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Sony Presentation Reveals Further PSP Details
Thanks to PSPInsider for pointing to a Sony Technology Group information page, where they've recently posted the slides for a presentation on developing for the Sony PSP (PDF) given at the Australian Game Developers Conference last month. The slides re-iterate Sony's claim that the recently announced PSP will be "the Walkman of the 21st Century", and note the UMD optical disc format is "cheaper and faster to manufacturer than ROM", and thus "publisher-friendly". PSPInsider has extracted several of the more interesting slides, including an example of the hardware-assisted surface tessellation the handheld will be capable of, and pictures of the PSP emulator/debugger alongside some sample code.
So you're complaining that a handheld system is weaker than a pc? Ever play a GBA?
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
may not really make it to the final product...remember when Sony announced the PS2? They claimed progressive scan support....and that has finally been delivered...a few years after the original machine was launched... take the PSX for example, no MP3 support and other crippled specs make it to the final machine under the guise that they will be added later through a firmware update...same thing they said for the PS2 (progressive scan support via new firmware), yet now Sony wants you to buy a whole new PS2 (Model 5000).... I won't beleive the Sony's specs till I see the final product...this may just be marketspeak for PocketStation 2...
http://chrono.posterous.com/
Yes, but the GBA is under $100, the Sony machine is expected to retail for $300. Big difference
Wait, what? So your PSP is about as good as a PS2?
No, Sony boasted that the PS2 was capable of spitting 75 Million Polygons / second. Now they boast that the PSP is capable of 33 MPS. Considering that the max resolution of the PSP is 480*272, I'd say the PS2 is roughly 3 times more powerful than the upcoming PSP.
It's kind of funny that Sony says the PSP "favorably compares" to the PS2. It seems to me that they want to spin it that way so that people won't associate it with the PSX the same way people associate the GBA with the SNES.
It's also interesting to note that they compare the cost of this UMD format to ROMs instead of mini-dvds (which would be considerably cheaper to manufacture).
What I'm intrigued by is PSP's hardware based support for Nurbs. Traditionally, a lot of processing in games is devoted to high polygon counts in order to simulate curved shapes. If the support is really there, this could lead to some really interesting effects. It could also mean that the graphics wouldn't be as bad as the processor speed implies. If NURBS are done quickly, and they cause a reduction in the polygon count, you could see pretty good performance, particularly when the system has to show lots of organic looking objects, like people.
If Sony wants this thing to be a big success they should put all their focus on making it developer-friendly. The easier it is to develop for = more games = more sales = more money...
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
No, Sony boasted that the PS2 was capable of spitting 75 Million Polygons / second. Now they boast that the PSP is capable of 33 MPS. Considering that the max resolution of the PSP is 480*272, I'd say the PS2 is roughly 3 times more powerful than the upcoming PSP.
Maybe their intention was to state the PSP is proportionaly comparrable to the PS2. *Shrug*. Don't let pure numbers guide you. You can't make a direct comparison between G5 and P4 processors running at the same clock because they use different architecture. I'm not trying to say you're wrong, only exploring another avenue of thought. Also, this is a handheld device with a smaller screen. There aren't as many reasons to push pollys on a screen that small.
It's also interesting to note that they compare the cost of this UMD format to ROMs instead of mini-dvds (which would be considerably cheaper to manufacture).
They compare them to roms because that's what are on the market now. The've chosen a format and are comparing it to current practices, not to another format they could have chosen that isn't in wide use.
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
I used to work for Sony Electronics doing development for the Sony CLIE. The "Walkman" phenomenon was referred to quite often and the CLIE was frequently referred to as "The Walkman of the next century" by our overseas counterparts.
Since that didn't boil over the way Sony had planned I guess they're going to give it another shot with the PSP, but I really hope Sony has some other gameplan in mind rather than trying to recreate a success story from ~15 years ago. (That seems like a trend best left to washed up pop-stars).
I'm looking forward to seeing what this system can do, but it all comes down to reminding yourself not to willingly believe the hype, and don't wow yourself with their fancy numbers (unless you really know what they mean).
"and note the UMD optical disc format is "cheaper and faster to manufacturer than ROM", and thus "publisher-friendly""
But is it more important that the media be more publisher friendly, or more crush-test friendly? What about media that's jiggle-friendly? I know it's been said a million times before, but is Sony really going in the right direction media-wise on a device you're supposed to be able to use wherever, whenever? This isn't something that's supposed to sit on a shelf somewhere and collect dust.
There's also the fact that optical media can be easier to pirate/crack. Nintendo seems to have done it right with the GameCube, but is Sony going to be able to do that as well or is there a rude Nokia-esque wake-up call for them in the future?
Oh, and one more question about Sony's handheld all-in-one media device: Are we to expect a device that plays movies about as well as a PlayStation 2?
Sony is in a world of hurt, with massive layoffs in progress and on the way.
The next Walkman myth undoubtably helps Sony execs sleep better at night.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
It may be cheaper for the publisher, but will it be cheaper for the consumer, or will they use a comparable price to GBA games (or more)?
Did I misread that PDF, or does the development kit include an emulator for running PSP games on the developer's PC workstation?
If so, was something similar included with the PS1 and PS2 dev kits? That would have been fun to play with.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
This is sounding like a product that will be inferior to the GBA overall, but I'm willing to bet it makes a lot of money regardless...
The GBA never has EMPHASIZED graphics as its selling point. True, they tout its 32-bit (NOT 16-bit, people) architecture, but nowhere near the level that Sony is touting the PSP's specs. They emphasize fun gameplay. Look at the best selling GBA games: Wario Ware, the Mario Advance games, Pokemon, Advance Wars. These are all pretty low on the graphics scale (Hell - Mario Advance 1 and 4 are ports of 8-bit nes games!), yet together these games have sold millions of copies.
That being said, PS2 has a great namebrand and this will likely carry over to the PSP. We'll see...
I kept thinking about what a previous poster said before... how PSP will cost $300 yet the GBA will cost $100. I knew it made me think of something, yet I couldn't pinpoint it. You see, I disregarded that argument because the $100-cheaper price of the Gamecube never really helped it much, so I figured that people are willing to shell out money for a handheld the same way. Then it hit me...
Anyone ever know anyone with a Turbo Express? Those things were awesome. Amazing graphics (possibly rival GBA's graphics, not hardware-wise but overall result-wise), but the one thing I remember about anyone I ever knew with one - they were petrified to bring it anywhere! They were so scared they were going to break it that it always was stored in a lunchbox-sized foam case, if they even brought it anywhere (2-3 of the them just used it at home - why not just have a turbografx 16 then?). A $300 toy for a 12 year old is a fortune.
Not that anyone "tried" to break their gameboys, but i mean, people left them on the side of the gym during recess, they threw them in their backpacks without cases, even today I put my gameboy SP right in my pocket a lot of times.
I just don't see a $300 handheld being truly embraced by the avg american elementary school child the same way their gameboys are casually handled. Who knows...
people associate the GBA with the SNES.
... well, duh).
People associate the GBA with the SNES because the GBA pretty much is a SNES, in a handheld shell.
This system is a long way from being a PSX in a handheld shell. Like you say, it's in the same order of magnitude poly performance. Can you say that of the PSX?
Also, they compare the UMD price to ROMs because that's what they're competing against (they want Nintendo developers to develop for PSP
Well, to be precise, they're 32-bit ports of a 16-bit port of an 8-bit port :)
I know what you were saying, and you knew what I was saying. In the end, I don't think there is anyone who bought Mario Advance 1 or 4 because of the enhanced graphics (by that reasoning, no one would have bought Mario Advance 2 or 3 because those were originally 16-bit to begin with). The idea I was getting at (i know you knew this, just repeating) is that it is the simple gameplay which made these fun, not the flashy graphics. Sony would be wise to follow this (not that bad graphics hurt...)
"That being said, PS2 has a great namebrand and this will likely carry over to the PSP. We'll see..."
You mean like the Game Gear carried over the Genesis' great namebrand?
I agree that the phrase "compares favorably" raises an eyebrow, but in looking at the stats I'd say that that the overall performance will resemble a PS2 than a PS1. Doesn't the ps1 have something like 2mb of ram and a 66mhz cpu. Plus, it looks like the psp has a alot of hardware assisted tricks that the ps2 doesn't have.
One thing that concerns me is ram -- only 8 mb seems like a bad idea. True, it's way more than you see in any portable, but it seems like it's crippling the potential of the other hardware that's going into this thing. Plus, when you have a cartridge you can get by with low ram because of the relatively fast rom transfer times. In the case of the psp, You either load everything into ram to (which would eliminate in game load times but diminish overall graphics) or transfer/spool in-game (and watch your batteries dry up in minutes).
I'm definitely intrigued to see what happens. The first press-releases made this thing sound like a complete fantasy but now it's getting tangible, the only question now is cost and battery life.