Why are Playstation resolution modes so weird?

[see colon]

I guess the PS1 was the PS4 of it's time

I think that Saturn had more games that ran in higher resolutions. There are a handful of titles that run at 704*480, and some that run at 704*448, and a couple that do 704*240 or something goofy like that. Actually, now that I think about it, there were probably more N64 games that ran at 640*480 than there were on PS1 as well, thanks to the expansion pack.

 

[Grall]

CRTs are themselves not immune to the oddities of interlacing, even if they handle it better than fixed-pixel displays (presumably due to their field timing?).

Maybe the persistence of the screen phosphors...? Anyway, I personally never noticed any interlace oddities on CRTs except for PS2-caused peculiarities, other than high-contrast computer graphics could flicker mightily of course (thin horizontal straight lines in particular.) That's kinda unavoidable with regular video CRTs though.

 

[Nesh]

I think that Saturn had more games that ran in higher resolutions. There are a handful of titles that run at 704*480, and some that run at 704*448, and a couple that do 704*240 or something goofy like that. Actually, now that I think about it, there were probably more N64 games that ran at 640*480 than there were on PS1 as well, thanks to the expansion pack.

I dont know about the N64 but I think you are right about the saturn although these games made large sacrifices in lighting, shadows and geometry to reach those resolutions. Usually these games if I recall were ports of arcade games

 

[Megadrive1988]

Ridge Racer running at 640x480 @60fps:

It was an internal Namco experiment that was released as a bonus disc with Ridge Racer 4

The Ridge Racer Hi-Spec demo (Turbo Mode outside of Japan) in addition to running in 640x480 (?) at 60fps, also had improved texture mapping, shading and lighting over the '94/'95 PS1 release. With twice the framerate plus improved graphics it bridged much of the gap between the first PS1 Ridge Racer and the original System 22 powered arcade version from 1993.

Really impressive stuff IMO.

Notes that Namco included on the bonus disc

While I don't know the exact pixel resolution of the Hi-Spec / Turbo Mode demo, it most certainly looked to be of a higher resolution than the 1994/95 PS1 rendition.

 

[stranno]

I've read this stuff but it doesnt mean its 640x480, maybe for Namco high resolution is 320x480 instead of 512x480 or 640x480.

I belive in pSX debuf info (coz in other games is totally right) more than this lazy Namco text.

I dont see any other improvements than framerate. Except if you use the PS2/Emulator texture filtering like the capture

 

[Megadrive1988]

I've read this stuff but it doesnt mean its 640x480, maybe for Namco high resolution is 320x480 instead of 512x480 or 640x480.

I belive in pSX debuf info (coz in other games is totally right) more than this lazy Namco text.

I dont see any other improvements than framerate. Except if you use the PS2/Emulator texture filtering like the capture

I do realize those notes do not actually confirm Ridge Racer Hi-Spec / Turbo Mode has 640 x 480 resolution.

However you are definitely wrong about the only improvement being 60fps.

Whether the screen resolution is higher, or not (it seems higher, though that does *not* mean it's all the way to 640 x 480) the actual graphics are most certainly improved beyond the first PS1 version that Namco made in 1994, which released in Japan in Dec '94 and in the west in Sept./ fall '95.

The textures, lighting and gouraud shading are significantly improved in Hi-Spec / Turbo Mode. The car models are just tweaked, though, and that aspect isn't much of a difference.

I own a copy of regular PS1 Ridge Racer (NA NTSC ver) and R4 Ridge Racer Type 4, with the bonus disc (NA/NTSC ver)

These (not my pics):

I have played them both quite a lot on my original NA / NTSC launch PlayStation, so I am not talking about emulation on a computer, or playing them on a PS2.
Just an original NA PS1 on a Sony Trinitron 27 inch XBR CRT and a 32 inch XBR² CRT. I used the S-Video on both.

The difference in actual graphics is not huge, but it's there.

 

[mikiex]

I do realize those notes do not actually confirm Ridge Racer Hi-Spec / Turbo Mode has 640 x 480 resolution.



I have played them both quite a lot on my original NA / NTSC launch PlayStation, so I am not talking about emulation on a computer, or playing them on a PS2.
Just an original NA PS1 on a Sony Trinitron 27 inch XBR CRT and a 32 inch XBR² CRT. I used the S-Video on both.

The difference in actual graphics is not huge, but it's there.

On the moving subject a faster framerate (In this case fields per second) will give a better temporal resolution or maybe perceptual.

 

[stranno]

To be fair i didnt noticed the updated shading but could be. I think we can close the resolution thing, seems to be exactly the same.

 

[Davros]

I have an idea about the first screenshot and resolution
It was originally an arcade game, and arcade games like space invaders ect are better when the monitor is in portrait mode so a lot of arcade machines are in portrait mode hence the game being in a portrait type resolution

 

[Melqart]

I have an idea about the first screenshot and resolution
It was originally an arcade game, and arcade games like space invaders ect are better when the monitor is in portrait mode so a lot of arcade machines are in portrait mode hence the game being in a portrait type resolution

http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=537&page=1#1322

Ridge Racer came out in 1994, years after arcade monitors made the shift to 4:3. I think Capcom games may have even had wider screens (CPS2 games?). Pretty sure the arcade version of Ridge Racer was 640x480. Horizontal stretching seems to be pretty common, even on sub HD PS3 and 360 games. They probably did it to be as close to the arcade version as possible. The version that shipped with R4 was faithful to the original (except I think it was missing things like other cars, at least in the Japanese version)

 

[Megadrive1988]

Ridge Racer came out in 1994, years after arcade monitors made the shift to 4:3.

It came out during fall 1993. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt because I played Ridge Racer that fall at an arcade in Golf Mill Shopping Center in Niles, IL. just outside of Chicago.

Ridge Racer is 20 years old now.


It was Ridge Racer 2 that came out in 1994.


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