SOCOM PS3: Not Possible On Any Other Console
The wonders of a HDD according to Sony
The availability of a hard drive in each and every PS3 means that SOCOM: Confrontation could not have been made for any other system, according to Sony Computer Entertainment America's Seth Luisi.
On Sony's official blog SCEA's director of development says:
For those of us who don't have a degree in computer science, the game dumps data off the Blu-ray disc onto the internal hard disk, which has a streaming rate that's over eight times faster than the Blu-ray disc drive. Loading data from HDD means SOCOM can rapidly transfer and update high resolution elements - for example, textures - into the PS3's memory when they're needed. Relying solely on Blu-ray, or indeed DVD or HD-DVD, games must instead have textures hanging around using valuable memory as a buffer. Being able to have less data in memory means you've got more space for bigger, shinier textures, geometry and other next-genny stuff. Nice.
Bear in mind, of course, that this comes from a Sony employee speaking on a Sony blog, so he was hardly likely to tell us the game would have been possible on Mega Drive cartridges. The fact remains, however, that the definite availability of a hard drive on the PS3 clearly opens up doors for developers.
Below are some screens Luisi released to show just the kind of detail he's talking about.
For more on SOCOM: Confrontation head over to SPOnG's dedicated game page.
On Sony's official blog SCEA's director of development says:
“SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation makes full use of the HDD in the PlayStation 3. One of the often overlooked advantages of the PS3 compared to competing platforms is that it contains a 2.5” serial ATA hard drive which allows us to use the Hard Disc Drive for extremely fast data access. Since we can count on the hard drive to be in every PS3 console, SOCOM Confrontation uses a very aggressive data streaming system which in turn allows for much greater detail in the game environments. For this reason alone, the level of detail which you will see in the environments and characters in SOCOM Confrontation is not possible on any other game console.”
For those of us who don't have a degree in computer science, the game dumps data off the Blu-ray disc onto the internal hard disk, which has a streaming rate that's over eight times faster than the Blu-ray disc drive. Loading data from HDD means SOCOM can rapidly transfer and update high resolution elements - for example, textures - into the PS3's memory when they're needed. Relying solely on Blu-ray, or indeed DVD or HD-DVD, games must instead have textures hanging around using valuable memory as a buffer. Being able to have less data in memory means you've got more space for bigger, shinier textures, geometry and other next-genny stuff. Nice.
Bear in mind, of course, that this comes from a Sony employee speaking on a Sony blog, so he was hardly likely to tell us the game would have been possible on Mega Drive cartridges. The fact remains, however, that the definite availability of a hard drive on the PS3 clearly opens up doors for developers.
Below are some screens Luisi released to show just the kind of detail he's talking about.
For more on SOCOM: Confrontation head over to SPOnG's dedicated game page.
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Comments
Joji 4 Jul 2007 13:28
1/14
That's all well and dandy.
Socom is still the baby of Sony, this in part is why many might pass it by, when Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six games are multiformat. I've had my PS2 for a while now and I'd always buy Ghost Recon first.
Is that 'not possible on any other console' news supposed to get me to buy one?
Socom is still the baby of Sony, this in part is why many might pass it by, when Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six games are multiformat. I've had my PS2 for a while now and I'd always buy Ghost Recon first.
Is that 'not possible on any other console' news supposed to get me to buy one?
king skins 4 Jul 2007 15:13
2/14
But the PS3 then has a disadvantage that the memory for the system is spilt into two and with out a complex and slow memory manager they can only have 256mb of textures in memory at anyone time.
Where as the 360 has a unified memory and could hold upto 500mb of texture memory if you wanted...
they both have positives and negatives...
Where as the 360 has a unified memory and could hold upto 500mb of texture memory if you wanted...
they both have positives and negatives...
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Ellis 4 Jul 2007 15:35
3/14
Gears of War looks better than this, and the 360 has no standard HDD...more Sony Hype
deleted 4 Jul 2007 15:45
4/14
Yeah its not possible on any other console because sony said so, and there always right.......arent they?
xboxlenny 4 Jul 2007 15:57
5/14
Well it is possible to buy a HDD for the Xbox 360. any one can buy a Xbox HDD and stick it on. So saying its not possible is a sham. Sony will try to say anything to lower the 360. Most games like SOCOM are online multiplayer, so if u have a 360 and on xbox live, well u need a HDD. Besides Rainbow Six Vegas, Gears of War, and GRAW are all better games in my oppinion.
mokomoko 4 Jul 2007 16:07
6/14
Blu Ray capacity: 25/50Gb
Factory fresh 20Gb PS3 free storage space: 13-14 Gb
You do the math.
Factory fresh 20Gb PS3 free storage space: 13-14 Gb
You do the math.
hollywooda 4 Jul 2007 16:11
7/14
In my opinon the above mentioned games are leagues ahead of Socom, i've never really rated them. But surely if they wanted to bring this to the 360 or any other game developed using the HD in this way they could just simple put a HD in with the game as a pack. problem solved.
deleted 4 Jul 2007 16:13
8/14
or better still stick in a 512mb mem card to save costs? would that work?
Monda 4 Jul 2007 16:14
9/14
HAHAHAH wow... u think Ghost Recon is Better than Socom!?
it is obvious u dont know what a good game is then.
it is obvious u dont know what a good game is then.
deleted 4 Jul 2007 16:16
10/14
i know its better than socom
Steve 4 Jul 2007 18:43
11/14
according to Sony Computer Entertainment my PS2 can do "Toy Story quality graphics" and the Killzone trailer at E3 2005 was ingame footage runnig on a dev kit.
Shame the Ps3 hard drive can't get 60fps in Madden or get the Unreal engine 3 working in Fatal Inertia. Plenty of room to store spyware though ;)
Shame the Ps3 hard drive can't get 60fps in Madden or get the Unreal engine 3 working in Fatal Inertia. Plenty of room to store spyware though ;)
trav 5 Jul 2007 01:49
12/14
actually ea was full of s**t bout the fps thing the cell is more than powerful enough to handle 60 they're just too lazy to put in the extra hours.
tyrion 5 Jul 2007 07:25
13/14
trav wrote:
actually ea was full of s**t bout the fps thing the cell is more than powerful enough to handle 60 they're just too lazy to put in the extra hours.
From what I've heard, Madden will be 1080p@30Hz on the PS3 and 720p@60Hz upscaled to 1080i@60Hz on the 360. It looks like the PS3 is doing more "work" than the 360, if they look the same in terms of graphics then the PS3's game engine is a better one technically.
king skins 5 Jul 2007 09:28
14/14
tyrion wrote:
trav wrote:
actually ea was full of s**t bout the fps thing the cell is more than powerful enough to handle 60 they're just too lazy to put in the extra hours.
From what I've heard, Madden will be 1080p@30Hz on the PS3 and 720p@60Hz upscaled to 1080i@60Hz on the 360. It looks like the PS3 is doing more "work" than the 360, if they look the same in terms of graphics then the PS3's game engine is a better one technically.
I think I'd prefer the 60fps over a higher resolution... smother gameplay