Crysis 2 Devs Talk 360, PS3 Limitations

Digital Foundry have put up a huge interview with Crytek, the developers behind first person suit-em-up Crysis 2.  It’s a great read (as with all DF’s stuff) and well worth digesting over a nice cup of tea.

For the attention span deficient though, sites have cherry picking quotes all weekend- and rightly so, there’s some juicy little soundbytes in there that highlight some of the difficulties developers have with the current generation of consoles.

[drop]”GPU side, when programmed properly, they are fairly similar,” say the developers when asked about PS3 and Xbox 360. “We just have to be conscious of the clear handicap on PS3 RSX in terms of vertex processing, but other than that, on fragment processing side they are relatively similar.”

“Both have their strengths but such differences become irrelevant in the long run, especially when compared to PC platforms,” says principal graphics engineer Tiago Sousa.

“My finger-pointing at Microsoft/Sony would really be on the memory side,” he said. “It’s way too low, and the biggest crippling factor from a visual perspective. I would really like to see next-gen console platforms with a minimum of 8GB.”

There’s lots in there, of particular interest to anyone keen on how developers squeeze the best out of what are now relatively underpowered consoles in respect to PC tech.

Interestingly, neither the PS3 nor 360 version runs at ‘true 720p’.

“The 1152 x 720 resolution on 360 simply allows you to maximize eDRAM usage on a deferred lighting engine without having to resort to tiled rendering,” said Sousa.

“On the PS3, due to the extremely limited system memory we resorted to downloading memory into video memory. We bumped into severe video memory limitations, so it was a good compromise to save a big chunk of video memory for other usages.”

“I think we already tapped a large part of the consoles’ resources and hardware potential. But there is still quite some potential to push it further.”

75 Comments

  1. i find it strange that they claim that neither run in true 720, of course PC is gonna be the awsome sauce for devs, unfortunatly its not really where most the bread and butter is these days which is a shame.

  2. “I would really like to see next-gen console platforms with a minimum of 8GB.”

    Amen to more video memory!

    • Is he talking about main memory or video memory?
      Really starting to Doubt that Crytek are the great developer they claim to be.

      KZ3 has higher detail, a solid framerate and full 720p resolution, and because Crytek are so up themselves, they can’t see that decent developers CAN make good graphics in games.

      And that doesn’t take into context the quality of the actual game, which is another debate…. (although I expect Crytek will lose on another battle there)

      • Bear in mind the extra disc capacity that KZ3 was able to utilse compared to the multi-format Crysis 2.

      • Well if anything KZ3 looks jagged and there’s worse lighting. I’ve played KZ3 after Crysis 2 and in my opinion in the big picture it does look worse.
        Also, KZ3 is more like… artistic game. It doesn’t feel real.

        Have you even beat the game?

      • Multi-platform and having to support the old way of doing things for the sake of the Xbox is the bane of the PS3…

        Just don’t bother buying multiplatform, buy the far superior platform exclusives like KZ3…

      • just buy Armoured Core V, its going to better than any shooter *runs

      • Five Armored Core games and only one Carnage Hearts? Pfft. There’s just no justice in the world.

  3. crytek these people NOT know that the power of play3 not his GPU, the GPU makes CELL?

    N Dog knows this, Gerrilla etc.

    plus!

    620p HD resolution sub crysis2

    kz3 with more graphics, better textures, more enemies and friends on screen, but moving objects larger maps …..

    1280x1080p resolution kz3

    the play3 can, otherwise your engine is a SHIT MULTI

    • Interesting …

      • Haha… I agree… Very… Interesting…

        Now why can’t this guy write some articles for TSA?

        :D

    • KZ3 only 720p nolgan, but your argument is spot on

    • (faux old American accent) A truer word don never been spoke.

    • This man…is a visionary. *claps*

  4. What’s strange about claiming that neither run in 720p? It’s 1024*720 for PS3 and 1152*720 for 360. Full 720p is 1280*720, so neither are 720p.

    • crysis 2 resolution REAL is 620p, no is full 720p

      • no sorry :(

        x360 = 1152×720 , 30 frame
        Play3 = 1024×720 , 30 frame

        now Killzone3 = 1280 x 1080p 60 frames

      • What resolution is 620p? I’ve never come across that as a standard video mode before. What do you mean by ‘real’?

      • 620p hd dont exist theres only 3 HD resolutions 720p 1080i and HD 1080 and KZ3 runs at 720p not full HD

      • The developer can choose the native resolution, hence the unuausal resolutions like 620p, the cpu then upscales(pretty light on resources) to fit the screen

        KZ3’s max native setting is NATIVE 720p30 (not 60 frames per second) But with alll the other settings amped up and some great post processing, you can more than forgive guerilla.

      • I know that beeje I dont think the other guy knows that thinking that 620p is a HD resolution when its not is stupid

  5. Nat. dog, guerrilla have said SEVERAL TIMES

    GPU ONLY! sound, the cell makes the cpu and gpu, and if they do not know … the cell has to ALL accses 512MB memory, because it was designed to make gpu

    the cell alone is sufficient to make the cpu and gpu, and make games like uncharted3 and kz3

    another thing is that the other multis PC / prepared DX, dx used play3 NO

    dx and x360 pc and windows and engine are designed to cpu, gpu graphics

    play3 NO, play3 cell ALL, so the other multis are not suitable for that play3 FAILURE

    Not that play3 not have power, is more than demonstrated play3 x360 is more powerful and unique beast play3 are much more graphically than multis

    max what is crysis2 and look multi sub hd 620p in x360 and play3

    kz3 1280 x 1080 + 60 frames 2d

    water lighter

    • Trying to make sense of what you have written hurts my brain…..

    • What is this? I don’t even…

    • Balram? Surely not …

    • Holy crap, i think a caveman has stolen your keyboard and just started randomly slapping his big hairy palms all over it! I actually have never read such crazy random slurs, seriously mate WTF are you on about????

    • What the hell?:O Did you read that before posting? also why are you spamming it across the comments? we don’t like spamming here on TSA. Also you sound like a fanboy.Oh my god Balram has returned!?

    • KZ3 is 720p and the PS3’s cell is the CPU not 2 different things

    • Leave it, he/she must have difficulties with english or must be a begginner so please no

      • lol I thinkn your most right must have learning difficulties

      • Yeah I had this on the Namco forums, its not right to be angry towards them

    • A prophet I tell you! A PROPHET! *shakes fist*

      • The Prophet?

      • Yes, the prophet. The one and only. Can’t you tell by just reading what he has to say? :D

      • The Prophet of the last Epclipse, LAST EPCLIPSE!!!

    • My interpretation of this post by nolgan:

      Naught Dog and Guerrilla have said several times that the Cell is used as both a CPU and a GPU. The Cell has access to all 512MB of memory because the Cell handles both the work of a CPU and a GPU, and is sufficient on its own to run games like Uncharted 3 and Killzone 3.

      Another thing is that other platforms use DirectX, the PS3 doesn’t use DirectX. DirectX, Xbox360, PC, Windows, are designed to use the CPU for the game engine, and the GPU for the graphics. Is the PS3? No. PS3’s Cell does it all, so the other platforms are not suitable for the PS3, which is a failure.

      It’s not that the Ps3 doesn’t have power, it has been demonstrated many times that the PS3 is a powerful and unique beast, which can run graphically superior games compared to those games that are designed for PC/Xbox360.

      Max out Crysis 2 and you’ll have sub-HD graphics (620p) in the Xbox360 and PS3 versions. Then look at Killzone 3, it has 1280×1080 at 60fps (in 2D).

      Water Lighter

      Hope this helps!

  6. I see that the people of play3 crytek

    know nothing

    be asked to N. Dog god

    not believe me?

    go to PSN, video area, making off UNCHARTED2, there are 12 videos, and explains it perfectly

    spend all the time …

    that we had to CELL
    that we had to CELL
    This now makes CELL

    etc etc

    all the time

    • This guy has to be from China. I’ve marked enough papers to know when someone is from there haha.

  7. I had it for PS3 and the graphics were fine.

    Maybe instead of worrying about crap like resolutions which are completely unnoticable and no one gives a shit about (except for sad freaks), they should try making a game that actually has a storyline and is actually fun like games are supposed to be. If this is the ‘amazing’ game that PC fanboys were banging on about for ages, then they can just keep it coz it was just complete generic mind-numbing boredom in disc form. I could barely be arsed to even finish the game. Thank god for ebay :)

    • I finished it, but I do agree. I was sooo bored at times, and come the end, I was just relieved that it was over.
      Despite some spectacular graphics and decent gameplay, the game was as dull as all things dull. And, the design and AI of the squid was so offputting, it reminded me of much lesser games, like Blacksite and such. The parts with all human characters were pretty damn good, though.

      • I meant to say “decent gameplay physics”

    • I don’t think you will find many PC fanboys complimenting this game… Quite the opposite actually. I fully agree; Crysis 2 was pretty shit (I finished it last night) but don’t think to claim this about the original, brilliant, first game (and Warhead). Crysis 2 sucks because it was COD-ified to suit the console, it has nothing on the first which played completely different.

  8. “Clear handicap on PS3.”

    and I thought this site was supposed to not be sensationalist crap, then you put this in the subtitle? lol stupid website.

    • You stopped with your “sensationalist” slander you would see the speech marks around it, making clear it is a quote. The article then puts it into context, the tagline was just taking a key line from the developer interview, not an opinion of the writer.
      “lol stupid comment”

      • +1 Guyers the “Clear handicap on PS3.” is in quotation marks for a reason, All TSA have said is that Crytek have given an interview, then quoted the main points.
        TSA cannot control the childish people at Crytek, they just bring the news in gaming, the best.(imo)

    • If it’s stupid why waste your time visiting it? Nobody is forcing you, and you posting a sensationalist comment to get attention is quite hypocritical I might add. Run along now :)

  9. Ps3 handicap lol. Now ive heard it all.

  10. this is what I said of N. Dog, making off UNCHARTED2 multiplayer

    look for yourselves

    6/12
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzo9FrRoPno&feature=relmfu

    if you want you can see the 12 videos on youtube, donde

    where they explain everything

    crytek look this videos, to learn

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