Project Offset: An Epic Fantasy FPS for PS3? Xbox 360? PC?

[Shifty Geezer]

This is an unfortunate sign of our times...

Gamecloud - Have there been any nibbles from publishers about the game?

Sam McGrath - Yeah, we've received emails from lots of publishers, which is really encouraging!

Publishers have only seen visuals and based on that alone they're showing interest. Great as the visuals are it goes to show that games are judged primarily on screen shots and internet trailers. The actual gameplay could be the biggest pile of poo in history but they'll get a publisher because it looks good. Whereas someone with a new, novel, and amazing game won't get anywhere. If Alexey Pajitnov weren't to have dreamed up Tetris until now it'd never have got anywhere because it looks simple. Project Offset also shows that a three man team can on their own work towards success, which is great, but only if they create a super-dooper graphics engine. A three man team producing the greatest game ever but without that graphics expertise won't get noticed if they limit themselves to simple placeholder graphics in the hopes a publisher would fund a proper graphics team. Reminds me of work in a local school where the teacher was explaining to the kids that sometimes the best books don't have the most colourful covers. Didn't change their choice of read though.

 

[mckmas8808]

This is an unfortunate sign of our times...
Publishers have only seen visuals and based on that alone they're showing interest. Great as the visuals are it goes to show that games are judged primarily on screen shots and internet trailers. The actual gameplay could be the biggest pile of poo in history but they'll get a publisher because it looks good. Whereas someone with a new, novel, and amazing game won't get anywhere. If Alexey Pajitnov weren't to have dreamed up Tetris until now it'd never have got anywhere because it looks simple. Project Offset also shows that a three man team can on their own work towards success, which is great, but only if they create a super-dooper graphics engine. A three man team producing the greatest game ever but without that graphics expertise won't get noticed if they limit themselves to simple placeholder graphics in the hopes a publisher would fund a proper graphics team. Reminds me of work in a local school where the teacher was explaining to the kids that sometimes the best books don't have the most colourful covers. Didn't change their choice of read though.

Good post. Its kind of sad but you're right. But what can you say really? I want to play this game and I don't even know what its about.

Oh and sorry about the full article.

 

[pjbliverpool]

1080p is a resolution that rarely used on PC's and even more rarely in games if ever, pc's don't uses 16:9 monitors, the vast majority is 4:3 , if the game trailer was at 1600x1200 or 1280x1024 i would back up your comment, anyway as i wrote before that clue alone doesn't provide any solid evidence.

I would think more PC gamers will have the option to run a game at 1080p than PS3 users. Its not exactly common on modern TV's.

Either way though I don't think it says anything. The video was almost certainly rendered on PC based dev kits and that resolution would have been chosen simply because its the most impressive. Its doubtfull any console version will offer it.

 

[mckmas8808]

I would think more PC gamers will have the option to run a game at 1080p than PS3 users. Its not exactly common on modern TV's.

Either way though I don't think it says anything. The video was almost certainly rendered on PC based dev kits and that resolution would have been chosen simply because its the most impressive. Its doubtfull any console version will offer it.

Isn't Heavenly Sword being developed so far in 1080p?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

AFAIK Heavenly Sword has been developed at 720p, but Sony asked them to up it for E3. Whether it's still targetted at 720p or 1080p I don't tink anyone's in a position to say.

 

[mckmas8808]

We may find out in a few days at GDC.

 

[BlueTsunami]

I was thinking...1080p?....even though HDTVs don't support that resolution, couldn't you hook up your PS3 to a CRT or LCD Moniter and achieve that resolution?

 

[BTOA]

Project Offset looks hot, I hope it turns out good.

BTW, 1080p HDTV sets to PS3 will be like what 720p sets were to xbox.

 

[mckmas8808]

Project Offset looks hot, I hope it turns out good.

BTW, 1080p HDTV sets to PS3 will be like what 720p sets were to xbox.

I'm sorry but what does that mean?

 

[BlueTsunami]

I'm sorry but what does that mean?

I think hes talking about scarceness of Native 720p HDTV's is likened to how the scarceness of 1080p HDTVs will be to the PS3.

 

[BTOA]

I'm sorry but what does that mean?

When Xbox came out I don't remember there being many HDTV sets out on the market doing 720p, while most HDTV sets at the time were doing 480p/1080i. In the end, Xbox did 720p for some games.

Now, most HDTV sets that are out and coming out are doing 480i/p/720p/1080i. 1080p is a new screen display that will catch on as time passes, but the price at the moment is steep($4k+).

If developers for the PS3 and Xbox 360 offers 1080p games, it'll be like Xbox doing 720p when there wasn't a staturated 720p HDTV market. Since I was an early HDTV buyer I don't have 720p support, but I plan on buying a 1080p set later in the future (2 years from now hopefully). IMO.

 

[BlueTsunami]

I guess the 1080p thing will be easily fixed by just connecting your PS3 to a computer monitor. Sure it won't be a 27-60" Beauty HDTV...but atleast we get to utilize that resolution in some way (if devs even impliment 1080p) instead of not being used at all....i'm all for progressive scan. I will actually want more 720p PS3 games instead of 1080i (1080p would trump them both).

 

[BTOA]

I guess the 1080p thing will be easily fixed by just connecting your PS3 to a computer monitor. Sure it won't be a 27-60" Beauty HDTV...but atleast we get to utilize that resolution in some way (if devs even impliment 1080p) instead of not being used at all....i'm all for progressive scan. I will actually want more 720p PS3 games instead of 1080i (1080p would trump them both).

Agreed.

 

[scooby_dooby]

The difference was that in 2001 there were at least ACTUAL TV's that accepted 720p input.

There's not a single TV on the market to my knowledge that accepts a true 1080p input, they all upscale from 1080i.

Look closely at these so-called 1080p TV sets, they may OUTPUT in 1080p, but the only have INPUTS of 1080i.

ALso this whole 1080p vs 1080i is ridiculous IMO. On my HDTV when I watch HD Movie trailers the image quality is SICK. Freakin SICK. And If I switch it to 1080i, 720p, 540p, it doesn't even make a notieceable difference, no watter what you set the output too, the end result is amazing picture quality.

As long as it's 720p I'm happy.

 

[BTOA]

The difference was that in 2001 there were at least ACTUAL TV's that accepted 720p input.

There's not a single TV on the market to my knowledge that accepts a true 1080p input, they all upscale from 1080i.

Look closely at these so-called 1080p TV sets, they may OUTPUT in 1080p, but the only have INPUTS of 1080i.

ALso this whole 1080p vs 1080i is ridiculous IMO. On my HDTV when I watch HD Movie trailers the image quality is SICK. Freakin SICK. And If I switch it to 1080i, 720p, 540p, it doesn't even make a notieceable difference, no watter what you set the output too, the end result is amazing picture quality.

As long as it's 720p I'm happy.

I can actually see the difference when I switch a HDTV satelite box's output signal from 720p to 1080i and vice versa, where 1080i looks the best. You can test it yourself, there is a notice able difference between the two.

 

[Bad_Boy]

And If I switch it to 1080i, 720p, 540p, it doesn't even make a notieceable difference

yeah theres something wrong with that.

anyways, i agree with the 720p xbox alalogy. i feel there will be few full supported 1080p games, in the beginning at least. but it does make a bit more future proof to have that just incase we are wrong. in a few years its hard to say what and how many titles we will have available at 1080p.

 

[DudeMiester]

And If I switch it to 1080i, 720p, 540p, it doesn't even make a notieceable difference, no watter what you set the output too, the end result is amazing picture quality.

Actually many TVs while they say they accept 1080i, they don't actually display that as it physically doesn't have that may display pixels. They just downscale. I suspect this is the case with your TV.

 

[Acert93]

Not that downscaling is all that bad.

"Real Life" TV footage looks infinately better than a game, even at higher resolutions. The reason being you have "downsampled" a high fidelity image.

While higher resolutions make things more clean and bring out more detail, downsampling is far better than rendering at a lower resolution.

I think this applies to games more so as frequently games are "empty" at higher resolutions. We are still at the era where poly edges and texture pixilation and rough shadow edges can still be found. Taking the larger, cleaner picture and downsampling it can really tone down some of the rough edges.

I recently watched I, Robot on a 48" 16:9 HDTV. Even though it was not "high definition" the image quality is a billion times better than a game. That is because a "perfect" image--real life--was condensed to a lower resolution.

If I had to choose between 640x480 movie or a 1600x1200 3D "lego" cartoon I would choose the movie!

I am not knocking resolution of course. It is one of the CHEAPEST ways to improve image quality. There is only so much we can do in improving poly count, texture fidelity, and so forth. So resolution is a nice perk. But until games have more detail in their "assets" I see little downside to downsampling a higher resolution image.

The only thing I can think of is text and the fact very small stuff in the distance is harder to make out fine detail. So non-HD is poor for email, surfing the net, and ingame text.

 

[scooby_dooby]

My TV's 1080i.

I can playback videos using XBMC in either 720p or 1080i format. I can also switch my TV between 540p and 1080i.

I really don't see any difference it looks equally awesome in all the modes.
http://www.hitachi.us/tv/browse/projection/16-9digital_mon/46F510.shtml

I can't tell a difference on video playback, but have noticed that on 720p games, the 1080i resolution looks a liiiiiitle bit crisper than my 540p. But man, the difference is hardly worth mentioning IMO.

 

[Acert93]

Interesting. The PDF says of the 1080i resolution "More than 90% of the 1080 vertical signal is displayed." I don't know why they don't give more detailed/accurate stats right on the box. Call me paranoid, but I want to know the exact resolution of my set.

Anyhow, 90% of 1080 = 972. Since it is interlaced, you can cut that in half to 486. 486 is aweful close to 480 (i.e. 480p, 640x480). It seems it can do a 540p 16:9 (960x540) image natively though, which should be much a bit better than a 480p wide screen image (853x480). I wonder: How many horizontal pixels can it display? I am sure DemoCoder could answer that

I personally prefer proscan images. 720p or 1080p please Although that is a NICE TV, not knocking it at all!