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First infos on RE4 PS2 port quality

Elios83

Member
In the current issue of the Japanese magazine CG world a few details on the Biohazard 4 porting on the PS2 are revealed.
They say that in the Gamecube version Capacom used 24bit textures.
On the PS2 they have to use 4-8 bit textures.
The Leon model in the GC version is made of 10.000 polygons.In the PS2 version that number is halved.So 5000 polygons (for a comparison the same magazine affirms Solid Snake in MGS3 is made of 4000 polygons).
Thanks to the higher bandwidth of PS2 they can use more textures than in the Cube version but they have to balance quantity with quality to avoid problems with frame rate.
 

Musashi Wins!

FLAWLESS VICTOLY!
I think it's going to look noticeably uglier. The problem for me is that it's basically one of my very favorite games this gen, and if they add a bunch of content, I'm going to have to buy the damn thing again to play it and see all the differences.
 

segasonic

Member
Is that the same mag that claimed the GC version was running at 60 fps?

I better call the bullshit police then!
 

Do The Mario

Unconfirmed Member
Elios83 said:
In the current issue of the Japanese magazine CG world a few details on the Biohazard 4 porting on the PS2 are revealed.
They say that in the Gamecube version Capacom used 24bit textures.
On the PS2 they have to use 4-8 bit textures.
The Leon model in the GC version is made of 10.000 polygons.In the PS2 version that number is halved.So 5000 polygons (for a comparison the same magazine affirms Solid Snake in MGS3 is made of 4000 polygons).
Thanks to the higher bandwidth of PS2 they can use more textures than in the Cube version but they have to balance quantity with quality to avoid problems with frame rate.


So a Gamecube magazine is saying the PS2 version is going 2 look like ass? Colour me fuckin surprised.


EDIT: I know it’s not a GC mag! Thank you Santa for making sure I knew it twice.
 

Deku Tree

Member
Sometimes the cube version has many enemies on screen at once, can they get that going on the PS2 version with a solid framerate? If so, I might buy RE4 again for the PS2.
 
According to a japanese publication (CG World), the Capcom team working on the PS2 version of RE4 are facing a very difficult time porting the game to Sony's console.

Here are some few points they mentioned in the article:

------------------------------------

1). The original team headed by Shinji Mikami was able to incorporate 24-bit textures into the GameCube edition of RE4.

However the team working on the port of RE4 will have to incorporate downsampled 4- and 8-bit textures into the PS2 version, whose texture memory capacity is far smaller than that of the Nintendo console.

------------------------------------

2). The polygon count used for the main protagonist (Leon) will have to drop down from 10.000 seen in the GC version, to half that amount in order to perform well on the PS2 version.

The magazine mentions that Leon has almost 3 times the amount of polygons than the Solid Snake character featured in Metal Gear Solid 3 for the PS2. Snake is made up of only 4000 polygons.

(As a side note, according to Factor 5, the pilots from Rogue Squadron were comprised of 4000 polygons. The X-Wings themselves, were made up of 30,000 polygons!)

------------------------------------

3). Due to the PS2's huge Direct Memory Access bandwidth, the team working on the RE4 version will be able to provide an exceptionally high number of textures into the game.

However, adding such textures to the polygons will slow down the frame rate of the game, even more so than it occasionally happens in the GC version. This due to the PS2's limited texture memory capacity.

The PS2 version will have dramatic frame-rate problems if they try to include all the texture layers and polygonal lighting featured in the GC version. Some major adjustments will have to be made.

------------------------------------

4). The GC graphics engine can produce 50 percent more polygons to all the characters than the PS2. The PS2's graphics engine can draw 10 million triangles per second, but after adding gameplay, collision, logic, sound, and so forth, the PS2 edition of RE4 ultimately will move around 30,000 to 50,000 triangles per frame, at an average rate of 30 frames per second.

The GameCube also has a faster CPU that can boost the frame rate to 60 frames per second (twice that of the PS2), and utilizes its texture compression ability to deliver high-resolution textures with improved color variance.

------------------------------------

http://boards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=78581069&usecoregcookie=1&fromsubscribersendto=1
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Wow, 10K for a character, that's quite a lot. I wonder if they use lower poly character for in-game stuff and higher for cutscenes, like MGS3 does, and if the 4K model in MGS3 is in-game or cutscene model.

I'm also curious if the GC version runs at 16bit color, and if they will keep the same on PS2 version or use 24bit .
 

TheQueen'sOwn

insert blank space here
segasonic said:
What Japanese magazine?

Source your stuff or I will call the bullshit police!

segasonic said:
Is that the same mag that claimed the GC version was running at 60 fps?

I better call the bullshit police then!

EDIT: Nice edit
You still sound like a douche though
.
 

duckroll

Member
Do The Mario said:
So a Gamecube magazine is saying the PS2 version is going 2 look like ass? Colour me fuckin surprised.

CG World is not GC World :p It's basically a graphics technology mag, not a gaming one. They would have no reason to be biased. Somes like Mikami really has nothing to do with the PS2 version. LA BOMBA! :D
 

Do The Mario

Unconfirmed Member
duckroll said:
CG World is not GC World :p It's basically a graphics technology mag, not a gaming one. They would have no reason to be biased. Somes like Mikami really has nothing to do with the PS2 version. LA BOMBA! :D

My bad, colour me unfuckin surprised.
 

Krowley

Member
yeah there's some incorrect information about frame rates and other things in that post from IGN. if that's the source for this you have to call the whole thing into question.
 

AlphaSnake

...and that, kids, was the first time I sucked a dick for crack
This is weird. PS2 has been running 10k polygon characters since its launch. All three Onimusha games have characters with 10k or more polys.
 

jett

D-Member
Marconelly said:
Wow, 10K for a character, that's quite a lot. I wonder if they use lower poly character for in-game stuff and higher for cutscenes, like MGS3 does, and if the 4K model in MGS3 is in-game or cutscene model.

MGS3 doesn't do that, and neither does MGS2(and NO, nowhere in "Document" do they say that).

This article reeks of bullshit.
 

olimario

Banned
I think RE4 Ps2 will look just as good as RE4 GC.
There are some areas in RE4 right now that are as ugly as sin. The main room in the mansion? It has horrible jaggies and some of the worst textures I've seen.

The only place where I think the PS2 will have ANY sort of trouble is the lab, and even then I'm not worried.
 

SantaC

Member
Do The Mario said:
So a Gamecube magazine is saying the PS2 version is going 2 look like ass? Colour me fuckin surprised.

It's not a Gamecube magazine, and why is everybody surprised over this news? People on these boards have been saying it since the start.
 

segasonic

Member
Capcom knows their shit when it comes to PS2 coding. Just take a look at DMC3! I think the PS2 version of RE4 will look much better than most GC fanboys think...
 

Do The Mario

Unconfirmed Member
AlphaSnake said:
This is weird. PS2 has been running 10k polygon characters since its launch. All three Onimusha games have characters with 10k or more polys.

Maybe with pre rendered backgrounds?
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Meh, their stated polygon throughput is considerably below what is average on PS2.

They say that in the Gamecube version Capacom used 24bit textures.
On the PS2 they have to use 4-8 bit textures.
This has to be PR spinning things - surely GC version uses S3 compressed textures, not raw 24bit.

Btw, so RE4 is in fact 60 on GC?
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Wait a sec, that report sounds more like an educated speculation than some kind of interview with a team porting the game. Pretty useless.


MGS3 doesn't do that, and neither does MGS2(and NO, nowhere in "Document" do they say that).
They do when they are talking about the promo videos - they say "promo video using a low-polygon Snake"

Does that mean that they are using a high poly snake in the cutscenes, I'm not sure anymore, maybe it meant that it was just an early version of the model used in the game.

Using that kind of LOD wouldn't be unusual, btw. Perhaps they have several steps of model complexity, not just two, and switch between them the closer you get to the character.
 

SantaC

Member
I'll say we just wait and see the end result. The sony fanboys can take a step back, I plan to buy the PS2 version regardless of quality IF the extras are worth it.

RE4 is one of the my fav games of all time.
 

Miburou

Member
I thought PS2 and GC were equals when it comes to polygon pushing power, with the GC having better textures and a cleaner outout. I would expect the PS2 version to look close to the GC one, except with noticeably lower res textures and more jaggies/shimmering.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Marc said:
Wow, 10K for a character, that's quite a lot. I wonder if they use lower poly character for in-game stuff and higher for cutscenes, like MGS3 does, and if the 4K model in MGS3 is in-game or cutscene model.
I'm more puzzled with the really low frame budget - 50k at 30fps is pretty damn low even if those are PA numbers.

And especially with many animated characters on screen I'd imagine PS2 would be making back some ground polygon wise, this makes it sound the other way around.
 

olimario

Banned
I'm telling you guys, the PS2 version will be fine.
The area in the screen below looks terrible. I thought it was a bad capture when I first saw it, but the aliasing and textures are horrible here.

535840_20040827_screen006.jpg
 

SantaC

Member
olimario said:
I'm telling you guys, the PS2 version will be fine.
The area in the screen below looks terrible. I thought it was a bad capture when I first saw it, but the aliasing and textures are horrible here.

535840_20040827_screen006.jpg

also we know that poor screen captures does not make this game justice. As I said, I plan to buy the PS2 version if the extras are worth it.
 

Deg

Banned
This really sucks. The PS2 port should look 10x better than the GC version based on common sense.



I thought PS2 and GC were equals when it comes to polygon pushing power

True the Rogue Squadron games are evident of GC's inferior polygon pushing power.
 
segasonic said:
Capcom knows their shit when it comes to PS2 coding. Just take a look at DMC3! I think the PS2 version of RE4 will look much better than most GC fanboys think...

Yeah, I saw the newest build of the game on the german Gamepro's DVD and it looked really nice. It looks pretty near to RE4 quality environments, much better than at the begin of the development.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
his has to be PR spinning things - surely GC version uses S3 compressed textures, not raw 24bit.
Faf, the whole article sounds like pure speculation, with a few facts thrown in (polycounts of RE4 and MGS3 character model, and even that's a maybe if you ask me)

PS2 version will use some kind of compression on textures as well anyways, as I suspect games on it have been doing for a while now.
 

olimario

Banned
ToyMachine228 said:
Idk about you guys, but the environment in that screen didn't look like that on my television. It actually looked nice.

No it didn't. You, like the rest of us, saw terribly blurry textures and an extraordinary amount of alianing compared to the later parts of the game (which also featured noticable aliasing).
 

jett

D-Member
Marconelly said:
Wait a sec, that report sounds more like an educated speculation than some kind of interview with a team porting the game. Pretty useless.



They do when they are talking about the promo videos - they say "promo video using a low-polygon Snake"

Does that mean that they are using a high poly snake in the cutscenes, I'm not sure anymore, maybe it meant that it was just an early version of the model used in the game.

Using that kind of LOD wouldn't be unusual, btw. Perhaps they have several steps of model complexity, not just two, and switch between them the closer you get to the character.

It means it's an older model of Snake, like the first Raiden model. In-game it's pretty obvious Snake doesn't gain more polygons or better textures(besides the fact that the game doesn't stop to load better models when switching to a cut-scene).
 

Shaheed79

dabbled in the jelly
The PS2 will bleed motor oil on the Lava scenes. I wouldn't be surprised if they reduced simple things like number of enemies on screen at one time to save framerate. But part of me wants it to be a good port if the extras are worth a damn. I would hardly call a "Making of Video" and a "Gallery" must have additions. More guns, more mercenarie levels or a more fleshed out story then I'll think about it.
 

duckroll

Member
Deg said:
This really sucks. The PS2 port should look 10x better than the GC version based on common sense.

Hey based on common sense all PS2 games are supposed to look 10x better than Soul Calibur DC! Oh wait...
 

Shaheed79

dabbled in the jelly
olimario said:
I'm telling you guys, the PS2 version will be fine.
The area in the screen below looks terrible. I thought it was a bad capture when I first saw it, but the aliasing and textures are horrible here.

535840_20040827_screen006.jpg

No one is suggesting that the PS2 can't do RE4's worst graphical parts. I'm questioning wether it can handle the best graphical scenes and number of enemies without chugging througout. Its a port not built from the ground up on PS2 otherwise I would've said PS2 has it faded. But as a port passed off to a different team? No way.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Marc said:
Faf, the whole article sounds like pure speculation, with a few facts thrown in (polycounts of RE4 and MGS3 character model, and even that's a maybe if you ask me)
Well, at first I thought it was supposed to be Team's interview, but now that I look again it does sound like magazine speculating what to expect. Doesn't help it's a translation either... :p

Anyway, texture wise most stuff is just fine at 8/4bit (as I noted in some discussions at B3D, palette compression can yield pretty remarkable results with the right tools). I expect the most obvious difference to be more texture aliasing due to usual mipmapping stuff.
 

Miburou

Member
TheQueen'sOwn said:
I think he was being sarcastic...

I know he's trying to be funny, but his post doesn't make sense (like most of his posts, come to think of it), since I didn't say that the GC is inferior to the PS2 when it comes to polygon pushing, rather that I always thought, based on what I've read, that they were equal in that regard, with the GC having better textures and IQ.
 

Andrew2

Banned
I'm also curious if the GC version runs at 16bit color, and if they will keep the same on PS2 version or use 24bit .

GCN titles could use 24-bit colour textures effectively in a low memory environment thanks in part to the use of S3TC(texture compression) built into the GPU. S3TC can allow for 24 bit textures at a ratio of 6:1 while leaving small memory footprints.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
I think it depends on the team that's doing it, due to politics as much as technical competency. Certain teams would probably be more than happy to make the PS2 version a half-assed job, due to the apparent internal resistance against putting this on PS2. Maybe that'd only be Mikami's team, though..
 

Do The Mario

Unconfirmed Member
Miburou said:
I know he's trying to be funny, but his post doesn't make sense (like most of his posts, come to think of it), since I didn't say that the GC is inferior to the PS2 when it comes to polygon pushing, rather that I always thought, based on what I've read, that they were equal in that regard, with the GC having better textures and IQ.

I think it’s funny you are the one getting personal, calling him an idiot and saying stuff like “most of his posts don’t make sense” is childish (imo). Reminds me of some people would resort to name calling on the OT political threads.
 

TheQueen'sOwn

insert blank space here
Miburou said:
I know he's trying to be funny, but his post doesn't make sense (like most of his posts, come to think of it), since I didn't say that the GC is inferior to the PS2 when it comes to polygon pushing, rather that I always thought, based on what I've read, that they were equal in that regard, with the GC having better textures and IQ.

No no.. it's just that you were saying you thought they were equal and he was saying that what you thought couldn't be the case - as displayed by Rogue Squadron for the GC. But I'm not Deg so...
 

Deg

Banned
Miburou said:
I know he's trying to be funny, but his post doesn't make sense (like most of his posts, come to think of it), since I didn't say that the GC is inferior to the PS2 when it comes to polygon pushing, rather that I always thought, based on what I've read, that they were equal in that regard, with the GC having better textures and IQ.

Sorry i forgot the tongue.

Its just amsuing this requires deep discussion :p

Do The Mario said:
Deg’s avatar is the best thing in this thread his post is awesome by default.

thanks :)


This thread will get ugly. (oh wait it already has)

More like its a bit pointless. It should be respectable enough for PS2 but not on par with GC ofcourse.
 
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