Survivalist Pro
Survivalist Pro
Photo: Leeloo Thefirst
While the Vita trails far behind the PS3 in terms of raw processing power, it does feature some small advantages that help redress the balance.
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Read More »Last week, Digital Foundry reviewed the Nvidia Shield - a highly impressive, state of the art piece of technology, somewhat under-utilised by a catalogue of software designed with much less capable hardware in mind. Compare and contrast with the PlayStation Vita - long since left behind by more powerful tablets and smartphones, but where the games just keep on getting better. Somehow, Sony has managed to miniaturise the PlayStation experience into a handheld form factor, creating a platform where traditional mobile games can sit side by side with cross-platform triple-A titles and impressive original games from the biggest collection of first-party studios in the world. Next month you'll be playing Killzone: Mercenary on Vita, and based on what we've played so far, it's a real achievement, perhaps the most technologically impressive portable shooter on the market and the essence of what sets Vita apart from other portables: full-fat gaming comparable with PS3, delivered in a mobile form factor. In this article, we'll be looking at how successfully Sony has transferred key PS3 franchises across to the handheld, and we'll be comparing a range of games available on both PlayStation 3 and Vita. Can portable hardware truly deliver a current-gen gaming experience? Despite the hardware limitations compared to PlayStation 3, PS Vita manages to accomplish some highly impressive conversions while drawing just a fraction of power compared to PS3 or Xbox 360. During gameplay the Vita on average sucks up between just 3.5 to 4W of power, while in comparison the latest Slim models of the 360 and PS3 take between 70 to 80W in similar situations. This speaks volumes for the efficiency of the Vita's ARM CPU and Power VR SGX543 GPU cores, which are able to deliver a fairly close approximation of a premium PS3 gaming experience using less than six per cent of the juice, which includes powering the superb OLED display. In terms of gaming performance per watt, we're not sure that any other platform gets close. Vita Focus: Gravity Rush Gravity Rush might not be a technical tour-de-force in the league of Uncharted or Killzone, but the game does well in combining stylised art design with a number of striking effects. Most impressive is the way LOD (level of detail) is handled, with simplified details in the distance, taking on a heavily cel-shaded look that helps to make the world feel more like a three-dimensional comic. This is backed up by modest use of multiple light sources and some cool-looking HDR-esque effects, such as changes in bloom and exposure when venturing outside. It's a great example of an exclusive game built around the strengths and weaknesses of the hardware and well worth checking out. Gravity Rush performance analysis While the Vita trails far behind the PS3 in terms of raw processing power, it does feature some small advantages that help redress the balance. The inclusion of unified shaders - as opposed to the separate fixed pixel and vertex shaders on the PS3 - gives developers greater flexibility in the development process, while the tile-based deferred rendering architecture is more efficient, allowing the GPU to do more while economising on bandwidth and fill-rate. The same technology is employed in smartphones and tablets, but it's the fixed nature of the Vita hardware and the quality of the dedicated development tools that really makes the difference. We kick off our analysis with the upcoming Killzone: Mercenary, illustrating that point spectacularly well. Performance analysis of Killzone: Mercenary preview code on Vita. The game doesn't quite manage a completely stable 30fps - and checkpoint saves cause very noticeable dips in frame-rate - but the level of smoothness is impressive for such a technically advanced handheld title. The franchise exclusives: Killzone, Uncharted and more Both Killzone: Mercenary and launch classic Uncharted: Golden Abyss emphasise the advantages of the Vita's static hardware set-up over gaming platforms based around devices with continuously evolving specifications. In particular we see several advanced rendering techniques commonly found on PS3 implemented on Vita to create a striking console-like experience that we don't see on iOS and Android. Deferred shading is implemented in Uncharted (correction: but not in Killzone), allowing for a vast array of light sources on-screen without incurring a huge performance hit. In Killzone: Mercenary, the use of light and shadow is combined with layers of post-process effects to create a gritty visual aesthetic similar to Killzone 2. Meanwhile, Uncharted's global illumination system fills the natural environments and ancient ruins with an impressive level of depth and ambience that rivals - and sometimes exceeds - the original Uncharted game. In some ways Killzone: Mercenary is the more impressive of the two games here, demonstrating how intimate knowledge of the hardware, along with optimised code, yields improvements as the platform slowly matures. For example, the level of post-processing is visibly more advanced than in other Vita titles, while the slew of alpha-based effects - such as volumetric smoke and fire - appear well-animated and have a considerable amount of depth to them, despite being rendered in a distinctly lower resolution. Vita Focus: Unit 13 On a visual level Unit 13 isn't particularly impressive, largely reminiscent of an early PS2 game that has been given a quick graphical boost via layers of normal mapping and the inclusion of a very low-precision SSAO implementation. Sub-native framebuffers and a lack of anti-aliasing don't help either. Performance varies greatly and frame-rate drops often result in a quite jerky gameplay experience. But beyond the rough aesthetic is a competent third-person shooter with a greater focus on tactical play than straight-up run-and-gun action. Missions are short, complementing the fact that the Vita is primarily a mobile device designed to be played on the go, and gratuitous touchscreen features are kept to a bare minimum. Unit 13 performance analysis There's also evidence of a dynamic framebuffer at work, too, which occasionally sees the rendering resolution lowered from 960x544 when the engine is under load. While some iOS and Android games (for example, Riptide GP) allow the use of selectable resolutions - similar to PC games - these changes are manually selected by the user, resulting in a permanent sacrifice in terms of quality, whereas the variable resolution set-up on Vita only sees a temporary downgrade until performance stabilises. Unless our eyes deceive us, Killzone only seems to deploy resolution reductions if the camera is in motion - if still, resolution remains native. This is a neat trick as frame-rate drops are only likely to be noticed in motion, and not in still scenes. Shooting forms a large part of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, but confrontations set in detailed areas filled with enemies have a significant effect on performance, leading to barely playable frame-rates in places. Thankfully, this doesn't happen enough to spoil the overall experience. Alternative analysis: Uncharted: Golden Abyss PS Vita traversal performance analysis Uncharted: Golden Abyss remains one of the most visually impressive Vita games, with excellent use of real-time lighting (also via deferred shading) and environments that feature a huge sense of scale and pack in a considerable amount of detail. This is also bolstered by the use of various effects, such as depth-of-field and surface shaders on the characters - elements that we simply don't see implemented to the same degree on the vast majority of mobile titles. The compromise is that we are looking at a sub-native 720x408 framebuffer without any anti-aliasing (FXAA was trialled by the coders, but it didn't make the grade). However, the reduced level of image quality is less pronounced on the Vita screen than it is when viewed on a much larger computer monitor. What is striking is just how much of the core PS3 experience is translated onto Vita without having to completely redesign how these games play. While Uncharted lacks the large scale set-pieces found in the PS3 instalments, the game still features its fair share of collapsing buildings and dramatic scripted scenes. All of the basic elements - such as combat and traversal - are similarly polished and quite closely follow the high standards set by the PS3 originals, even if the overall scope has been dialled back in the conversion process. Likewise, Killzone: Mercenary offers up a very convincing experience that certainly echoes that of the PS3 games in terms of attention to detail, and the shooting remains intense compared to the pedestrian action in the vast majority of mobile FPS games. Vita Focus: Stranger's Wrath HD Occupying a midway point between the PlayStation 2 and its successor in terms of rendering power, it should come as no surprise to find that Oddworld's Stranger's Wrath HD remake is a perfect fit for the PS Vita. It retains many of the PS3 enhancements, making it considerably improved over the original Xbox release. There are some cutbacks compared to the home console version - some pared back foliage and lower-resolution textures. Frame-rate also hovers around the 30fps level, compared to the PS3 version which aims for a loftier 60fps target. The game remains highly playable and absolutely gorgeous, thanks in no small part to the native 960x544 resolution. Stranger's Wrath HD tech interview
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Read More »Stranger's Wrath HD: PS Vita performance analysis The downside is that performance generally isn't as stable as the equivalent PS3 franchise entries. Frame-rate is heavily impacted for extended periods due to the level of detail and effects work during demanding scenes and the weaker Vita hardware. This is particularly noticeable in Uncharted, where frame-rates come crashing down below 20FPS when there are several enemies on screen as well as a lot of trees and effects. It's fair to say that in these scenes the shooting is heavily compromised and the game temporarily becomes almost unplayable, with huge spikes in controller latency making aiming and moving feel very heavy. LittleBigPlanet on PS Vita is one of the unsung heroes of the platform, redesigned with Vita in mind, with many cute hardware-specific features. The quality of the visuals matches the splendour of the OLED display beautifully. In other areas shoot-outs have less of an impact on performance, with drops down to the mid-twenties at worst, but the effect this has on gameplay is much less severe - aiming and shooting is still responsive enough for combat to be enjoyable, although the level of controller response isn't as high as in the PS3 games. Comparatively, the Killzone: Mercenary preview code we played appears to be better optimised, with the game more closely adhering to the desired 30fps refresh across general run-of-play, and when gunfights do break out, the drop in performance is nowhere near as problematic as in Uncharted. Elsewhere, both titles remain relatively smooth outside of combat. While performance is sometimes an issue, the games still come across as worthy companions to the PS3 offerings.
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