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Forums - Microsoft - MS Lifts 360 Minimum 720p, Anti-Aliasing Mandate For Devs

sega4life on 02 September 2009

 

Microsoft lifts Xbox 360 minimum 720p, anti-aliasing mandate for devs

by Randy Nelson 

In a column published today on Develop, Black Rock Studio (Pure, Split/Second) technical director David Jeffrries revealed that Microsoft has removed an item from its TCRs (Technical Certification Requirements) that stated all Xbox 360 games must run at a minimum of 1280x720 (720p) resolution if the system is in HD mode. According to Jeffries, this was done earlier this year so that developers could be "free to make the trade-off between resolution and image quality as we see fit."

TCRs are technical "rules" that all games developed for a given platform must adhere to in order to be certified for release. Of course, some games that have skirted this specific TCR have still been allowed on the system; the most notable being Microsoft's own Halo 3, which runs at 1152x640 (progressive).

Joystiq has confirmed with a trusted source familiar with Microsoft's TCRs that Jeffries' claim is legit. Not only that, but, as of March 2009, Xbox 360 developers are no longer required to utilize full-screen anti-aliasing in their games. The elimination of both requirements is especially noteworthy since the console maker had touted that all 360 games would run at a minimum of 720p with at least 2x FSAA since before the hardware launched.

As Jeffries points out in his column, 1280x720 isn't necessarily the "starting point" for HD on many displays and that it's not nearly as crucial as anti-aliasing. It's not clear if the back-tracking on Microsoft's part was due to pressure from the development community or not, but we can probably all agree that, as long as a game looks great, it doesn't really matter how its creators got there. Does it?


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ph4nt on 02 September 2009

This is actually the first time i've heard of that restriction. With so many games like Halo and Call of Duty running at sub HD levels.



Serious_frusting on 02 September 2009

lol Well i never heard of this before how strange lmao



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cloofoofoo on 02 September 2009
ph4nt said:
This is actually the first time i've heard of that restriction. With so many games like Halo and Call of Duty running at sub HD levels.

I often worder how many games run below 720p.My favorite game Sonic Unleashed(come on its one of the best looking game this gen) tends to look a bit pixelated,makes me wonder does it run under 720p?



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greenmedic88 on 02 September 2009

It must have been more of a "target resolution" seeing as how so many high profile Xbox games are already confirmed as being below 1280x720.

Unless this alleged rule applied to everyone except for those with games projected to sell in the millions naturally.



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greenmedic88 on 02 September 2009
cloofoofoo said:
ph4nt said:
This is actually the first time i've heard of that restriction. With so many games like Halo and Call of Duty running at sub HD levels.

I often worder how many games run below 720p.My favorite game Sonic Unleashed(come on its one of the best looking game this gen) tends to look a bit pixelated,makes me wonder does it run under 720p?

Actually, the telling sign of a game running below a native render 1280x720 is not necessarily a stepped "pixelated" look (jaggies), but excessive soft focus (blurriness) due to a low render resolution being automatically upscaled (via Xbox settings/HANA chip) to whatever your display's native resolution happens to be.

 



sguy78 on 02 September 2009

I don't think it is that big of a deal.



tedsteriscool on 02 September 2009

I wonder if this will turn off some devs? Or maybe kill framerates with the lazy devs...



Garnett on 02 September 2009

Native 1080p here we come!

Shit no AA = Ugly.

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sinha on 02 September 2009
tedsteriscool said:
I wonder if this will turn off some devs? Or maybe kill framerates with the lazy devs...

LOL

Can you elaborate on how this news could possibly turn off any devs?

 



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