Actual resolutions of PS3 games revealed

by Nick Doerr { Nov 18th 2007 at 10:30AM }

An interesting part of this cycle of consoles is the idea of "True HD" gaming -- that is, playing games in full 1080p. Most games, however, come in the 720p flavor ... at least, on their packaging. The Beyond3D forums fell into a discussion about these touted resolutions and wound up with some results that may interest you. Upscaling seems to be a major cause of what we see as "True HD" gaming.

Really, most of the jargon is above our heads, but if you're a real statistic buff, you'll find the entry by member Arwin most revealing -- subsequent corrections aside. The funny thing is the games that actually appear to be 1080p are the downloadable PSN titles, while most everything else suffers in some aspect. Especially The Darkness. 1024x576, really? It's an interesting read if you want to see what resolution you're actually playing in and if you're upscaling, downscaling, or just screwing around with the game's picture thanks to your TV. Or something.

[via Digg]

Tags: 1080p, game-resolutions, true-hd

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

mattclarkie @ Nov 18th 2007 11:05AM

We all know that Games Consoles make a meal of HD, just look at Halo 3, that uses 640p or something, but the games still fun, and looks good, and if the lower res means the game can process more AI who cares.

derrickgott007 @ Nov 18th 2007 11:08AM

If you read his list you will see that the PS3 consistantly has higher resolution compared to the 360 on identical games.

Stef Geiger @ Nov 18th 2007 11:16AM

If The Darkness actually runs in that resolution, then I'm seriously impressed. It's one of the most crisp looking games I've played in 1080i. And frankly I don't really care about the ACTUAL resolution, I'm just thrilled to get a game that outputs to something other than 720p, since my TV doesn't support it. Regardless, considering at their absolute best, previous-gen games would run at MAYBE 480x720 (and I'm sure the vast majority ran WAY lower than that), this is still a huge improvement.

scott @ Nov 18th 2007 1:01PM

well here is something else thats funny, when a tv says its 1080p it really might not be. THere is a group that has been testing hdtvs to see if they really are 1080p and about half of them or less have made it and the other half havnt. These are from the brand names to non brand nmaes. hahaha.

Bored @ Nov 18th 2007 12:31PM

Hey, Nick, I have a suggestion...

Why don't you also add the resolution of a number of 360 games (with a special note to the very low rendering resolution of Halo 3), so that people can place this information into context?

Otherwise, this post just sounds like the kind of bashing I would expect at xbox360fanboy.

SimandSim @ Nov 18th 2007 12:46PM

Emm. I'm not sure what idiot wrote this article, but from what I see in that thread the Darkness DEMO is the only one to run in 576p... All the other games run in at least 720.. for the PS3 at least.. All Xbox games run in a lower resolution to their PS3 counterpart... So should the picture not have been something along the lines of a more than and less than sign in front of a PS3 and 360 questioning the term HD...? And not pointing out the only PS3 game.. sorry.. Demo to be run in 576?

kornchild2002 @ Nov 18th 2007 12:56PM

I knew this was going to come up; the PS3 having slightly higher resolution than the Xbox 360. I guess it doesn't count that the Xbox 360 is running a higher AA rate than the PS3? I also guess it doesn't count that no one will ever see a difference of 10-20 lines of resolution. If the differences were big like 720p vs 1080p and you have a 50+ inch HDTV then OK. However, the differences aren't that big and I can't believe people are even bringing it up.

organic_shadow @ Nov 18th 2007 1:30PM

While I think that this is really inexcusable, at least we can all run and take cover behind halo 3 on the issue if any fannie flames start a burstin!

Some of the titles had 'acceptable' resolutions because they were LARGER than 720p, but were still very odd, and I don't understand the technical jargon so... wtf indeed.

Morpheus @ Nov 18th 2007 1:47PM

And i thought it was just halo 3!
576p are you kidding?
This is some very interseting reading.
And Yes Oblivion is HD!!!!!!

Mike Sylvester @ Nov 18th 2007 3:11PM

@kornchild2002
In some instances, games are being reported as 1080p, and are actually rendered at 720p and then upscaled. One notable is Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Team Ninja drew a lot of attention to themselves claiming to be the first to make a 1080p game with self-shadowing and run it at 60fps. The claim was unfounded because there were several games prior that were rendered at that resolution and framerate with the aforementioned effect, and then it was totally debunked due to the game not being rendered at that resolution.

http://playstation.joystiq.com/2007/03/27/ninja-gaiden-sigma-more-details-to-chew-on/