GTA IV’s Blueprint for Cross-Platform Titles

May 12th, 2008, 7:11pm by Jeff

Destructoid points to a Eurogamer analysis that somehow determines that GTA IV runs at roughly 33 FPS on the XBox 360 and 28 FPS on the PS3. Like Destructoid, I don’t see this making much, if any, appreciable difference to the experience. Despite this difference, as well as the PS3’s slightly worse resolution, most people who have played both versions seem to think that the PS3 looks slightly better than the 360 version due to some extra filtering that’s done on the PS3 version. My guess is that this extra filtering can be done on the PS3 because of it’s extra CPU power. With this new information, though, the strategy for successfully creating apparent visual parity between the 360 and PS3 versions of the game becomes apparent:

1) Reduce the resolution of the game slightly to 640p (instead of 720p) to get the framerate to near the 360 version of the game (about a 20% difference).

2) Use the PS3’s extra CPU processing power to apply filters to smooth out the game’s appearance.

Now, I’m sure there’s far more to it than this, but at an overall level, if a developer can successfully reduce the resolution of a game and still make it look the same or better than the 360 version of the game, that would probably be an acceptable solution to most PS3 owners.

I also have no idea if this is something that would work with all types of games. But, generally speaking, reducing resolution will increase framerates. If the PS3’s extra SPE’s can be put to good use by implementing some additional filtering without sacrificing the framerate, that seems like a good way to go.

Posted in Jeff, Xbox 360, PS3, Commentary |



      

5 Responses to “GTA IV’s Blueprint for Cross-Platform Titles”

  1. laesperanzapaz Says:
    May 13th, 2008 at 12:12 am

    remember when Sony and Kutaragi boasted of 1080p as baseline? and 120fps? not to mention, ultra widescreen [two 16:9 monitors side by side].

    ahh yes. how the mighty have fallen… meanwhile, GTA games have and always wil be superiorp playing on the PCs

  2. Jeff Says:
    May 13th, 2008 at 2:19 am

    Laesp-

    Those were better days for Sony… In Sony’s mind, anyway.

  3. Dave Says:
    May 13th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    So wait…they key to porting to the ps3 is to DOWNGRADE the game?

  4. Geoff Says:
    May 13th, 2008 at 7:07 pm

    I’m with Dave… if 28 and 33 FPS look pretty much the same, and the PS3 can filter better, why do they need to do something differently?

  5. Jeff Says:
    May 13th, 2008 at 11:15 pm

    I’m not sure if it wasn’t clear in my post, but that’s sort of my point… GTA IV, despite having worse “numbers” than the 360 version, supposedly looks as good as or better than the 360 version. There’s obviously more to a port than this, but this strategy doesn’t seem like such a bad idea for other games that may use the 360 as it’s lead platform. If the PS3 is the lead platform, then I’m sure they can use other tricks and stuff to make it just look or run better on the PS3 to start with, but it may take them longer to make the game overall.

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