Hardware Thoughts on the Vita

  • Thread starter Deleted_171835
  • Start date
  • Views 9,287
  • Replies 96
  • Likes 3
D

Deleted_171835

Guest
OP
Well eCFW can only be done with certain PSN games and within a limited timeframe of exploit release (before Sony takes the game down). It's not exactly a perfect fix for the PSP compatibility problem.
 

Foxi4

Endless Trash
Global Moderator
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
30,818
Trophies
3
Location
Gaming Grotto
XP
29,788
Country
Poland
Well eCFW can only be done with certain PSN games and within a limited timeframe of exploit release (before Sony takes the game down). It's not exactly a perfect fix for the PSP compatibility problem.
Oh, no, by no means! That said, as I mentioned earlier, no matter how you cut this cake, you just don't buy a nextgen device with an intention to play lastgen games you own as a priority - that's what you have your lastgen system for. Sure, PSP games look fantastic on the OLED screen and you're welcome to buy PSP titles over PSN, but I always treated backwards compatibility as a "snack" in-between of releases. It'd be great if PSN had all PSP releases, sure, but seeing that I'm not so rad about digital distribution, I'm gonna keep on playing those on my PSP instead.
 

TripleSMoon

GBAtemp's Umbran Witch in [T]raining
Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2012
Messages
6,443
Trophies
2
Age
34
Location
Central NC
Website
twitter.com
XP
3,296
Country
United States
...provided you have eCFW installed, you don't even need a physical copy of the game, if you know what I mean... ;)
Eh, I gave up pirating a few months ago. I only digitally install games on my PSP if I buy them from PSN, or if I buy a physical copy (for ones that aren't sold on PSN). :P
Well eCFW can only be done with certain PSN games and within a limited timeframe of exploit release (before Sony takes the game down). It's not exactly a perfect fix for the PSP compatibility problem.
That's actually a very big deal to me... I don't want to have to deal with limited exploits and stuff, unless it's like the 3DS where it's just a matter of flashcart companies applying a patch whenever a new update is released.
Oh, no, by no means! That said, as I mentioned earlier, no matter how you cut this cake, you just don't buy a nextgen device with an intention to play lastgen games you own as a priority - that's what you have your lastgen system for. Sure, PSP games look fantastic on the OLED screen and you're welcome to buy PSP titles over PSN, but I always treated backwards compatibility as a "snack" in-between of releases. It'd be great if PSN had all PSP releases, sure, but seeing that I'm not so rad about digital distribution, I'm gonna keep on playing those on my PSP instead.
I bought the 3DS with the intention to play DS games, since there's a much larger DS library and I never owned any of the original DS systems. Had the 3DS not had complete backwards compatibility, I might have gone with a DSlite instead and waited for the 3DS to get a larger library (I grabbed my 3DS in December last year, for reference). To each their own, but there DEFINITELY are people who buy systems with backward compatibility in mind.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RodrigoDavy
D

Deleted_171835

Guest
OP
To add on to that xwatchmanx, I actually bought my Vita primarily to play PSP games (never owned one) so backwards compatibility does matter a fair bit to me.



And no, I'm not crazy enough to be spending $250 on a system only for PSP games. I snagged this bad boy for $100.
 

TripleSMoon

GBAtemp's Umbran Witch in [T]raining
Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2012
Messages
6,443
Trophies
2
Age
34
Location
Central NC
Website
twitter.com
XP
3,296
Country
United States
To add on to that xwatchmanx, I actually bought my Vita primarily to play PSP games (never owned one) so backwards compatibility does matter a fair bit to me.



And no, I'm not crazy enough to be spending $250 on a system only for PSP games. I snagged this bad boy for $100.
Lucky. Where did you find that deal? I would've gone for it in a heartbeat, myself.
 

heartgold

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
4,378
Trophies
0
Location
London
Website
Visit site
XP
2,085
Country
  • Visually, I'm not very impressed. Uncharted: Golden Abyss is a jaggy-fest with shitty textures and a sub-native resolution to top it off. Street Fighter x Tekken has a massive visual downgrade from the console versions (most notably in Chun Li's thighs!). Gravity Rush has a great art-style but certainly didn't "wow" me graphically. If I had to sum up the system's capabilities, it's roughly an Xbox with better shaders and slightly better polygon pushing power. Certainly not a portable PS3 and not the large gap over the 3DS that I expected.
I agree, after spending some time with about four games, PS Vita graphics are over hyped. It's no Mini PS3 graphics in your hands as people claim. Let alone the graphics, the performance is dipped low compared to similar games on the PS3, like frame drop sub 30, less AI. It's not a large gap compared to the 3DS when you sit there looking at both systems at once like you say.

It's more like original X-box 1.5% with advance GPU features. Most games aren't even running at native resolution, some have no AA at all and other issues that soulx pointed out. o_o

I put the 3DS between PS2 and the Wii with advance shaders and lightening. Although the 3DS geometry is no where near good as the Wii, no game has shown that to me.

Who knows, we could get some fantastic looking games in the late cycles that put in on par on X360 or close enough on PS Vita.

yqenubun.jpg
 
D

Deleted_171835

Guest
OP
I agree, after spending some time with about four games, PS Vita graphics are over hyped. It's no Mini PS3 graphics in your hands as people claim. Let alone the graphics, the performance is dipped low compared to similar games on the PS3, like frame drop sub 30, less AI. It's not a large gap compared to the 3DS when you sit there looking at both systems at once like you say.

It's more like original X-box 1.5% with advance GPU features. Most games aren't even running at native resolution, some have no AA at all and other issues that soulx pointed out. o_o

I put the 3DS between PS2 and the Wii with advance shaders and lightening. Although the 3DS geometry is no where near good as the Wii, no game has shown that to me.

Who knows, we could get some fantastic looking games in the late cycles that put in on par on X360 or close enough on PS Vita.

yqenubun.jpg

The 3DS certainly seems capable of pushing out Wii-level geometry. Just look at Monster Hunter Tri G or Resident Evil: Revelations. It'll just take a lot of optimization for the console thanks to the extra load of 3D. Sadly, devs don't seem to care much about pushing the system looking at some of the upcoming games.

On par with the 360? Yeah, that's never happening. The Vita is certainly a powerful device as far as mobile tech goes but games aren't even going to come close.

Devs will utilize tricks like a sub-native res and closed areas to produce better visuals but I don't think we'll see anything that looks dramatically better than what we've already seen.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TripleSMoon

Foxi4

Endless Trash
Global Moderator
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
30,818
Trophies
3
Location
Gaming Grotto
XP
29,788
Country
Poland
(...) after spending some time with about four games, PS Vita graphics are over hyped (...) It's not a large gap compared to the 3DS when you sit there looking at both systems at once like you say.
Devs will utilize tricks like a sub-native res and closed areas to produce better visuals but I don't think we'll see anything that looks dramatically better than what we've already seen.
Wat...?

The Vita can also handle an exponentially larger number of polygons per second. Polygons are the 3D building blocks most games are made with and the 3DS can hurl 15.3 million of them around the screen at one time. This is a decent figure, but the Vita can handle almost ten times this number, with 133 million polygons per second being processed.
The 3DS might have a two pronged attack and the added bonus of a 3D display, but the Vita’s five-inch 960 x 544, 220 DPI screen is bigger than either of the 3DS screens and produces very sharp images. The Nintendo screens are very good too, but at 800 x 240 and 320 x 240 they fall short on resolution and, apart from the 3D aspect, the Vita has the better visuals by a fair margin.

:arrow:Source

When in 3D Mode, the 3DS renders two slightly altered scenes at half of its native resolution while the Vita goes full-blast at all times, depending on which resolution was pre-set at the beginning. Additionally, it renders a whole lot more polygons and generally eats the 3DS for breakfast. Contemporary software doesn't show even a fraction of its full potential as the games we're seeing now and which we'll be seeing throughout at least half of the next year have been developed on unfinished devkits - they're sewn together with poor thread. Developing a game these days takes at least a year, mostly two or longer - the Vita has been out for a year exactly. Expecting future games on the system to look expotentially better than those we're seeing now is not a long shot at all.
 

TripleSMoon

GBAtemp's Umbran Witch in [T]raining
Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2012
Messages
6,443
Trophies
2
Age
34
Location
Central NC
Website
twitter.com
XP
3,296
Country
United States
No AA on games for a system that could push out visuals as good as the Vita is a total miss, in my opinion.

Honestly, I don't understand why ANY current system would not have AA for most or all of its games. Wii and Vita being great examples.
 

Foxi4

Endless Trash
Global Moderator
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
30,818
Trophies
3
Location
Gaming Grotto
XP
29,788
Country
Poland
No AA on games for a system that could push out visuals as good as the Vita is a total miss, in my opinion.

Honestly, I don't understand why ANY current system would not have AA for most or all of its games. Wii and Vita being great examples.
Three reasons - lazy developers, unfinished devkit at the time of game development and the fact that the screen actually masks a lot of the jaggies due to its built nature. They're prominent on screen shots, much less so on the actual console. But yes, I agree, AA should be implemented more often, and it is my sincere belief that it will be in the following years.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TripleSMoon
D

Deleted_171835

Guest
OP
Wat...?




:arrow:Source

When in 3D Mode, the 3DS renders two slightly altered scenes at half of its native resolution while the Vita goes full-blast at all times, depending on which resolution was pre-set at the beginning. Additionally, it renders a whole lot more polygons and generally eats the 3DS for breakfast. Contemporary software doesn't show even a fraction of its full potential as the games we're seeing now and which we'll be seeing throughout at least half of the next year have been developed on unfinished devkits - they're sewn together with poor thread. Developing a game these days takes at least a year, mostly two or longer - the Vita has been out for a year exactly. Expecting future games on the system to look expotentially better than those we're seeing now is not a long shot at all.
The truth is that it isn't. In terms of specs, the Vita clearly outclasses the 3DS and games certainly look better on the system. But I don't see a huge leap in visuals between the two in games (I should know, owning both consoles and all...)

Uncharted: Golden Abyss does not look a generation-leap better than Resident Evil: Revelations. It most definitely looks better visually but it's not as big of a leap as say, the DS->PSP before. Maybe that's because both consoles can now produce proper 3D (unlike before where the DS could only produce primitive N64 3D graphics).

And that article is incorrect. In 3D mode, the 3DS renders at 800x240 (the visible resolution of the top screen is 400x240) but in 2D, it's 400x240 (which is why some games add anti-aliasing in 2D). It's rendering twice in 3D adding extra load on the system. And the 3DS can actually output 107.2M Triangles/s (although performance is lower than that thanks to 3D).

Expecting future games on the Vita to look dramatically better when we already have demanding games on the system (Uncharted, Assassin's Creed) running at a sub-native resolution without anti-aliasing is a pipe dream.
 

Devin

"Local Hardware Wizard"
Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2009
Messages
5,955
Trophies
2
Age
29
Location
The Nexus
XP
4,538
Country
United States
Graphics, and such aside. I have two 3DS', and my Vita. I just find myself playing my Vita more than my 3DS' which are gathering dust. I wonder why that is. I mean I have games for both, I suppose I just favor the Vita more.

Nice review.
 

heartgold

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
4,378
Trophies
0
Location
London
Website
Visit site
XP
2,085
Country
Wat...?

:arrow:Source

When in 3D Mode, the 3DS renders two slightly altered scenes at half of its native resolution while the Vita goes full-blast at all times, depending on which resolution was pre-set at the beginning. Additionally, it renders a whole lot more polygons and generally eats the 3DS for breakfast. Contemporary software doesn't show even a fraction of its full potential as the games we're seeing now and which we'll be seeing throughout at least half of the next year have been developed on unfinished devkits - they're sewn together with poor thread. Developing a game these days takes at least a year, mostly two or longer - the Vita has been out for a year exactly. Expecting future games on the system to look expotentially better than those we're seeing now is not a long shot at all.

That's assuming PS Vita's 4 core GPU's is running at 200MHz which results for 133Million polygons. Might be downclocked, maybe noway near that performance.

Anyhow that 15.3 polygon fillrate for the 3DS is estimated at 200HMz, according to 3Dbew 3DS's GPU is clocked around 268MHz.

Of course the PS Vita smokes over the 3DS, but the 3DS isn't useless like the DS, where the PSP just crushed it. Looking at 3DS games on the 3DS screen, they don't look bad either as people expect it to against the PS Vita. Perhaps the smaller screen and res helps where there isn't enough polygons like PS Vita, also modern GPU effects covers the negative side.

PSP >>> DS. Massive gap

PS Vita >>> 3DS. Gap isn't big as the above or 3DS is more manageable at displaying sexy screens too , of course PS Vita is more pretty.
 

Foxi4

Endless Trash
Global Moderator
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
30,818
Trophies
3
Location
Gaming Grotto
XP
29,788
Country
Poland
It's rendering twice in 3D adding extra load on the system. And the 3DS can actually output 107.2M Triangles/s (although performance is lower than that thanks to 3D).
It's rendering one 3D scene at two slightly different viewpoints - that makes a huge difference and it's not as much a toll on the system as you might think - the PSP can do that without breaking a sweat via a custom plugin. The use of 3D doesn't in any way affect the number of rendered polygons as the 3DS does not render the same model twice at all - if it did, you'd effectively cut your supposed 107,2 Triangles/s to half of it, and I assure you that's not the case. I won't vouch for the accuracy of the article as the 3DS hasn't been analyzed in such an in-depth manner as to verify its contents - the base PICA200 specs say it's 15,3 million polygons per second, and that can be relied on as it comes from the manufacturer itself - whether the modifications implemented in the chip buffed up that value remains a mystery until the system can be properly benchmarked.

As for AA on the Vita - it will be added gradually. We know the system can do it, we're just not seeing it implemented yet due to the forementioned reasons. The visual experience is not a leap - I'll give you that, but the processes behind it are far superior to that of the 3DS, and that can't really be contested.

PSP >>> DS. Massive gap

PS Vita >>> 3DS. Gap isn't big as the above or 3DS is more manageable at displaying sexy screens too , of course PS Vita is more pretty.

From a visual experience point of view and to date, yes. Technically? Not really. I merely underline the process behind the rendering. ;)
 

heartgold

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
4,378
Trophies
0
Location
London
Website
Visit site
XP
2,085
Country
It's rendering one 3D scene at two slightly different viewpoints - that makes a huge difference and it's not as much a toll on the system as you might think - the PSP can do that without breaking a sweat via a custom plugin. The use of 3D doesn't in any way affect the number of rendered polygons as the 3DS does not render the same model twice at all - if it did, you'd effectively cut your supposed 107,2 Triangles/s to half of it, and I assure you that's not the case. I won't vouch for the accuracy of the article as the 3DS hasn't been analyzed in such an in-depth manner as to verify its contents - at the end of the day, this is a modified GPU, so we can only speculate until it is hacked and benchmarked.

As for AA on the Vita - it will be added gradually. We know the system can do it, we're just not seeing it implemented yet due to the forementioned reasons. The visual experience is not a leap - I'll give you that, but the processes behind it are far superior to that of the 3DS, and that can't really be contested.



From a visual experience point of view and to date, yes. Technically? Not really. I merely underline the process behind the rendering. ;)
I'm looking at it visually. Consumers point of view. :)

Heck PS2's GPU technically can do 68 million polygons output, but we saw nothing like that.
 

Foxi4

Endless Trash
Global Moderator
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
30,818
Trophies
3
Location
Gaming Grotto
XP
29,788
Country
Poland
IHeck PS2's GPU technically can do 68 million polygons output, but we saw nothing like that.
Oh, deffo - rarely any game used the full potential (Black being one of the rare instances - it practically looks like an X-Box game), but we have something else to thank for as far as the PS2 is concerned - it's one of the first platforms that did not render polygons when they were outside of the screen boundry - normally they'd be drawn anyways since they were within the drawing distance. That allowed for pumping out "more" polygons than the GPU could technically handle, and most, if not all systems use that technique now - it's the PS2's legacy. Even the DS used that technique by rendering only the part of the model that could be seen, resulting in amazing 3D games like Metroid Prime Hunters on hardware that, for all intents and purposes, shouldn't be able to produce such stellar graphics.

...but I digress. :P
 
  • Like
Reactions: TripleSMoon
D

Deleted_171835

Guest
OP
There's a reason for that. Sony gave theoretical polygon pushing numbers for the PS2. There was no way in hell that the PS2 could reach those numbers in real-world performance.

That's also what perpetuated the myth that the PS2 was more powerful than the Gamecube. Nintendo gave us real-world numbers unlike Sony and Microsoft.

And @Foxi4, regardless of whether the Vita is vastly more powerful than the 3DS when we look at the numbers, I'm talking about what's apparent visually in games. Owning both systems, I acknowledge that there is a big difference but I just don't see a huge generational leap.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    telling him that my partner is luke...does he look like someone with such big ne
    eds?
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    do you really think I could stand living with someone like luke?
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    I suppose luke has "special needs" but he's not my partner, did you just say that to piss me off again?
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    besides I had bigger worries today
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    but what do you know about that, you won't believe me anyways
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    @BigOnYa can answer that
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    BigOnYa already left the chat
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Biginya
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Auto correct got me, I'm on my tablet, i need to turn that shit off
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    With other tabs open you perv
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I'm actually in my shed, bout to cut 2-3 acres of grass, my back yard.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    I use to have a guy for that thanks richard
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I use my tablet to stream to a bluetooth speaker when in shed. iHeartRadio, FlyNation
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    While the victims are being buried
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Grave shovel
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Nuh those goto the edge of the property (maybe just on the other side of)
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    On the neighbors side
    +1
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Yup, by the weird smelly green bushy looking plants.
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
    Water park was quite fun
  • NinStar @ NinStar:
    die?
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    yes I'm in mortal danger
    LeoTCK @ LeoTCK: yes I'm in mortal danger