| curl-6 said: Anandtech reckons the 16MB wasn't just for buffering: http://www.anandtech.com/show/858/7 "Obviously, 16MB of memory is a lot of memory for audio processing so developers are able to use any part of that memory as regular storage of data that doesn't need that much memory bandwidth since there is only 81MB/s of bandwidth to this audio DRAM:" MGS 3 looks fantastic for the hardware, don't get me wrong, but Rogue Squadron is loaded with bump maps, light scattering, self-shadowing, volumetric clouds... there really isn't a PS2 game that pushes as many effects and shaders to my knowledge. |
I'm pretty sure games needed more than a measly 81MB/s bandwidth at that time when you consider the disparity compared to the main memory being able to pull off 2.7GB/s and most game assets do require a lot of memory bandwidth or low access times that the DRAM chip can't provide so it really can't do much more than store audio or preload disc data for the most part. Think of it as a "volatile" SSD ... ("Volatile" standing for content erasure in the storage medium when power is lost.)
Rogue Sqaudron may have bump mapping but I don't think that translates into an advantage since the normal maps are in too low of a resolution to be able to give off any impression of extra geometry. It often came off being pixelated or flat. (pun intended) The top tier games that used bump mapping on Xbox made a much more profound impact on it.
Self shadowing was doable on the PS2 with Ace Combat games featuring it and it also had volumetric clouds too although it differed in the fact that they used layered alpha textures instead of the dynamic backdrop found in Rogue Squadron. I'm curious about the implementation details on light scattering in Rogue Squadron ...
