PS3 audio capabilities

[JaylumX]

I have noticed that some games on the PS3 support LPCM 7.1 like Metal Gear Solid 4 and God of War 3. Is the game audio truely lossless in the same fashion as movies or is it just a lossy audio track (AC3 or DTS) that has been decoded to PCM for compatability sack thus while the audio output is LPCM, the level of detail you hear is lossless- much like watching an AC3 encoded film on a PC

Cheers

 

[AlNom]

The way it is output should be independent of the nature of the source files. It would make sense for the audio to be compressed on disc (lossless at best) as that will affect streaming/loading times. When it is processed in the engine, that's where you will get your audio files decoded/decompressed then encoded to AC3 or DTS formats or simply output as LPCM. That way it's just the end-user that selects the format desired.

 

[patsu]

I have noticed that some games on the PS3 support LPCM 7.1 like Metal Gear Solid 4 and God of War 3. Is the game audio truely lossless in the same fashion as movies or is it just a lossy audio track (AC3 or DTS) that has been decoded to PCM for compatability sack thus while the audio output is LPCM, the level of detail you hear is lossless- much like watching an AC3 encoded film on a PC

http://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-games-playstation-3/62366-lossless-audio-ps3-games.html#post1122376

MGS4 is PCM 7.1 according to my receiver. My PS3 games that use Dolby Digital show it as such on the receiver as well.

 

[Mobius1aic]

Both the 360 and PS3 use their main processors for sound rendering correct? And since the PS3 has blu-ray playback it is 192 KHz capable?

 

[patsu]

Gamasutra has a few articles on Xbox 360 and PS3 audio:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3814/nextgen_audio_squareoff_.php
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4257/the_next_big_steps_in_game_sound_.php
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20294


We got 1-2 articles from earlier GDC:
OpenAL and MIDI: http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/08/midi-is-the-future-of-game-audio/

To my dismay, I can't find the slides.

 

[JaylumX]

Thank you fellas

 

[Arwin]

Both the 360 and PS3 use their main processors for sound rendering correct? And since the PS3 has blu-ray playback it is 192 KHz capable?

Not necessarily. The RSX has 7.1 Audio capabilities if I remember correctly. Obviously the PS3 will use some SPE stuff for real-time audio processing in surround if the developers go for that (like in Uncharted, Resistance, etc.)

Since a little while, Digital Foundry also includes sound capabilities in their comparisons. The first time they did so they spent a little more time on it, so that might have some details. If I remember correctly, then yes, some games will stream uncompressed audio. Also, games don't necessarily suffer much if they read compressed audio from disc, uncompress it and then process it (for instance in space) and then send it to the mixer.

And yes, PS3 can do 192 Khz, for BluRay at least.

 

[Gitaroo]

I remember some article about Sony saying PS3 is 7.1 native, 27mb of the reserve memory is for the pcm 7.1 audio or something. Can find the source, but my memory can be wrong.

 

[Arwin]

This was what I was thinking of:

So what's new? We've ignored the superior range of surround sound options possessed by the PS3 for too long, so for those of you who have their consoles hooked up to a decent amplifier capable of multiple audio decoding options, now you can see where PS3 employs less compression or additional sound channels. While Xbox 360 games are standardised at max quality 640kbps Dolby Digital 5.1, PlayStation 3 supports the same format and also 5.1 lossless PCM, 7.1 lossless PCM, plus fan-favourite DTS. This is now highlighted for each game.

Coming from http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-xbox360-vs-ps3-round-25-face-off from which point on DF includes supported sound formats for each game.

 

[liolio]

OT
It's too bad no musical software editor dares to launch their software on the ps3.
I'm sure the ps3 would make an unbelievably good sound processor.

That would have sold me on a PS3 a long time ago

/OT

 

[patsu]

Touche ! Waiting for the new Harmonix to come up with something. ^_^

 

[KOF]

From my experience, PS3 games output in 48khz LPCM, with majority of games outputting in 5.1. One thing to note for those remaining few 7.1 games is there is no downmixing provided by PS3, so you must go back to DD if either your pre and/or speakers are 5.1 only, otherwise, you end up losing the entire spectrum of rear back channels. I was using Harman Kardon 347 and at that time, my receiver did not support downmixing of 7.1 LPCM contents to 5.1.

 

[TheD]

OT
It's too bad no musical software editor dares to launch their software on the ps3.
I'm sure the ps3 would make an unbelievably good sound processor.

That would have sold me on a PS3 a long time ago

/OT

The PS3 would not have anything on a PC, in fact it would be a lot worse.

For one it I doubt it would support any VST plugins.
VST plugins have to be compiled not only for the OS but also for the architecture and I doubt sony or the DAW maker would want to have to go and compile other peoples code for them and at the same time people would not want to wait for the plugins they need to use to be compiled for the PS3 if they ever are.


To the OP:
I don't think you understand how game audio works (at least in your first post) so I want to clear up a few things.

Games do not have an audio track the same way a video has, what they have are sound samples (that can be in any format) that are played when stuff happens in the game and then have FX added and are mixed with each other then output as LPCM or encoded to a lossy or lossless sound format and then output.

 

[SG79]

http://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-games-playstation-3/62366-lossless-audio-ps3-games.html#post1122376

He probably needs to adjust the display of his receiver. MGS4 supported LPCM 5.1 only, and if a game doesn't support LPCM options, it'll just default to DD or the next best thing from it (some games support DTS as well). Granted, it's a rarity to see a game's box noting support of various formats but the JPN ones do.

AFAIK, the only non-Sony published title to use LPCM 7.1 was Batman AA.

 

[Arwin]

He probably needs to adjust the display of his receiver. MGS4 supported LPCM 5.1 only, and if a game doesn't support LPCM options, it'll just default to DD or the next best thing from it (some games support DTS as well). Granted, it's a rarity to see a game's box noting support of various formats but the JPN ones do.

AFAIK, the only non-Sony published title to use LPCM 7.1 was Batman AA.

There were more. I remember one of the Rally games did, for instance.

 

[Lucid_Dreamer]

He probably needs to adjust the display of his receiver. MGS4 supported LPCM 5.1 only, and if a game doesn't support LPCM options, it'll just default to DD or the next best thing from it (some games support DTS as well). Granted, it's a rarity to see a game's box noting support of various formats but the JPN ones do.

AFAIK, the only non-Sony published title to use LPCM 7.1 was Batman AA.

This is a two year old list, so it is probably a lot longer now.

http://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-games-playstation-3/63546-ps3-games-support-7-1-lpcm.html

 

[Gitaroo]

castlevania have 7.1 pcm too.