Questions about resolutions

[freedquaker]

Daisuke72 said:

A. Gonna be blunt, I think the PS4 will be rendering at 720P at the end of this gen. While it can handle 1080P and 900P, games will get more and more demanding as the years pass and eventually we'll be back at 720P. Do you agree or not?

 

B. Assuming the first question becomes a reality, what res would the game be on Xbox One? Say if it were a multiplat, do you guys think that the Xbone would be forced to render the game at sub-HD resolutions??? I believe they would, simply because if they made it 720P the PS4 version would look miles ahead better than the Xone version while performing better. 

C. Do you think they'll be a game running higher than 1080P this gen?

D. Are you satisfied with 720P being the norm for another six years?

 

Also, IMO they should've waited for next gen consoles till next year, could've gotten way more powerful hardware for the same price.

 

Here is the thing... Because of several reasons I counted earlier (http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=171257&page=4) :

Quote:
There are several reasons why the difference is relatively small at this moment between current and next gen consoles:

- Most development is geared towards current gen. and these games are merely ports, which use the extra horse power for only higher resolution, frame rate and smoother graphics, but that's about it, nothing fundamentally different. This should continue at least till the next wave of games, say 1-2 years.

- There simply hasn't been enough time for programmers to take advantage of the new architecture and start to use the assets accordingly. Once the native fast and abundant RAM and CPU and GPU horse power are internalized as given, the trend will be reversed. Then the PS4 Gen will be norm, and PS3 gen will get the dialed back versions.

- Each console will get additional improvement with respect to their idiosyncratic architectures, rather than the common denominator with some improved features for each console. What they do today, for example, is to develop the games for current gen, port it to Xbox One at the optimum settings, and then utilize the extra horse power of PS4 with higher frame rate and resolution, still not too fundamentally different.

- The switch to the next-gen will only bring more development funding, additionally improving the graphics and art work, and better harnessing the architecture.
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Both console will graphically improve over time. But because their architectures are so similar and because PS4 has about 50% more raw power in addition to 2.5 times the RAM Bandwidth, the gap will remain. Ok, but where will this "gap" be?

It's not only a question whether the "higher resolution matters"  (IT DOES) but the actual question is "How much does it matter?"

Right now, not too much. Because,

a)  Most games are still geared toward current gen, and lower resolution in mind. So higher resolution now usually just means cleaner graphs with fewer jaggies, not much more.

b) There are still many TV Sets out there with 720p or lower resolution.

Both of those two factors will change in the future favoring higher resolutions, due to the focus switch from current gen to upcoming gen, and the rising popularity of 1080p+ TV sets.

 

What this means for PS4  (high bandwidth, extra horse power)

1080p will be the norm, graphs will improve substantially. Average frame rate will still vary between 30 and 60, but closer to 60. I expect a trade off between graph intensity and fps locked up at a certain level (like adventure games with high detail at 30 fps vs racing games, less detailed at 60 fps etc..). Or a similar tradeoof between AA and fps. You will never see a resolution above 1080p.

 

What this means for Xbox One (lower bandwidth, less horse power)

Xbone graphics will definitely improve. I tend to think as time goes by, we'll see more higher res titles on Xbone but essentially developers will need to choose between matching PS4 levels of detail at 720p, or reducing the graphic intensity for higher resolutions at 990p or 1080p, but NOT BOTH. Whenever there is an improvement on Xboxone, there will be a parallel improvement on PS4, which will always provide either higher res, or higher frame rate, or graphic detail (or multiple of those).