Infinity Ward explains why CoD Ghosts is native 720p on Xbox One

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Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin has moved to explain the resolution difference between the Xbox One and PS4 versions of Call of Duty Ghosts.

Having said last week that the Xbox One version of the shooter will run natively at 720p, while the PS4 version will run at 1080p, Rubin told Eurogamer that the difference was due to resource allocation issues faced by Infinity Ward's engineers.

"There's stuff in the console's OS that interacts with the game," he explained. "So, for instance, voice chat is often supported by the hardware manufacturer rather than the software, and you're just using their channel. When that stuff is changing - because they're developing it on their side - and the resources they're using are changing - your, from a game design standpoint, challenge is with trying to make enough room for those resources to be used but at the same time use as much resources as possible.

"One of the greatest challenges the engineers have to deal with is memory management, or thread management. There are X number of threads in your CPUs. Where in those threads is the stuff that's Microsoft or Sony? Where does it fall? How does it work? We don't have the SDKs for those features yet, and then they come in and you go, okay, well it needs 3MB of RAM - oh, crap, we only allocated two! You can't just take a MB from anywhere. It's not like there's just tonnes of it just laying there. You have to pull it from something else. And now you have to balance that somewhere."

In the case of Ghosts, Rubin said: "There's no specific, oh, well, the VO chat on Xbox took up so much resources that we couldn't do 1080p native. There's no definitive one to one per se cause and effect. It's just an overall thing. We took each system individually and said, 'okay, let's make the best game for each system.'

"I think both look great. Some people might notice if they had them right next to each other. Some people might not. The Xbox One is 1080p output, it's just upscaled hardware wise. It was a late decision, too. That call wasn't made until a month ago."

Rubin also told Edge that it would be wrong to suggest Ghosts is confirmation that Xbox One is a weaker console than PS4.

"It's a much more complex answer - there's so much to it, it's a balancing act when you get into optimisation - we need more time with it all, basically," he said. "It could be years from now until we get to the point where we feel like we've maxed out what we can do on both platforms.

"We might get more resources back at one point. And that could make things change dramatically for the Xbox One, for instance. It's a long complicated road that will take years to develop, and I think at the end we'll have games looking very similar, usually, on both systems.

"This is the first game on the console and there's a lot for us to learn with the new hardware so it's a long-running process - you compare COD 2 to COD 4 it's a massive leap forward in graphical fidelity. So I think we expect the same thing on both platforms."

Posted:
Related Forum: Call of Duty Forum

Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/436585/infinity-ward-explains-why-cod-ghosts-is-native-720p-on-xbox-one/

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BRSPosted:

Don't get me wrong, I do think its a massive shame there is such a disparity in the two consoles for these multi-play launch games. But comment such as 'enjoy your jaggies' miss the point that the game is upscaled to 1080p, i fully accept that this is not ideal and the PS4 running at this resolution natively is a much better situation. But there seems to be this belief on most sites comment sections that this means the PS4 will be liking looking out of the window and the Xbone will be a big blurry mess of pixelised Minecraft block people. 60fps is the most important thing for an FPS, they obviously realise that at IW and took the steps necessary to maintain it. I just shoot at whatever I see move, I dont usually wait around to admire how the lighting effects have created a dynamic shadow of his gun throu...... oh he shot me.

It does concern me in the long run with my X1 choice but I am sticking with my decision, mostly due to the lack of DNLA streaming and external harddrive support from Sony, who knew I wanted my gaming console to be more than a gaming console. Nobody tell the people that tried to firebomb Micro$oft back in May.

OmittingCoderPosted:

Lol poor console gamers fighting over 720p and 1080p it's like watching two people arguing which poop is better.

equatiionzzzPosted:

EstablishedGaming Glad im getting a ps4 because i have a 50 inch tv and 720 is really noticeable.


Playing video games on a 50". You sir are a dumbass.

UrfPosted:

0x539
HarryWilliamJohnson
0x539 I don't mind because no one really notices a huge difference between 1080p and 720p anyways.


You would on a 32"+ TV but on a monitor you wouldn't.


It's bad to play FPS games on a TV that's bigger than 24" anyways.


Why is that? Or you just pulling shit out your ass?

JesusChristPosted:

It's 2013 and people are still arguing about consoles? Seriously guys?

CEDPosted:

Pashtun
Balloons This is just a long version of them trying to say xbox one can not support 1080p on ghost
The PS4 has 1080p because it has very powerful hardware and it has dedicated hardware as well. All these xbots saying there isn't a difference between 1080p and 720p when there is. Admit it xbots your console isn't next gen if it can't handle the children's online daycare: ghosts at 1080p.


Xbox one could run CoD Ghost easily at 1080p but the developers have problems to use the full power of the Xbox one. Xbox One isn't next gen? Look at Forza 5 or BF4 and the last thing resolution doesn't mean better graphic.

BackbonePosted:

The differnce is tiny, put them side to side and the most they will look is different, not better or worse

-DeanoPosted:

And here's all the PC gamers sat here, with the even more powerful computers, laughing at the bickering between Xbox and PlayStation.

EstablishedGamingPosted:

Glad im getting a ps4 because i have a 50 inch tv and 720 is really noticeable.

xEmoishPosted:

"This is the first game on the console and there's a lot for us to learn with the new hardware so it's a long-running process - you compare COD 2 to COD 4 it's a massive leap forward in graphical fidelity. So I think we expect the same thing on both platforms."

"So I think we expect the same thing on both platforms."

No. It will look the same as the last 3 games. Nothing new.