How WipEout maintains 60fps and 1080p

by Andrew Yoon { Sep 29th 2008 at 8:00AM }

Maintaining 1080p and 60fps is no easy feat. In fact, many games in this generation can barely pump out 720p graphics, as seen by upscaling tricks used by titles like Haze, Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV. However, WipEout HD is one of the few games that maintains 1080p at a silky smooth 60fps. How were they able to do that?

Inside the Digital Foundry once again examined the pure pixel count of WipEout HD. What they found is interesting. The game does, for the most part, run in full 1080p. However, when the action becomes too intense, the game will downscale the resolution. It appears the PS3 figures out exactly what resolution the game needs to run at frame-by-frame to ensure the game's 60fps count is never broken. "Rather than introduce dropped frames, slow down or other unsavoury effects, the number of pixels being rendered drops and the PS3's horizontal hardware scaler is invoked to make up the difference. It's an intriguing solution that works with limited impact on the overall look of the game"

It appears the lowest resolution WipEout can render in is 1280x1080, which is still a 50% increase over 720p. The end result is something gamers, regardless of their AV tech knowledge, can truly appreciate.

[Thanks, kzin!]

Tags: 1080p, 60fps, pixel, upscaling, wipeout, wipeout-hd

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

wicko @ Sep 29th 2008 8:19AM

Sounds like something all games should employ.

WTangoFoxtrot @ Sep 30th 2008 10:11PM

seriously, thats a very interesting technique to render things. a lot of racing games could benefit from employing something like that.

dandan @ Sep 29th 2008 8:25AM

I love this game don't care if it is 1080p or not. this game is amazing, for those who love speed.

" It appears the PS3 figures out exactly what resolution the game needs to run" You mean developers figures it how to achieve this.

Hashbrown Hunter @ Sep 29th 2008 8:54AM

No I don't think that was a mistake. Maybe Sony engineered the Cell processor in the PS3 to recognize each individual frame. If so that is just amazing.

ejamer @ Sep 29th 2008 9:12AM

"You mean developers figures it how to achieve this."

Well... sort of. The PS3 calculates exactly what resolution needs to be displayed to keep a rock-solid framerate. Because the PS3 does the actual "work", there isn't a problem with the sentence structure used. Of course, the developers are the ones that told the PS3 how to make that calculation.

Regardless, it's a good technique as long as people can't notice a visible change in quality when the resolution is scaled.

Stellarpimp @ Sep 29th 2008 8:25AM

Yes its a nice feat but umm...I've been playing this game and it looks decent and all...but it still doesn't hold a candle to Uncharted. But it does blow it out of the water for being silky smooth something Uncharted can not claim.

Kodros @ Sep 29th 2008 1:37PM

Lets see how good Uncharted looks if you make Drake run like 1k mph.

Stellarpimp @ Sep 29th 2008 2:53PM

Like hot garbage...

OddyOh @ Sep 29th 2008 8:27AM

GTA IV barely runs at 12fps, let alone 30, let alone 60...a terrible XBox port if I've ever seen one.

I agree, this technique needs to be explored by all game devs.

brampf @ Sep 29th 2008 8:31AM

Of course it helps that Wipeout uses its art style to great effect. Its not pushing that many polygons and using complicated shaders and shadowing techniques.
It looks fantastic because of its art style, something that a game like CoD can't really do as it has to look 'real' and so has to use very intensive techniques which make it harder to render at higher resolutions.

ejamer @ Sep 29th 2008 9:11AM

Good call. This doesn't take anything away from the game, but people rarely recognize the importance of art and art styles used in games.

Gervin @ Sep 29th 2008 11:05AM

I'm not sure why people refer to CoD as a measuring stick. I thought the graphics were only OK over all. Sometimes they were good, sometimes they felt a lot like Capcom style sprites.

Stellarpimp @ Sep 29th 2008 8:33AM

With all this amazing technical know how to get this overly impressive 1080p...why can't they fix the bug when folks with a massive friends list can't play online. I'm so curious to see what that is like.

duckhunt8 @ Sep 29th 2008 5:40PM

They can fix it, they just need time. Just like they needed time to get this working.

Razlebol @ Sep 29th 2008 8:44AM

I love the game. Can't stop playing it. Too bad it doesn't run at 60fps when playing offline multiplayer though.

Hashbrown Hunter @ Sep 29th 2008 9:06AM

Holy crap that's some brilliant programming on Studio Liverpool's part.

It looks like Sony's first-party studios are gonna have to prove how powerful the PS3 really is.

Hashbrown Hunter @ Oct 2nd 2008 9:46PM

Holy shit that's some brilliant programming on Studio Liverpool's part.

It looks like Sony's first-party studios are gonna have to prove how powerful the PS3 really is.

Hashbrown Hunter @ Sep 29th 2008 8:54AM

That's some brilliant programming on Studio Liverpool's part.

It looks like Sony's first-party studios are gonna have to prove how powerful the PS3 really is.

pat1202003 @ Sep 29th 2008 9:19AM

I didn't understand most of that, but it sounds cool.

maxpontiac @ Sep 29th 2008 10:03AM

Now if I could just get better at the game.

Ujn Hunter @ Sep 29th 2008 10:06AM

Not to mention the ships are static models which require no animation... a game like Uncharted isn't as smooth because it takes processing power to animate all the characters on screen, unlike a static mesh.

killermonkey915 @ Sep 29th 2008 10:38AM

does anyone know when there will be a demo?

Gervin @ Sep 29th 2008 11:14AM

Demo? Don't bother. If you liked the 1st one... just buy it. It's cheap, and if you like racing at all, it's awesome.

Actually, I typically hate racing games as they've become too hard/realistic, or too cartoonish (Burnout series).

But Wipeout is freaking awesome.

John @ Sep 29th 2008 7:32PM

i love burnout but i dont have any money for wipeout so i was woundering if it worth asking my mom for money

will @ Sep 29th 2008 11:51AM

and while this isn't technically full HD, the term 1080p is really referring to the vertical line resolution of 1080 progressive. even if it shrinks horizontally, it still has a vertical resolution of 1080. neat!

_sean_ @ Sep 29th 2008 12:35PM

It's full HD.

It says the MINIMUM is 1280 X 1080.
moat of the time its 1920 x 1080.

If you run it at a lower res, it's rendered in 1080 and then scaled down to you rdisplay.

jordini @ Sep 29th 2008 1:00PM

Im not a big racing fan either but this game is awesome. This could easily retail for $40 bucks.

Patrick @ Sep 29th 2008 1:12PM

What??? How dare the game dip from 1080p to 720p when the action game gets intense! I knew I saw choppy and flickery visuals during close-up explosions! I want my money back! For that matter, I want a full refund on my PS3 (which I'm keeping)!

YoonsALiar @ Sep 29th 2008 2:05PM

It never drops below 1080p (1080 lines of vertical res), it just goes higher horizontal res when it can.

slvrfx @ Sep 29th 2008 1:35PM

this game is so sick...i love it

YoonsALiar @ Sep 29th 2008 2:04PM

It's always 1080p, it never dips below 1080 lines of vertical resolution, it increases horizontal resolution when it can go higher.

Ignore posts by Andrew Yoon, he is clearly technically incompetent, and a serial liar (remember when he told us the PS3 had no hardware scaler, no he suddenly refers to it here.. Did Sony magic one in?, what about the lies of this game costing more than $30....)

Tez (PSN: Tezasaurus) @ Sep 29th 2008 3:35PM

A very clever solution to keep the frame rate constant. Is there anything Studio Liverpool can't do?

Oh, make it work for people with more than 50 friends. Any time you're ready to fix that (or even acknowledge it) would be great.

deafwing @ Sep 29th 2008 10:57PM

nice, interesting tid bit there, its about time someone made extra use of those processors. shit, User "wikco" is right, all games should pull off this trickery ... seriously; the game is beautiful, and the times that it does get intense online it only last a few seconds before you blow up (^ _^ )

Warner Young @ Sep 29th 2008 3:54PM

One thing I've wondered about these tests: how exactly do you go about figuring out the actual rendering resolution? I looked at some of the screenshots in the article, and I don't see anything that makes it obvious they're being upscaled.

turkeybaster @ Sep 29th 2008 10:56PM

As one Wipeout HD reviewer said, the real tragedy of this generation of games is that developers had the chance to make everything run at 60fps and they tossed it out for more special effects.

Seriously, I'll take 60fps over some bump/shader/pixel-mapped HDR lit slideshow any day. I remember climbing the towers in Assassin's Creed and looking at the sky. It was a beautiful 60 fps and then you look at the town and it just starts chugging.