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More on the PS3's Capabilities |
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Thursday, 02 June 2005 |
After mixed reactions to the game demos and video footage shown at E3,
a GamesIndustry.biz interview with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
(SCEE)'s Phil Harrison explores the real capabilities of the
PlayStation 3 in more detail. Some highlights from the interview
include:
- Everything in the game demos was in real-time, and developers had
varying versions of the prototype hardware to work with; none of the
hardware they worked with had the "full potential" of the final
production console
- From the game footage shown, everything was done "to PS3
specification". Virtually everything used in-game assets, though some
things were rendered
- In the Alfred Molina head demo, much of the processing (sub-surface reflection/translucency;
high dynamic range lighting) was done on the Cell rather than the RSX
graphics chip. This demonstrates that although the Cell chip will be
extremely useful for complex physics and A.I., it will also be capable
of powering hardcore mathmatical graphics problems itself, sending
results to the render hardware
- Again, in the first landscape demo,
only the Cell is used by a software renderer to produce a real-time
landscape from satellite imagery and heightmap data, along with
procedural clouds - the graphics chip just rendering the end result
- Phil also touches on how the PlayStation 3 will be more
accessible to developers, programmable at higher level languages than
assembly, including the SPE's which are general purpose processors
where the PS2's vector units were not
- The interview also takes a look at the PS3's network capabilities
and how it could be used as a hub instead of just a network terminal
To see Gamespot's excellent free videos from E3 including the Alfred Molina and landscape tech demos, click here.
Read the full GamesIndustry.biz interview with Phil Harrison.
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