NGP chip won't rival PS3, AR features, and media size

Guild McCommunist

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At a Game Developers Conference session, Sony has moved to dispel the myth that its Next Generation Portable could rival PS3 for processor performance.

David Coombes, a platform research manager for Sony Computer Entertainment America, explained that although the NGP is equipped with a high-performance quad-core CPU theoretically capable of 2GHz, the clock speeds will have to be dialled down in order to preserve the PSP successor's battery life and prevent it from running too hot.

"Some people in the press have said wow, this thing... could be as powerful as PS3. Well, it's not going to run at 2GHz because the battery would last five minutes," he said. "And it would probably set fire to your pants."

In his engineering-themed tour of the NGP's features, Coombes shed some extra light on the handheld's specifications and performance.

He mentioned that the game cards - the solid state physical media on which NGP games will be available in shops - would come in 2GB and 4GB sizes.

NGP games will therefore have a maximum size of 4GB. He compared this to the 9GB size of a typical PS3 game on Blu-ray, or the 10MB size of an average mobile phone game.

Coombes couldn't reveal how much memory NGP will have, but stressed that it was more than enough. "I can't talk about actual numbers, but compared to PSP we have a lot of memory... we're closer to PS3 than PSP in terms of memory size."

NGP will come in two versions: one with wi-fi, and one equipped with both wi-fi and 3G network connectivity. Coombes explained that only the wi-fi plus 3G version would also be equipped with GPS sensors. However, "wi-fi only can still do quite accurate positioning" thanks to Skyhook, a positioning service that works out your location by cross-referencing the wireless hotspots in range with a worldwide databse. "In urban areas, it's more accurate than GPS," he said.

Location-based features would include "treasure hunts" for virtual items in the real world, Coombes said, although these won't be implemented until after launch.

He revealed that NGP's front touch screen and rear touch pad could detect how hard players were pressing on them. Rather than using pressure sensors, this "analogue strength reading" would be achieved by detecting how large a surface area of the player's fingertips were pressed against the screen.

Speaking of the device's beautiful 5-inch screen, Coombes boasted that with its 960x544 resolution and anti-aliasing turned on - 4xMSAA, Digital Foundry fans - "you really can't see the pixels on the screen, which is pretty nice."

Also at the panel, Tsutomu Horikawa, a director from Sony Computer Entertainment International's software solution development department in Tokyo, performed an augmented reality demonstration in which the NGP visualised a giant dinosaur - the T-rex famous from the original PlayStation's first graphics demo - in the aisle of the lecture theatre.

He stepped down from the stage, and craned upwards with the NGP in his hands to view the dinosaur towering above him.

NGP is due to make its first apperance before the end of this year. Check out our NGP gamepage for more info.
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The media size seems good compared to the 3DS's apparent 2GB size (I think that's what it was).

Not interested in AR features, I still think it's just a lousy trick.

The pressure sensitivity does seem kinda neat on the back touchpad but I still think it's kinda useless.

Still psyched for the NGP though, looks like a great successor to the PSP.
 

machomuu

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I can see you're very optimistic, Guild
happy.gif
. You're hardly ever like this.

Anyway, I'm glad to see more features being announced. These ones in particular don't really pique my interest, but still.
Also, the 3DS has a maximum of 2GB with an available maximum of 8GB, just for confirmation.
 

GameWinner

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The more features being added, the more I want it. I wonder if the rumor PS2 games
coming to PSN will be available for NGP.
 

Cuelhu

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Guild McCommunist said:
The media size seems good compared to the 3DS's apparent 2GB size (I think that's what it was).
8GB max.

Guild McCommunist said:
Not interested in AR features, I still think it's just a lousy trick.

The pressure sensitivity does seem kinda neat on the back touchpad but I still think it's kinda useless.
I'd say it's gimmicky.

QUOTE
He revealed that NGP's front touch screen and rear touch pad could detect how hard players were pressing on them. Rather than using pressure sensors, this "analogue strength reading" would be achieved by detecting how large a surface area of the player's fingertips were pressed against the screen.
So if you have big fingers, it'll "sense" more pressure?
 

Fear Zoa

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Now I actually want it....even if only in hopes that it gets hacked so I can overclock it and do a stress test......or just so how far it can go before its either stops working or just catches on fire.....

Now if only sony would actually make games in any of the I.P.s I like ......
 

KingVamp

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Guild McCommunist said:
The media size seems good compared to the 3DS's apparent 2GB size (I think that's what it was).

The pressure sensitivity does seem kinda neat on the back touchpad but I still think it's kinda useless.

Still psyched for the NGP though, looks like a great successor to the PSP.

But I think the top for 3DS is 8GB...

Yea the pressure sensitivity is good. Idk that 30sec view of the touchpad being used looked fun.
tongue.gif


Have to agree with the NGP most likely being a great successor.
 

Slyakin

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KingVamp said:
Slyakin said:
Actually, the max for the 3DS is 32 GB; They've stated that it has SDHC support.
Not SD cards,we are talking about game cards.
laugh.gif


After I think about it, do you think psp2 can handle blue-ray downloads?
Oh, sorry! I misread the topic. Fixed.
smile.gif


And blu-rays are HUGE. 25GB for a single layer? The PSP2 would take AGES for a single disk. Not to mention those double layers.
 

KingVamp

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Slyakin said:
KingVamp said:
Slyakin said:
Actually, the max for the 3DS is 32 GB; They've stated that it has SDHC support.
Not SD cards,we are talking about game cards.
laugh.gif


After I think about it, do you think psp2 can handle blue-ray downloads?
Oh, sorry! I misread the topic. Fixed.
smile.gif


And blu-rays are HUGE. 25GB for a single layer? The PSP2 would take AGES for a single disk. Not to mention those double layers.
I meant stream like netflix?

Still too much?
 

KidIce

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I'd like to toy around w/ one, but it hasn't gotten me excited yet. I could imagine a few things that could be done w/ the touch panel, but I suspect it will end up being used in much the same manner as the mic on the DS... As a stupid/pointless gimmick.

Beyond that, it's just a more powerful PSP. I like great graphics and all, but I'm more about the game play. There really isn't a style of game the PSP can't already do that doesn't require motion controls or some such, so I find it somewhat unlikely that that this will bring something new to the table game play wise.

I'd love to see some emulators on it to put all that power to use, but that will take it getting hacked most likely.

Am I the only one who keeps reading NGP as NeoGeo Pocket? :-)
 

Rock Raiyu

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I remember reading in a liveblog that the reason that it is 4GB max is because they don't think they could make it any bigger for launch. But they said they could extend the max size. I don't know how they are going to do that though.
 

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