ]

The (PSP) games that were displayed were not interactive. They were just videos. Only the tech demos were interactive...

Reports from E3 are contradicting your last statement to some degree:

http://www.gamepro.com/sony/psp/hardware/features/35590.shtml

Sony had an "interactive demo" for Konami's Metal Gear AC!D that allowed people to move the camera around while the in-engine demo was running. The graphics seemed closer to the PlayStation 2's Metal Gear Solid 2 than the PS one's original, with full 3D environments, shadows, and particle effects. The most notable difference between PlayStation 2 graphics was the lower bit depth, with shades of colors appearing a bit grainy. Polygons were simplified compared to the PS2 Metal Gear, but the difference wasn’t too noticeable.

Namco featured a "playable" demo for Legends of Eternia, a top-down 2D Japanese console RPG. The demo allowed players to walk around the small village, talking to its inhabitants and walking inside houses. Disappointingly, no battle sequences were included in the hands-on. With a 2D-based RPG, we weren't able to see the capabilities of the PSP in full action, but we were able to get a feel for how the handheld controls.

 

[PC-Engine]

Why couldn't those be run on emulators?

 

[London Geezer]

Why couldn't those be run on emulators?

On emulators of the same shape and size of a PSP? Wow...

 

[Guden Oden]

Why couldn't those be run on emulators?

Quite the doubting tom, aren't you?

Why would they run on emus when finished PSPs were already in the hands of devs BEFORE the show??????????

 

[PC-Engine]

Why couldn't those be run on emulators?

On emulators of the same shape and size of a PSP? Wow...

Who said anything about the emulating hardware having to be inside the PSPs on display? You're not very familiar with electronics are you? Using your logic every PS2 controller has to have an EE and GS inside of it.

Why would they run on emus when finished PSPs were already in the hands of devs BEFORE the show??????????

Finished? I heard of developers developing things for it using a devkit, but I don't think that means the hardware was finished.