InFamous Q&A: Only using 30% of PS3 Power

From the Gamespot interview:
"we are currently using about 30 percent of the SPUs' capabilities--with the SPUs doing lots of heavy lifting for us on rendering, visibility, particle systems, skinning, animation blending, and so on...this with scores of pedestrians, cars, fires, etc., all going on. And the best part? We've not made any significant attempts to even optimize the SPU code. I think it's reasonable to guess we could put 10 times as much stuff on the SPUs and still make our frame budgets. It's really pretty amazing."

[Amplifier]

I hope we see more footage and get more information very soon, this game looks really "killer" if you know what I mean...

@mp

[MK_Red]

They said they can up the graphics 10 times and keep the frame rate. This game would be sick and awesome. Cant wait for more! 16 months in development and still coming next year!

[risk]

well not really up the graphics 10x he said they could have 10x as many things going on and they would still be able to optimize the code and make it work flawlessly.

[Firewire]

Dude, 10X more on the spu's of which there are 7! then you can bank on the actual cell, that more than doubles the total output of the spu's, then on top of that you can bank extra graphical content on the RSX!
If that ain't the kicker you have blu ray to back it up.

next-gen starts when we say
Playstation 3!

[Loudninja]

Cannot wiat for this one

[mrk01]

we always hear the PS3 and it's untapped power, but how come we never hear about the power of other next-gen consoles.

[VaeVictus]

There is only one other next gen console. I don't know why we don't hear more. I remember hearing out Gears pushed the 360 pretty hard back at it's release, but I doubt that was entirely true.

Dev's should just make kick ass games and show us the muscle of the consoles. I want to see it, not hear it.

[mrk01]

I was just asking a question, that's all.
I also feel that they mention usage of console to reinsure people's investments.

[the greatest]

that would be around 150% on
xbox360 power = red ring
suckers

[risk]

lol

[Mr_Kuwabara]

How much the gaming industry has changed from last gen to the current one. I can't even imagine how our kids console will be in the future.

[mrk01]

Right now the PS3 is 10-20 times faster than your average PC. In a decade, the PS4 will prbably be 45-50 times faster than the PS3. This is where games will be 90% percent photo-realistic in 4-D, and standard HDD will hold one petabyte, that's 1024 to the power of 5.
Yes 4-D, things will finally age in games and water will behave like damn water.

[Babylonian]

4D is something different. Like for instance, wen it rains it the game and you FEEL the rain, that's 4D. Don't know for sure, but I thought that was it.

*edit*
Hmmmm, yeah I looked at Wiki too. But I looking at the wrong article (4D movies). Well, if they do manage to make 4D games next gen than that would give an awesome experience.

[mrk01]

"There are three conventional spatial dimensions: length (or depth), width, and height, often expressed as x, y and z. x and y axes appear on a plane Cartesian graph and z is found in functions such as a "z-buffer" in computer graphics, for processing "depth" in imagery. The fourth dimension is often identified with time, and as such is used to explain space-time in Einstein's theories of special relativity and general relativity. When a reference is used to four-dimensional co-ordinates, it is likely that what is referred to is the three spatial dimensions plus a time-line."

-So in short the fourth dimension identifies with time.

Special thanks to Wikipedia

[bootsielon]

The only relatively "kiddy" sequel not so innovative title I see in their line-up is Ratchet, and yet it seems a lot fun and it truly has awesome graphics. I'm glad Sucker Punch wasn't making Sly 4, but rather, this game which looks as dark and gritty as Lair, Heavenly Sword, Killzone, and several other games oriented for mature audiences. By mature I'm not necessarily talking about blood and violence. It's simply compelling content for us. Microsoft seemed to be doing good, but they've slowed down... Wii... can't stand it.

[Adamalicious]

I still hope to see a "next-gen" sly. And I think that we will.

Not every game needs to be "gritty" or have "edge". I feel like so many devs chase after that look and feel and too seldom pull it off effectively. Games like Ratchet and Sly are a breath of fresh air amongst the noise of "mature" titles. Only in gaming does "mature" mean you get to beat up hookers. ;)

[sumfood4u]

Just 30% of it true power speaks for it's self graphic wise. Looking forwards to more great things they have in store for us gammers.

[kingjkv]

Is it just me or did Gamnespot end that real quick. I think Gamespot couldn't belive what they were hearing about the PS3's power that they just ended the convo by saying, "thanks for ur time" LOL

[Fezthebest]

LOL totally agree, i used to use gamespot a lot, but they gone microsoft. usually anytime they have an interview with a ps3 dude or whatever it ends short :(

[Adamalicious]

A lot of times they only have like 5 minutes at an event of some kind (E3 or something).

[FordGTGuy]

First things first.

Every game from launch to last generation of games for a console use 100% of the consoles power to run the game.

The difference between the games at launch and last generation is how efficient they use the consoles power. As time goes on and the more efficient a developer gets with a certain console the better the games will perform and look.

Gaming development isn't about raw power its about how much potential there is to make a game run more efficient.

This is why percentages aren't used in the gaming development world because they are very inaccurate to portray the truth about how long a game is to completion and how much power a game is using of a console.

Developers and companies use percentages to try to make a point to gamers but these numbers really don't mean anything to other developers.

EDIT-
Disagree with me all you want but I've been researching game development for a long time now and I know what i'm talking about.

EDIT-
To furthermore prove my point think about this. Its not like when they were creating Infamous that the Dev team told themselves "You know what lets only use 70% of the PS3's power and save the rest to make the next game better". If you really think gaming development works in this way you are a fool.

EDIT-
The funny thing is that all you PS3 guys are disagreeing with me because you think i'm dissing the game. I never said anything bad about the game at any point of time in my comment. I was just commenting on the use of percentages to portray things of a gaming development matter.

@Kyur4ThePain
What i'm saying is that percentages are in accurate and usually not used by gaming developers for this very reason. You can say that this game uses 30% of the PS3 power but is that really truthful does this dev really know what the full potential of the console is? Do they know it so accurately that they can make a percentage out of it? Thats a simple no. This is because as developers continue to develop for the PS3 and Xbox 360 they will find more and more ways to make the consoles work better and more efficiently.

As I said before these numbers are to throw around in gamers faces to give them hard ons and thats about as far as they go. They are to build hype just like when the Killzone 2 developers said Killzone 2 is a pre-pre Alpha.

@RussianSniper

You give a game developer 256 MB of ram to work with and his going to use all of that 256 MB of ram for the beginning. As time goes on he will learn how to use that 256 MB of ram more efficiently to where he could do things with it he though he could never do with it before. In affect his using 100% of that 256 MB of ram the entire time from the start but since he becomes better at using it it makes it look like he wasn't using all the 256 MB of ram from the start.

Gaming development is not an absolute science and to treat that way would be foolish.

[natsfan7]

FINALLY...SOMEONE WHO'S SMART!!!!! Very good comment, its as if you said what I was thinking only a million times better,BUBBBLES 4 U...

[Kyur4ThePain]

"This is why percentages aren't used in the gaming development world because they are very inaccurate to portray the truth about how long a game is to completion and how much power a game is using of a console."

Dude, someone in the game development world just used percentages...what are you trying to say?

@FORD
Hit ctrl-alt-del on your pc...click on "Performance"...see the "CPU Usage" thingy?
Why do you assume that dev kits can't tell devs how hard the hardware is working? (say that 5 times, fast)
Why is it a "guessing game"?

[RussianSniper]

I don't know what you mean, because developers don't use 100% of a consoles power at launch.

Sorry, but it takes time for developers to learn how to program a console, so technically they could be using 30% of the console's power, to represent how much they think they're missing.

Maybe they're not using the SPU's at Max, or the Cell processer with the GPU, or etc.

PS2 launch graphics have nothing on God of War II....

[Nervsys]

The early games were not as good because the devs didn't know all the tricks.

They were using all the power, but their code was inefficient. It wasn't that they couldn't 'unleash' the power.

A world class chess player doesn't get better by finding bits of brain they never knew they had, but by learning how to use their brain better.

[Imalwaysright]

I really find amusing when Fanboys think that they know more than devs.

[neogeo]

thats what I'm talking about

bubble please.

[DJ]

but it's not just a bunch of marketing BS. The SPUs really are that amazing. In fact, in few years a lot of great PS3 developers probably won't use the PPU in the Cell processor. PowerPC/X86 architecture has too many performance issues; in contrast, the SPUs have none.

[Nervsys]

Us '360 fans' are sitting on the fence until the devs 'show us'

We're still waiting.

[natsfan7]

After looking at the screens a vid, its easy to see how its only useing 30%. Before you some of you people tear my head off, I understand this game still has a long time before its release...so it will improve.

[razer]

blah blah, %30 of power, blah blah.. second coming of christ.. blah blah..

Just give me a good game!

I love this:

"We are making a superhero sandbox game that will allow players the freedom to play the game the way they want to play it. You couple some really rich powers with a really reactive environment and population, and you end up with something players haven't seen before. "

Yes, we have seen it before and it's called Crackdown.

[Xbrainer]

lol omg i thought i was the only person thinking that

[Loudninja]

So you are wrong

Edit:So they had lighitng powers and telekinesis in Crackdown?They fought big metal machines? He is a super hero, not a super agent .Thsi dude does more plus all that other stuf you mention.

Edit 2:
I mean Crackdown is a great game, and Infamous is shaping to be great as well

[razer]

Jumping over buildings and throwing cars across city blocks isn't super powers?? I guess those are just "medium low" powers?? But you are right about the lightening powers or whatever he is shooting out of his hands. Looks like a good game either way.

Edited in reply to your edit. =)

[xg-ei8ht]

Ford u really don't have a clue do u.

Get off that damm xbox360 is listen.

Percentage is used all the time in games, alot of the time they do not give that info out, and the reason, every console, has basically got a dumbed down version of a pc chip inside of it, and yes even the 360, just 3cores instead of quad. But its still a pc part.

Cell is completely different and thats why alot of devs are shooting their mouths off about it, They are suprised by what the chip has to offer, and its much more then currently inside any other chip.

If you didn't know.

When a devs runs code on pc,360,ps3, they measure how much bandwidth they have left, how fast certain code is running, how effiecent shaders are.

This is common knowledge.

Cell performance is measured all the time, and its pretty easy to do.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but don't worry i won't take any.

[FordGTGuy]

14 years old?

Hate to break it to you but even the Cell is a "pc part" as you put it. No game developers do not hold stats such as percentages during development periods. The only percentages they use is the percentage of time they have left to finish the game and some developers use that percentage number to say how much of the game they are finished with.

The Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware were custom made and weren't just thrown together from spare computer parts.

"When a devs runs code on pc,360,ps3, they measure how much bandwidth they have left, how fast certain code is running, how effiecent shaders are."

None of these variables would indicate a percentage of console power.

Let me give you a word of advice "The only person who knows where the finish line is is the person who has already finished." aka the only way to tell the true potential of a console is to have used the console to its very potential of efficiency which no one has yet to do so far for either console.

@Bathyj

I said percentages are inaccurate and rough guesses by the devs already in my comment please read through the whole thing. BTW I could really give a crap if its for PS3 or Xbox 360 i've already jumped on some Xbox 360 fanboys on this site already. My problem is with their use of percentages and even if it were Bungie saying it I would still jump on their back to about it.

EDIT-
Whens the last time you saw a developer say this?
"Well this game uses 30% and were shooting to use 50% of the consoles power next game." you never see it.

But what devs do say:
"Now that we've made a game with the console we feel more at home with the hardware and will be able to more efficiently use the hardware to make better running and looking games in the future." you hear this all the time.

[Bathyj]

Before E3 I predicted Sony would have something Big that no one had seen before. The previous 2 games shows they wowed us with stuff they seemed to just pull out of the bag. Also months ago many of us wondered amidst the games by Naughty Dog and Insomianc and the like, where was SunkerPunch? I guess our questions have all been answered. It maybe explains why GTA isn't as high a priority on Sonys list as you would think it might be. They have their own Sandbox game. With Superpowers no less.

Anyway, the game looks pretty cool and I cant wait to find out more.

I wish this article had simply been called Interview with SuckerPunch. You know were no allowed to focus on how good the Cell is. It upsets the Haters, even if it is true.

Ford, you seem to not realise that when someone says 30%, its not a hard and fast measurement. There are no guarantees. Its just a gauge, or a guide, to give a rough idea of whats left in the machine. How can you say EVERY game uses 100% of a machines power. Does Tables Tennis use 100% of 360's power? Does Pacman? If a game is using 100% how is there still power to spare to stream background music, or download or anything else that might be going on in the background. No game ever uses 100% of a consoles power. That would be saying they absolutely cant squeeze another drop out of it without crashing the machine. I appreciate that you have done research, but do you actually make games for a living? And if you do, are you a high level programer actually in charge of something? Forgive me if I trust this guys opinion over yours but he's a proffessional games maker and thus one of the heads in his field, and you've been know to have gripes about Sony and PS3. If you were in my position who would you believe. I bet you were upset by this story as soon as you read the headline, right?

[ShAkKa]

i don`t think games capavility is about power porcentage of consoles to me is about time to know the hardware and we`ll see that on both the ps3 and 360 for example compare dmc vs dmc3 grafics,after you play number 3 and then go back to dmc1 you will see how bad dmc1 looks compared to dmc3. other examples tekken tag vs tekken 5 , re code veronica vs re4 ect.

[WilliamRLBaker]

why ps3 and only ps3 games need bluray because more then half use cgi movies and devs dont optimize their code which causes for useless redudent cods in games so they work.

"redendent code" is different from redudent data...devs could shrink games by 50% or more if they optimized coding.

[SnakeCL]

There's a bunch of rumors floating around that Rockstar is having problems fitting GTAIV onto a single DVD for the 360 version. I guess they're not optimizing their code and using lots of fmv's too eh?

http://www.gamesradar.com/g...

[DJ]

William should take a programming class. Our applications were tiny. I had to build a hangman game complete with animation, but the code itself was like 2KB. The other 4MB was visual content.

[PS3Rebel]

are u a dev?? honestly are u? didnt think so.

what do u know or any1 else for that matter what goes on creating a game..if they use % or piecharts or bars whatever...we dont know that and to tell u the truth if a dev comes out and says it in a interveiw that they are using 30% then im gonna believe that dev rather then some fanboy on any form.

it funny how so said that comment about "ok guys lets use 70%" clearly no dev would want 2 just use 70%..they would push for 100% but that properly isnt the case at the moment. The PS3 has soo much power if coded and used properly but that will take time just like anything that is hard to code for..so the devs know they can use more of the system but at the moment all they know to use is 30% - how is that hard 2 believe?

all im saying is that none of use are devs and none of us know more then dev so lets leave it at that and talk about infamous

i personally need to see more of this game...its not taking me in yet..but once more info about the game is released i may end up buying it but who knows...on another note - have u guys seen the new GT5 trailer over at gametrailers? HOLY! that game is simply breathe taking

[FordGTGuy]

Seeing as i've been researching it and posting about it for a very long time.

SquadXP.com.

[s8anicslayer]

the ps3 is the most technologicaly advanced console on the market! percentage of processing power doesn't mean squat! the point is we all just want to see a game that utilizes just 70% of the ps3's power! whatever that means.

[Maddens Raiders]

until theMart and Elite/TopGamr come in here and explain how Sucker Punch is completely wrong and talking out of their arses just for fucts sake. Bladestar you can pick up here anywhere too. Please drop you immense knowledge on us all, I can't wait to expose Sucker Punch as complete lying charlatans. [e/massive sarcasm]

[InMyOpinion]

Look at me, mom! I believe anything I read, isn't it great!?

Once again...SEEING IS BELIEVING!

Get it into your thick skulls. I have'nt seen anything to justify what they are saying yet, so why should I believe them? It's easy, I shouldn't.

[Maddens Raiders]

I should've known that wile N4G resident game developer, Jenzo, would chime in and clear all this up. =]

Whew...thanks Jenzo...I'm glad you cleared that up for us...I was really hoping that the PS3 wouldn't exceed current output and this verifies that my dreams have come true!!! Yes, there really is a god!!!!! All is right in the world now. Thanks again, Jenzo. *_*

[InMyOpinion]

I know, and have seen enough, not to believe such bs. It's like when they announced all games would be 120 fps / 1080p. It never happened. It's all smart talk to market their games. I guess you are one of those who buys a car without driving it first? Good for you, little man. Why not wait and see what this game will be like until any of us knows? No one has actually seen or played it, right? To trust blindly seems easier for some.

[Maddens Raiders]

you mean when KK announced..the man you throw darts at on a dart board before you got to sleep each night? This has nothing to do with SCEI, SCEE or SCEA. This is Sucker Punch talking about what they're [actually] using. I know it's easy to pray for failure and root against hope, but this is what Sucker Punch actually said in the interview:

-- ""we are currently using about 30 percent of the SPUs' capabilities--with the SPUs doing lots of heavy lifting for us on rendering, visibility, particle systems, skinning, animation blending, and so on...this with scores of pedestrians, cars, fires, etc., all going on. And the best part? We've not made any significant attempts to even optimize the SPU code. I think it's reasonable to guess we could put 10 times as much stuff on the SPUs and still make our frame budgets. It's really pretty amazing."

..did you read that? Now you're going to tell me that Kutaragi tied them up and made them say that right?

[Bathyj]

And can we let this FKN 120fps/1080p thing go please. Sweet Zombie Jesus its getting old. I can remember when Bill Gates said They will launch their Playstation 3 and when they do BAM, they'll run straight into Halo 3. Well that didn't happen either, so shall we cry for eons because corparations tell lies, or should we just pick up the pieces of our lives and try to go on, not believing every little piece of advertising or PR speak we hear?

I've said it before and I'll say it hopefully for the last time right now. What happened to you Jenzo, you used to be cool? I think you should go back to your Last Ninja Avatar and reconnect with your oldschool roots.

And just for the record. Ken claimed the PS3 is CAPABLE of running at 120fps. He never said ALL games would be and 1080p was never mentioned. Look it up, if you dont believe me. You guys are starting to believe your own lies. Google 120fps Nikkei BP.

[Anything but Cute]

If they are only using 30% of the PS3 power, then they should be fired on the spot. Someone please use 100% of it's power, if ever there was a time when PS3 needed it, it's now.

[_insane_cobra]

I just love those silly statements PS3 developers make. "Killzone 2? Using only 40% of PS3's power, you know? Yeah, we didn't want to use all of it, we're cool like that."

[dale1]

ford gt stop reading books youre starting to look a bit stupid the dev was ask a question,he answered it and sounds like he loves the ps3 system end of

[beardtm]

He said they are only using 30% of the CPU, not the overall power of the the PS3.

I guess it only takes 30% of Cell's power to max out their puny Graphics card.

Too Bad.

[timmyp53]

i dont think they are talking about graphics. probaly physics and stuff .. game looks kool not as graphiclly amazing as something like killzone but it could update

[rubarb23]

people arguing left and right, game looks like sh!t, going back to sleep.

[toughNAME]

stfu
start doing something!
stop talking"!

[nobizlikesnowbiz]

PR talking just to get fanboys creaming themselves.

I won't beleive the talk until games start coming. I'm sure they will start to come, but will they be impressive as Sony says?

Past history says no.

[Hayabusa 117]

Well, this game doesn't look especially impressive in my opinion. Still, good to know they've got alot of room for optimising.

[Bastion]

I develop games for a living, I started in the pc market, now i work for studio that will remain nameless, as well as myself, because if i give up that information i will not be able to talk as liberally...

What this developer is saying is true in the case of the PS3 system. The system is inherently unlike anything else, and can be talked about as in what portion of the system is being used. It does not take all the spu to create a solid game, its encouraged and in the future they probably will be used.

The X360 is the inferior system, this is truth, fact, whatever you want to say, however what does this actually mean? Not too much. We are out to make money. The X360 has the proper price point, We Americans are cheap, developers know this, we want to make money as efficiently as we can. X360 is in the position to do that right now. Not to mention it is easier to program for, and has an excellent SDK. The tides are startng to shift, many of us have chips on their shoulders (not me) and are starting to feel the pressure from their peers to take on the more powerful machine, its a matter of stepping up to challenge, its starting become you aren't truly good at what you can do unless you can take on the ps3. I will not name the game that i personally worked on, but we did not use the spu's at all.

We (developers) were once students like you who probably went to college and learned a certain body of knowledge from books that talked about some skill or practices. There is no Cell Broadband book. I can't look up anything, there is no best practices book, there isn't anything except what we are getting on the fly. The first game we created we didn't even have and actual chip to run on, just modeling/sim programs.

I absolutely can not speak for every code warrior, but i prefer to program for the 360, but that doesn't matter if consumers force us take on the ps3, which is starting to seem very probable (sucks for us). Ultimately our job is to give the best possible experience that we can, bottom line, if people reach a higher tier of excellence on the ps3 then possible on the 360, we will be forced to keep up with our competitors.

I will end with this Americans. VHS vs Beta Beta superior, vhs cheaper, vhs one.
PAL video vs NTSC video, PAL superior, can even be used when in hd to transfer to movie quality film for feature films, ntsc easier, ntsc wins

Sega saturn vs ps 1, sega saturn superior, ps1 optimized for 3D games, ps1 wins

wii 250 innovative, winning, and so it goes think about the big picture folks.

[illizit]

Actually, there is a book on the CELL. It's made by IBM and they even have an SDK with full documentation on how to use it and the SPU's. The other half that you said is true though.

[timmyp53]

probaly physics and stuff .. game looks kool not as graphiclly amazing as something like killzone or heavenly sword but it could get a graphic update

[ReconHope]

it looks better than heavenly sword but you have 2 take into consideration that they have different enviroments and a slightly different art style.

[daveman3]

it'll be exciting to see how much greater games get as they start to use more and more of the ps3's power

[SuicidalTendencies]

"now i work for studio that will remain nameless"

You work for EA right? *throws tomato*

[PS360PCROCKS]

huh?

[UJUSTLOSTONE]

Bastion killed it just now,

No use fighting and argueing over forums anyhow, The games will

keep on coming out, and the games will speak for the systems.

Even then there will always be arguing, over whose is best. But time

IS the great EQUALIZER

Game on peeps

[PS360PCROCKS]

damn that is pretty awesome but I still don't believe this 30% crap as no one knows the actual ceiling for the PS3, so while I believe more can always and will be done, I don't believe the 30% as no one truly knows what 100% is...but again wow...but I mean look at HS it's got 2500 guys on screen and still looks amazing...

[Whoooop]

Didn't noticed that you asked for my PSNid in the Georgie Foreman post..

whoooop6 add me F*kers.. Right now I don't really play online cause I don't have much time and I don't like playing motorstorm (car games) online.

As soon as Warhawk releases it's ON... :)

whoooop6 - PSNid