Microsoft has stated on many occasions that all Xbox 360 games must support 720p high definition output resolution as a minimum. This is the HD era, they’ve touted, and they’re going to support it from day one with every title.
Yes, but what is HD?
Recently a post was made on the Bizarre Creations forum by a member who apparently has some interesting access to development hardware. He leveled an accusation saying that, while Project Gotham Racing 3 was indeed broadcast in 720p, the internal framebuffer they were drawing to was actual 1024 x 600 as opposed to a true 720p framebuffer size of 1280 x 720. They rely on the Xbox 360’s internal scaler to scale that internal framebuffer up to the 720p standard. That’s precisely 1/3 fewer pixels that are rendered, meaning 1/3 of the possible detail at high definition resolutions is lost. Most people were disbelieving, but the report had a ring of truth. The silence from Bizarre was palpable given that the rumor was left to fester for 4 or 5 days… on their official forum.
Today we got the response.
PGR3 is a launch title (Hurrah!)
So if you are lucky enough to get an Xbox 360 and PGR3 come launch day you can answer this question for yourselves in a matter of weeks!
There are certain things to do with a games development that we don’t comment on, like Microsoft, Apple and so on we “Don’t comment on rumours†so those of you that need answers to every rumour will be asking in vain.
If we can answer your questions we will (NDA permitting!)
Alan
This — aside from the asinine suggestion that we can figure out for ourselves which we technically can’t — is basically corporate speak for “Oops! Busted!” It bears repeating: good news can be reported with glee as evidenced by Bizarre’s own “apology” concerning the number of polygons in their models (“sorry, we don’t actually have 80,000 polygons in our models… it’s 90,000! Haha!”). Bad news will be smothered under the umbrella of NDAs and “we don’t comment on rumors.” You do comment on rumors, but only when you can squash them.
Where the slippery slope resides
This is disturbing not so much for PGR3 as for future titles and the unreliability of the “everything in 720p” claim. With this compromise as an apparent baseline, what’s to stop future companies, let’s say Epic with Gears Of War — a notoriously demanding game that has appeared choppy in videos to date — from getting a pass on 720p and just upscaling a 480p game to shore up framerates? Apparently according to Microsoft’s new definition of 720p, upscaling counts. This is a troubling precedent.
great site! this has given me some great insight into the xbox 360 vga incompatability. Without a doubt PGR3 is 1024x~600. Another reason this seems to be true is the lack of 1280×1024 support through the official vga cable. The next game that has this exact same problem 4 months after launch is Oblivion! It also doesn’t support 1280×1024 through the vga cable, and there are no shortage of odd res 1024×576 screenshots released by Bethesda! I’m convinced that it renders at the 1024×576 resolution. You can’t letterbox a signal that doesn’t exist! I wouldn’t be surprised if Gears of War and a lot of 360 titles take this shortcut and fake true support of 1280×720. My more detailed argument has been presented in the Bethesda Tech Forum in a thread with tons of posts asking for an answer to our problem and has gone completely ignored: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?s=02584335c462d2356894fae286e223dc&showtopic=351009&st=20
I’ll do my best
. Thanks for the kind words!
Coldforged, Can you keep everyone apprised on this 720p upscale thing? You have the best info/commentary around that I have seen. I would like to hear more about this and see how MS approaches this in the future. thanks!
Isn’t the resolution 1024 by 576, and not 1024 by 600 ? 1024 by 576 has 16 : 9 aspect ratio, and (European) PAL resolution is 720 (or 704 visible) by 576 pixels. I would guess they will keep the aspect ratio in any case. Also because of the PAL standard, if they have to make a compromise, I don’t think it will be below 1024 by 576. (Note that a lot of screenshots of X360 games on IGN and Gamespot are at 1024 by 576 pixels.)
At the end of the day, I would sacrifice those (for me, and for most people) unseen pixels for better frame rates, and more detail. Sony’s 2 * 1080p was always hype, and it is unbelievable that some people fell for it.
As a person living in Europe, it’s also nice that this time around the PAL image isn’t upscaled. (The upscaling factor was close to what it will be for 720p, but it didn’t bother all that much.)
Well,
Initially, no software companies will max out the capabilities of the stated hardware. As Max says, what matters most is the end result. If some software devs are utilizing the power of the x360 efficiently, and delivering superior games through graphics and other factors, then the devs that “cut corners” in the HD dept will essentially lose the prize they so desperatly seek, which is our approval of their creation. In the end it is the gamer that chooses whether or not to buy a title. If that title performs poorly when it is run through the gauntlet of gaming community sites, then it will inevitably bear the fate of the paper weight. Unfortunatly for them, we have VERY high standards for the games we title as “Superb”, so they have to do everything they can to make us happy. Man it’s nice being on top.
Absolutely. I think it will be a showcase title for the 360.
Why is it ridiculous? The reduction in the number of rendered pixels if this accusation is true goes from 921,600 for true 1280×720 to 614,400 for the 1024×600 or roughly 300,000 fewer pixels. The additional reduction to the 720×480 frame size is only 268,000 pixels. They’ve already sacrificed a larger jump.
Admittedly, I’m hypothesizing. The simple fact is they’ve already apparently proven that they’re willing to ship something that’s less than a true high definition framebuffer. What that tells me is that in the future, even when not under launch pressures, companies will be able to do this very thing because the precedent is there. And there’s nothing stopping them from going lower than this 1024×600 that we’re supposedly currently seeing. By extensions, why wouldn’t 480p upscaled be acceptable? Is 1024×600 some magical absolute minimum?
You may call it reactionary, but I call it starting off on the wrong foot. By setting this precedent this early in the game they’re compromising their supposed focus.
Ditto, I salivate at the prospect. Again, it’s not so much this title as the dangerous precedent it sets.
That’s a bit reactionary. From every account I’ve heard and every review I’ve read, PGR3 is one of the most visually impressive of all the launch titles, and in the end that’s what matters more than the exact numer of pixels. Yes, it’s kinda crappy that they would upscale the resolution, but suggesting that they would start allowing a 480p minimum resolution is ridiculous. They had to make this compromise in order to make the game for launch, that’s what happens to launch games. In Halo, you got repetitive levels, in this game you get slightly reduced frame size. Frankly, I still think it’s going to look great on my tv.