Questions about PS2

[Liandry]

what do you guys think was the most technically impressive game on PS2? Personally I say Ghost Hunter, it has high poly characters model, light map for flash light which is absent in all silent hill games on PS2, 3D water, individual grass that interact with the character, 480p + widescreen and advance post fx at the time. All of that and solid performance and I thought I was playing a high end Xbox 1 game. Many says GT4 since it got 1080i support and runs at 60fps with high quality car models at the time.

Ghosthunter is one of the best! That's true. Some time ago my top list was Black, God of War 2, GT4 and Shadow of the Colossus. Now I think I can add to this list Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie. Great game with amazing graphics. 3D ocean, real 3D light shafts like in X360 and PS3 games, high res textures (for PS2), good smoke and fire effects, a lots of foliage (in some places it even interacts with player, his friens and enemies, and also in many places player can burn grass) , absolutely great motion blur, All this makes this game graphics in my opinion even better than Black. You shoud check this game. Here is a good example.

Some great stuff starts from 2:50 and then I thin best place to see 3D lightshafts in this video is 10:09.
One more game with great graphics is Cal of Duty: World at War: Fina Fronts.

 

[Gitaroo]

Honestly, outside of maybe 3d wave which was more impressive on mgs2 I thought, king kong doesn't look that great doesn't seems to run that great either. Game looks like a ps2 game for sure, didn't give me the impression of how can it run on ps2. Black was different, the game looks normal when you start, until all the chaos like explosions and destruction happen and PS2 performance still hold up. There was also one fps that I find impressive at the time called area51, it has cascaded shadows and detail texture and bloom that you don't find in many PS2 game.

 

[Liandry]

Honestly, outside of maybe 3d wave which was more impressive on mgs2 I thought, king kong doesn't look that great doesn't seems to run that great either. Game looks like a ps2 game for sure, didn't give me the impression of how can it run on ps2.

This video is just start of game, and don't show much. Much more grea stuff starts from some missions ahead.

There was also one fps that I find impressive at the time called area51, it has cascaded shadows and detail texture and bloom that you don't find in many PS2 game.

Yes, this was great, but one thing wasn't so good. Low poly. Other things was impressive.

 

[Gitaroo]

This video is just start of game, and don't show much. Much more grea stuff starts from some missions ahead.


Yes, this was great, but one thing wasn't so good. Low poly. Other things was impressive.

I seen someone playing the later part of the game, dont remember I was impress maybe thats because Iplayed it on 360 first. Was there any fps on that gen that actually have high poly? I can remember a single fps that have high poly char models, having hardware level bump map support really helps xbox. HL2 on xbox was probably as high as it gets.

 

[dogen]

what do you guys think was the most technically impressive game on PS2? Personally I say Ghost Hunter, it has high poly characters model, light map for flash light which is absent in all silent hill games on PS2, 3D water, individual grass that interact with the character, 480p + widescreen and advance post fx at the time. All of that and solid performance and I thought I was playing a high end Xbox 1 game. Many says GT4 since it got 1080i support and runs at 60fps with high quality car models at the time.

Well, GT4 looks pretty good, but the 1080i mode only renders at something like 576x480 or scales it up. The 480p mode looks better.

I thought Baldur's Gate/Norrath and Metal Gear Solid 2 were impressive.

 

[Nesh]

Well, GT4 looks pretty good, but the 1080i mode only renders at something like 576x480 or scales it up. The 480p mode looks better.

I thought Baldur's Gate/Norrath and Metal Gear Solid 2 were impressive.

Ironically I find MGS2's rainy part more immersive than Phantom Pain's which unfortunately was kind downgraded from Ground Zero's too. I think MGS1 and MGS 2 were the most polished MGS games ever and a technical masterpiece on the respective consoles they were released on.

 

[tuna]

I always though Demon Chaos/戦神 was pretty cool:

 

[London Geezer]

No ZOE2 on this PS2-love thread? That game was insane at the time, and on that hardware.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I thought Baldur's Gate/Norrath

Looking at these recommended games, I'm left feeling Snowblind Studios titles still among (if not) the best. The simplicity of the presentation meant they could go all out on quality. So where a shooter may have a great environment spanning loads of floors, all rather flatly lit and shaded, BGDA and CON had dynamic lit, shadow casting, textured everything at 60 fps with 2xSSAA. I don't recall anything looking flat or out of place in BGDA unlike, say, GT, which did look amazing but suffered inevitably from photo people etc.

That might be more about the art and design choices than technical accomplishment though.

 

[dogen]

No ZOE2 on this PS2-love thread? That game was insane at the time, and on that hardware.

Oh yeah forgot that one.

I still haven't grabbed a copy yet, but what I've seen looks awesome.

 

[Liandry]

I seen someone playing the later part of the game, dont remember I was impress maybe thats because Iplayed it on 360 first. Was there any fps on that gen that actually have high poly? I can remember a single fps that have high poly char models, having hardware level bump map support really helps xbox. HL2 on xbox was probably as high as it gets.

I've played this game on Xbox 360 first, then on PS2. And still was impressed a lot!

Ironically I find MGS2's rainy part more immersive than Phantom Pain's which unfortunately was kind downgraded from Ground Zero's too. I think MGS1 and MGS 2 were the most polished MGS games ever and a technical masterpiece on the respective consoles they were released on.

WOW! I should check that!

No ZOE2 on this PS2-love thread? That game was insane at the time, and on that hardware.

Great visuals in that game also.

Looking at these recommended games, I'm left feeling Snowblind Studios titles still among (if not) the best.

Maybe even the best. I've finished Champions Return to Arms some days ago. Absolutely great game and great graphics!

So where a shooter may have a great environment spanning loads of floors, all rather flatly lit and shaded, BGDA and CON had dynamic lit, shadow casting, textured everything at 60 fps with 2xSSAA.

Are you sure about SSAA?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yes. Faf (or some other PS2 dev, but it was most usually him) confirmed as much. He also said the dynamic water had the highest utilisation of one of the VU's he'd ever seen in the profiler, but the rest of the game wasn't particularly taxing. I guess giving them plenty of room for four player CON's graphics!

Additional confirmation (as no quote) here : https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/3hf8u3/running_snowblind_engine_games_baldurs_gate_dark/

 

[Gitaroo]

I've played this game on Xbox 360 first, then on PS2. And still was impressed a lot!


WOW! I should check that!


Great visuals in that game also.


Maybe even the best. I've finished Champions Return to Arms some days ago. Absolutely great game and great graphics!

Are you sure about SSAA?

supposedly the engine uses downsampling for its AA solution, it was the cleanest looking game on the PS2 at time where the hardware didn't even support FSAA.

No ZOE2 on this PS2-love thread? That game was insane at the time, and on that hardware.

we talked about it a few pages back comparing PS3 to PS2.

 

[Liandry]

Yes. Faf (or some other PS2 dev, but it was most usually him) confirmed as much.

But how it's possible? Also through multipass rendering?

He also said the dynamic water had the highest utilisation of one of the VU's he'd ever seen in the profiler, but the rest of the game wasn't particularly taxing.

Can it be VU0, because VU1 calculates polygons?
Thank you for link.

Also I have heard that some games calculate part of AI on PS2's sound processor to offload CPU a little bit for graphics improvements. Is it possible?
And in some games IOP make decoding of CRI ADX. Also is it possible?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

But how it's possible? Also through multipass rendering?

Just render to a larger-than-the-screen buffer and downsample to the screen size.

Can it be VU0, because VU1 calculates polygons?

The water in the Snowblind engine is polygonal. Lots of displaced polygons.

Also I have heard that some games calculate part of AI on PS2's sound processor to offload CPU a little bit for graphics improvements. Is it possible?
And in some games IOP make decoding of CRI ADX. Also is it possible?

Follow through on these search results : https://forum.beyond3d.com/search/1637630/?q=vu0&o=relevance&c[node]=25+28+29+27&c[user][0]=190
I'm sure there's plenty there you'll enjoy learning.

 

[Liandry]

Just render to a larger-than-the-screen buffer and downsample to the screen size.

That's simple? But as I know that was also performance hit.

The water in the Snowblind engine is polygonal. Lots of displaced polygons.

So, VU1 then?

Follow through on these search results : https://forum.beyond3d.com/search/1637630/?q=vu0&o=relevance&c[node]=25+28+29+27&c[user][0]=190
I'm sure there's plenty there you'll enjoy learning.

Ok, I'll check. Thanks.

Speaking about great graphics. Here one more great example. Starts from 11:45. Lot's of polygons and great textures. Game was released in 2008.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

That's simple? But as I know that was also performance hit.

Yes. You're drawing twice as many pixels.

So, VU1 then?

I honestly don't know.

Speaking about great graphics. Here one more great example. Starts from 11:45. Lot's of polygons and great textures. Game was released in 2008.

That is impressive. The ruins have very nice baked lighting, very PS3-esque. Not seen that game before.

 

[Liandry]

Yes. You're drawing twice as many pixels.

So, it's like two passes?

That is impressive. The ruins have very nice baked lighting, very PS3-esque. Not seen that game before.

Me too. I found this game today. There was many great games in 2007-2009. And they look a lot better that average game released in 2005-2006. Take a look at this.

Also great graphics. Not the best quality of video but still impressive.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZhTSEkK8Pw&list=PL82BC32AA1AF4B647

 

[AlNom]

The water in the Snowblind engine is polygonal. Lots of displaced polygons.

Is there a write-up of the tech they had?

 

[AlNom]

So, it's like two passes?

It's just a larger buffer.