I'm worried about the PS3 version......

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squeakD

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Hey folks..., after spending some time today on Shift 1 (eagerly awaiting the release of Shift 2).., I'm starting to worry about something.

As some of you probably already know..., I own Shift 1 on both the XBox 360 and the PS3. I owned the XBox version for some time prior to purchasing the PS3 version too. What I found so puzzling was the difference in the quality of the graphics between the two platforms.

I can hook my Xbox up to any of the flat screen HD TV's in my home and Shift 1 looks amazing on all of them. However.., the same cannot be said for the PS3 version. I've had to really dig into the TV's picture settings to get the PS3 version as close as possible to the XBox version.

I really hope that SMS/EA don't carry this over to the latest title. It worries me because I have no choice but to get the PS3 version as the wife and kiddies have a game that's released for the XBox today. I had to get the PS3 version other wise I won't get to play it as our XBox will be occupied for some time now:scared:
 
squeakD
I can hook my Xbox up to any of the flat screen HD TV's in my home and Shift 1 looks amazing on all of them. However.., the same cannot be said for the PS3 version. I've had to really dig into the TV's picture settings to get the PS3 version as close as possible to the XBox version.
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Have you seen this?

But what actual guarantees do we have that what is coming out of the HDMI port is indeed the digitally lossless signal we looking for? There has long been debate around our Face-Off screenshots which show darker, richer colours on the Xbox 360 versions of many games. The lushness of the images tends to make the PlayStation 3 shots look washed out in comparison, and there are still the occasional suggestions that we're running the PS3 games in limited-range RGB mode (we've been full-range RGB since the year dot, even though most HDMI capture cards still don't work with it properly).

[...]

Quite why this happens is something we were uncertain about before a kindly developer clued us in. From what we've learned this week, it appears that this ramping up of the gamma is actually deliberate on Microsoft's part. The actual reason it is in place on the Xbox 360 is because Microsoft believe that it looks better on the average TV. Bearing in mind the breadth of displays available and how they are typically so badly calibrated when you buy them (brightness and contrast are often ramped up in order to make them stand out on the shop floor), we can't help but think that this is a call that the developer should make.

Developers are made aware of the gamma conversion, and Microsoft provide an exact table of the transformation so it can be reversed should developers wish to factor it out while they build the framebuffer - but with the black crush we see on occasion, we can only wonder if this is a 100 per cent non-destructive process. However, the fact that this option is there means that the issue probably can't be changed with a firmware update, as the chances are that "corrected" games will then look very strange indeed. Properly calibrated games like Burnout Paradise for example will no longer be displayed correctly.

Going back to our Face-Off comparison shots, the fact that people automatically assume that it is the PS3 game that is "washed out" as opposed to the 360 version having the gamma arbitrarily adjusted suggests that perhaps Microsoft has it right, that maybe the image is more pleasing to the human eye.
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I have a fat ps3 (good thing if I read the article correctly) connected via HDMI cable to a Samsung 7000 LED TV calibrated using the hdtvtest UK website settings for it as reference.

Prior to that I messed with image settings on ps3 before setting the TV. I keep up with firmware upgrades for both TV and PS3.

Maybe this is why i remember shift 1 as a good looking game?
 
Titles on both xbox 360 and Ps3, the 360 will most likely look better. Since the Ps3 uses a cell processor, it is more difficult to create port the game to the console, so developers will not bother putting the effort or money to make it look good, the xbox 360 uses a more standard processor which makes it easier for the developers

. But with the cell processor, if a gamecompany makes an exclusive Ps3 game and they make a game so it uses the full power of the cell processor, it looks amazing.
 
boxox
Have you seen this?
Click to expand...

Very nice article, thanks... I always thought that some of the Xbox games looked very dark and now I know why and I also found out that the PS3 slim has a design bug that adds noise to the picture (even if it is imperceptible to the human eye)
Im glad I have a FAT (late model)

James1436
Titles on both xbox 360 and Ps3, the 360 will most likely look better. Since the Ps3 uses a cell processor, it is more difficult to create port the game to the console, so developers will not bother putting the effort or money to make it look good, the xbox 360 uses a more standard processor which makes it easier for the developers
. But with the cell processor, if a gamecompany makes an exclusive Ps3 game and they make a game so it uses the full power of the cell processor, it looks amazing.
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Thats wrong, You didnt read the article correctly...

An interesting email from a key multiplatform developer this morning corroborates the fact that 360 operates internally in component, the REC.709 standard to be precise, and this contact suggests that in theory it is the correct way to address an HDTV, though in practise sticking to RGB in the way that PS3 and PC do is more developer-friendly. He also suggests that the richer colour we see in 360 Face-Off shots might be explained in some cases because so much development is 360-led: calibration takes place on 360 and isn't corrected on PS3, resulting in the "washed out" look. However, even factoring in the REC.709 component standard, this developer also believes that 360 HDMI output does require adjustment.

I'm not worried about the PS3 version looking worse than the Xbox version, I had the first one on the PS3 and it looked great... What Im worried about is the frame rate drop and screan tearing because that was in fact worse in the PS3 in the first Shift.
 
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I'm not sure what his intent was, but at the heart of it he's repeating pretty much the same thing every developer has posted about the 360 vs the PS3. 360 uses a more conventional (for a console) PPC 3 core layout and a few largish, pretty predictable unified(ish) memory systems, PS3 is effectively 1 core and a load of SPE attachments which require getting right down in the silicon to exploit properly due to a variety of weird restrictions on their bandwidth/memory/access to the rest of the box. For instance if you have 5 years and are incorporated into Sony you might find something fun to do with them .. otherwise .. use the middleware, ship the game on time and drop down with the AA and resolution to keep the frame rate up. Not so much to do with HDMI output or gamma ramps but still basically correct as far as overall visual quality goes :)
 
I always disabled AA on PC (when I used to play on it) but I never had a high-end machine too...

When you're focusing on the game its difficult to see leaves falling the tree with all its veins, right?

I'm still not worried. Anyway, better have no AA and cool damage on cars then seeing how well it melts in full hd after a crash... if you "catch my drift" :D
 
RomKnight
I don't remember shift1 looking that bad on PS3 as you seem to make believe.
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Either do I, and especially not to the point where it actually bothered me. But, if for one reason or another the PS3 version comes out the far inferior game, I won't get burned again.
 
I'm not saying that Shift 1 was horrible on the PS3. It just took some extra work tweaking settings on the TV for it to "pop" more. On my good LG 42" HD TV, on default.., Shift 1 did look washed out in areas. The graphics were blurry in spots, and not anywhere near as crisp as the XBox version. I found that the title really needed some heavy adjustments in the "Sharpness" settings.

What I also found was that (at least to me) the cockpit cam was much darker than the XBox version too. With the hood cam, or chase cam, the color and overall look really brightened up well.

I just hope the PS3 version of Shift 2 isn't washed out like the previous one. I'm not looking for GT5 graphics either. Personally I think PD went too far with GT's graphics and used up WAY too much space that could have been used for other useful things in the title.
 
I think the marginal difference in display isn't worth having to PAY for online gaming.

But that's just me. I'm a cheap bastard! :sly:
 
it is well known that game developers down grade their games against ps3, maybe xbox pays them or sponsors some of their development cost for this game i don't know. but thats what i think. but what developers should really do is, develop the game based on the ps3 platform first with its bluray and downgrade thier game to the xbox dvd version. i mean it makes sesne right coz the ps3 has the memory disc and platform to handle high graphics, so why is it not work as good as xbox. it should really work at least as good or even bettr then xbox version.
 
seawall
it is well known that game developers down grade their games against ps3, maybe xbox pays them or sponsors some of their development cost for this game i don't know. But thats what i think. But what developers should really do is, develop the game based on the ps3 platform first with its bluray and downgrade thier game to the xbox dvd version. I mean it makes sesne right coz the ps3 has the memory disc and platform to handle high graphics, so why is it not work as good as xbox. It should really work at least as good or even bettr then xbox version.
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lol!
 
SeaWall
it is well known that game developers down grade their games against ps3, maybe xbox pays them or sponsors some of their development cost for this game i don't know. but thats what i think. but what developers should really do is, develop the game based on the ps3 platform first with its bluray and downgrade thier game to the xbox dvd version. i mean it makes sesne right coz the ps3 has the memory disc and platform to handle high graphics, so why is it not work as good as xbox. it should really work at least as good or even bettr then xbox version.
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I also have a PS3 but unfortunatly it doesnt work that way - the PS3 is harder to code from what I could gather...it is capable of achieving very good performance but only if you are very familiar with the system.
If someone is to blame it is Sony not the game devs...
 
SeaWall
it is well known that game developers down grade their games against ps3, maybe xbox pays them or sponsors some of their development cost for this game i don't know. but thats what i think.
Click to expand...

Take your tin foil hat off. There is no conspiracy by Microsoft to make sure that PS3 ports are worse quality than Xbox ones.
 

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