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Games Entertainment

First Playstation 2 Screenshots 133

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stuff-to-see dept.
Catgut sent us a collection of early screenshots from the playstation 2. Another generation forward... remember intellivision? Wow we've come a ways. Update: 03/02 07:28 by S : RPGamer is reporting that the development OS for the PSX2 will be Linux. That doesn't mean the PSX will run Linux though, just that the tools will run on Linux.
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First Playstation 2 Screenshots More

First Playstation 2 Screenshots

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  • /.'d (Score:1)

    by Shiska ( 131 )
    Already. pooh.
    ----------------- ------------ ---- --- - - - -
  • Just the JPEGs, ma'am..

    foobar [min.net]

  • foo [min.net]
  • So sign up for mailing lists at golgotha.org! I doubt we are going to be doing 4 bit graphics, but I can tell you that I for one am trying very hard to avoid the instinctive diving for various cliched easy gamedesign options. It'd be great to have more iconoclastic flakes on board ;)
    I know that I've spoken at times (sometimes raising eyebrows from Golgotha people) about how the stuff I'm trying to bring to the table will also play into '_my_ game ideas'. It sounds like I'm holding out on Golgotha, but the fact is, I have certain goals involving severely noncommercial games. I can't go into too much detail, call 'em hacker games or serious geek games, or check out Robotwar (dunno how many platforms it is, there is a Mac game of this name and there was an Apple II game of the same design). And I don't care if it's totally crazed and nobody will ever want to play it (as some marketroids would quite justifiably claim), I have been germinating ideas for such uncommercial exploits for a long time now, and am moving steadily closer to the reality of writing 'em.
    Naturally, as soon as I'm technically able to release Linux binaries or to make it possible for better pure-coders to port the stuff I'm playing with, it'll be dedicated Linux games, in a very serious way. Until that time I gotta just soldier on with nothing but determination, but damn- I _so_ sympathize, I _so_ agree with this very bleak view of the creativity gap in the game industry. One thing about it, people are learning how to do lovely graphics- guess you gotta work on one thing at a time- the graphics are just marvellous, one day we'll have entertainment beyond just pretty pictures. Current gaming is very much like _cinematography_ as visual impact is increasingly important.
  • Posted by Charles Bronson:

    Nothing beats a console system for gaming. When you buy a console you're guarenteed that any games will work, regardless of how old it is. You don't need to upgrade, etc. Also, since console systems are usually plugged into a TV, and since the TV is usually in a convenient comfortable place, console systems have an edge over a computer, which is hideously ugly and sits on top of a desk, usually uncomfortably.
  • Posted by stodge:

    yes you are. Sorry! :)
  • Posted by Ruford:

    Hmm...Sound is the easiest to handle as this
    is well supported in the drivers which are
    implemented in the kernel level.

    The VGA/SVGA code as anyone who has followed the kernel development will know was consciously left out of this arena since well -- you don't need it to operate a system.

    As for using X -- yes, that's one way -- but if you take a moment to look at the games actually available for Linux, you'll see that there are plenty that give graphics and don't use X -- most of these us the svgalib package...

    So in hindsight--I just have to wonder, what lack of standard graphical interface are you talking about?? :-)
  • Im not sure if you noticed but sony is at the forfront of this whole firewire thing... they are sort of pushing REALY hard for it to be included in absolutely everything

    there is no way that it wont be in this.

    besides, it may be usefull for expansion and add ons and since they are on the origional firewire licence its probably not that expensive for them to put it in a consumer device like this
  • Anybody know what the music from that clip is from (or if it was created just for the clip)? Yeah, the graphics were pretty awesome too.
  • My dad worked for Pong for a bit. I remember when I was a little bitty kid, he brought home this big white box and we hooked it up to our 13" Black and white television.

    Pong didn't have much of a future, though, they were pretty much a one-trick pony.

  • "Sony has stated that the system will hit sometime in Winter 99 (meaning between January and March)."

    Huh? No way is this coming out by March 99, and probably not even by March 2000; there hasn't even been any news yet about third-party companies signing on to make games for it. I want this as bad as the next glassy-eyed joystick junkie, but I'd say that Christmas 2000 is a much more likely timeframe for it.

    And what's this about "Sony has stated"? As far as I know, they haven't even acknowledged the existence of the thing yet, have they?

  • Does the current Playstation have S-VIDEO out? Will the new PS2 have it? I just noticed my Mac has an S-VIDEO in - I could just plug a playstation into there, fire up Apple Video Player, and use my monitor instead of a TV!

    --
    Timur "too sexy for my code" Tabi, timur@tabi.org, http://www.tabi.org
  • Buddy, the word "FUD" is actually an acronym for "Fear Uncertainty (and) Doubt". A campaign idea that was supposedly developed by Microsoft.
  • Yes we reboot once a day, big deal.

    You're getting off lightly. The PSX developers I know are having to reboot 4 or 5 times a day due to Windoze instability, and having to reinstall every month or so. And that's with official publisher supplied developer kits.

  • hmm the vodoo 3 can pump 8 million polyons/sec on on a 2500 pentium3 and a 155$ ps/2 can pump 55 million polygons a second. Which is better? I feel disgusted that the stupid computer engineers can even make a system as fast a childs video game system. Thats sad. Hey! could this $399 pc even compete agaisnt the playstation1. Also their is an emotional chip that makes special effect and beautifull graphics for the graphics chip to pump out. 500 mips! OOOh I am getting a hard on just thinking about it. We need a ps2 with a hardrive and linux and a dsl modem or cable modem and pure paradise will come.
  • I started getting into computers because the graphics and games were alot better. It was easier to develop a game in those days then a regular nintendo. IF i was born 10 years later, I would have never gotten into computers because the price of what these developers go thru to make any game run on widnows sucks. How many hoops have you all jumped to make a simple triangle that you can move around in a 360 degree enviroment in derectx. I can do this alot easier with the development version of the playstation for programers. ITs very sad. I blame this on MICROSOFT 100%! Oh and I jsut rmembered that microsoft purposely crippled visual c so only the $1300 version could be compiled tightly. Al.so microsoft's api's are secrets that only visual C can access. THis sucks! I hape to pay 1300 for a fast game and end up with a slow performer because microsoft believes in overlly engineered pc's because they can sell windows at a higher price! I hate them and intel. ALso sony has liberal licensing compared to sega and nintendo so part of the problem is with nintendo but I want my games back on my pc. I like customizable pc games. I wish those days would come back. Anyone know what happened to the performance of todays pc's and why are they so far behing consules when they are soo much more expensive? This would be unthinkable back in 93 or 94. Someone mentioned that the n64 was as fast as a 10,000$ sgi workstation and we laughed at him. Its now true :-(! what the (&&^. It seems to me that cisc is finally strangling the desktop market and having bus speed only a fith as fast as the cpu with slow memory aren't helping either. Especially if that old hardware has windows choking it and slowing it down even more.
  • I doubt that they would take PS2 backwards, so I would guess S-Video Out will stay.

    According to GameSpot [gamespot.com], Playstation 2 will also be "digital TV ready." Whatever that means.

    Keith Russell
  • See title. Enough said.
    Signed,
    An Old Fart
  • I could play that game a million times and still not get tired of it.
  • Hey,

    I've been looking over some of the specs that have been released at the playstation-europe site in PDF format on the Playstation2. All in all, I'm sure it will be very impressive hardware.

    1> Uses a graphic chip with integrated DRAM and Logic... Much like IBMs recent announcements this really does enhance performance. However, as the Graphics Processor (Graphics Synthesizer) only has 4MB of RAM, I think the 46GB/s internal bandwidth it's got ain't worth kaka.

    2> Uses RAMBUS technology for the main CPU to achieve 4.3GB/s access to system RAM. That's pretty cool, and is a lot faster than my current system's PC100 RAM. However, keep in mind that I think Intel owns the company that designed RamBus, and several PC makers and CPU makers are adopting it for PCs.

    So - yeah, they talk a good storm in terms of performance, and it really will be a good performer - but nowhere near the maximums and peak performances they are talking about. Yeah - it'll render 12 million polys/sec with z buffer, alphablending, and textures - if those polys only cover 48 pixels of screen area each - and all the data for them fits in that 4MB RAM of the graphics chip.... How many PC games even fit in that limit now - I think Unreal uses on the order of 200MBs of textures per level for texture maps, and light maps....

    So yeah - it's a Sony FUD campaign.

    - porter
  • I personally don't care for playing games at 640x480 interlaced that I can play at 1280x1024 non-interlaced on my PC. Until the days of HDTV are upon us, consoles can't compete in that area. Oh, and IMHO N64 has games that are more fun than playstation, with more replay value, with the exception of FF7, which is better on my PC :)
  • will it run linu.... oh. ;-)
  • ...On a floppy, somewhere among the thousands in boxes on the floor of my room. Star Control in team vs. team mode is pretty much SpaceWar only better, though :/. I still have that on floppies somewhere, too.
  • friend, on a TV, 640x480 looks as about as good as 1600x1200


    Turn on anti-aliasing. That is the only thing that a television display gets for free that a monitor doesn't.


    Or take off your glasses to get the same effect for free :). That works surprisingly well.

  • and a system that can do in realtime what takes SGIs hours to render


    Put a playstation 2 next to an SGI box and prove this, if you want me to believe it.


    An SGI box of equivalent cost, maybe...


    The numbers coming out of Sony's marketing division are very overinflated. The screen shots prove otherwise, you say? Take a good look at them and figure out how many polygons you'd need in order to generate something that looks like that. Many, but not *that* many, by between one and two orders of magnitude (even at a decent frame rate).

  • Do you have the PDP-8(?) to run it on? I'm pretty sure we used to load it from paper tape, not floppy.


    We must be talking about different "Spacewar" programs, then.


    What program are you referring to?

  • There are a number of logic faults within your post. Here are the ones that I am most concerned about:


    The playstatoin is about 10 times faster then a 5,000 visual sgi workstation and only a little bit faster then a indy workstation.


    Put these boxes beside each other and run them. To my knowledge, no real, production grade Playstation 2 exists. You can do wonderful things with demo hardware (I seem to recall a few Intel shennanigans in that regard...). This is vapour.


    Its true that a $150 kids consule can outperform a $5,000 workstation. GO blame intel for those rediculously over engineered motherborads and [..]


    Perhaps you weren't aware of this, but Intel does not make real workstations.


    Real workstations are made by companies like Sun, Compaq, HP, and SGI, and are based on Sparc, Alpha, PA-RISC, and MIPS processors, respectively. Intel processors are garbage in workstation-land, and PPC processors aren't much better, I'm afraid. Likewise, real workstations and servers use well-designed motherboards and well-designed bus protocols. Never, ever confuse souped up desktop "workstations" with the real thing.


    Now, go to www.spec.org and to the web sites of the manufacturers mentioned, and get specs on some real systems, please.


    Oh, and FYI a real workstation costs about $50,000, not $5000.


    adaptec for making scsi really expensive video card manufactors for over engineering their cards to make them 10 times as much and 5 times slower then what they could be.


    The video cards that are put in PCs are about the same quality as the PCs themselves. For an example of a real video card, go to http://www.3dlabs.com and look at the high-end Oxygen boards.


    I couldn't agree with Larry Elison more when he calls pc's mini mainframes.


    Architecturally, they are very different. Functionally, they have very different strengths. The best thing to call a PC would be a poor man's workstation, and even that's stretching it. Please research for yourself what "mainframes", "servers", and "workstations" are before blindly believing what your favourite noteworthies tell you.


    THink about how fast a mainframe can do graphics and compare that to todays pc's. hmmm they have something in common. Also isdn and scsi are all mainframe based technologies that suck. scsi is actually slower then eidi with non server single user loads. ITs true.


    I believe that this demonstrates a complete lack of knowledge about what a graphics workstation is. Please look up the terms described above, and try again.

  • I'm referring to the mother of all video games. Check out the Jargon file for details.


    Done. It's the same game, though my version is obviously a port of the original (it ran in monochrome CGA on an x86).

  • In the 2nd pic (the one with a realtime demo of an old man's face in the top-left corner) does anyone think that looks strikingly familiar? It looks like the FF8 movie preview that was out a while ago.

    Wow, that would be impressive if the FF8 animation could be done on the PSX2.

    Then again, it's a console. ehhh......
  • I'm a dumbass, rpgamer.com confirms it right in the article. Sorry.
  • 1) HDTV - yes
    2) widescreen - maybe

    According to
    http://www.psxpower.com/news/7135.html

    " It will also be completely compatible with the HDTV standard, but games will run at a standard resolution of 640x480 out of the gate. It is unclear if the system will have built-in 16:9 modes for televisions with that aspect ratio, but since some PlayStation and N64 games include this feature, it's almost a definite. "
  • Go to
    http://www.psxpower.com

    They have screen shots, and people that went
    to see the demos. Tekken was being played
    real-time , and Grand Turismo (check out the screenshot) was ported and played real time.
  • Good to see the marketing hype of the game industry is still going strong. One page touts "Exclusive Screenshots" Another spouts "We're the first with this information!!" meanwhile all they say in hindsight is "Well, it was a rumor, and we wanted to jack up our page hits" I disbelieve the screen shots, as much as I would -love- to believe them. Those are very nice images, however at NTSC resolutions, that's not as impressive.. Information from source x, states that Sony is still deciding chip designs, another states differing and conflicting hardware specifications from all the rest, yet a third has what appears to be screen shots of "final beta" stage games... Who to believe?

    I don't care. I'm not going to change my life for a -GAME- system.

    I've seen the Dreamcast. I've played on one extensively, and I have my own on order. Yes, it's a nice system, but the world didn't change when it was released.

    How many of you are more "into" these 32bit games now, than say, when you bought your first 2600? I don't mean "more of a game fan" I mean "how much more absorbed are you into the game?" not a whole lot, when you think about it right?

    I remember many a night huddled over my 2600, playing "battlezone" or "asteroids", seen the wrong side of dawn once too many from "Mario Brothers" or "excitebike" I didn't care that mario was a chincy little sprite, or that excitebike didn't have "real" motorcycle sounds, or a custom motorcycle handlebar controller with force feeback and vibrations.

    I remember when games were played for the sake of enjoying the game, not how many polygons per second you could shove into your eyes...

    I could care less if Linux is used for the development OS. That's called "Baiting a targeted audience" I dont' care if it could play games from the "old" playstation, sega cd, saturn, and dreamcast COMBINED. That's why I still have those systems. I'm not going to toss them out because I bought a new toy. I don't give a flying fig how many polygons per second you can display... Takes more than that to impress me.

    You want to know what will get my interest? Original Ideas. I'll take 4 bit graphics and beep sound effects, if you give me a game that is original. I'm SICK AND TIRED of all these "street fighter" clones, racing clones, "final fantasy" rpg's, platform jumping clones and doom clones.. how many times can you "run down a corridor, if it moves, shoot it" before you get tired of it? How long until a "Game Shark" is created for it because 'Joe Gamer' wants the easy way out? (but -of course- nobody who reads /. uses a gameshark. of course not.. especially me.. yeah, that's it *hidehidehide*)

    You want to know what I want Sony? How about a new idea.. instead of this "Let's stick with a known genre, it's safer than trying something original, the gamers will buy everything" decision paradigm that is stagnating the game industry.

    Will I get a PSX2? maybe.. maybe not. I'm waiting until I see what's released before I decide. See what the console -really- is before I plonk my money down on it.

    save this one under "probable vapourware" and let's see what turns up.

    As always, this opinion is mine. Your opinion will vary, after all, you are not me. If you were me, you would be wondering where you put your coffee right now.
  • > Yawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn!

    Thank you sir, for your well thought out, poignant, and wistfully worded diatribe on my posted comment. Your elegance and skill with words has persuaded me to change my ways, and never post again! Amazing that you did it using only 4 letters and a punctuation! Such oratorial skill! I bow before your intellect kind sir, I shal run off and ask that my original comment be stricken from the record, and my posting priveledges perpetually revoked! A pox on me!

    *plonk*

    It is replies like these, that make me wonder why I don't have my threshold permanently set >0.
  • remember intellivision? Wow we've come a ways.

    Yeah, from playable fun games to high-speed razzle dazzle which require a help book so you can have any hopes of beating the game. And, er, "beating the game"!?!? I just want to play a game. What's so wrong with that?

    Give me my comfortable disc controller anyday. . .

    -Augie, cranky at 22 yrs. 364 days

  • mirror [fortunecity.com]

    -Z
  • Seeing as how fishy the 50 million trianges/second announcement sounded, this could easily have been rendered on computers and sent out to kill any leftover excitement about Sega's Dreamcast. Until I see a picture of a prototype Playstation2 connected to a TV and rendering these graphics on its own, I'm not falling for this smoke-and-mirrors campaign.
  • http://www.gaming-age.com/news2/march99/030299h.ht m

    they look damn good!

    still, like i said before, i'm not gonna believe it until i see a PS2 connected to the display that's outputting these movies. They could've been rendered on "special development version" PS2's for all we know. After a while you learn not to bite the bait too quickly. I still recall Intel demonstrating bogus high-speed Pentium Pro's a few years back... they were in special refrigeration units under a table!!!
  • friend, on a TV, 640x480 looks as about as good as 1600x1200
  • I mean, as good as the whole advent of 3D games is, 2D games are a vital part of a well-balanced gaming meal. What would a world without Street Fighter have been? Or Contra? Or Super Mario? 2D has been totally neglected, man...
  • I asked on the last PS2 thread, but it was dying, so no one responded. Will the PS2/Dreamcast take advantage of HDTV? Will they support the higher resolutions or even the widescreen aspect?
  • Yay. Just what the world needs - another closed, proprietary, non-upgradeable, worthless hunk of plastic. Yawn. Wake me when I can run Linux and do TCPIP networking on it...zzzzzzzz

    Am I the only one that sees console gaming slowly riding off into the sunset, in the face of today's $399 PCs?

    --jwriney
    John Riney III
    jwriney@awod.com
  • Nothing beats a console system for gaming.

    Speaking only about the console I have any experience with(the n64), I have yet to find a game that are even close to being as entertaining as the majority of titles on the PC. Some friends and I tried last weekend to play 007 multiplayer. After spending 45 minutes piddling with the awful controllers, the microscopic screen area, and the wonderful framerate that would dip everytime somebody fired a weapon, we brought the game back and got Mario Cart. At least that's somewhat playable. I guess we're all spoiled from playing weekly LAN games of Quake and Shogo.

    When you buy a console you're guarenteed that any games will work, regardless of how old it is.

    I can play Kroz(Apogee's ancient clone of Zork), Scorched Earth, F117a Stealth Fighter, Wolfenstein, Heretic, etc, etc, etc, on my brand new PC. What does that prove?

    I suppose consoles are fine, as long as you don't mind forcing yourself into obsolence. Your only hope of extending the functionality of the box is through manufacturer-approved upgrades- rumble paks, memory cards, extra controllers - that are only add-ons. Once the next better console comes out, the only option is to plunk! - throw it away. Wasteful.

    Another scenario: The SegSonyTendoVisionPro 2000(tm) is about to come out. All the game mags promote it-gorgeous screenshots come out-promises of massive developer support are made. The console comes out, and everybody buys one. Oddly though, the promised flood of games at rollout is only a trickle of 5-10...most are new revs of older stuff. More promises are made, deadlines slip, developer support falls apart - and you're stuck with a $250 paperweight. Oops. Now what? It happened to me and a couple hundred thousand other people with Atari's last gasp(Jaguar).

    Anyway, thank God we live in a free country so opinionated buttheads like me can freely spout.

    Peace

    --jwriney
    John Riney III
  • Um, the part about running Linux and TCP is called humor. I'm trying to express frustration with the closed, unupgradable nature of console boxes. It would take a bigger nut than me to try to run Linux on one of these...

    --jwriney
    John Riney III
    jwriney@awod.com
  • Well said.

    --jwriney
    John Riney III
    jwriney@awod.com
  • Now, the real question is, how long will it take for Connectix to come out with Virtual Game Station 2? :-)
  • Yeah, right. A game console is an appliance, you plug it in and it goes. There is little you can do to make it not go that a power cycle won't fix. A PC, any PC, whether it is running linux, windows or whatnot is not in the same league.

    If you can not see the difference between the two, or its value, then I think you are either horribly naive.

    Rather than seeing the console riding off into the sunset in the face of $399/pcs, I see the low end of the PC market, or at least the bulk of it, going to multifunction computing appliances which provide some combination of game console, Internet access, DVD player, Satelite/Digital Cable decoder and perhaps even video recorder functionality.

    There is a great deal of overlap in the componentry needed for each of these tasks.

    A game console will likely support DVD media.
    The graphics subsystem of a console will likely support DVD decoding.
    DVD decoding has a lot in common with Digital TV decoding.
    Support for Internet access makes sense in a game console anyway, if only for gaming and support for web browsing and e-mail isn't particularly demanding.

    These will be supplimented by various mobile computing devices and various home server devices.

    There will still be a place for general purpose computing, and it is inevitable that prices will continue to drop in this space.
  • Who said anything about set-top box?

    Sony just wants to keep their options open for future use. Perhaps removeable media, or linking 2 PSX2k together, or something else remarkably brilliant.

    It is already more than a games console; its a full entertainment center, what with PSX support, PSX2k support, DVD playback, CD playback, and quite possibly 3d sound and AC3 digital dolby surround sound...

    AS
    AS
  • So far Linux has been mentioned as a development platform, and not any sort of OS for the PS2k

    AS
    AS
  • Probable vaporware? =)
    Sony would be losing a lot of money if they didn't follow up their commanding presence of the PSX with a PSX2, so its more probable than vapor, I think... It's like calling the Merced probabale vaporware, or Win2k probably vaporware...

    I'm not interested in original ideas; I just want the system so I can play my FFVIII, my FFVII, my anime DVD collection, my Metal Gear Solid, my Parasite Eve, and maybe even Square's new racing game...

    What's there to be impressed about? I'm already impressed with FFVIII on a current generation PSX; It will be nice to see what magic Square and Sony can cook up with the new power of the PSX2k, what with DVD as well(Whee! Single disc games again, well, at least for a month or two...)

    AS
    AS
  • Why should he back it up? Go read some of the articles on the web...
    http://www.rpgamer.com/news/030299a.html

    It even explictly mentions backwards compatibility for the PS collection of games for the PS2k, as well as DVD support, and Linux development OS...

    AS
    AS
  • Okay =)
    I've heard it called PlayStation2000 in earlier posts...
    Playstation=PSX
    2000=2k...

    If Sony has officially called it Playstation2, then yeah, PSX2...

    AS
    AS
  • I value fun over innovation...

    Hey, FFVIII, FFVII and Parasite Eve are fun! If the PSX2 didn't have backwards compatability, I doubt I would buy one, unless FFIX comes out for it.

    I never said anything about looks being why I played or liked the games. They are really nice bonuses, but its the games first. So it seems we don't agree on the same games. You value innovation, whatever that is. Can you quantify it? Or is it just 'whatever isn't popular right now'? If the FF series of games were all text based, I would still enjoy them.

    Otherwise why would I bother to buy books and read?

    AS
    AS
  • So the big deal everyone makes about the PSX and PSX2 is...

    I suppose consoles are fine, as long as you don't mind forcing yourself into obsolence.
    Well, the PSX has actually been out for a long time now, buying it when it was brand spanking new would have let you play games for a good solid 3 or 4 years... As opposed to the PC's upgrade cycle of new hardware requirements every 13 or so months... So less investment and greater returns, at least with the well thought investment in a PSX...

    Another issues is that the PSX2 is backwards compatible with the PSX, so upon release it will have the largest game library available of all game systems, except perhaps for the GameBoy series. I'm really sorry that you lost so on the Jaguar, but such criticism can't really be placed on Sony's PSX. Not only does it extend the life of all your old games, but it makes it painless to contemplate buying because of the plethora of released games for the new system.

    The real argument I think is whether there are any games you want to play on said system. Don't buy because of specs, because of hype, because of marketing(If you do, then you end up buying things like Jaguar, without any game support), but because there are games you want to play. Because of Xenogears, or Gran Turismo, or Castlevania:Symphony of the Night, or MegaMan X4, or Bust-a-Groove.

    It would be silly otherwise, no?

    AS
    AS
  • I think if you like playing with yourself... i mean by yourself.. you would love the playstation.. or if you were a hardcore gamer...
    but for those of us who have seen multiplayer games... why would you want to do anything else???

  • yeah.. I would have to agree with you .. until you have HDTV support.. and better multiplay over the internet.. it wont appeal to me....
  • ZDNet has posted a lot of information [gamespot.com] about the new console.
  • you do realize that the blue sky rangers programmed vectron to be unbeatable, right? Intelivision RULES!!! classicgaming [classicgaming.com]
    blue sky rangers [webcom.com]
    -davek
  • Linux is actually a lousy games platform, even compared to a "new" incomplete OS such as BeOS. The advantages BeOS has over Linux, when it comes to games, is that the graphics-handling is actually FAST and standardized, which goes for sound too. The GUI is more nicely integrated, with a higher performance and less memory overhead etc. In short, the OS is designed for High Performance media-handling, and nowadays you can include games in that category.

    However, neither BeOS or Linux is suited for a games console, which is mostly bought by people who either buys it for their children, or whose interests only lies in gaming. Neither category would use the OS in itself. There are practical reasons for not using it as the consoles OS. How would you store it? On a flash-ROM? How large part of the OS are you going to include? If you use Linux, which graphics library will you use? Will you use X for the GUI(Theres no way you are going to get the majority of gamers to use a CLI)? Those are just a few questions that would arise. Its better to either use a homegrown OS, or one suited for embedded/realtime applications instead.
  • >and is usually set to 320x240. It has a color >depth of 16 bits, not 24.

    Actually, a skilled programmer(Do they still exist?) can tweak the PSX to achive 400*300, and if he performs a complex ceremony, of which some ingredients are a tanker of Jolt, some Lego and a rubber chicken, he might actually squeeze out a 24-bit display.

    >The pictures on that page are probably actual >size, given that televisions are terrible for >high quality display. There's not much reason to >above 320x240, and your colors will bleed so much >that 16 bit color depth looks fine.

    Hey!! Dont go comparing the lousy NTSC-system(In European graphics- and video-circles NTSC stands for Never The Same Colour) with the actually usable PAL-system. PAL TVs can easily accomodate 720*576, many TVs can handle full D2 PAL, which is 768*576, compared to NTSC:s 640*480. PALs colour-definition is also infinitely more accurate than NTSCs. Also, PALs 25 fps, interlaced is smoother than NTSCs 30 fps, non-interlaced.

    "Wwoowwe, a 96-bit display!!" Quote from a lamer I had in my class.
  • Yes, I know, I just commented on the person who wanted Linux as the OS for the console, and for that purpose, its totally useless.
  • Wow, you have it 100% confirmed?? When did you get hold of one? And why would one even think of outputting the display over the FireWire-interface(IEEE 1394)? Maybe for transferring DV to a DV-cam, or the other way around etc, but its absolutely a no-brainer to try and output a signal to the display through that bus. BTW, I take it you havent used a SGI system, right? Oh, silly me, if it took hours to do the things on that display, it was probably a Personal Iris Workstation, or something even older, such as one of the 68x-equipped machines they built in the beginning.
  • I totally agree on this one. To further prove the point, I could also include a few more things: Those screenshots probably werent running on a 1280*1024 32-bit display. And a few good questions: Single- or double-sided polys? AA-levels? Amount of textures? What kind of lights? Resolution? Colour depth? What kind of hardware were they running it on?

    Someone said they were manipulating the images in realtime, I would like to get that confirmed, and how they manipulated the scenes in that case. And how was the scenes setup? Were they they precompiled programs, with object controllers included, or were they a normal scene from a 3d-program?
  • Which Playstation? PSX2 is not out yet, and the old one is slower than a P166 when it comes to cpu, and the Permedia-chip is faster than the PSXs hardware. The Visual PC is limited by its "slow" CPU, but its graphics-hardware is among the fastest on the PC-side. Only Intergraphs Wildcat is faster in theory, although I have yet to see that proved IRL. I take it you have never used an SGI-workstation. The Visual PC is faster than any Indy in existence...Ok, faster than any Indy workstation ;) The difference between the Playstation and the workstation is that the Playstation works with compiled programs heavily optimized for the hardware, using assembler and C, while the workstation works with realtime modelling and graphics in a way similar to Java or uncompiled basic, in that the scene is actually a pure ASCII-file(Take a look at a PovRay-scene and you will see what I mean). Also, the Playstation doesnt use the same level of interactivity, resolution, anti-aliasing, colour depth etc etc ad infinitum.
  • >practical rate possible; it is most certainly not an interpreted emulation like the running of a BASIC program.

    Thats how games like Quake works, and the procedure for a final scanline or raytrace-render. When youre working in Maya for example, which I was talking about, modelling, animating and lighting a scene fully shaded and textured, its not very practical to work that way. You would lose all interactivity and workflow. In Maya and other 3D-programs, the scene is parsed in realtime, and rendered and output to the display. The same goes for hardware OpenGL-rendering. In a game, all calls to OpenGL or other appropriate API is already parsed and ready.

    >Re. storing scene files in ASCII, the storage format makes no difference. Before rendering begins, the scene is loaded into memory and
    >translated into OpenGL primitives in native form. When rendering begins, no further translation is necessary.

    Again, this assumes that it is a final render, or a game. I mean, when you are working on a scene in realtime, changing the dynamics settings for the entire scene during realtime shaded and textured playback of an animation in the perspective window requires realtime-parsing =)

    >So, the software on a real workstation is nothing to sneeze at :).

    Oh, I wouldnt know, I lost count on the number of hours Ive worked at a SGI-workstation sometime after passing 1100 hours =)
  • ...but basically what it bolds down to (for me anyway) is good arcade translations. if i can play a good port of Mavel Vs. Capcom (not some watered down console toy, like most arcade ports tend to be) or something similar, i'll buy it...if not, i'll wait for an emulator...
  • I was wondering the same thing. Here is the FF8 image [gaming-intelligence.com], and the PSX2 image [gaming-age.com].

    Could these be fake, with the PSX2 image being "borrowed" from FF8?

  • Check this out.
    [psxnation.com]
    http://www.psxnation.com/news/030299a.html

    According to The Japanese site Gamespot it has been reported that the PlayStation 2 will use the operating environment of Linux for development! As Linux prepares to host its first huge convention this week at Linux World, this is huge news and pits Dreamcast with Windows against PlayStation with Linux. Gamespot also revealed that the specs for the CPU have been bumped up from the 250Mhz announced at the IEEE conference to 300Mhz. PSX Nation will have much more tomorrow and throughout the week


  • All this baby needs now is a Java VM on it. Just think you could use Jini to connect it to your 486 server so that you can save games and Son on.

    Damn you nintendo for "making" buy that piece of shit N64(a cdrom is all that was needed and Sony playstation would be dead you fools).
  • I think all you previous commenters have missed the point. PSX2 is still R&D so specs demoed are likely to be final release specs.

    And who gives a rats bum if PAL is better than NTSC, even if it is. HDTV will and is here and if you read the comments from the Sony dudes, they plan to support it.

    The final spec is boasting a 60 million+ polygon rate and a 14 million+ 3D polygon fill rate at a full 25fps. This said, and judging by the pictures will give close-to-life-like real-time pictures, scenes, characters, you name it.

    Remember back in '93 when this great invention, 'Virtual Reality' was released? It looked shit, played shit, and cost a fortune. VR ran at a mere 1 million polys and a 1/4 of that fill at less than 15fps.

    What Sony aim to deliver, is a fantastic, full featured product at the consumer level, and hopefully at a consumer price. Whichever, It will not replace the PC, (ever tried to so much write a letter on a console let alone program a CAD/CAM process), and I'll still have both.

    - Dan.
  • i have to wipe the monitor off now.
  • I know I'll regret this but ... My mirror [149.159.45.92]. Please don't beat my computer up too much ;)
  • You can buy an S-Video out for the current Playstation. They sale for around $10. You can get one online at probably any game dealer, but I know Ebworld [ebworld.com] has them.

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