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"PS2 Physics"

Did any one see Games Lab on Tuesday on .TV? It was all about physics in computers. It was discussing the PS2 a little. The bloke said that the PS2 is very powerful, which we know and is capable of using advanced physics for games. What this means is that the game will actually behave like they do in real life. Driving games will have the same physics that real driving has. Before games did have physics but basically they had to be simplfied down to actually run them. The bloke was impressed with the PS2 as he said that its like havinga supercomputer on top of your TV. He said within the next year the games we play will have physics that havent been seen before.

F1 2001 is so much more realistic than any PS1 F1 game. GT3 uses some advanced Physics but not as much as is possiable. Thats why games like Redfaction can use the Geomod as the PS2 can handle the Physics, pretty easily.

Did any one see Games Lab on Tuesday on .TV? It was all about physics in computers. It was discussing the PS2 a little. The bloke said that the PS2 is very powerful, which we know and is capable of using advanced physics for games. What this means is that the game will actually behave like they do in real life. Driving games will have the same physics that real driving has. Before games did have physics but basically they had to be simplfied down to actually run them. The bloke was impressed with the PS2 as he said that its like havinga supercomputer on top of your TV. He said within the next year the games we play will have physics that havent been seen before.

F1 2001 is so much more realistic than any PS1 F1 game. GT3 uses some advanced Physics but not as much as is possiable. Thats why games like Redfaction can use the Geomod as the PS2 can handle the Physics, pretty easily.

Check out the link below for a detailed explanation of the way the PS2 handles graphics better than a PC!

www.arstechnica.com/cpu/2q00/ps2/ps2vspc-1.html

It's a bit heavy going but stay with it and all will become clear!

i.e. the PS2 is better than a PC at playing games, but then again we all know that don't we :-)

Jive, this article was ae, I did actually understand whatit was talking about and it just goes to show what differences there will be between the PS2 and the Xbox. I still believe that the Xbox will have a slight advantage over the PS2 in the early days due to the fact that most of it's developers ahve worked on the directx platform before. This is underlined by Microsofts current batch of games which it likes to highlight to the public. How many games have MS shown as key title where the developer has never developed for the pc, mmm, none! Why because the people with the most experience are the ones who will get the best out of the hardware early on. Why do you think that Sega let Microsoft develop Windows CE for the dreamcast?? To encourage developers by giving them a development platform they had used before. Sony consulted the games industry and came up with a totaly unique approach, they developed a system which would allow developer to play the system, sure they didn't include things like hardware anti-aliasing or particularly large reolutions which does make some PS2 games look particularly blocky, but people who are even remotly interested in 3d modelling knows that thsi doesn't necessarily make for better graphics. If you want a perfect example, Ridge Racer V is continuously slated for having poor graphics, although I am one who would whole heartedly disagree with this. To make my point I would like to compare it to MSR on the Dreamcast. Credit where credit is due, MSR is a good looking game and it plays very well, but gameplay aside, the car models are bland. They have a very poor polygon count which causes them to look rather blocky and causes a lack of detail. Now take a car from Ridge racer V, how many people have sat in awe at the quality of the car models in the replay mode?? Proper alloy wheels on the cars, with brake discs glowing as you brake as late as possible to get an edge going round corners. This is what I would consider to constitute good graphics. Admittedly the Xbox will have a more powerful 3d accelerator than the PowerVR 2, which never made it to the PC because it was so poor, but the same will apply. I have studied the tech demos of Project Gotham with a fair level of vigour, and have come to only one conclusion. Ouch, people are being fooled by high resolutions and compressed textures. Project Gothams car models do not compare to that of RRV never mind the GT3 demo, which apparently has undergone a major overhaul. Anyone who know about the arcitecture of the PS2 will know that it does suffer from a lack of Hardware texture compression, something which Nvidia are pioneers of on the PC stage. This means that the actual graphical detail on 3D models will not be as high on the PS2 as it is on the Xbox. But again the Xbox will be hindered in the future from something which has not been documented at all in any magazine or website, so anyone reading who wants me to write tech based stuff highlighting the benefits of the PS2 give me a shout. The Xbox has a capped limit of 64Mb Ram, fair enough the PS2 only has 32mb I hear you cry, but htere are major differences in the systems in this respect. The Xbox has 64Mb Ram which has to be shared out between the different aspects of the system, i.e. the games producers have to set aside when there game begins how much ram they can afford the graphics card, how much to sound and how much to the main processor etc. This will work fine until someone wants to create a massive adventure game with the best sound, the best garphics available, the best physics engine, basically the best everything, i.e. a company like konami. They will struggle to balance the Xbox to suit their needs. The PS2 has 32Mb of system Ram, but italso has Vram for its graphics synth, Ram for it's sound processor etc. which can be controlled independently from each other, so from the offset the developers know where they stand and do not have to digress a balance, which could cripple the game if their code produces a bottleneck which they cannot get around.

Basically what this means is that the Xbox will make its 3D models look good because of the textures wrapped around them but as things become more advanced it will begin to struggle unless MS go down the roads of upgrading video cards. The PS2 on the other hand will only get better with age, like a fine wine, as developers get to grips with the difficult hardware nature. Sony have begun producing software libraries for things such as anti-aliasing and konami are also producing libraries which it will begin to make available to other producers. The first PS2 3d engine which can be altered has also been produced in the form of Lith Tech which has been acclaimed by the industry and is being implemented and will be more than likely the basis for Alien vs Predator 2 appearing on the Ps2. The only dark horse is the gamecube, which utilises a similar memory system to the PS2, time will tell if the minimal storage capacity of the discs will hinder games, or if ninty manage to get a decent amount of 3rd party developers to produce games, I don't think there is any doubt that first party games from niteno/rare will be anything but good, but what of Agent Dark?? Free Radical Design has most of the goldeneye/perfect dark team on board so can rare pull it off?

Who has their PS2 on top of their telly?

nope, on top of my stereo, so i could wire it up easily.

Bonus! man "war and peace" was shorter than that! :-)

Yeah it is a great website for explaining the workings of the PS2 and I can't wait to see the developments in the future, you've only gotta look at the 1st Ridge Race for the PSx and then to FF9 to see how graphics have advanced!

My PS2 sits ontop of my video with my PSx sat ontop of that!

Jive, is there any way of writing that shorter, I don't want to be like MS and cut corners now do i??

Yes there is a way of shortening that.

"Please give me a gameaday win"

Bonus wrote:
> Jive, is there any way of writing that shorter, I don't want to be like MS and cut corners now do i??

LOL!!

Yeah sorry mate, I was only jesting with you :)

Nah, Sony running scared should win it today.

Goatboy wrote:
> Yes there is a way of shortening that.

"Please give me a
> gameaday win"