Resolution drops for PS3 3D

Any games that receive a retrospective 3D adaptation for PS3 will likely see their resolution and graphical clout cut in order to maintain a smooth performance, according to two developers working in SCEE’s stereoscopic team.

The admission backs up claims by Ninja Theory co-founder Tameem Antoniades earlier this month when he pointed out that current hardware simply isn’t up to delivering full 3D at 1080p at 60Hz.

Now Sony has confessed that the 3D versions of both WipEout HD and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, both of which will be given free to anyone who buys one of Sony’s 3D Bravia TVs, will suffer texture and resolution drops.

WipEout HD was originally 1080p at 60Hz – obviously a good foundation to start from but in making the 3D build of this we had to go for two 720p images,” senior development manager Simon Benson told Digital Foundry.

Because it was 60Hz we could just drop to 30Hz and in actual fact, that was it. There was no more work to do. That worked. It took very little time getting the game into 3D; there were very few problems with WipEout.”

However, converting MotorStorm: Pacific rift into 3D was even more daunting.

As the game runs at the lower resolution and frame rate of 720p and 30Hz respectively, the developers had to rework the split-screen two player mode that already reduced the amount of graphical detail, allowing it to effectively run two games at once. The end result is that single player 3D MotorStorm suffers the same graphical compromises found in the two-player version in the original title.

Whether future titles built for 3D from the ground-up will be able to overcome these challenges remains to be seen.