Here we go again. Some company makes a claim fairly early in the life-cycle of a console that they’re using ‘less than half’ of that console’s power. So it is with Uncharted developer, Naughty Dog, revealing that they’re only using 30 to 40% of the PlayStation 3’s power. This time, however, there may be good reason to make such claims.
Naughty Dog have been working on a new set of tools called Edge, developed by ‘very, very senior programmers…really old-school programmers’ who are constantly looking for optimisations in their approach to making the PS3 churn faster. They’ve discovered some tricks to take full advantage of the PS3 and its specialised hardware, including assigning tasks to the multiple processors more efficiently.
This leads to Richard Lemarchand’s (co-lead game designer at Naughty Dog) statement: “That’s why we think we’re probably only using 30 or 40 per cent of the power of the PS3 right now, and there’s this great, untapped potential. All third-party developers can get the Edge libraries for free and are going to be able to use them in their own ways, to get more and more and more out of the PS3 over the years.”
Uncharted looked amazing. Look forward to more of that in the future, then.
Source: threespeech.com
- Battlefield Friday: Feel the Battle, Steal the Tags - The War is On!
- Here's a look inside the PS Vita First Edition Bundle's box
- January NPD: Microsoft touts Xbox 360 dominance, sales 'defy convention'
- January NPD: Momentum continues, says Sony, as PS Vita readies for launch
- Original Killzone's PSN release "delayed indefinitely"
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations - Mediterranean Traveller Map Pack Review (PC)
- Free Skyrim DLC and Skyrim Creation Kit!
- CoD: Black Ops Double XP Weekend on Friday, vote for next 24/7 map!
- Skyrim patch 1.4 available on Xbox LIVE now, PS3 update arrives today [Update]
- Win one of three 3D TVs plus an awesome PS3 bundle with Afrihost and El33tonline
- Friends of Design are Friends Indeed: Cape Town gamers congregate on campus
- UFC Undisputed 3 Hands-on Preview
Comments:
One wonders how they manage to quantify that. Do they factor the polygon count? Cores used? Memory used? I'm curious to know how they got that "30 to 40%" number. However, if that's true, then like the PS2, we can only expect great things to come of the console when it reaches its maturity in a few years' time!
They're just finding new and better ways to shave off extra computational time, making sure all the cores are in use rather than letting one idle, while the rest work inefficiently, trying in vain to take up the slack. I guess they guess that it's early days yet and as they get better acquainted with the hardware, they'll see performance improvements, like other generations of hardware.
Those number are a bit specific, aren't they ;), but maybe they're just thinking about the potential life of the console compared to where they are now. Another few years, another 60%?
Like you said, you can't even compare the launch-titles for the PS2 to the titles released in recent years, so the same will be true of the PS3.
Just a small error... Naughty Dog did not make Ratchet & Clank.... they made Jak & Daxter for the PS2, and Uncharted for the PS3...
Yeah, sorry about that. Sometimes I confuse Insomniac and Naughty Dog, for some reason... must be their 'appreciation' for Playstation hardware... and their mascot games.
All better now, thanks.
I thought using less processing power used to be a good thing. I thought the idea was to make a game that works efficiently. Are we saying that by using less processing power the developer had simply cut too many corners?
I guess using less processing power on the PC is a good thing, but with consoles, they want to squeeze as much as they can out of the hardware to get the best performance, simply because it's a fixed platform, unlike the PC which can potentially be upgraded every few months.
Developing for the PS3 is notoriously difficult as game development has now moved into a multiple-core scenario, or the 'parallel-processing problem'. Taking advantage of all of the processing units, not only on the PS3, but the Xbox 360 and newer PCs, is difficult, and developers are still trying to get to grips with getting them all to work together properly.
While Uncharted, for example, was quite an achievement on the technical side, they are still finding new ways to make their engine more efficient, because of their relative unfamiliarity with the hardware.
30 to 40% ?? and when are we going to see this "untapped power" ? it sounds to me like human brain, we can use about 10% of it and no one (or at least really few people) is able to use it at it's full potential. Is that going to happen with the PS3 ?? Or we will see really good games at the end of the 10 year-life span ??
The thing is, everyone really isn't giving SONY the chance they had when the PS2 came out. Think about this. The PS2 had a FULL YEAR up on the org. Xbox, meaning they (the developers) had time to get used to the hardware and programming side of things.
Now is a different story. Microsoft, released the Xbox360 a year year early and what happens? Well the same thing. The developers got used to the dev kits and started to widdle away on games. Sony shouldve seen this comming, and honestly, they have nothing to worry about overall.
Although it would seem to be eaiser to program for the xbox360, its just a pc really; all this talk about the "untapped power" in consoles is redundant. Think about this. When Sonic the Hedgehog was new, SEGA came up with the two words that pushed "Sonic sales" over the top.
What were these words you ask? Well, "Blast Processing" ofcourse. ;) It's the same way with the term: "untapped-power." It's on how you market it. Naughty Dog has always been a HUGE main supporter of SONY and every think of why? You can consider them a "First party company"...cough..cough...
Ofcourse they will try and sell the "untapped power bit" but honestly I know what the PS3 is actually capable of. As I know what the 360 can and cannot handle.
I LOVE Sony, and I love MS's xbox360, each has its ups and downs, but when it comes down to it, it's all about the funfactor and the playability of a game to keep people interested for the long run. I could care less if the PS3 ran with the internal hardware of a hamster in a wheel, if it could pull out some great addictive games.
More "power" to the systems with untapped power though. IT will only prove to the world which system will last long and be more trust worthy. A for me, im on my 19th Xbox360, no joke. and MS's repair center has dogged me for the last time.
Thank you Sony for showing us who is truly dependable, and not just another statistc in this world.
lol didnt mean to post that 2 times. sorry
No problem Joshua - sorted it out for you.
Thanks for your interesting comments.
Oliver: "Yeah, sorry about that. Sometimes I confuse Insomniac and Naughty Dog, for some reason..."
That reason could be that both Naughty Dog and Insomniac used to work in the same backlot, and that producer Mark Cerny has worked closely with both companies. Also, they feature a lot of mascot overlap—iirc, in Ratchet 2, Clank's apartment, there's a huge mural of Jak and Daxter!