Digital Foundry's technical analysis of the PS Vita

[prowler]

Read more: http://www.eurogamer...laystation-vita


Second Analog Stick

Perhaps one of the most anticipated additions to the design is the second analogue stick, which has huge ramifications regarding the kinds of games that will end up being produced on the Vita. These sticks are symmetrically placed, and feel quite sensitive, in that even the slightest touch shifts them from their default position. Much like the 3DS's implementation, we can see this lack of friction as something that might take a tiny bit of adapting to, and some may prefer a little more resistance to metre out finer movements in first person shooters. But again, they are very well designed overall, and certainly a huge leap ahead of the PSP's textured nub.

Screen

The brightness range of the OLED screen is very good for indoors use, with the maximum brightness setting matching the highest on the 3DS closely. However, both portables suffer from equally poor visibility during outdoors use as a result of their glossy screen coating - particularly in dark scenes in-game. During low-light conditions, however, the colours are vivid and bright, with some impressive black levels being possible as a result of the screen technology being used here; conventional back-lighting is no longer necessary as each diode emits light of its own accord, which in turn saves battery life

Battery Life

Running several stopwatch tests on both Vitas in varying conditions gives us some surprisingly consistent results. From several different playtests, four hours and 10 minutes turns out to be the average number for general gaming use with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled, and with brightness and sound levels each set to 50 per cent. This 'average use' test involves playing a sequence of technically demanding games in 30-45 minutes increments, such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss and WipEout 2048, as well as less taxing titles such as Top Darts and Escape Plan.

The worst-case scenario test gives us a total of three hours and 40 minutes of play before the Vita conks out, with test conditions in this case involving a non-stop playthrough of Uncharted's earlier levels with all wireless connections enabled, and with maximum brightness and sound set.
Next, up, the final test has us squeezing as much playtime as possible from the console using conservative settings, and results in a comfortable four hours and 50 minutes - no wireless connections, brightness at the lowest level, and sound muted entirely.

Games

The games we have played on Vita so far are without a doubt among the most ambitious and technically accomplished we have seen on any handheld platform - and these are just the launch-window titles.

Uncharted

The visuals are particularly striking, with some outstanding water effects and viewing distances being shown off in the earlier chapters as you pass waterfalls on cliff-sides, revealing seemingly miles of jungle terrain below. The overall quality of the character models holds up to close scrutiny too, and are highly reminiscent of the detail level used for those in the very first Uncharted. Alas, much of the good work put into the overall look of the game is impacted slightly by the use of a 'sub-qHD' native resolution. The whole game appears to be rendering with a native framebuffer somewhere in the region of 520x408 (which is 75 per cent of the Vita's maximum 960x544 resolution), meaning the game's image quality isn't quite as exemplary as we'd hoped it would be, and that scaling artifacts are evident.

Gravity Daze

Gravity Rush is another big-budget title that, after sampling the demo from the Japanese PSN store, we have a vested interest in due to its distinguished cel-shaded visual style. The demo places us in a citadel bustling with NPC activity, with a gravitational dynamic showcasing some incredible draw distances by having you jump downwards from dizzying heights. Much like Uncharted, the game appears to be running at that same sub-qHD resolution that seems to be in the region of 520x408, and the jaggies resulting from the upscale appear to to be masked by an unflattering blur filter. Despite this, the game's art direction and story look like they will shine through regardless, and it can stand proudly alongside a small crowd of purely original titles being released for the Vita's European launch.

Media Playback

Vita gladly decodes 720p MP4 files and downscales them to suit its resolution without any hassle or noticeable artifacting, although the once-promised 1080p resolution files remain unsupported.

Conclusion

With all its features and control methods, PlayStation Vita is the complete package. In hindsight, additions such as the multi-touch screen controls and a second analogue stick may well have been exactly what the PSP needed to stand out from the crowd, and it's a pleasure to see these ideas finally realised all together on a single handheld platform. From a raw processing standpoint, the hardware is capable of delivering on a graphical standard that lies somewhere between the PS2 and PS3 (although much closer to the latter), while being able to multi-task effortlessly with a range of social apps.

But let's bring this back to the original question: is it worth the money? If you're buying the Vita as a flexible multimedia device with the added perk of web browsing functionality, then you'll likely be just as well served by the many tablets and smartphones available today. The media apps and web browser are lacking in their current form, but are constantly subject to change through firmware updates so we would hope that Sony improves them over time as it did with the PSP. If it's a pure gaming machine you're after, however, and if you subscribe to Sony's vision of taking the home console experience on the go, PlayStation Vita is precisely catered towards your needs.

Via

 

[xist]

All we need now is a killer software line-up. Hardware wise it sounds great.

 

[VashTS]

seems like they really like it.

if it gets hacked (which people seems to be trying! lol) i may think about getting one, don't like Sony anymore so I would wait for a used one, Sony will not get any money directly from me any longer.

 

[xist]

I take it you've not heard of Digital Foundry, nor know of their detailed breakdown of game performance on different platforms or hardware tests? (eg. Expensive HDMI cables debunked...)

 

[Guild McCommunist]

It's a technical analysis by analysts, not some asshead's retard opinion. You've been posting editorials (with the clear intention of provoking something), this is a technical analysis with very little to provoke people. It's not saying "The PS Vita beats that piece of shit known as the 3DS", it's basically an analysis of its pros and cons by professionals in that field.

EDIT: tl;dr: It's news, deal with it.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

If you read my post I said that you're posting editorials while this is analysis. Completely different.

 

[Magsor]

I'd rather have 1000 news like this one than 1 news that is not gaming related in any way in USN. Thanks mate.

 

[Gahars]

This is a pretty interesting analysis. I am really looking forward to this machine, though I'm also tempted to wait until the inevitable new version is released that will fix/lesson the nagging flaws.

 

[heartgold]

Wait vita can't display real HD, it has to downscale? I haven't took enough notice of it before.

 

[prowler]

Wait vita can't display real HD, it has to downscale? I haven't took enough notice of it before.

i doubt you would even notice 720p downscaled tbh.

1080p though....

 

[Hop2089]

All we need now is a killer software line-up. Hardware wise it sounds great.

Japan already has that with Tales of Innocence and Twin Brave having a digital option and Ragnarok Odessey.

 

[prowler]

All we need now is a killer software line-up. Hardware wise it sounds great.

Japan already has that with Tales of Innocence and Twin Brave having a digital option and Ragnarok Odessey.

because we all like weeaboo games.

 

[chris888222]

They seem really impressed.

No doubt. Vita is an impressive handheld.

 

[Rydian]

If you go HD on something that can fit in your pocket, it gets to the point there the individual pixels will be indiscernable, which has drawbacks... but also very little benefit for the cost.

Anyways this sounds nice, sort of surprised to hear one of the first games is just upscaling from a lower resolution, I really wonder why that is.

 

[Midna]

if you subscribe to Sony's vision of taking the home console experience on the go, PlayStation Vita is precisely catered towards your needs.

Frankly, I don't. If the games I get on the handheld are slightly downgraded console ports running at a lower res, smaller screen, and inferior controls, that is not a good thing. Most of my handheld use is in my house in the first place. If they can't offer the traditional handheld experience, no thanks.

That said I might get one anyway when it hits Western shores. The tech is pretty impressive.

 

[DiscostewSM]

I don't own a large monitor/TV to have a real need for 1080p, so most of the digital videos that I have are already 720p or less, making this fine with me. I am somewhat concerned about this so-called "sub-qHD" native resolution, in that (some?) games aren't actually rendered at 960x544.

 

[Rydian]

Well it's not that uncommon of an idea, the i resolutions (720i and 1080i) do half each frame, in a scanline fashion (interlaced).

 

[DiscostewSM]

Well it's not that uncommon of an idea, the i resolutions (720i and 1080i) do half each frame, in a scanline fashion (interlaced).

True, it isn't uncommon of an idea, but the application of that has dwindled with progressive scan and other forms. I just find the whole hype of the high resolution screen very disturbing when the GPU can't seem to natively render at that. TVs are one thing because there are so many sizes of them, so not everyone can take advantage of all the modes like 1080p, but this is a handheld that has a fixed resolution but is being said it isn't even using it fully. With the PSP, games were rendered at the resolution it had, which is 480x272. With the PSV here, games can't even render at the resolution given it.

 

[Rydian]

The use of the i resolutions was generally for devices that weren't powerful enough to do the P ones, which is why it's rarer now... but that was often a bandwidth issue, as the power issue depends on what's being displayed. The Vita can render 1 textured polygon @60fps at a much higher resolution than it'd have to go down to in order to render 50,000 polygons @60fps.

 

[shakirmoledina]

so can i say that its an awesome system with latest tech but needs the software to use all of its features? sounds to me like ps3 when it was launched and its position now.