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Resident Evil 4 PS2 Porting Problems
An anonymous reader writes "Gamesarefun is reporting that Capcom is having serious difficulty in porting Resident Evil 4, to Sony's PlayStation 2. The numbers behind the graphical differences are interesting, since Capcom sites a few specifics. Apparently the original model for Leon Kennedy in the GameCube version has had to be scaled down from 10,000 polygons to 5000 for the PS2 version, which is equal to both the poly count for Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3 as well as the poly count of the typical villager in the GameCube version of RE4."
They have a great little console, which (in my opinion) is more powerful than the PS2. And everyone else's too, because it is more powerful than the PS2 flat out. More memory, faster processor (that people actually know how to program for) combined with a better graphics adapter (that people also actually know how to program for) ultimately makes the GameCube a more powerful console than the PS2. It also came out after the PS2, so it's newer technology, too.
Second: they totally botched the details. The PS2 has a very limited ammount of space for textures being rendered, so they've had to go down to 8 and 4 bit textures in some places (probably lightmaps and/or alpha maps which can sometimes be saved with low color depth). Another alternative, since the PS2 has DMA between the system RAM and the graphics processor is to store textures in system RAM and swap them in and out of texture memory as you go. One will result in a decrease in visual quality, the other will result in a decrease in speed.
They've had to decrease the number of polygons on each model for the PS2 version. The reason why is that the PS2 rendering pipeline will require multiple passes to do most of the effects that the GCN does in one pass. The PS2 will probably end up rendering about the same number of polygons as the GCN version in the end, but it suffers from having to render the same polygons several times over.
So, even though this article is inciting all sorts of flamewars around the internet as we speak, it's really just saying that it's hard to port a game to one platform when it's been specifically designed for another.
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I'd rather be flamed than ignored.
I haven't RTFA, but I'll bet that it's mostly a developement process woe, rather than a hardware or performance limitation that is causing the frustrations.
I'll take that bet.
From TFA: "According to various Japanese publications, the new Resident Evil 4 team is encountering a few problems porting Resident Evil 4 to the PS2. Why do you ask? Hardware, Hardware, Hardware."
"One of the big issues the team over at Capcom is facing is the fact that the PS2's texture memory capacity is far smaller than the Gamecube's. In the Gamecube version of Resident Evil 4, players were treated to 24 bit textures. However, in the PS2 version, expect 8 and 4 bit textures, which is quite a downgrade."
"But no sir, it doesn't end there."
"Leon's polygon count, in order to run on the inferior PS2 hardware, will have to drop from the original 10,000 polygons to a mere 5,000, slightly more than Snake from Metal Gear Solid 3."
Sounds like hardware issues to me.
Sinch
Here here on the DVD drive. That thing is a piece of crap, and I've repaired one so far for a friend (though I have a later model PS2 so I don't have that problem).
... "Emotion Engine" is the name of the PS2's CPU (and for completeness, "Graphics Synthesizer" is the name of the GPU). It's not a feature at all. The reason they kept saying that it would add emotion to games is that the 300 MHz (350 MHz?) clock speed was such a jump at the time that the console would be able to handle much more complicated AI than the PS1. They encouraged development houses to try to write AI routines for their characters that simulated emotion. The main example of this is from Driving Emotion S (yes I know it sucks). Opponent AI's would drive more aggressively if your actions "angered" them (I imagine the pseudo code is something like if (nudged) angry++; if (angry > threshhold) driving_style = aggressive;). As the race wore on, they would get "tired" and make mistakes... etc. So basically, "Emotion Engine" was a bit of marketing speak that boasted the fact that the PS2's higher CPU speed and increased memory allowed for more complicated AI routines.
Also, about your comment about the "emotional engine" feature not being used today
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I'd rather be flamed than ignored.
IGN does some head-to-head reviews of certain games, but they are available to the IGN Insiders only. If the game is exactly the same on multiple platforms, the rankings are usually
1) Xbox
2) GC
3) PS2
overall, citing better graphics, sound, load times on Xbox/GC, but better controls on PS2. However, there are times when a feature for a system will skew the head-to-head review greatly toward a system, like an extra level, or online play.
Hope this helps.
Click for specs.
GameCube
PlayStation 2
GC = 485 MHz processor
PS2 = 300 MHz processor
When comparing other consoles to the Gamecube, you should be aware that Nintendo has not released official theoretical specs. For instance the PS2 official polygon fill rate which is a theoretical spec (75 Mtriangles/s) will be directly compared to the GameCube's official numbers which are a real world estimate that have been surpassed in game (6-12 Mtriangles/s). The upper limit for the PS2 is really around 7 million polygons, and Rebel Strike for the GC pushes 18-20 million polygons. So you have to take that into account. Nintendo doesn't publish pissing contest numbers. I wish they would for their own sake.
Noooo! The thing that makes consoles so nice is that every console has the same configuration. I, as a consumer, don't have to worry about whether my console can run game X with memory level Y and video chip Z. On the flip side, game developers can optimize their game towards one and only one system setup.
Nintendo was able to do this with with Majora's Mask because the memory was integrated into the cartridge (as opposed to being an optional machine add-on). They knew that every person who purchased the cartridge would have the memory upgrade and could tailor their game appropriately. Gamers wouldn't even have to be aware that their memory was being upgraded when they purchased their cartridge. I suppose it's one of the drawbacks of moving to a disc-based world.
"Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!"
(Hangs head in shame. Goes off to play Superman on the N64 as penance.)
"Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!"
Also of note in this case is Metroid Prime or Eternal Darkness... which both managed to stream the levels off the disc, eliminating load times completely....
I appreciate your optimism here, but even Metroid Prime had load times. Even though they were few and far between, there were instances where I shot a door and had to wait 2-5 seconds for it to open before I could continue into the next section. During that period, I could hear the laser head on my 'Cube moving back and forth pretty fast loading data.
That said, a 2-5 second load time is nothing compared to what a lot of other games consider fast.
Bryan R.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, or $12.50 as seen on eBay.....