Possible way to confirm games resolution?

[Demon]

I know I do not always get things right, but when I saw the THP8/COD3 being rendered at a less then 1280*720 resolution, I read the translated article, and after some googling realised that a lot of the review sites have the ability to 'grab' screen shots straight from the frame buffer on the 360 (I think these are modified consoles?) and that was one way they 'proved' that PGR3 was 'lower res'..

Anyway, I just thought perhaps I should check the game review sites to see what resolution they where posting their screen grabs at.

I tried gamespot first, but most x360 games seemed to be presented at some low resolution, I think they aren't showing us the direct screen grab.. or all 360 games are rendered at a low res.. I don't think so.

Next I tried IGN. and this is more interesting.. If you check out the THP8 screen grabs, then are a weird 1040*576 and indeed look as crap as the game.. but looking at all other reviews for other games, they show 1280*720.. including COD3.

It seems an odd coincidence that only thp8 seems to create a lower res screen grab, and we know it's one of the games on the low res list., and lets face it, it does look a bit 'low rent' as well..

I am not sure if this indicates perhaps COD3 is rendered at 1280*720, as the screen grabs appear to be at that res, and the graphics do look very very good.??

what do you think?

 

[DaveyD]

Screenshots on review sites vary depending upon what size they show it, all 360 games *should* be captured in 1280x720 in my opinion to show what it'll truly look like on a decent screen, but places use smaller resolution images, probably for bandwidth issues or something. Neither way will prove what res the console is running, as you could run 480p upscaled at 1080p, which would give you a 1920x1080 resolution picture, but that wont show what the game is being rendered at.

 

[Demon]

I would normally agree, as it seems most review sites post screenshots at all sorts of resolutions.

However the only 'odd' thing is THP8's screengrabs are exactly 1040*584 on IGN, which is the 'exact' resolution being quoted in that German article.. Assuming like the German magazine editor, IGN also grab their screenshots using a dev 360, straight from the frame buffer, then the posted screenshot size would be the 'rendered' resolution. This must be a common method for getting 360 captures, as this is how PGR3 was also found out!

I am sure THP8's grabs on IGN are done in this way, for them to have scaled their grabs to that exact resolution is just too much of a coincidence..

If this is true, the question with the COD3 ones is did they use the same method for capturing images, or was it just a VGA capture or similar? if it was using a dev 360, then it would prove it was rendered at full HD res.

Anyway, it was just an observation..

 

[Buzza]

whats the benefit of rendering the game at a "slightly" lower rez than 720P, surely any performance improvement would be negligable.