PS3 upscales PS2 games and makes them look fantastic [Continued]
by Nick Doerr 
{ May 24th 2007 at 5:45PM }
Have we got a treat for you today! We've gone ahead and compiled whatever screen captures we could find of some before and after pictures of the new upscaling capability of the PS3 and how they change the PS2 titles everyone cares about. These are exciting rollover images, so what you see below are the before upscaling. Toss your mouse pointer onto them and wham! Instantly, you're seeing the upscaled image. Ready to have some fun?
First, this is a comparison for Final Fantasy XII from the normal resolution to the upscaled madness, taken from the user Perfect Sin at the PS3 Forums. We're focusing on Vaan here not because we like those weird skeletal-abs he's sporting, but because it's a pretty clear example of the difference the upscaling can make.
Yes, we know the two pictures aren't in the exact same spot or have the exact same dimensions, but you get the idea. It's a heck of a lot smoother. We also had to brighten the "after" shot because the original was kind of dark for some reason.
We've also got some Shadow of the Colossus images from user I Have Candy at the PlayStation Forums. Again, the image isn't in the exact same place or anything, but you can really tell the difference between the default image and the rollover image. We should all applause Sony for making this work out so well. In fact, this may make some people less irritable about the Emotion Engine getting removed in future PS3's.
If those weren't enough, user Mastagamer at the PlayStation Forums uploaded a good set of images from Bully. We chose to use these two because they seemed most representative of the difference between upscaled and normal. We'll leave it to you guys to decide what you think.
Pretty slick, right? It's zoomed out a little bit, but nobody's perfect. We're pretty much sold on this upscaling game business. We've tested out a multitude of games ourselves, but we don't have any capturing equipment to throw up here. Trust us -- the games look brilliant. Kingdom Hearts 2 is practically perfect. More perfect than on the PS2. What do you guys think?
Yes, we know the two pictures aren't in the exact same spot or have the exact same dimensions, but you get the idea. It's a heck of a lot smoother. We also had to brighten the "after" shot because the original was kind of dark for some reason.
We've also got some Shadow of the Colossus images from user I Have Candy at the PlayStation Forums. Again, the image isn't in the exact same place or anything, but you can really tell the difference between the default image and the rollover image. We should all applause Sony for making this work out so well. In fact, this may make some people less irritable about the Emotion Engine getting removed in future PS3's.
If those weren't enough, user Mastagamer at the PlayStation Forums uploaded a good set of images from Bully. We chose to use these two because they seemed most representative of the difference between upscaled and normal. We'll leave it to you guys to decide what you think.
Pretty slick, right? It's zoomed out a little bit, but nobody's perfect. We're pretty much sold on this upscaling game business. We've tested out a multitude of games ourselves, but we don't have any capturing equipment to throw up here. Trust us -- the games look brilliant. Kingdom Hearts 2 is practically perfect. More perfect than on the PS2. What do you guys think?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ndoerr @ May 24th 2007 5:47PM
Trying to fix the rollover images. Code keeps deleting itself! Should be fine for now.
Otsego_Undead @ May 24th 2007 6:03PM
looks good nick. thanks! and hot damn, thanks sony for the rapid updates!!! Keep those sweet additional features coming! Its like getting a new console every time!
Tim Parsons @ May 24th 2007 6:03PM
WTF,.. Final Fantasy XII looks way better then the b4 or after shot. On my TV and PS3 it does anyway(before the update) Dunno about after I traded the game in after i beat it in March
And maybe I need my eyes checked but none of the after shots look "better" to me, smoother(less jaggies) yes, but not "better: by any means in my opinion and why is it the color looks Faint on the after shots? Are these crappy pics or what?
Guess I'll have to go rent rent Children of Mana or Odin Sphere(which i want to anyway) and compare b4 and after myself. These opinions you can turn on and off right? Haven't got around to get the update yet,. spent day gettign damn Air Conditioner in so I could get to Game in peace and Quite and Cool LOL
#1FanBoy @ May 24th 2007 6:09PM
damn the last one looks great---does anyone know if this fixes the problem for those people who have 1080 only hdtv's?
My friend has this problem--he has two older hdtv's and neither play games in HD.
alienclay @ May 24th 2007 6:13PM
yay!
time to play more lego star wars.
F-Man @ May 24th 2007 6:21PM
I don't get it, those pictures are not upscaled, they're the same resolution... If anything, maybe they just have that new smoothing effect enabled. And blurring sucks.
Bored @ May 24th 2007 6:31PM
I don't get what's the problem.
I mean, PS2 games ran most of times at 480i, some at 480p, without any kind of anti-aliasing. By upscaling, you stretch the image, and the smoothing filter reduces the effect of blow-up jaggies. You cannot add to or improve AA where there was none before. Apart from the lack of AA, it's pretty similar to what the 360 does IMHO.
Of course XBox games look better on the 360, they already had AA and looked much better on the original XBox to begin with!
WTF were you people expecting, a miracle?
Khaliel @ May 24th 2007 6:35PM
@ Tim Parsons : Do you sometimes read text around the pics ? Colour are faint cause they brightened them a bit. And yes, you need your eyes changed if you dont see any amelioration.
@ F-Man : Be a bit logical -_- They wont put on the website pics in 1080p ! They resize them to the same size than the other to be able to compare. But for sure they are upscaled
Badz0r @ May 24th 2007 7:17PM
Hey Guys,
Not sure if anyone else is having this problem with their PS3, but I have it hookedup via Component cables at 1080i, and when I select PS/PS2 Upscaling and then choose either full screen or normal, the screen keeps flicking for 30 seconds then goes back to 'off' mode.
I am not sure why because i've had no problem playing ps3 games in both 720p and 1080i so it cant be a resolution problem.
I have smoothing on as well and that isnt causing a problem.
Has anyone else seen this problem?
buubuubibuu @ May 24th 2007 7:09PM
I just popped in Killzone after downloading 1.80 and it looks very nice and plays very smoothly. It's sweet to be able to play PS2 games with the wireless controller as well now if it only had some rumble...
Magma @ May 24th 2007 7:08PM
Because you can't upscale with component/
Badz0r @ May 24th 2007 7:20PM
@10
From what i've read across many forums/posts is that you only require HDMI for upscaling DVDs, but PS/PS2 games which require no encryption should be fine over component.
jman @ May 24th 2007 7:29PM
looks better...but not 600$ better...
Dahk @ May 24th 2007 7:32PM
Uhm. But you're not paying $600 for the upscaling jman.
Pal @ May 24th 2007 7:45PM
@ Bored: It's better to have the PS3 upscale rather than the TV just stretch it. That's why we have upscaling DVD players: it's not a gimmick, it's fact.
ClarkyCat @ May 24th 2007 7:48PM
Apart from slightly blurred images, I'm not impressed.
WinkerBotTollman @ May 24th 2007 8:12PM
I'm getting a big gay boner for PS3 now...
F-Man @ May 24th 2007 8:11PM
@ Khaliel
Getting a higher resolution is the whole point of getting smoother edges on 3D models, if you shrink the picture to make it the same size, you don't accomplish anything, other than showing a blurring filter.
Bored @ May 24th 2007 8:23PM
@ Pal:
I'm not dissing anything at all, mate. You got it wrong.
I'm not saying it's a gimmick, the shots look good to me, but it seems there's a bunch of people who were expecting upscaling of games that were originally designed for a piece of hardware as old as the PS2 to look as good as next-gen games, which is technically impossible, ain't it?
My point is, Sony did their best, even without commiting too much on the BC, people shouldn't be bitching about what they got.
As far as the media features go, this upgrade deserved to be marked as 2.0 rather than minor increment: media streaming, especially combined with remote play through the internet is great!
Now I can access content from both my PS3 AND my PC, through any access point anywhere!
And the video playback got a HUGE boost. The videophiles over at the AVS forums are nuts about the upgrade. They claim the PS3 now to be on par with the best upscaling DVD players on the market. As well as being the best Blu-Ray player.
ndoerr @ May 24th 2007 8:46PM
Hey guys! If any of you have the game Fatal Frame 3, upscale that sexy beast. Honestly, I think it could be marketed as a PlayStation 3 game. It looks absolutely flawless and compared to some launch PS3 games ... it completely trumps them with the upscaling. Absolutely amazing and beautiful.
John @ May 24th 2007 9:37PM
@Magma: of course you can upscale with component (don't get this confused with composite, like Circuit City does) for any games. Not all DVD's will upscale with component; most DVD's will require HDMI for upscaling, and that's just because of DRM.
Chris Putnam @ May 24th 2007 10:32PM
I'm less impressed with the "after" images than I am horrified with the "before" images. Are the awful jaggies the result of playing these SD games on HDTV's, or of playing them on PS3? I thought that issue with crappy-looking backwards-compatibility was resolved with one of the first updates?
So does the upscaling/smoothing just bring these games back up to about what they're supposed to look like, or are they actually improved over the old PS2/SDTV combo?
I guess it's good news either way... maybe not so much a reason to buy a PS3, though, as one less reason -not- to buy one.
Keith L. Dick @ May 24th 2007 11:33PM
Only thing I see is Blurred Images not better quality.
Urza @ May 24th 2007 11:49PM
Upscaling is great, but without Rumble I have no reason to play my ps2 games on ps3.
squamginer @ May 25th 2007 3:25AM
61" samsung dlp HDMI 1080p setup upscaled no smoothing Winning Eleven PES 2007 looks EXCELLENT. Yes I wrote this on my ps3 using a sixAxis and predictive text.
Neil @ May 25th 2007 4:39AM
Hey Guys,
This is a good improvement and I've noticed other things as well ( relevant to EU Software emulation only PS3's ). It seems 1.8 has improved BC even more and fixed glitches. for example, under 1.7 FFXII, when saving to 'memory card' the background music would S..L...O...W DOWN. This appears to have been fixed, MGS 3, SSX 3 and others now work.
This isn't relevant to you US PS3 owners but if yuo ARE a PS3 owner, you'll be interensted in what happening outside of the USA, right?
1.8 is a decent step forward, roll on 2.0 and who knows..... 1.9?
mombof @ May 25th 2007 11:42AM
looks washed out
Emilio @ May 25th 2007 12:51PM
I've only used standard DVD's after the update and I noticed a little more of a 3D 'bang' on each movie. I am thinking of getting Winning Eleven and Bully this weekend.
koolbean @ May 25th 2007 1:21PM
So will this Upscaling update make God of War 1 & 2 Fullscreen? I have tried all changes and settings but still have small black line on the side via HDMI on my 16:9 Plasma. Any Ideas?
Mothra @ May 29th 2007 8:44AM
Nah, don't like it. When I play my PS2 games at 576p, the picture is sharp and the colours well defined. When I enable upscaling, the picture is slightly blurry and the colours look faded.
Conclusion: my TV does a better job of upscaling than the PS3... but then it should do, as it cost more than 5 times as much.
Tom @ Jun 17th 2007 4:17AM
I just bourght kingdom hearts 2 the other day and man does it look sweet on the PS3. I have tested it with and without the smoothing and there is a significant difference this is great news, Cheers Sony.