Next Gen Console Specs- It Begins

Quote:

Originally Posted by ImaNihilist

I hate Infiniti Blade II, but it's kind of a marvel on the new iPad. Looks like a 360 game, but renders out at 2048x1536 without a hiccup.

Am I the only one who would like to see details on how they do that? Memory bandwidth alone should be a massively limiting factor. Then there is the simple fill rate required to put up 30fps (or 60fps) of 2048x1536 pixels on the screen. There has to be a lot trickery going on. It's not a bad thing, I just think that it should be widely known what they are doing.

*Edit: They amazingly have approx 12.8GB/s of theoretical bandwidth to play with. However the memory controller is apparently limited to around 2GB/s. The games and other "intensive" content are never rendered at native resolution. Instead they render at a half-step between 1024x768 and 2048x1536, and then are simply stretched to fit. I have a feeling that if a 3D game tried to render on that system at native res, the tablet would melt. :p
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5688/a...-2012-review/3

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anandtech.com

Infinity Blade 2 for the new iPad Renders at roughly 1.4x the iPad 2's resolution, then upscales to fill the screen

*Edit2: Depending on how they count 1.4x resolution, I.e. pixel count or dimensions, this is either impressive or truly sad.

Code:

Res. Pixels Horz Vert Base Notes 1x 786432 1024 768 256 1.4x 1101708 1212 909 303 (1.4x pixel count) 2x 1541120 1433 1075 358.4 (1.4x resolution) 4x 3145738 2048 1536 512

*Edit3: If a home console tried to pull partial resolution rendering, it would be lambasted by the media and the consumers alike. You can get away with a lot of half measures in order to get "equivalent" performance on a mobile platform. But that sort of thing doesn't fly when you don't have the excuse of extreme power and heat limitations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timman_24

That game is over 10 years old. That's like being amazed you could play space invaders on a Game boy. :D

I am getting old! MY MIND IS BLOWN!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamakazie

I am getting old! MY MIND IS BLOWN!

Right?! When you said that I was like "yeah! help me make my point!" and then little Timmy over here had to go pop my bubble....that was 10 years ago.....oh man. I am getting old haha. I was a senior in high school when that game came out. mabey even a junior.

@James
Yes ive been dying to know how they do that lol. TBH im not really suprised by any kind of graphics trickery these days. Seems like everyone does it, either through wierd resolution/textures, up/down scaling or through video drivers.
But still, I dont see 2048x1536 too hard to pull off. The original was 1024x768 (Infinity Blade) and that was ran with a dual core gpu, and now it has a quad core gpu. Dont know if it scales up quite like that (im laughing at myself right now btw).

Quote:

Originally Posted by James

Am I the only one who would like to see details on how they do that? Memory bandwidth alone should be a massively limiting factor. Then there is the simple fill rate required to put up 30fps (or 60fps) of 2048x1536 pixels on the screen. There has to be a lot trickery going on. It's not a bad thing, I just think that it should be widely known what they are doing.

*Edit: They amazingly have approx 12.8GB/s of theoretical bandwidth to play with. However the memory controller is apparently limited to around 2GB/s. The games and other "intensive" content are never rendered at native resolution. Instead they render at a half-step between 1024x768 and 2048x1536, and then are simply stretched to fit. I have a feeling that if a 3D game tried to render on that system at native res, the tablet would melt. :p
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5688/a...-2012-review/3

*Edit2: Depending on how they count 1.4x resolution, I.e. pixel count or dimensions, this is either impressive or truly sad.

Code:

Res. Pixels Horz Vert Base Notes 1x 786432 1024 768 256 1.4x 1101708 1212 909 303 (1.4x pixel count) 2x 1541120 1433 1075 358.4 (1.4x resolution) 4x 3145738 2048 1536 512

*Edit3: If a home console tried to pull partial resolution rendering, it would be lambasted by the media and the consumers alike. You can get away with a lot of half measures in order to get "equivalent" performance on a mobile platform. But that sort of thing doesn't fly when you don't have the excuse of extreme power and heat limitations.

Very interesting. And yeah, there is a lot of trickery going on. I don't think anyone disputes that. I've never been involved in a mobile game. I too would love to know how they manage to do those things, or if it's some kind of black magic built into the SDKs. I'm guessing a little of both.

Infinity Blade II looks to have low-poly geometry, low resolution textures, with focus on post processing filters to get the vibrant graphical look. You may notice there is only one light source as well and the map lighting is probably pre-rendered into the level. There is also a lot of use of 2D sprites and backdrops.

It isn't as much a technical achievement as it is an artistic one.