360 and Resolutions - whats the story?

bfar · 11 Jan 2008 at 19:18

I just bought a brand new 360 for the hell of it. Although an old school PC gamer, I like the variety. I'm pretty impressed - xbox live has come a long way

I'm not so sure about all this HD gaming lark though.

Is it just me, or are games (such as Halo3) rendered at a lower res and then upscaled to 720p/1080p via the 360 hardware scaler? That ain't full HD as far as I'm concerned. Some games look a bit odd, whereas some (like Sega Rally) look absolutely fantastic. How can you tell before you buy a game?

I can live with it, but I was just wondering

For the record I'm running at 1080p on a HP h2207w over HDMI.

Mr Men · 11 Jan 2008 at 19:24

Pretty much yeah some games such as Halo3 you mention are rendered at a lower res then upscaled, not sure if you could tell before buying.

HarryPainful · 11 Jan 2008 at 19:27

I think Halo 3 looks pretty crap, although I have not played much of it really...

NokkonWud · 11 Jan 2008 at 19:29

Play games because they are good games rather than because they have an extra 120 lines.

Minstadave · 11 Jan 2008 at 19:33

Both Halo3 and CoD4 are upscaled to 720p.

mmj_uk · 11 Jan 2008 at 20:06

bfar said:
Is it just me, or are games (such as Halo3) rendered at a lower res and then upscaled to 720p/1080p via the 360 hardware scaler? That ain't full HD as far as I'm concerned. Some games look a bit odd, whereas some (like Sega Rally) look absolutely fantastic. How can you tell before you buy a game?

That's just how it is, some games such as Halo are 640P but majority are 720P, hardly any are 1080P, even the dashboard is 720P.

Everything is just upscaled if you have 1080P TV, the only real way of knowing the actual resolution before buying is to read the beyond3d.com upscale discussion thread that has a list of very many games.

RussZS · 11 Jan 2008 at 23:46

Can you run 1080P on your 1680x1050 HP 22" monitor??

hobobob · 11 Jan 2008 at 23:51

RussZS said:
Can you run 1080P on your 1680x1050 HP 22" monitor??

No. Resolution not high enough. But you can run 720P

NokkonWud · 11 Jan 2008 at 23:52

Nope.

TheNumber42 · 11 Jan 2008 at 23:53

I think the 360/PS3 graphics look pretty good to be honest, though they of course have to be made to work on both SD and HD displays since the majority of people still have SD TVs. If your a graphics junkie then a console just isn't going to satisfy your needs, stick with PCs. If however its more the gameplay you're interested in then I think this generation is turning out to be pretty damn good

kidloco · 12 Jan 2008 at 00:23

the fact is that this generation on consoles just are not powerful enough to do 1080p, you will be waiting for the next gen for that.

Saying that though, don't get caught up in stats, some 360 games look stunning on my 42" tv, they should look even clearer on a smaller set.

NorthstaNder · 12 Jan 2008 at 00:29

The 360 renders internally at 720p if I recall correctly. It then upscales or downscales as necessary.

Minstadave · 12 Jan 2008 at 11:06

NorthstaNder said:
The 360 renders internally at 720p if I recall correctly. It then upscales or downscales as necessary.

Some games are rendered at lower than 720p, which is what this thread is about.

Wyrdo · 12 Jan 2008 at 11:16

I think there are only 4 or 5 games that are rendered lower than 720P aren't there?

I'm actually struggling to think of them though

CoD4
Halo3
PGR3
CoD3
THP8

I can't think of any more.

muzzler · 12 Jan 2008 at 11:46

if games look this good upscaled/ 720p /etc...im happy playing them on my hdtv
the way i see it is its a good step up from the previous generation so we get better "eye candy" on our games aswell as playability
as nokkon said:
"Play games because they are good games rather than because they have an extra 120 lines"

Surfer · 12 Jan 2008 at 12:02

Minstadave said:
Both Halo3 and CoD4 are upscaled to 720p.

i thought most 360/ps3 games were done in 720p? Are you saying that, at least for Halo 3 and cod4, they are not actually HD quality? :confused:

Minstadave · 12 Jan 2008 at 12:11

Surfer said:
i thought most 360/ps3 games were done in 720p? Are you saying that, at least for Halo 3 and cod4, they are not actually HD quality?

They're not 720p, they're running at 640p.

Memphis · 12 Jan 2008 at 12:13

Surfer said:
i thought most 360/ps3 games were done in 720p? Are you saying that, at least for Halo 3 and cod4, they are not actually HD quality?

It's quite a well known fact that they're not running at true 720p.

NokkonWud · 12 Jan 2008 at 12:15

Surfer said:
i thought most 360/ps3 games were done in 720p? Are you saying that, at least for Halo 3 and cod4, they are not actually HD quality?

They are HD, but not 720p. There are a couple more such as PGR3, but it's not like you can tell is it?

Wyrdo · 12 Jan 2008 at 13:54

http://www.hardcoreware.net/current-video-games-mostly-not-hd/

Tony Hawk’s Project 8 - XBOX 360 - 1040×585 (with 4XAA)
Tony Hawk’s Project 8 - Playstation 3 - 1280×720 (no AA)
Perfect Dark Zero - XBOX 360 - 1152×640
Halo 3 - XBOX 360 - 1152×640
Call of Duty 3 - XBOX 360 - 1120×630
Call of Duty 3 - Playstation 3 - 1120×630 (software scaled to 720p)
Project Gotham Racing 3 - XBOX 360 - 1024×600 (2xMSAA)
Tomb Raider Legend- XBOX 360 - 1024×600 (2xMSAA)
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground - Playstation 3 - 1024×600
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground - XBOX 360 - 1280×720
Super Rub a Dub - Playstation 3 - 1600×1080
Gran Turismo HD - Playstation 3 - 1440×1080
Super Stardust HD - Playstation 3 - 1280×1080
Skate - Playstation 3 - 1536×864 (no AA)
Skate - XBOX 360 - 1280×720 (4x AA)
The Darkness - Playstation 3 - 1024×576
The Darkness - XBOX 360 - 1280×720
Jericho Demo - Playstation 3 - 996×560