FAH PS3 Update

theheyes · 19 Dec 2007 at 17:27

http://folding.typepad.com/news/2007/12/fah-ps3-update.html

For all you Cell crunching boys and girls, an update to the PS3 client. Features worth noting:

Background music
Auto-poweroff feature

As far as I can tell no improvements to the calculation algorithms have been made, but its still a decent update.

rich99million · 19 Dec 2007 at 18:00

Sounds like some good additions

Stelly · 19 Dec 2007 at 18:31

ooow can I use elavator music while crunching?

Stelly

theheyes · 19 Dec 2007 at 19:23

If thats your thing.

Hopefully in the future you'll be able to do a lot more while its folding. In the tech demos the Cell was shown decoding god knows how many HD sources simultaneously. I'm sure they could spare a core to play your DVDs, browse the internet, download films and demos etc etc.

When they very first started touting folding on the PS3 I was led to believe that it would work like the PC client - literally run in the background and use up the spare cycles while playing a game. I'm sure it would still be possible as developers keep harping on about how they're only using "20% power of the Cell".

I just think the current client is the wrong sort of model for the Playstation. Even the most hardcore PC folders still use their computers for basic tasks. If folding tied up the PC like it does the PS3 it wouldn't be very popular.

I think the best way to target the very casual contributors is to make the client invisible. They can "opt in" but from then on the client runs in the background whenever the PS3 is powered on. Sure, the deadlines would have to be measured in weeks as opposed to days, but I think that will be a more successful model in the long term.