So choosing 900p over 1080p wasn't because of a hurdle, it's more efficient!
Okay. Apparently every other developer aiming for 1080p native output are all idiots. Why 1080p when 900p is more efficient and nobody can see the difference! :smile:
I think I know which bin to put his future comments in.
Really? I'd say Cevat Yerli is quite well versed on the compromises that have to be made with regards to graphics rendering quality in order to support higher resolutions considering that CryEngine is considered by most to be the most graphically advanced rendering engine on the PC. Although DICE with Frostbite 3 might disagree.
Yes, higher resolutions = compromise in graphics rendering quality. The higher your resolution the more constrained your options become with regards to what graphical effects you wish to implement. The lower the resolution the more graphical effects are available to you.
On PC, you can always throw more powerful hardware at the problem to mitigate the problems involved with going to a higher resolution while still keeping the graphics rendering algorithms you wish to use. On console you have a fixed hardware target that you cannot change.
900p was likely where they decided that at typical living room distances with typical living room TV's that less than 1% (or whatever number) of people would be able to tell a difference. Below that and they likely felt there was an increasing chance that some small percentage of people may be able to tell a difference. Above that, they would constrain themselves too much with regards to what they could implement.
In that context, of course, he'd keep 900p as the rendering resolution on PS4 as anything above that is irrelevant because the vast majority of people would not be able to see the difference and it would limit what they could do graphically.
You'll notice that he didn't say the rendering would be identical on a PS4. It's possible they could have enabled even more advanced graphical effects on PS4, or not. The choice of resolution determines what combination of effects they can implement.
So rather than doing 1080p because it's a checkmark feature, they went 900p with more advanced rendering.
People really need to understand that with a fixed hardware target, Resolution is your main limitation with regards to what you can do. As long as the visual impact of resolution is negligible (I'm sure someone will make an asinine suggestion of 480p but that represents a significant visual impact), then it's purely a benefit to go lower in order to do more.
How low you go will be entirely dependant on the developer and their budget. Most developers may not have the budget to take advantage of the extra headroom, and for them 1080p will be the target resolution because they wouldn't be able to take advantage of the extra performance available if they went below 1080p anyway.
For some developers they may target a set of rendering goals. And then attempt to optimize it as much as possible and release the game at whatever resolution they end up at with a playable frame rate. This is similar to what DICE and Guerilla games appear to be doing.
For Crytek, they've instead set resolution at X and are optimizing it as much as possible with regards to how many graphical rendering effects, algorithms, features, etc. as they can within that limitation.
Especially right now at the start of a generation, it may be easier for a developer to target 1080p as they don't have time to hit launch and still have time to properly exploit the performance headroom that a lower resolution offers.
And that doesn't even taking into account the other graphics rendering constraint that is similarly constraining as resolution. Framerate.
Too long to read that whole thing? 1080p is a compromise with regards to graphics rendering. Not the other way around. Lower resolution always allows for better graphics. The question is how low can you go before people legitimately will notice without being told.
For the X360/PS3 generation where the comparison point was 720p, we saw games go as low as 540p without people noticing until they were told and then they automagically could see it where they couldn't before.
It'll be interesting to see how low one of the big budget AAA developers will go this generation to get all the features they want at the framerate they want. I'm willing to bet 900p isn't going to be the lowest...on both platforms.
Regards,
SB
