Remedy confirms Alan Wake's resolution a composite between 720p and 540p

Remedy said today:

"Modern renderers don't work by rendering everything to a certain final on-screen resolution, but use a combination of techniques and buffers to compose the final detail-rich frames, optimizing to improve the visual experience and game performance.

Alan Wake's renderer on the Xbox360 uses about 50 different intermediate render targets in different resolutions, color depths and anti-alias settings for different purposes. These are used for example for cascaded shadow maps from sun & moon, shadow maps from flashlights, flares and street lights, z-prepass, tiled color buffers, light buffers for deferred rendering, vector blur, screen-space ambient occlusion, auto-exposure, HUD, video buffers, menus and so on. In the end all are combined to form one 720p image, with all intermediate buffer sizes selected to optimize image quality and GPU performance. All together the render targets take about 80 MB of memory, equivalent in size to over twenty 720p buffers."

Beyond3D appears to be somewhat confused as well. Most consider the opaque geometry framebuffer to be the "game resolution," which is 960x540 in the case of Alan Wake, but they do agree that there is more to Alan Wake than just that, which makes this entire situation sort of complicated... It isn't strictly 540p. But it isn't strictly 720p either.

[champ21]

and we thought 576p was bad enough.

next Xbox game will be 480p.

[3sq]

http://farm5.static.flickr....
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http://farm3.static.flickr....
http://farm3.static.flickr....
http://farm5.static.flickr....
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Exclusive in 540p only on 360!

[Nathan123]

Bots should be thankful that the game ditched it's open world or else it would have been rendered in SUB-SD iPhone resolution aka 320P

[Mo0eY]

I will enjoy this game on my Xbox 540p.

180p per year WOOT WOOT.

[Microsoft Xbox 360]

Halo Reach won't be HD. LMAO.

[avengers1978]

game play 540, cut scenes in 720. All I can say is Buh ha ha ha.

[Anon7349]

"Modern renderers don't work by rendering everything to a certain final on-screen resolution, but use a combination of techniques and buffers to compose the final detail-rich frames, optimizing to improve the visual experience and game performance."

Modern Renders? Come'on guys, you guys used to be PC devs, you've already forgot what it was like to have resolutions higher than 1080p and 32x AA everywhere?

Yeah console scrubs, PCs can do that. You console scrubs are bragging about 60 extra pixels or so, while my PC can run games past 5000x5000 pixels.

[AngryTypingGuy]

Another case of you geeks making too big a deal of something. All I have to say is, just wait until the game comes out, and you'll see how incredible it looks :-)

[coldfoot]

All games have multiple buffers for different effects and these are at different resolutions by default to be efficient. There is the main opaque geometry buffer where you have the polygons and textures, the lightmap, shadow buffer, alpha buffer for transparencies, particle buffer, etc. These are usually never the same size as each other.

The most important one is the main opaque geometry buffer since it countains the polygons and textures, and determines image and texture quality. If you choose your opaque geometry buffer too low resolution, things such as enemies far away will be smaller than one pixel and you won't be able to see them. Also the polygon edges will be rougher and will need more extensive (and expensive) anti-aliasing. Texture detail will also suffer.

What the developer said confirms MazingerDUDE and Quaz51's findings that the main opaque geometry buffer is indeed at 540p. The other effect buffers contribute much less to the overall image, for example many of Killzone 2's secondary buffers such as particle and alpha buffers are 1/4th resolution, at 360p, but you'd never notice it unless you were specifically looking for it. However the lower resolution opaque geometry buffer will have the side effect of making everything blurry, just like the PS3 version of GTA4, which was at 640p. 540p will be even worse.

You can combine a 720p HUD (text on screen, crosshair, etc.) buffer with a 540p opaque geometry buffer and end up with a 720p image that you achieved by "composing various size buffers", but that won't truly make your image 720p, just like watching DVD's on an HDTV won't make them 720p/1080p.

TL;DR: Alan Wake is 540p.

[FangBlade]

This is pretty much confirms that the game is 540p. too bad lol.
Thanks for the clarification.

[Shaman]

Why to bad?Like you are going to play it...

[N4PS3G]

lol lie to yourself man. The native resolution is not 540p neither is 720p

but why do i waste my time? lol It's obvious you rather take some random guy clarification instead of what Remedy really said.

[thor]

I would suspect that the native resolution of the HUD is about the only thing that is 720p. What MATTERS is what resolution the polygons & textures are. That is 540p. It will LOOK like a 540p image, with all the associated LACK OF DETAIL. Lack of detail is what we are interested in, not numbers and waffle. And in Alan Wake, you will see texture and polygon detail equivalent to that of 540p.

[LostDjinn]

but I guess I'm just not fast enough.

OT: Why the hell did Remedy lie about AW being a native 720p when they should of known that they'd get caught right before launch? This just doesn't make sense to me.

[cyborg6971]

So after all of these years and taking away the sandbox element this is the best they could do. I was under the impression that it was easier to dev for the 360. I still wanna play this but what a disappointment. This and mw2 must be the main reasons for MS to drop the mandatory 720p standard.

[Erotic Sheep]

N4PS3G, quite frankly a lot of people made fun of GOW3 for being between 30 and 60 FPS and called the game 30 FPS. So, just saying, dont look too surprised when people start calling this 540p as well, but thats N4G lol..

[REALgamer]

For example, both Killzone 2 and Infamous rendered certain effects at lower resolutions - namely explosions and certain particle effects. You can notice the pixelation around the effects, but thanks to some clever blurring in Killzone 2 it successfully hides it, much as I'm sure Alan Wake will.

It's just people see anything below 720p and start having panic attacks, which is why most developers won't talk about it at all.

[talltony]

Alan wake still looks good but for the people that care about counting pixels this will not end well.

[OpenGL]

You're right, it's 547p which is neither 540p or 720p. The talk about different buffers being different resolutions is simply being brought up to avoid the true issue at hand. Killzone 2(as many games do) on the PS3 used some lower resolution buffers for things like depth of field, but the actual render target was still 720p.

Alan Wake being sub-720p doesn't mean the game can't be good, or even great. It just means that it won't look quite as sharp as it could have. I personally am still excited about the game.

[hamoor]

i love how people think that higher rez means MAGICALLY better graphics
sure it does makes a cleaner image but thats it
neither ps3 or xbox 360 are REAL hd consoles
they both have some sub-hd games like halo and mgs 4
only the pc that can do every game in 1080P and beyond that

[ColdFire]

They do on PC don't they?

[fishd]

Compared to 720P,540P means almost 50% less pixels on the screen

But at the end of the day,I think the game looks great,so yeah...no?...ok

[thor]

You haven't read what Remedy said.

It's not like Wipeout HD which ACTUALLY fluctuates resolution very occasionally.

In fact I've no idea where that word "fluctuation" in the title comes from.

What they mean is that they do various passes - let me give some examples:
Shadow maps
Volumetric lighting
Particles
3D geometry
Heads up Display
Post-processing

This is STANDARD for ALL GAMES. Now obviously, your shadow maps might be a different res from your particle effects and so on. But EVERY GAME DOES THIS. Nearly ALL sub-hd games have a 720p Heads up Display (since it takes very few resources to render). But what matters? It's the 3D geometry. Mountains in the distance. Alan himself. Cars, buildings and other foreground objects. In Alan Wake, those things are ALL rendered at 540p, ALWAYS - including their textures.

When we say that other games are 540p, it is a similar story. Their HUD may be 720p, they may use high-res shadow maps but the native resolution is that of the 3D geometry you can see. That's what makes the difference.

[Hill_billy]

If the game plays great and is full of suspense then it's a win for me. I think the most damaging factor for Alan Wake is the hype they have been given since the game was first announced. The game looks good to me and that is what matters to me.

[HolyOrangeCows]

Alan Wake looks blurry, and that explains it; low geometry res.

[OpenGL]

Yeah, Wipeout HD's native resolution changes from 1280x1080 to 1920x1080 to maintain 60 frames per second. Alan Wake's resolution will probably be static throughout the entire game.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

You know for a crowd that loves the Playstation brand, it is ironic that PS2 didn't dominate the console market because of it's graphical prowess last generation. Likewise, Crysis didn't isn't a great game because of it's heart pounding graphics! Heck, Crysis wasn't even a great game.

So why is it all of a sudden so important now? Art direction determines more of the aesthetics than resolution.

[Nihilism]

HD generation y'all, i'm selling my PC, i mean it's not like the resolution i'm running now has 400% of the number of pixels that 540p is pushing....oh wait a minute...

[lokiroo420]

When were ps2 graphics touted as the best ever? try again idlelee, so much back peddling in this comment section. Is nobody going to say that alan wake is still the graphical beast that it was a week ago? LOL

[iFLOWLIKEWATER]

thats why I never thought KZ2 nor Infamous looked amazing, and there is a lot more going on or should I say isn't going on with those games. But thats the norm of console games, I mean they look great for what type of power they're using. Its all trickery of the eyes. What ever is closer to the camera or screen is going to have WAY more polys and stuff further away...less. I thought this was already understood?!?!?

[Noctis Aftermath]

This is why you shouldn't believe community managers, wait for developers to comment themselves before you believe it(even then it's not certain).

[iFLOWLIKEWATER]

If they were saying that, then they are fools just like anyone who hasn't played any game that hasn't came out yet. But I'll let you know my verdict when I play it on May 18th. I might even buy some motion capture stuff and nitpick every game in my collection and do the compare and contrasting thing, lol.

[Anon1974]

I'm buying Alan Wake because these types of "action thrillers" don't come around very often and it's a genre that we haven't seen enough of this gen. Frankly, I don't expect the game to have graphics as good or even close to Uncharted 2 or GOW3, and I'm fine with that. If I wanted graphics as good as Uncharted 2, I'd play Uncharted 2.
I came to the conclusion years ago that the 360 had hit it's ceiling. In 2006 Gears hit and looked awesome. I thought "Here we go. The bar has just been raised and now I can look forward to a flood of games looking as good or better."
Guess what? It didn't happen. Game after game was touted as the next big thing graphically and they all failed to deliver on the promise that Gears made, until Gears of War 2 came out setting the bar just a bit higher but again, nothing has matched it despite every second game being hyped as the next big graphical monster hit.
Well, I'm not holding my breath for that to happen anymore and haven't been for quite some time and you know why? Because the 360 is 5 years old running on older tech. It was bound to reach a ceiling with what it could do, I just didn't think it would happen so soon and there's nothing wrong with that. It's not like 360 games have suffered because of that fact.

If Alan Wake is the game that sets the new graphics bar, outstanding! If not, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, I'm just going to enjoy the hell out of it.

[Inside_out]

Can't wait for this title...360 keeps on delivering...PS3 fanboys reaching a feverish pitch...some are even game designers/developers now...LMAO...AW will be amazing...you PS3 guys can READ about it...

[wicko]

This isn't anything new, most likely every game this generation will render its effects at different resolutions from its native resolution (meaning the resolution at which the geometry is rendered). And it makes sense, if you can save some performance with nearly unnoticeable visual degredation, then you should do it, especially if it gives you more room for more important visual features. For example, have you noticed in some games the shadows are very blocky and rough? That's because the shadows are rendered at a different resolution, the developer felt that shadows were worth sacrificing (quality) for the improvement of another feature.

In Alan Wake's case, the native resolution was reduced to improve what the developers consider to be more important. Lighting and shadows seem to be a very important part of AW so perhaps they were able to improve those features with what they gained from a lower native res.

[EvilBlackCat]

READ THE DAMN THING BEFORE GOING LOYALIST RAGE!

Re: What is with this?
Guys, unfortunately Markus Mäki, Director of Development, has been grounded in southern Europe with family due to the volcanic ash. We are sorry you haven’t gotten an answer sooner. This is Markus’s reply to your questions.

"Modern renderers don't work by rendering everything to a certain final on-screen resolution, but use a combination of techniques and buffers to compose the final detail-rich frames, optimizing to improve the visual experience and game performance.

Alan Wake's renderer on the Xbox360 uses about 50 different intermediate render targets in different resolutions, color depths and anti-alias settings for different purposes. These are used for example for cascaded shadow maps from sun & moon, shadow maps from flashlights, flares and street lights, z-prepass, tiled color buffers, light buffers for deferred rendering, vector blur, screen-space ambient occlusion, auto-exposure, HUD, video buffers, menus and so on. In the end all are combined to form one 720p image, with all intermediate buffer sizes selected to optimize image quality and GPU performance. All together the render targets take about 80 MB of memory, equivalent in size to over twenty 720p buffers."

Ozz, posting on behalf of Markus

READ IT AGAIN

"In the end all are combined to form one 720p image, with all intermediate buffer sizes selected to optimize image quality and GPU performance. All together the render targets take about 80 MB of memory, equivalent in size to over twenty 720p buffers."

OMG you all loyalists are dumbed down by your xtreme fanboynism. Damn now is clear on N4G that you guys are the worst ever!

[TotalPS3Fanboy]

Obviously, it's 540P.

Remedy: But but but all these other buffers like the HUD...

That's like saying that if you take a 480P game and composite a 720P HUD onto it, somehow, it magically becomes 720P. In reality, it is only upscaled 720P, and not native 720P. And it will never look as good as native 720P.

[archemides518]

game graphics are 540p

HUD is 720p

[darthv72]

to just playing games because you liked to play games?

[Chris_TC]

Why do people keep saying "it looks good anyway"? Have you actually watched the gameplay footage full-screen or looked at the screenshots full-screen?

540p becomes blurry when it needs to be upscaled for a 1080p display. It's barely more than PAL SD.

[Christopher]

Yeah, this is not good news. Essentially, if you have 20 different art assets of various size from 300p to 720p, lay them over top of each other in the appropriate order, what you end up with is a 720 sized image, but of various quality. That's why the light looks good and some textures stand out, but then that's also why we've been seeing lots of jaggies on environment elements, muddy textures, and blurring on edges when the light is overlayed.

This doesn't discount the gameplay, but it does speak ill towards what they've been saying about the graphics, and by 'they' I mean Microsoft.

@Greywulf below: ***Because this is literally the final nail in the coffin. ***

Gotta disagree. Look at the Halo: Reach screens and the recent 360 qt vid. It's possible to get some really nice graphics out of the 360. Even Red Dead Redemption looks very good on the 360, which is what's been used in many of the recent game movies on GameTrailers. And then there's Crysis 2.

Alan Wake may not win any rewards, but it's far from a nail in the coffin of what is possible on the 360.

[Greywulf]

The issue is that the 360 community has boosted Alan Wake to the level of showing off the 360's hardware. And its been the sole title that was/will do so. They removed the sandbox, the game is soft, and now its below MGS4's native resolution. When will the hype about its graphics stop, or the 360's hardware? Because this is literally the final nail in the coffin.

No one is saying Graphics is more important than gameplay. No. Once again, no. Stp.

The argument was made that the title will have better visuals than the top titles today, every single one of them mind you. Killzone2, Uncharted2, MGS4, everything.

With that argument out there, you have to back this up. Like Naughty Dog, or Santa Monica studios has done. Remedy hasn't done this, just as no 360 developer first or third has managed to do this & release a retail title. Now people are pointing fingers at the PS3 community trying to ignore the simple fact that none of this would even be here if it wasn't claimed in the first place? You can pretend its not, and

I can point to several articles claiming Alan Wakes graphical powerhouse abilities, based on flashlights in the dark, but even if it was. Its rendering at a sub MGS4 resolution. And even then, MGS4 ran cut-scenes with its game assets, not high resolution models. It did all of its effects realtime.

This is why the news of this game being below 600p was big news. Because its yet another case of a 360 title that can't compete with todays leading engines. Sure, MGS4 was some sort of 700p. Uncharted2 wasn't, neither was Killzone2. Which are all the current targets of next-gen hopefulls. These all stream load as well, not hide loading behind cut-scenes. Crytek isn't claiming their engine will top 360 exclusives as well.

You have people still trying to defend it claiming PSN or Retail titles switch from multiple forms of greater than 720p native resolutions. Yet, still not getting the fact that its greater than the 360's best efforts today.

There is this blame on the PS3/N4g community with the hate behind this. As if its just fanboy rage. Its not. Its just a case of told-you-so. And no one wants to hear it. Which is fine, but why does the community continue to do this? Every single title on the 360 is hyped to be a visual & technical masterpiece, then when it falls short, off to the next title. Just in the past few months we had to go over Splinter Cell, Metro2033, and now Alan Wake.

All great looking titles, but it takes more than that to be claimed as some technical masterpiece. Running a good looking game in subhd isn't raising the bar at all, its not remarkable. If thats the case, then why do PC/PS3/all other media strive for the current HD bar? Why is it that yet again, 360 gaming needs to redefine definitions of quality and the status-quo to support the 360's console life? High resolution in gaming has always been the target. Yet, like the word "exclusive", resolution importance is trying to be changed to no longer being important? Just like storage space was always the bigger-better deal, but nope. Not in 2010!

At the end of the day, resolution doesn't matter for a games enjoyment.

But no one was claiming Alan Wake wouldn't be enjoyable.

not for one second.

[Consoldtobots]

guess this makes the fanboys here look pretty silly and DESPERATE for taking the word of a community manager over someone with a long reputation for getting these calls right. Then again I and many others DID WARN YOU in that thread that this would be the end result.

360 fanboys are wayyyyyyy too predictable and gullible.

[y0haN]

PS3's GTA 4 is 720p, confirmed by a R* dev. Video buffer output taken from both consoles before post-processing = 1280x720. You can't really tell a difference!

http://www.vgchartz.com/for...

Just sayin'.

[Oner]

@ coldfoot & Greywulf ~

Absolutely great posts, comments and information. Agree + Bubbles.

[MNicholas]

The graphics are 540P.

Quaz51 didn't lie. Never has.

Images don't lie either.

-Sharp text and HUD
-Blurry graphics

http://www.gamersmint.com/w...
http://www.gamersmint.com/w...
http://www.gamersmint.com/w...

It's not all bad. Water looks nice:

http://www.gamersmint.com/w...

Overall lighting is nice:

http://www.gamersmint.com/w...

Some really nice settings:

http://www.gamersmint.com/w...

Remedy is finally starting to come clean but they're trying to muddy the water by using big words that regular gamers don't understand.

All this talk about "composite" resolution is just spin. Multiple render targets of varying resolution is pretty much standard practice.

[LostDjinn]

That's complete BS.
MGS4 employs interlacing. So that's 1024x768 multiplied by two (1572864 pixels) to provide a 1080 res. Interlacing fills scan lines in two sweeps to fill the image. While the image is not 1920x1080 (2073600 pixels) it's still a lot better for definition than 720p (1280x720 is 921600 pixels) though 720p provides less noise and a smoother line. That said, lcd's are progressive in nature so the entire image gets de-interlaced anyway. This is why MGS4 show up as 1080p if you have an lcd that goes that high.

Before you explode with mirth let me also say that 1080i was touted as being the maximum native resolution for the 360 when it launched. So it's not like the 360 can't technically do it.

[xTruthx]

For the people saying y some care so much about graphics. Well its because there was a lot of comments before about how amazing the game was going to look. It looks good theres no denying that but it doesn't look like many hoped for. ANYWAYS, this wont stop anyone from enjoying the game if its good. The reviews probably wont come after the game is released, just to save people from spoilers, I can be wrong but they should do that, We all say what happened with HR, SC & many others.

[u got owned]

And this is the reason why the xbox 360 needs BR disk.

[ThanatosDMC]

Did Natsu and Cold commit suicide when they read this? Those two defended that AW was 720p native yesterday so adamantly. Wonder how disappointed they are... oh well.

[WildArmed]

lmfao.
I was just talking about this.
When all the fanboys got all riled up yesterday.

Ofcourse it's not running natively @ 720p.

90% of the games released this gen dont run at that

[pixelsword]

One can only hope.

I'm just kidding.

I wish them well.

[wpggamer]

You got all that from that little snippet of information? Either you are able to read between all the lines, or your poop shoot is flapping about a whole hell of a lot.
Sorry to say, but i'm leaning toward the latter. You kids just don't really know. But this is N4G, so I guess it must be true.

[tplarkin7]

I hope there's a good reason for 540p. It's a tough call between great special effects vs framerate/resolution. The frustrating part is that powerful hardware doesn't translate into solid framerates/resolutions.

Framerates and resolutions are fundamental requirements for the eye. Blurry and choppy images ruin the experience.

[vhero]

We all knew it would be native 540p with either buffers or up-scaling anyways but honestly like I always said if you don't buy a game because of resolution you don't deserve to play great games anyway either on PS3 or XBOX 360. I just wish people would stop going on about Alan Wake now until launch already..

[MACADOODLE]

The funny thing to me is 95% of the post above me the posters have absolutly no idea what they are talking about.

[sid4gamerfreak]

lol i knew this would get a lot of degrees...

To PC gamers: Lets sit down eat popcorn and see who wins the fight whether it is 540p or 720p. (LOL)

I bet on the ps3 fanboys...

[mythamp]

"Alan will KILL uncharted 2 graphics, just watch!!!!"
Ohh its only 547p, damn, there will be poor textures, i have to change to defense mode. Next-Gen - HD era, 3D is on its way, damn, moving to last resort...
"Bu Buh But its the GAMEPLAY which matters you pathetic PS3 owners, gameplay is da KEY!"
/s

As if UC2/KillZone2/GOW3/HeavyRain/L BP/MGS4/ didnt have good "gameplay"

[washingmachine]

WTF,fluctuate.ROFL makes me wonder if any games on 360 are real 720p lol

[Shaman]

You would be surprised to see that ps3 has more sub hd games than 360 and it was touted to be REAL HD system,funny isnt it?

[SPACEBALL 1]

most bluray movies arent even full hd, and no one can tell the difference. these arguments are stupid...

[Dance]

xbox 360 isnt the one with that problem

http://forum.beyond3d.com/s...

[OpenGL]

This is just silly; there are plenty of games on both the PS3 and 360 that are native 720p. Really though, up until recently there were quite a few multi-platform games that actually ran in a sub-720p resolution on the PS3 while they were 720p on the 360.

[theEnemy]

"Confirmed 720p".

[HolyOrangeCows]

It's easy to list a bunch of trashy games and try to use it as basis of the console's power.

[thewhoopimen]

I think what's being argued in the end isn't that multiplat games showcase sub-HD resolutions but rather that a console 1ST party exclusive shouldn't.

You guys can josh and manipulate the argument all you want all day about this or that game on the ps3 or 360 having sub-HD resolution. But at the end of the day, Remedy, Bungie, etc, all considered FIRST PARTY studios have released sub-HD titles. None of Sony's 1st party have this syndrome. And considering that even MGS4 (released in 2008) ridiculed for its 1024 x 768 has a higher resolution...

That's the bottom line and this should quantitatively end any arguments of which console having more horsepower.

[Pennywise]

These guys are all delusional as usual.(I'm really not a poet)

For graphics to improve on PC tech that is 5 years old, something has to be sacrificed. It's obvious that the sacrifice these developers have to make is to the resolution of the game.

You can keep blaming devs all you want, Dance. I think its pretty obvious the 360's tech is aging poorly. I have said it before, and I will say it again: My old PC parts were used to make the 360... my old PC had to be upgraded to keep up with graphics... why would the 360 be immune to this?

[DatNJDom81]

"You would be surprised to see that ps3 has more sub hd games than 360 and it was touted to be REAL HD system,funny isnt it?"

I wouldn't doubt that at all. We all know Sony suffered (and still does) from what is known as "Lazy Developer Syndrome." I admit at the beginning I questioned the PS3 power claims. All the multiplats I had were a little worse on the PS3. That is until Uncharted, Heaven Sword, Resistance, Ratchet and Clank: TOD, and of course the almighty Metal Gear Solid 4. Then I saw the reality of the situation.

[IHateYouFanboys]

remember how Sony said that the PS3 would be able to output DUAL 1080p displays, and run all games at 200fps in 1080p?

if theres ever been a company telling lies about how powerful their console is, its sony - not microsoft.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

LMAO!

I think they all are liars, because some schmock will say something... that is why blind fanboyism is so bad for the industry.

[vhero]

@shamen your wrong in fact PS3 has the most 720p exclusives of the 2 machines look at the link another user provided above even uncharted 2 is 720p and thats more graphically intense than Alan Wake. Look nothing against the 360 its a great machine but MS took a gamble with it to release it cheaper and earlier than PS3 they had to cut costs on hardware and games are suffering later in it's life for it but only slightly.
The end of the day though you can get a console for £100 cheaper with extremely good graphics so you can't grumble too much. If you want slightly better graphics you pay the extra.. It's like with graphics cards with PCs you pay extra for a better graphics card don't you??

[OpiZA]

Makes sense, I'm sure all console games use multiple renderers. Very interesting, there is just so much about making games that we don't know about. Even though many of us claim to

[iFLOWLIKEWATER]

I thought it was obvious, but fanboys will stand by their favorites. I got a few articles for the major fanboy side on n4g that will get me 1000 disagrees, lol.

[Michael-Jackson]

540p? and I thought 576p was bad...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA x 100

[blackmamba707]

540p...just wow

and I find it amusing especially when you link it to AMAZING new Flashlight Simulator screens emerge news :]

[ELite_Ghost]

Last gen was 480i
360 gen is 540p, what do we have like 60 more pixels? LOL

[Hidden Star]

I don't really care about resolution tbh. Aslon as the game runs smoothly and nicely and looks good - then i'm set.

[AliTheBrit19]

Lol here we go, watch people make a big deal out of it.

Despite the resolution number, the game will still look amazing and thats what matters - All games have flactuating resolutions.

[AliTheBrit19]

LMFAO 10 disagrees already, blimey I'm Mr. popular with the PS3 fans huh?

[keyserhitman]

or 576p..lol

cutscenes in, upscaled 720p?

garanteed that on the back of the box it will say

720p 1080i 1080p

lol what a joke!

[AliTheBrit19]

24

Come on fanbrats! you can do better than that!

[Microsoft Xbox 360]

The fact that Uncharted 2, GoW3, and the year old Killzone 2 can run at NATIVE res and still be called the graphic kings, says a lot about the PS3. The 360 has to shamefully downgrade its res to even compete with the PS3.

PS3 graphically superior is now a proven fact.

[karan8624]

He just comes here to create a mess and tick people off

Either ignore him or Ali, stop being a douche

[Erotic Sheep]

This wont end well >.>

[Dance]

Can you not read?

[fishd]

Everyone grab your swords and shields...we are going to WAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!11

[BeaArthur]

We need to stop approving crap like this. They are as bad as the console war articles. They are posted specifically for the immature audience that uses this website in order to fuel the flame war.

[Dance]

Article is fine,its just the trolls cant read

Beyond3D appears to be somewhat confused as well. Most consider the opaque geometry framebuffer to be the "game resolution," which is 960x540 in the case of Alan Wake, but they do agree that there is more to Alan Wake than just that, which makes this entire situation sort of complicated... It isn't strictly 540p. But it isn't strictly 720p either.

[lokiroo420]

So explain how finding that "the graphical masterpiece" isnt running in HD is fueling the fanboy war? I would classify this as an actual news piece, kind of rare actually.

[BeaArthur]

lokiroo420...of course you would classify this as an actual news piece since you don't own a 360 (somehow I don't think that is a coincidence). I bet it wouldn't be news worthy if the situation was reversed and this was about a PS3 game. Maybe it is news worthy but that is not the reason it was posted and we both know it.

[lokiroo420]

LMAO, wow, the 360 owners are really getting sensitive, when they find the truth about the masterpiece. No matter how bad it makes you feel, no matter how much you cry about this game, no matter what you think the intentions of the submittal are, this is REAL NEWS GET OVER IT. AND WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE GAME WAS TOUTED AS THE BEST GRAPHICS EVER SEEN? THAT IS THE FANBOY ARGUMENT, "BESTEST GRAFIX EVAR!!!"

[BeaArthur]

lokiroo420...I'm not even sure what you are trying to say but I haven't even been slightly interested in this title until about 2 months ago when I saw some gameplay footage. Personally I don't care how it looks as long as it doesn't look bad. Gameplay will always trump graphics. If you are so concerned about grahpics and how things look maybe you should stick to movies and leave the gaming to the rest of us. I don't know how this game is going to look or play when it is finally released so right now I am just waiting. Oh and I'm not sensitive, I don't actually really care because I play what I want to play; I'm just tired of watching people like you immaturely troll articles.

[Dacapn]

As for what resolution it runs at, 90% of the people who buy this game will not know or care what resolution it is. The argument here is basically against the 360 fanboys who hyped this game to the absolute maximum. Most games don't live up to expectations so stop hyping them and just be pleasantly surprised when they're released, or else you looking like a backtracking fool.

[jjesso1993]

this grpahics talked starting to drive me crazy we known for long time 360 is not able to do some of things remedy promiced 30fps 720p 4xaa thats what they said but it was never going happen i think that the people who really care about this should just go out buy ps3 or pc if not shut up this game looks like its got good gameplay good story so what if its not the best look console game to date you would fool to think the 360 is able to claim a title like that.

[iFLOWLIKEWATER]

For graphics just get a pc because if this news hurts people feelings then another console won't be helping their needs.

[Foxgod]

Pretty impressive work they delivered to crank out 720 using so many different render targets.
You can tell from this article they really took their time to optimize the graphics.

[Erotic Sheep]

After your idiotic comment of saying Gears 2 looks better than Uncharted 2 it's EXTREMELY hard to take your words serious. But sadly I still agree with you, because no matter what resolution this game is, it still looks good and will make me buy a 360 for it.

[MexicanAppleThief]

Holy sh!t, did Foxgod really say that GeOW 2 was graphically better than U2?

[Tito08]

But Foxgod also said there are more RPGs than shooters on the 360, the dumbest thing he ever said!!!!

[Imalwaysright]

Why do people care so much about the resolution of games? Does anyone really chooses wich game they should buy based on its native resolution?

[Games4M - Rob]

Simple - They care because its indicative of a consoles power.

People like to defend their console of choice, whichever console can output the best graphics is one factor in the debate over which is the best console.

[Parapraxis]

So the text is legible and doesn't look like a complete mess on a large 1080p HDTV maybe. ;)

[Chris_TC]

I don't buy DVDs anymore solely because the resolution is awful and they look blurry on a big screen.

And I don't remember the last time I've played a game at less than 720p. I don't do consoles btw, so most of the time I go 1080p.

[ThanatosDMC]

Gamers want their games to look their absolute best when they play it.

[zeddy]

there could be one instance where there is 720p but they would smack it on the box anyway.

[NotoriousWarrior]

lol 360 fans seems to allow MS play with them, I mean 540p games in 2010 when 3D is becoming available is sad.

Keep saying to yourselves that such resolutions are alright and soon you won't see a game hitting 720p pathetic. It's sad how fanboyism is holding back technology and then they come out and say that competition is a good thing. you want Sony to compete with such quality we wouldn't be seeing games like GOW3, UC2 and KZ2.

Why don't you all email MS and say thank you for making "Next Gen" games 540p.

[Dance]

Its misinformed trolls such as yourself holding back gaming for everyone

[Strikepackage Bravo]

Now your just babbling, you really need to be in the other zone >>>

Its pretty clear you are just one massive fanboy.

[i3eyond the Circle]

ratchet and clank says hi

so does mgs4 and its online.

so does resistance 2s multiplayer

[Dutch Boogie]

Umm ok why did my first comment get deleted? Why is it that 360 games lately have been coming up short in the resolution department? Don't get me wrong i know the game will be great but how come the competitions console can keep a constant native resolution but the 360 fails at that?

This is becoming a trend that i'm afraid i don't want to get used to.

[Strikepackage Bravo]

from the way it sounds all modern games are rendered this way, with layers of different resolutions combined to make one or some crap, I have no idea exactly what he was talking about LOL. All I know is the game looks great, they did something right.

As for PS3 games, a Sony dev would NEVER tell you if they were using these techniques, Sony is far more hush hush on how they do things,(mostly because they have an agenda) but most likely, like he said ALL modern games are doing it this way.

[cyborg6971]

And what agenda does Sony have stikefarce?

[Consoldtobots]

the answer is simple

back when the Ps3 first came out and I was part of many tech convos about the capabilities of the PPE and SPUs once people learned how to use them properly. It was surmised that given the 6 available SPUs and their 128bit vector cores the PS3 would reach the point where it would be a graphical monster mainly by it's insane ability to crunch through terflops of floating point calculations and thus aid the RSX in MASSIVE TEXTURE PROCESSING AND MAPPING OPERATIONS. Thus PS3 graphics keep improving by generational bounds while still maintaining HD resolution.

The scary part is I think most devs have only learned about 40% of the Cell + RSX rendering architecture. This means that when fully developed and mature engine pipelines come about we will see 1920x1080@120hz without breaking a sweat.

[Basil-Rathboner]

To get the best visuals for Alan Wake on xbox 360.

Please use an Etch a Sketch.

[PLAYstar]

It looks like coming to a trend whereby the lower the resolution gets the better visual the 360 would display. Says the developer and game journalist for claiming it to be so..

4TH3LAWL

[booni3]

I knew that AW wouldnt have constant 720 resolution. I KNEW THAT NO GAME WOULD HAVE A CONSTANT RESOLUTION AT OR ABOVE 720. It is impossible on current hardware, or the process has not been engineered yet. Framerates drop and jump, textures vary almost continuously, and most people cannot tell the diffrence between something 720 and 1080. I'll bet it would be found a fact that most people cant tell the touted diffrence in 520 to 720 when they've been upscaled. Nothing is natively 720 CONSTANTLY, its all upscaled on an HD set. In spite of this however, people take these feeble and truly unimportant numbers, most of which the average fanboy doesnt even understand, and use them to badger and belittle a game. its nonsensical, unfair to developers and supports the idea that if high resolution is your main concern, you should just watch HD programming and movies since you wont have to deal with any...oh, what was that again...oh yea, gameplay. so you wont have to deal with any of that, yuck.

[Strikepackage Bravo]

it took a 360 dev to explain this. PS3 devs have to push the lie that all PS3 games run at 1080p 120fps all the time LOL.

[thor]

No, you're wrong; if you read what Remedy said you'll see that Alan Wake doesn't vary its resolution - it's always sub-HD.

And there are PLENTY of games that have a native resolution of 720p. You seem confused and keep saying "CONSTANTLY" when in reality, 99.99% of games don't ever vary their framerate, not even Alan Wake.

[thewhoopimen]

Where did you come up with that delusional crap? You think people in digital foundry or beyond3D don't analyze multiple frames to determine resolution?

How do you think they caught WipeoutHD fluctuating between 1280 x 1080 - 1980 x 1080? You fanboys will try to make up BS just to feel better.

There is nothing in that forum posting by Remedy that says frames are constantly fluctuating between 540p -720p. It says that the composition of the final frame is a composite of different resolutions materials. However, in the end it is the output frame we are looking at and that is 960 x 540~7p. Unfortunately that resolution doesn't fluctuate over any number of given frames.

[The Wood]

do u knowingly make urself look as stupid as the people u criticise.....show me that article and ill make some sense of it for ya *sigh* I remember some company pr guy talking about a 'sweet spot'....guess some of ya didnt see that.

Anyway the res wont decide whether this game is great or not but from a technical standpoint its not quite up there in some aspects....see its simple. I saw a load of people beating their chests in the 720 CONFIRMED article and the gave as good as they got but it seems they now have to take it again. I wont bother Ill just say that the ps3 with the help of terrific devs have pushed the console more than MS's devs have this gen. IF the 360 is SOOOO easy to dev for and dvd<9 isnt an issue WTF are all the masterpieces????

In defence of the console thats 'so easy to dev' for, if devs like naughty dog, santa M, GG, MM were to work exclusively for the 360 im sure we'd see a higher amount of better games from a technical standpoint......

Ill finally like to state that we ALL love technical excellence when it comes to gaming in the HD era. Too many hypocrites on n4g especially some of those that were here when Gears 1 and bioshock were the graphical kings...yeah, that long ago, but now its all about gameplay and teh salez....lol Exclusives define consoles, the technical excellence of those exclusives is a fair gauge of its power more so than sales.

[Tito08]

Digital foundry and B3D are useless dude!!!!!

[What Would Kratos Do]

This is getting a bit tedious.

I'm old enough to remember when games were judged on how fun they were.

When I had my ZX48k my imagination combined with my nostalgiavision made all my games 1080P at 60FPS. i.e I don't remember the resolution, I only remember the fun.

[lokiroo420]

The argument was bestest grafix evar for alan wake, this kind of gives that argument a blow to the side of the head.

@ below

I wasnt on the side saying best graphics ever, just so you know. Hell I wasnt on either side, its just fun to see those going back on what they said.

[thor]

Yeah but your argument means, "OK guys, I admit, Alan Wake doesn't have the best graphics and it IS sub-HD." Which means, you just lost the graphics argument. Whether it matters to you or not is another issue - but it matters to some people. If it doesn't matter to you, why are you reading this article and writing a comment?

[Ju]

You know, I think everybody can agree that AW looks great, I would even say phenomenal.

But like other - mainly PS3 games - have bee criticized that hype will destroy the games, AW was hyped as the end it all for graphics discussions.

Well, and I think it does. In favor for the PS3 now. It's that hype which made it to what it is.

It's a pity. Market the game for what it is. And be honest about it. Why is that not possible anymore these days ?

[AKS]

720p to 540p looks fantastic if you watch it from a "comfy couch."

/sarcasm

Yes, I'm still bitter the PC version was cancelled so close to release.

But in all seriousness, it's not necessarily a huge deal if the game is a bit below 720p or whatever resolution standard. I actually thought GTA IV looked better on PS3, as did the majority of people before the pixel counters showed that it ran at different native res. Then everyone else suddenly said they could tell all along that the 360 version looked MUCH better. LOL. You're best served viewing it on your screen and seeing how it looks for yourself. I know from tinkering around to find the optimal settings on my PC for games like Crysis that just the resolution or whatever individual setting doesn't automatically make it look or run the best. Remedy found that this setup worked the best; I'm curious to see how it turned out. The game looked pretty good in the trailers, although you'll find in my previous comments that I certainly did not agree that it was far and away the best looking console game. I always need to see the game running in my own home theater setup before I decide what I think about it.

[mcnablejr]

while enjoy GOOD games on my 360 and my ps3 stays dusty ;);););)

@ below.. ha! my ps3 isn't good ;)

[cyborg6971]

Yeah right like your trailer has enough room to hold a 360 and a ps3. Might I suggest upgrading to a double wide. Dbag.

[cyborg6971]

Mc I don't know what games you like to play but surely you could find one to dust off your ps3 for. At least your not as annoying as the other trolls.

[mcnablejr]

;)

[Tony Montana]

I just don't get it
WHY the hell would someone be so happy and jump with joy when dust is covering their console that they spent their hard earned money on?
are you a retard?

[rezzah]

Your pretty stupid to have a sysem laying around if your not gona use it. Go sell it and buy another 360, isnt two better than one?

[mcnablejr]

i use it for blu ray movies occasionally, mabye the occasional muck about on mgs4, (usually offline because of the horrible stacked up updates). Things get dusty when you dont give em a clean every now and then. Im just telling you the truth...Anyway it looks cool amongst my setup.

Dont cry about it. ;)

[Tito08]

"i use it for blu ray movies occasionally" That tells me you don't have a PS3, so please don't LIE!!!!

[Sky Sentry]

Dusty console does not means lack of use. In fact it is the opposite since having power on will attract more dust. I play my PS3 often and it is very dusty since I also has less time to clean it up! Maybe you use your PS3 more than you think?

[Zero 007]

myabe foools forgt about GTAIV

X360 version runs on 720p
&
PS3 version runs on 540p looooooool

[the-warriors]

grow up Kids

Buhahaahahahhaahahahah

[cyborg6971]

Yeah but this is exclusive to the 360 and how longhas it been in development? Nice try douche. And it's nice to see you with one bubble.

[the-warriors]

Buhahahahaahahahahahah

Blurry NOT for use anymore

[InFAMOUS1]

you should only feel sorry for yourself because you delusional... IN GAME will run at 540p will the PRERENDERED yes P-R-E-R-E-N-D-E-R-E-D cut scenes will be 720p... If you were more then a 14yr old who only started gaming this gen, you might actually have a clue as to what you're talking about!

[Tito08]

I'm changing your name to Crapbox360, I hate when assholes like you say "it's better than all PS3 games" 1-It's not a Racing game 2-It's not a fighting game 3- Not a sports game.... Have you ever played the game???? No, right??? so don't come with stupid conclusions because it's a new IP & better wait for the game to be released, buy and then play it, then say all the trash you want, loser!!!!!

[gamingisnotacrime]

AW could be semi cell shaded or sub hd like Modern Warfare and still be great. ME2 looks ok, and that game is one of the best games i have played this gen. AW is looking like a very good game, the tension, the plot, it all looks to be in place for a heavy hitter.
anyone who decides to get or not get this game based on resolution fluctuation should consider finding another hobby because gaming is way more about fun and enjoying than technical specs. e.a. Halo is in no way close to KZ2 in technical aspects, but KZ2 is no where near to halo in the gaming community impact and longevity (Halo 3 is still very crowded online)
Kudos to Remedy for being honest in front of the many fanboys that instead of looking forward for more great games prefer to downplay soe and hype others (losers)
Game till the day death arrives lol

[Foxgod]

Going for (promised) specs is what made people buy the ps3.
360 people on the other hand, got it for the games.

Its not as if MS promised 360 owners they would get some magical computer with unlimited specs.
So why else did 360 gamers choose for their console?
The games ofcourse.

Now funny enough the ps3 is only marginally better then the 360, so ps3 fans bought nothing but hot air.
On top of that they defend their exclusives to death, even tho they indeed never reach the status or community that 360 games do.

[ReBurn]

You know, the thing about this is that there are probably many games on both the PS3 and the 360 do the same thing that is being talked about here. To me it doesn't really matter what the image is in the framebuffer. What gets to my TV is either 720p or 1080p, and that resolution is consistent.

I don't know anyone who plays their games in such a way that what they see on-screen is rendered directly from the framebuffer. These consoles have image scaling and resampling hardware that is designed to allow the developers to render images in one resolution and then scale them to the proper size. This isn't new. It's been going on for a long time. Even the SNES had multiple resolution modes, some higher than others. But the images that were transmitted to your TV over RF or composite were always the resolution your TV was made for.

Before the gearheads in the Beyond3D forums started capturing images from the framebuffer hardly anyone who reads this forum knew any differently, even though they'll say they did. Now suddenly we have hundreds of self-proclaimed experts on the matter who think they know what they're talking about. Re-sampling the images that get transmitted to your TV is how these consoles were designed to work, and you guys think that somehow makes them inferior? If you buy your console based on what gets rendered to the framebuffer then that's pretty weak.

[Foxgod]

They just dont want to admit that the 360 rocks.
Thats why they act like experts and come with lousy arguments to make anything 360 related look bad.

[ReBurn]

It's just crazy. Metal Gear Solid 4 ran at 1024x768 on the PS3 and in my opinion it is a really graphically impressive game. ( http://forum.beyond3d.com/s... for those of you who don't believe it). I own it and I love it!

All I'm saying is that this is probably the dumbest argument I see played out here over and over. There are tons of games on both 360 and PS3 that render at 720p or better, There are quite a few on both that don't render at a minimum of 720p. But generally they still look fantastic.

[webeblazing]

mgs4 render over 720p. not to seem like an @ss but in every alan wake new people bring up mgs4 to put it down saying it run 540p and its sub hd. just sayin xbox fanbois should choose they battles wisely cause its been back firing on them since 360 came out. me personally i can wait to play dis game as long as its looking fun like the gameplay vids. and im glad theyre pushing the 360, it seems that its showing its age tho.

[The Wood]

dont worry, we know u aint crap talking so no worries BUT mgs 4 came out a while ago AND it was Kojima's first crack at the hardware. If he completed MGS4 this year id expect better from him and i will with the next game just because he knows more about the hardware. many great games are sub hd and we've all enjoyed them regardless but the resolution is an important factor for those with the means to fully experience games rendered in x y or z.

[ReBurn]

@webeblazing

How good are you at math?

1024x768 = 786432 pixels
1280x720 = 921600 pixels

How is that "over 720p"? That resolution is sub-HD. XGA 4:3 ratio and has been achieved on PC monitors for more than a decade. Nothing HD about that. What happens is the PS3 upscales that image to the fantastic visuals we see today.

@The Wood

I'm not hating. Just saying that this stupid argument is stupid, which I think we can agree on. There were plenty of games on the PS3 at the time MGS4 came out that were native 720p, so I'm not sure that it was just inexperience with the hardware. It was probably a decision to boost performance, which is why developers do it.

Which is my whole point. It's ok to render sub-HD visuals because it is the job of the hardware to make it right.

[Dude420]

Don't forget, this is Remedy's first crack at the 360 as well and they're a small team on top of that, with a funding not as big as Sony's 1st party devs.

However, some people just seem to forget that and spew that crap anyway instead of giving credit for their work.

[The Wood]

true, true...thats an accomplished 1st attempt...and yes, the spewing goes both ways

@ ReBurn

im no way implying ur hating..i was saying that u shouldn't worry about justifying ur point....no game or dev team are perfect

[Ju]

The 1024x768 resolution is a mystery to me. Yes, it has less pixels than a 1280x720 frame, but yet it has 48 lines more. Further it is a 4:3 aspect ration, rather than 16:9 for either 720p or 1080i/p. Yet again, this game scales to 1080p without any problems. That said, I can only guess, the reason for 768 lines is the scaling to a full 1080p frame and to avoid a blurry picture by going beyond 720p (lines). So, please, do not compare a 960x540 (11% bigger than NTSC PAL overscan, considering a 16:9 format) with a 1024x768 frame.

By your standards, this would be 518k pixels vs 768k pixels or still a 50% higher resolution.

[booni3]

i started to reply respectfully until i read your other post and realized that your just a jerk in general. you sound stupid as hell talking about a graphics arguement. i read the article but i must have missed the part that said the enitre game was sub HD so go ahead and paste that into your next post,idiot. whats that about 99% of games not altering there framerate? i'll bet that isnt true. Many games, even recent ones (ps3 bayonetta, GOW3(oh please all the f*cking freezing and tearing in that game, are you serious?), Splinter cell) have framerate altering and that exceeds 0.00%. Have anything else condescending to say?

[gamingisnotacrime]

if you do, does PC games run screen tear free, glitch free and all those goodies? if so it might be pretty worth it getting a good gaming rig, is so temting lol

[thewhoopimen]

Booni3. When ppl count resolution on a frame... they don't just count one frame. Get it? Just like calculating framerate or analyzing mo-cap, blurs or post processing... you look frame by frame. If the resolution changes, you will notice it.

Secondly, the ability to change the whole frame's resolution on the fly is very uncommon. The only notable title that has actually done this is Wipeout HD. Every other game out there will possibly downgrade for example particle effects from explosions during heavy scenes in order to maintain framerate, but they don't rejig the whole screen.

[Redempteur]

@booni

based on your 2 comments in this tread i conclude that you don't know anything about graphics in video games ..

[Chris_TC]

@5.1 On PCs you can turn on Vertical Sync (if it's not in the game menu you can force it in the graphics card control panel) which eliminates screen tearing completely.

[silent noise]

540p , ONLY POSSIBLE ON XBOX 360 !

[ghamdikh2]

REPORTED AS (SPAM)

CrapStation 3:Joined N4G 12 hours ago

[Cloud Strife VII]

REPORTED AS (SPAM)

CrapStation 3:Joined N4G 12 hours ago

[divideby0]

game looks good...I just dont like most of the action is in the dark..all the vids in light I have seen, have not shown any action..
game is on my buy list, but I never was wowed graphically by it

[Stuart5756]

720 should be an industry standard these days, at least 720, if developers can't reach that we should be asking why not? Hardware limitations? Anyway, still a day 1 purchase for me though. Can't wait for it.

[webeblazing]

most games on both upscale res its crazy because both sony and ms claim hd console era but cant really handle it i want all my games in at least 720p but i trully want 1080p to get more detail and more precision with shooters. sony 1st party games mostly is 720p but pc s is still everything in the dust (need to upgrade or buy new computer broke lol.) gotta give sony credit they do take this gaming biz more serious like nintendo. i want 1080p games for my tv ( well we all have a dream lol).

[AKS]

That makes little sense to me. Metal Gear Solid 4 and Call of Duty 4 did not run at 720p and looked great. They should have made the game look or run a bit worse so that they can meet this special standard of 720p? The developers for those games had their reasons for choosing those resolutions. What matters is how the final product actually looks, not a resolution figure. Why are you more concerned about the resolution figure than the way the game actually looks?

[Qui-Gon Jim]

According to information I've seen, MGS4 actually ran at something like 764p. I do agree with you though, development is a game of compromises with limited resources. A developer makes choices that they deem best for their game. Alan Wake may have lower resolution, but seems to have good draw distance and amazing lighting, making for some really good vista shots. Part of the atmosphere of the game.

[webeblazing]

somebody above posted a link that mgs4 is over 720p. not 720p or 1080p but in between so i guess you wouldnt loose much down scaling to 720p correct me if im wrong not an expert im sure its some people that work in these fields on this site its a big world.

[AKS]

720p --> 1280×720 = 921,600 pixels

MGS4 --> 1024x768 = 786,432 pixels

My point that MGS4 looked fantastic in a "sub HD" resolution stands.

[webeblazing]

o ok mgs4 is sub hd mgs5 better be hd no wonder ps fanbois dont bring up that game when it comes to graphics crown thanks for the info

[thewhoopimen]

Most Sony fans don't mention MGS4 not b/c of the XGA resolution. Rather it is because it is a Third party exclusive not a First.

[Ju]

Well, numbers are here to quantify. That said, well, yes, 1024x768 has less total pixels then 1280x720, about 17% less or 135k pixels) but it has about 50% more than 960x540, or 268k pixels - which is quite a bit compared to a low res.

Just say, well, ah, but both are low rest doesn't do any good if they are so far apart.

[Qui-Gon Jim]

Ah, thank you for clarifying. I was wondering why people claimed it was sub HD. Turns out I wasn't looking at all the info.

[FernandoMartinez]

Not happy to hear this, but it's not all in the resolution. The gameplay movies still look good and if the gameplay and the story deliver than it will be a good game. Can't wait to play it.

[GiantEnemyCrab]

So it's not 720p then. Lame. I thought I bought an HD console not a faux HD console. When it comes to HD the 360 is like pleather...

Still going to get this game but when I have a headache after an hour because it's all blurry I guess I will know why now.

[AKS]

It gives you a headache if it's not in HD? I guess you're pretty new to gaming, then. You missed out on a lot of great games prior to this generation.

[Qui-Gon Jim]

Alan Wake looks really good. Not Uncharted 2 or God of War III good, but it looks really good nonetheless. Maybe the geometry is lower resolution, but the lighting is really well done, the art direction looks amazing, and though it may sound trivial, the trees look to be the best I've ever seen, which becomes important when there's so many of them. The story sounds interesting and the gameplay looks good. We can argue all day about what tricks the developer used, but at the end of the day, the game looks pretty good.

Some people need to learn how to hold their judgements until better information is available, though. When you scream that this game is the best looking game ever, based on press release screen shots, you're setting yourself up for embarrassment. Likewise don't say a game looks like crap based on a pre-alpha build. If you are attacking this after defending Killzone 2's lowered framerates during explosions, or vice versa, you come across as a hypocrite.

[The Wood]

great stuff

[tudors]

To me it is one of the best looking games this generation, if my eyes are lying that's ok because they are my eyes and see what I want to see, and what I see is a fantastic looking game, if you see different more fool you, you will be the one who suffers not me.

[tudors]

Great comment.

[Qui-Gon Jim]

Thanks. I usually expect to get disagrees when i try to look at something fairly.

[Qui-Gon Jim]

Somebody gave me a disagree with that last comment.

[lowcarb]

...

[ATLGAMER]

Sometimes HD is good enough...game still looks good

[Tobes]

Maybe you people should just relax. It's just a game. If you like it, play it. If you don't, don't.

Move on with your lives

[liquidsnake]

Be gone witch. Logic doesn't work here.

Anyway, looks like a good game. Don't have a xbox though so I won't be getting this.

[Sir_Ken_Kutaragi_]

...that every year the 'xBotched 360' gets worse and worse and the 'PS3' gets better and better!!! ;-D

[Tobes]

I'm wondering whether you ever do anything else

[tudors]

I think most of us can accept constructive criticism nothing wrong with that, I think Alan Wake looks amazing, but it's not just a static look it's the over all package, little touches like when Alice and Wake are in the cabin and Alice seems to shout from a distance even though she is in the room with him, and then the old lady flashes in the middle of them both but only for a millisecond, you can just see it is a great game but that's not good enough for some.

[sweettooth]

5 yrs for 540p game lol

[aviator189]

Just stop going to N4G until it comes out. This environment is just not friendly at all, and I can't believe that gamers could be so...rude to one another.

[ClownBelt]

Uncharted 2, Killzone 2 and GoW 3 killer indeed. /s

Lmao.

[yewles1]

This is a major pivotal point in the graphics portion of the console war. Not even prayers for Halo Reach to look as good as Killzone 2 are going to help the 360 fanboys.

[Tobes]

But Halo Reach will almost definitely be a better game than Killzone 2. Surely that's the point?

[ClownBelt]

You call that an opinion.

[yewles1]

I'm only texting about one portion. Everything else is still up in the air.

[mcnablejr]

Halo reach will walk over killzone 2 ovsiously.. halo is better.. simple.

[lh_swe]

Says the man who's not a fanboy...ohh wait.

[PotNoodle]

Its a shame it isn't coming out on PC anymore. The graphics engine had great potential for this game, yet it is being limited by weak console hardware.

[shysun]

As long as it looks good.... oops plays good I don't care.....but it would but nice for it to look good too! Fingers crossed!

[0LDSCH00L]

I believe the 360/PS3 to be equal in terms what they both can do graphically, everything else is soley up to the developers.

[GiantEnemyCrab]

That argument dies with each release of the 360. This is the first console I've owned were the games appear to be getting uglier and less technical as the consoles life goes on.

As soon as MS let the restriction off games actually being HD they all bailed on it and now everything we get is sub HD and then you have devs now lying because they think they can get away with it because the 360 upscales everything..

[thewhoopimen]

I disagree. I think what the 360 is doing these days is far more complex than when the console generation first started. The developers are trying to squeeze the same number of physical, AI numbers, particle, and HDR lighting/shadowing interactions that were demonstrated by many cutting edge PS3 titles. I mean would we be talking about 60 onscreen NPCs with Halo Reach if it weren't for Resistance 2 or MAG?

To me, the 360 was designed with an older PC design mindset when the biggest issues most players had with games were Aliasing and framerate for example. It was clear at the start of the generation, the 360 did not have any of these problems compared to what plagued PS3 titles with no built in scalar.

Sony was ridiculed for putting in a computationally heavy multi-threaded CPU designed for vector and number crunching and streaming video. It turns out their agenda was fully realized when games became more physics heavy, deferred rendering was added, real-time lighting and shadowing, SSAO, MLAA, complex branching AI. Suddenly churning out polygons with a great video card was no longer the main requirement for games and the CPU had to kick ass as well.
The stuff Developers saw from 1st party sony titles had them scrambling to duplicate and surpass what they saw (yes I sound Sony centric here.. but think about how the game market has evolved recently and how everyone is scrambling to beat Uncharted 2 technically).

I think what you are saying with result to lower resolution being 1)360 developers haven't done their homework with vector processing on the PowerPC 750s and are lazy is highly unlikely. I think the real reason is 2) The 750 chips aren't quite as versatile for these type of calculations and as a result the Studios are POSSIBLY using the Xenon GPU to handle more of these calculation workloads so resolution is taking a hit. Or perhaps the amount of stuff on the CPUs churned out is so high these days that they can only stabilize bandwidth to the GPU by lowering IQ detail.

I mean that could be a reason why the 360 game resolutions are dropping.

[Ju]

That's exactly the point. Until now, consoles had untapped potential which got unlocked over time. Not so with the 360. To unlock that - or lets say - catch up with the PS3, the only choice they have is to scale down other parts of the system. Not really progress if you ask me.

Where is the "but wait until they figure out how to use the EDRAM"? Is the answer to scale down render buffers to accommodate the too small size of the EDRAM ? I thought they find new ways to utilize it, not to scale down tiles to make it fit...

[prettyboy1]

secondly we all new this game was nothing extrodinary graphically.as a matter of fact i believe most people such as myself r buying this game for its erie story that sounds quite interesting to me.so get a grip and enjoy games not graphics.peace and gaming

[4Sh0w]

All these comments about resolution when anybody with eyes can see its one of the most graphically impressive games on a console, to me AW graphics look second to none, but thats not why I'm buying the game though.

[hybridtheory12]

LOL. the only reason im happy is cuz when remedy supposedly sed 720p, so many xbox fanboys celebrated and crapped on sony fans. Well too bad for you guys. stuck with 540p, not even 576p, maybe they shud put AW on TWO DISKS. maybe a 3rd so M$ cud charge for DLC already on disk

[Tobes]

That makes you happy? Wow

[hybridtheory12]

U support xbox? You dont know how feeling happy in gaming is.....

[0LDSCH00L]

Go ahead take em.. I only use this site for entertainment purposes anyway! lmao! My friends & family get a laugh out of all you teenagers arguing over.. "who's toy is better" kind of childish mentality. :)

[LiViNgLeGaCY]

Does it really matter what resolution it is as long as the game looks great?

[PirateThom]

It doesn't "matter" as such because it's still the same game and, for the most part, will still look great, but the fact of the matter is (and I'm kind of drunk so this may come out garbage) that this is supposed to be the "HD generation". TVs support 720p by default now, consoles have multiple HD options available. Really, no game on either the 360 or PS3 should be running below 720p natively.

Some may see this as being picky, but I also didn't spend money on an HD TV to see SD video upscalaed. I think the least, as gamers, we can demand, is a resolution that matches the current technology.

[Glasscocked]

Haters gotta hate.

[mcnablejr]

If this sells more than the beloved killzone 2 i will lol (alot)

Crackdown 2 doesnt look any good graphically. But i will still have alot more fun on that (coop) than i will with any graphics heavy game.

@ below

£20.00 download game?

+ remember hhalo 3's sales/

[Erotic Sheep]

Will you go "lol" then? I don't know..
Because people can also say GT5:Prologue (you know the "glorified demo" as many claim it to be) sold more than 80% of 360's library of games..

[awesomeperson]

it makes me lol that people think sales matter.

See what I did there? I think pixels are more important then sales :)

[OpiZA]

I'm struggling to see where remedy "confirms" that it's 540p? Like the guy said, multiple render targets. I'm sure that's anywhere from the lowest to the highest. Isn't that why certain aspects of a game look crap, and others look great? Why a tree or pipe in the distance needs to be rendered at a lower resolution than say... the character model?

I'm pretty sure every game under the sun (on consoles at least) employs this strategy. Could you imagine the graphical hit this would take?

[xer0]

I bet the rep at Remedy feels goofy for stating that Alan Wake is 720P native - last week.

To be honest, their was no need to hype this game and make stupid statements about the resolution. It's going to sell - regardless!

First we hear it's 720P... now Remedy are saying it's between 540P and 720P.

Which is it Remedy? And, does it matter?

[VoicesInMyHead]

I'm playing Alan Wake for the story not the graphics...

This coming from a PS3 preferred gamer (owner of both systems)

[TaylorMade]

Alan Wake will be a great game no doubt, but Xbox fans should stop saying Xbox is as powerful as the PS3, because obviously it isn’t... and the gap between the two are right now reaching gigantic proportions...

[jalen247]

I knew Alan Wake was 540p when MazingerDUDE and Quaz51 said so.

This just reaffirms that people should not be so gullable and people should not listen to community managers when it comes to technical issues.

I think the only 360 exclusive with strong graphics that is HD is Gears 2...shame...I think 360 owners are overestimating the power of the 360.

PS3 exclusives with strong graphics have no problem running at 720p and 1080p.

I have said it before and I will say it again:

As far as I am concerned you can't be in the discussion of best graphics in an HD game if you aren't even HD

[hoops]

There are only a handful of PS3 exclusive games that are graphic intensive that are NATIVE 1080P. It's less then 3%...The Xbox360 is even less...these are NOT next generation consoles.

[Dance]

Its the other way around http://forum.beyond3d.com/s... and the only 1080P on xbox and PS3 are mainly arcade games

[Thoreau]

i bought a 360 for wake, reach, splintercell. no gamer should deny themselves the pleasure, but to insist that the 360 can keep up with the ps3 in the area of sheer graphical beauty, is fraudulent.

[Hotel_Moscow]

is splinter cell not coming to ps3

[GrandDragon]

Pixels do matter you dumbass, you would know that if you actually have a HD setup. A game running at 570p resolutions = literally unplayable.

I don't know how Remedy are going to get around this but they better fix it because it's going to effect tons of people who plan on buying AW.

[Primetimebt]

XBOX 360 only does sub par HD..

[Tobes]

...and?

[awesomeperson]

RROD?

[Mattey]

OMFG. Noooooooooooooooo! its the end of the world!

[Abriael]

funny how people are surpised if a 540p game is considered graphically inferior to a 720p game.

in terms of rendered pixels 540p is nearer to the Wii than to 720p. Try doing your math.

Then what did we buy "HD" consoles for if the games run at a resolution nearer to that of a console that's not HD at all?

[air1]

damn so i guess its only kinda not 720p remedy?! im not one to count pixels to determine if a game is great or not but when you say the game is 720p one day then like 2 days later you say, well its kinda 720p, i have to say it kinda sucks...

but like i said im not a pixel counter, im sure the game will still look good and will be great over all. still a day 1 for me.

i thought the 360 would of had a last surge of power this year with all the new engine tech talk but from the looks of things i guess the last raw power it had was gears2. but hey i got a ps3 too and if the 360's graphics is maxed then oh well, just give me great games. i still enjoyed my ps2 last gen and that was the weakest link last gen (as far as raw power).

micro has to have a huge E3, i must say that my interest in micro's console is dying. i can deal with the graphics but i see no new studios and not much coming from first party. im happy with my 360 more then likely for the rest of this gen, i just dont see micro building for the future, 1st party is IMPORTANT! and i just dont see micro building on that..

i hope im wrong though.

and give me killer instinct! let them do some frikin grown ish already!

[hoops]

If you want treu HD gaming and it matters to you (as it seems by the 200+ comments now)
You better PC game as it's the ONLY format right now that has true HD resolution from begining to end.
FYI folks:
The PS3 and Xbox360 have roaming resolutions for ALL games. Not a single game is running HD constant.
Thank Sony and MS for only putting in 512 Megs of ram. There is only so much bandwidth to go around...and the PS3 and Xbox360 have little of it

[Ju]

I like how you guys start putting both consoles into one basket of "non-HD" consoles, when only one mastered to deliver true 540p, the absolute new low in HD gaming.

[hoops]

Non HD is anything below 720p. The Xbox360 and the PS3 have PLENTY of games running below 720p. They are both guilty of this. Wether it's 540 or 560 makes no difference. These consoles can barely pull off 720p and people call them NEXT GENERATION.
FYI: The amount of Sub HD games on teh Xbox360 and PS3 are almost the same.

[Ju]

"Wether it's 540 or 560"

That is true. But until now the lowest was 640p. Which is quite a bit from either 540 or 560 (heck, overscan NTSC - which is a SD res - is 486, PAL 532 lines).

Never (!), ever did we drop below 640p. No PS3 exclusive (except maybe MGS4) uses sub 720p (well, not quite true, Insomiac blanks out some lines for 704p - but runs 60fps).

But, the evolution is full 720p, more shaders, more geometry and a higher frame rate. That's what I would call progress. In that order, R2, UC1, KZ2, UC2, GOW3. Even if those titles are 1st party, it shows, it's the SW which can utilize the HW over (SW) generations.

And if 3rd parties would be brave enough, they use an engine which would try to compete with these titles even if multiplatform - even for the costs of loosing platform parity.

A full fledges AW would have proved, both consoles are technical on the same level, and its not (!) political correctness to make PS3/360 equal. As such we wanted to see AW compete against GoW3. Maybe because of the selfish interest, to see MP games of the quality of exclusives.

Now that hope is gone. There IS a technical limitation, and that will define how MP games will look. Remedy just proved that. Not even CryEngine3 will change that. Not if they won't optimize the CryEngine3 (or any multiplatform engine for that matter) to support things like MLAA, streaming, HDD and BD vs. DVD data capacity on each platform.

If you are happy with your 360 games, good for you. But as a PS3 gamer, that means for me, we will never see PS3 multiplaform games which will compete against exclusives.

[wissam]

And after 5 years. that will not stop the game from being great. first people thought gow3 was 1080 but they made it 720 and that hasn't stopped the game from being a great game.

[nemrawy]

Alan wake = Crap 540p resolution
Alan Wake = 30FPS
Alan wake In The Dark to hide the crap textures and focus on the lightning to make the players forget about the Crappy textures :)

God Of War 3 = Solid Butter smooth 720 resolution
God Of War 3 = 60FPS
God Of War 3 = Epic Scale never seen before in the Video Gaming History.
God Of war 3 = Real-Time cutscenes instead of pre-rendered cutscenes to show how much of a graphical BEAST!!! it is.

Being The Superior Is So much BETTER :)

[The real killer]

Complete agree with that.

Don't forget this.........................I t only use 55% the power of the PS3.

[beavis4play]

remedy describing the on-screen resolution of AW is as confusing as bill clintons definition of sex. lol

[Figboy]

http://blog.reelloop.com/wp...

would you buy it?

Alan Wake looks like this:

http://xbox360media.ign.com...

i can't say i'm too disappointed here.

the game is looking great, it's coming from Remedy, who are a talented developer, and it's in one of my favorite genres, Survival Horror.

if it's better than Silent Hill: Homecoming, which was complete and utter trash, then we're good.

so far, Dead Space, and Siren: Blood Curse have been the ONLY worthwhile Survival Horror games released this generation. we're frigging 5 years into this generation, and have ONLY GOTTEN TWO WORTHY SURVIVAL HORROR GAMES, and people want to sh*t all over Alan Wake, which actually looks GOOD??

in the PS2 era, we had a rather quality showing of Survival Horror. not all of them were as great as Silent Hill 2, but games like Fatal Frame, Kuon, even Ghosthunter, were quality horror games.

this generation has been pathetic as far the genre goes. i'm really excited for Alan Wake, and even though i don't think it looks as good or as sharp as games like Uncharted 2, God of War 3, or Killzone 2, it doesn't matter. the game is still graphically impressive, even if it's not doing eleventy billion different rendering techniques to achieve that goal.

i'm highly impressed by games like God of War 3 and Uncharted 2 because of the things they do technically, but that doesn't mean i can't be impressed with Alan Wake also.

as a Playstation 3 fan, i can say that i AM impressed with Alan Wake. as far 360 games go, i think it's probably the best looking one i've EVER seen (i admit to not being a fan of the Gears of War art style, so while i think the games are certainly quality graphics wise, they just don't do it for me).

i think the Alan Wake "issue" from BOTH the PS3 and 360 fanboys is getting blown WAAAAAY out of proportion here.

yes, the game isn't full HD. that sucks i suppose, but is the game UGLY? there are genuinely POOR looking games that DO run at 720p resolution (look at any of the licensed swill that Activision puts out, from Tony Hawk to Spider-Man; my favorite super-hero, and he hasn't been in a truly decent game since Spider-Man 1 on the PS1, developed by Neversoft; i worked on Spider-Man 2 the game, so some of it's appeal is a bit skewed for me when i here people praising it like they do), and yet Alan Wake is looking incredible, even with their "masking techniques" like using darkness and shadow to "hide" graphical inconsistencies. if the end result is quality, i can't say i can complain.

i'll be picking up Alan Wake day one. it's resolution is only a big deal to people that love to zoom in on an image 200% just to count the pixels.

[lowcarb]

Regardless of the resolution Aw still looks incredible considering the size and scope of the world. I'm sure with so much going on along with highly detailed water and lighting effects they needed to make a judgment call. As good as GOW3 and UC2 look you have to give this game some credit because they didn't go the safe route and gave gamers a huge believable world still linear but much more open and explorable. Day one along side Red Dead confirmed!

[MRMagoo123]

how do you even know how open it is it may be as linear as ff13.Funny how they "confirm" it was hd and every fanboy and his dog thought it was the best looking game ever made now its proven not to be its ok cos its gonna have the best gameplay lol flippity flop.

[Hotel_Moscow]

13 is not a corridor its linear in the way of map progression but that does not make it a corridor rpg

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

still 1 of thee best looking games this gen across all consoles... and still don't negate the cool story and gameplay that it brings... just useless chum for the sharks to feed on, for w/e reason!

[blakstarz]

But does it really...really matter? I bet if no one knew about this, no one would care.

[The real killer]

Remember, the 360 has a stronger GPU LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!
I also remember when Xtards saying that the GPU from the flopbox was better. LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!

RSX kicks allready Xenos high heaven.

[Convas]

then OK. It's cool with me. Ain't nobody got a gun to your head forcing you to buy this. Remedy didn't lie as they didn't say that Alan was was 720p Native. Which some of the wiser individuals on this site noted earlier last week.

And sure, I'm a bit disappointed, but this hasn't stopped me from preparing to buy the game.

Needless to say, if this game turns out good, I will be having a good time.

[Rageanitus]

console fanboys are so into their little world that they have accepted lower resolution games.... which is fine but its bad when they try to convince themselves that the graphical power of the consoeles are Equivelent to what the pc has to offer.

IF the ps3 / xbox were really that power then why don't wee see those premium titles from both sides at 1080 p graphics...

For instance mgs4 is lower thant 720p, kz2 although its outputting at 720 p they use alot of blurring during motion to make it very washed out making it low resoltuion like.

Halo3 pssh so low res, alan wake confirmed lower res.... ffx on xbox low res.....

Its sad because console fanboys are running out to get 1080 p tvs thinking they are using the full potential of their precious boxes.

What makes it worse is since most tvs are either 720p 1080i or 1080 p... meaning these games are forced to be stretched on tvs.... and quite honestly stretching something to fit on the pxiels on the tv make the game more blurry than the actual res.

[Hotel_Moscow]

my computer couldnt play modern warfare 2 at the same level of graphics my ps3 can

[IHateYouFanboys]

i also do find it hilarious when all these people laugh at/complain about a game being sub-720p, but rushed out to buy a 1080p tv, and in turn subject EVERY SINGLE GAME they play to forced upscaling lol.

the jump from 540p to 720p is a LOT smaller than the jump from 720p to their tvs native 1080p. its like they tell everyone that they want the games to be 720p so it can look the best, but then they take that image and force it to fit on a tv that makes it look worse lol.

[Primetimebt]

What ever happen to the XBOX fanboy excuse of The XBOX 360 has more ram?

[abi980]

most ps3 games are sub hd and require huge installs, talk about limitations and all this with blu ray lol! can't even handle 60 fps.

[awesomeperson]

Tell me 5 reputable games this applies to. Hell give me more then ONE reputable game in this cattegory and I would be happy, considering you included "most" in your comment.

[Petebloodyonion]

It's really because there is no real news to discuss!
What's the % of ppl owning a 1080P tv? 5 to 10%?

Just as pathetic as ppl seing huge difference between component cables and HDMI (was so funny cause at the lab we inverse the tv setup and the supposed expert was praising the component tv showing us the huge difference in the sharpness until we told him it was reverse)

[MRMagoo123]

get a new expert or maybe next time let him wear his glasses.

[yewles1]

Like I said before, this is a BAAAAD month for 360 fanboys. Every excuse now just automatically falls apart. XD

[IHateYouFanboys]

theres a comment on the Alan Wake forums that is the best post i have seen for a very long time, and everyone needs to think about it:

"It seems that many people have forgotten why we play games.."

it is so, so true. how many of you guys on here claim to have cancelled pre-orders or decided not to buy a game purely because it might not be 720p resolution? resolution doesnt really have much effect on how good a game looks. and lets be honest - if these pixel counter guys didnt come out and tell you that it was 540p/600p/640p, you would buy the game and complete it without knowing it wasnt actually 720p.

i personally couldnt give 2 $hits what the resolution of the game is. if it looks good, does it even matter if its not 720p? Alan Wake looks better than at least 95% of the games out at the moment, so how can you say that because its not 720p its not good? do you care so little about the actual game that youre willing to not play it because THEORETICALLY IN YOUR UNEDUCATED MIND it SHOULD look worse than a 720p game?

some of the best games of all time wouldnt even take up 1/10th of your HD TVs screens in their native resolution. are you telling me that Haze has better graphics than Black purely because the resolution is higher? is Lair a better game than Shadow of the Colossus because its got a higher resolution?

generally, on consoles this generation, the HIGHER the resolution the worse the game is going to look because to get that high resolution the developers need to make sacrifices somewhere else. if God of War 3 ran at say 600p, most people couldnt tell the difference, but they probably couldve locked the framerate at 60fps. Insomniac recently came out saying that theyre going to focus on getting games to LOOK better instead of maintaining their silky smooth framerate because thats all that seems to matters to this generations fickle fanboys. they dont care if the game plays like garbage as long as it looks good in screenshots and has a native res of 720p or heaven forbid 1080p.

for MONTHS after Lairs release PS3 fanboys used it to say 'the PS3 can do native 1080p, the 360 cant', despite the fact that the game was utter rubbish! it wouldve been better in 720p because it couldve maintained a stable framerate and wouldnt have tore every second screen. but the developer knew that big numbers on the spec sheet were more important to the majority of their audience - fanboys.

you guys make me sick. i play videogames for my love of videogames, not for any other reasons. most of you seem like you only play videogames because sony/microsoft make them and you want to support the company.

[jack_burt0n]

Remedy is cool for sure, but the reason why there is so much bleeding in this article is it has been non-stop "AW will redefine console graphics" from the not 2 bright for so so long.

Its not got great graphics, but for fans of the genre I loved AITD lol its gonna be f**king great.

@hatefanboy
stop bleedin all over the furniture.

[lowcarb]

And how are these not great graphics you blind troll? Some of you guys are willing to say anything to make yourself feel like your actually proving a point. Your not proving anything and honestly looking real insecure right now.

[cobpswii3600]

What Ps3 exclusives run at sub-720p resolution?

[TheObserver]

"Okay... so what's the problem? The game still looks good with the lighting.", I asked myself and observed to find an answer.

From a normal gamer perspective, it is no big deal to what resolution a game runs at. But seeing it through the console war there is an issue.

The issue seems to be: Xbox360 fans claim this is the BEST GRAPHICS EVER. Of course, now PS3 fans come to make them retract their claim after the truth is shown. Is is a common battle in the console war.

With that said... Whether 360 offensive operation "Alan Wake" will succeed or not depending on how well Alan Wake delivers. Will Alan Wake leads MS spearhead to regain the territory of Graphics? Or will Sony hold fast to their territory until reinforcement arrives? Mean while Nintendo remain neutral from the war and bask in peace and prosperity. Sooner or later, the flames of war will engulf Nintendo as well. The console war continues.

From the observer point of view: So far, the PS3 is strong with their exclusives.

[Neurotoxin]

Sounds like excuses after the whole 720p native resolution annoucement. I`m sure the game will be excellent though

[strickers]

Who cares?The question is,does it look good?The answer is yes.

[foxxy]

It looks good not amazing sue me.

[yewles1]

I'll give you all a better one. Ghostbusters on the PS3 "was" 960 x 540p, but the PATCH came, and it was upgraded to 1024 x 576p. Alan Wake won't be as likely--or even as "lucky"-- to get THAT! XD

[Biggest]

I take a quick trip to Vegas and return to this? LMFAO! To each and every 360 fanboy I say : L, O, and gotdamned L! This one went back and forth with rumor after rumor after confirmation after "confirmation" and in the end the graphic wishes were dashed on a 540p rock in the middle of 540p water. It's okay to change the subject to gameplay and atmosphere now. There is nothing more to see in the graphics department. I'll catch up to you guys in the next "Halo: Reach runs at 197863000p and DESTROYS the PS3 in graphics!!!" article. Stay positive, guys.

[yakuzakazuya]

That explains why those AW screengrabs look blurry and washed out. At first I thought Remedy were using lo-res textures. I guess the 540p render of gameplay geometry is the real culprit for AW's blurry and washed out look.

I won't change my mind about getting the game, but I have to admit I feel somewhat disappointed. 5 years developing this game on an easy to program platform and yet Remedy still manages to output one of the lowest res game this generation.

And I absolutely hate the way Remedy's PR trying to avoid admitting AW's apparent sub-HD geometry. I have no respect for such developers.

[kasasensei]

As long as my eyes are not bleeding while playing, i don't give a f**k about the "true" resolution.

[FxckOSX]

quite complex due to poor shader power hardware.

360 exactly can't 720p + 4xMSAA because 360's ROP(eDRAM) is only 10MB and poor shader power.

720p + 4xAA requires about 30MB by one frame(1280 * 720 * 8 * 4 = 29491200)
clearly impossible on 360.

[egyptian_diarrhea]

fxckosx

here's a couple of impossible things:

Afro Samurai = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Beowulf = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Cars Mater-National = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Club, The = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Darkness, The = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Dead Rising = 1280x720 ( up to 4xAA depending on frame rate)
Dirt = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Dirt 2 = 1280x720 (4xAA)
F.E.A.R. 2 = 1280x720 (4xAA)
FaceBreaker = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Fallout 3 = 1280x720 (4xAA, certain edges)
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Fight Night Round 4 = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Fifa Street 3 = 1920x1080 (4xAA) - 1080p 4xAA OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
HAWX = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, The = 1280x720 (4xAA)
NBA Live '08 = 1280x720 (4xAA)
NBA Street Home court (demo) = 1920x1080 (4xAA)
Need For Speed: Pro Street = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Need For Speed: Shift = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Need For Speed: Undercover = 1280x720 (4xAA)
NFL Tour = 1280x720 (4xAA, 60fps)
NHL '09 = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Race Driver: GRID = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Race Pro = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Resident Evil 5 = 1280x720 (dynamic 0-4xAA)
SCORE International Baja 1000 = 1280x720 (4xAA)
SEGA: Rally Revo = 1280x720 (4xAA, alpha to coverage)
Spiderman: Web of Shadows = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Stormrise = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Virtua Tennis 2009 = 1280x720 (4xAA)
1942: Joint Strike = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Boogie Bunnies = 1920x1080 (4xAA)
Call of Duty: Classic = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Commando 3 = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Invincible Tiger = 1280x720 (4xAA, classic mode)
Rez HD = 1280x720 (4xAA)
Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 = 1280x720 (4xAA)

so fifa street is the king of graphics on xbox360, having 1080p and 4xAA.

xbox 360 it only divides by 0.

source: http://forum.beyond3d.com/s...

and according to the source it has about 4x the amount of titles the ps3 has that do 720p or higher and 4xAA.

[bunfighterii]

@ egyptian:

a forum post is not a source or proof of anything.

People on N4G comments who use forum posts as sources/proof are morons.

[egyptian_diarrhea]

bunfighterii

its just not a random forum, nor are the people who made the posts with the resolutions some dipsh1ts.if you don't know Quaz or MazingerDudem,the guys who did those exams on the resolutions from my source, you probably should reconsider your moron concept. Since it's because of them this whole "OMG ITS SuB-HD" thing started. All of their analysis are spot on, as far as i know, and it was because of them that devolopers (halo 3, gtaIV, and alan wake) have been forced to rectify their previous statements of what resolution their game really ran at.

[FxckOSX]

egyptian_diarrhea

these are NOT "native 720p" if true,

these used Tile rendering, so Tiling cheat.

[angelrebirth]

Who cares ? The games is blurry, and the gameplay is close to zero, it's just a interactive cinematic.

[bunfighterii]

haters gonna hate.

graphics look impressive in the marketing stuff they've released. We'll see what it looks like when its in the living room.

the hype train is running express on this one.

[CountDracula]

It's probably 100 times better than GOW 3.

[clembo]

Just to be really pedantic I'll repeat that even 720p is not true HD. Not that it matters most games don't even need that to look good enough for the purpose.

[Hotel_Moscow]

did you just say 720p is not true hd

High-definition television (or HDTV, or just HD) refers to video having resolution substantially higher than traditional television systems (standard-definition TV, or SDTV, or SD). HD has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD. Early HDTV broadcasting used analog techniques, but today HDTV is digitally broadcast using video compression.

[IHateYouFanboys]

lol

i bet hes going by the sony-coined and oft-spouted term 'True HD', that they call 1080p. there is no such thing as 'True HD' in terms of resolution, its just something that sony made up and use to sell more TVs. think about it, by having your product next to another HD tv that only has a sign saying 'HD', whereas yours says 'True HD', people with very little in between their ears will think 'well if this ones true HD, the one that only says HD mustnt be as good', and will buy the 'true HD' one.

its a purely marketing term.

[corroios]

Alan Wake its not pushing gaming forward. Like all firts party PS3 exclusives have done in the last months. It´s not even HD. Im not saying that is a bad game, it seems good for a 360 game. But you cant compare with the exclusive on the PS3 because they are all in HD.

Thats why this news has more 250 comments, because the 360 fans where deceived by Remedy on thinking that this game could match up with the exclusives found on the PS3... The same happend with Splinter Cell... not HD...

[Information Minister]

A "composite" huh? So that's what we're calling it these days? If geometry is rendered in 540p, then the game is 540p. End of story. I don't care if the hud is 2160p. This whole mess is worsened by the fact that Alan Wake was supposed to give Uncharted 2 a run for it's money and kick start a new era in Xbox 360 game engines.

Being a fan of the Max Payne games, I was really excited for Alan Wake when it was announced 5 years ago. Then they removed the open world, then the PC version, and now the HD resolution. Remedy flat out lied to us!

[yogaflame]

i really hate MS pride not to use Bluray, it could have look better

[lowcarb]

Yeah but there are more games on 360 in 720 then PS3 so why would that matter?

[awesomeperson]

Long story short, the 360 couldn't handle constant 720p. The bots who were feeling all happy a few days ago because it was confirmed to be running in the norm for PS3 games are now heartbroken and pissed off.

[chickenlegs9]

the game looks good,however that does not mean its not now a linear point A-B alitd or siren clone,all i hope(and really do)is it delivers on gameplay.what videos ive seen of aw really doesn't seem to be doing anything special at all.been there and done that a hundred times before.disagree with that???fine.but why so much hype over a game thats not in my mind bringing anything new to US gamers???

[booni3]

Move over remedy, cuz the jerks over here obviously know more about graphics than you guys.

[K-Tuck]

This is something anyone with half a brain knew already.

[ThaGeNeCySt]

So basically I'll still be able to enjoy this game.

Gotcha