Naughty Dog "Maxed Out" The PS3 With Uncharted 2

[twesterm]

Procrastinato said:

twesterm said:

I found the quote but forgot how to do the whole cache thing (if I can even do that) and don't feel like taking the time to try to figure it out, but:

But on there Jak and Dexter FAQ page:

Any developer who gives you a “percent of system used” answer is blowing smoke. The truth is that every developer uses 100% of the systems power on every game. Some just get more out of that 100% than others.

This is about the best proof I can give.

And what they say there makes perfect sense-- you can use 100% of the system, and most peopel do, but what matters is how they utilize it.  Looking at Uncharted and what I've seen of Uncharted 2 it looks like they have utlized it quite well.

 

The PS3 tuning tools show you the time, during a frame, during which each SPU (and the PPU threads) is idle or busy.  The gives a pretty good indication of how well you've parallel-ified your app to work with the Cell.

Most devs who state they are using "X %" of the SPUs, are basically just stating that they have only embraced the parallism of the processor to that degree.  If the SPUs are constantly busy, that's a pretty impressive accomplishment, because it means they've ported enough work over to the SPUs, and organized their game frame in such a manner that all of them are in use at all times.

Sure, their code can probably be optimized further... but I believe the claim is more about not letting cores go idle -- which is the real challenge in utilizing the PS3 to its full potential, in the end.

Most devs do NOT use all the SPUs, all the time.  Many early apps and ports didn't even use the SPUs at all.  There's a big difference between last gen and this one, in that regard, so the quote you have there is really out of context.

In any case, I think they have good reason to be proud of their engine -- they obviously have accomplished what many devs in the future will be striving for... efficient usage of a parallel architecture.  A much harder task than you might think, for complicated apps.

It may be out of context but it's still relevant-- anyone can use 100%  of the PS3.  That's easy.  The hard part is actually doing it well.

That's what that quote means and that absolutely still applies.  Anyone that just comes out and says Oh yeah, we're using the PS3 to it's MAX potential is just blowing smoke up your ass and trying to create buzz for their game (and I doubt even Naughty Dog is using 100% all the time).

Luckily, Naughty Dog is pretty awesome and hopefully Uncharted 2 will be as every bit as awesome as Uncharted.