Tech Report: Alan Wake Not Rendered In HD

Earlier this week we sighted Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake as one of our top five technically accomplished games for 2010, a position backed up by the game’s impressive use of dynamic lighting, particle and transparency effects, whilst of course having 4x multisampling anti-aliasing adding to the already impressive technical prowess held the title.

However, that statement is looking partially shaky, particularly because the game has now been confirmed to no longer be running 720p high definition, but instead in an unimpressive sub-HD resolution, actually lower than what some standard definition DVDs are presented in.

Yesterday, some direct feed screenshots were released by Dutch site Videogameszone believed to be from a compressed video source, and showing the game as having a 547p resolution (960x547 to be exact). However, the screenshots in question show scenes not actually in the compressed video they were believed to have come from, instead originating from what looks like compressed framebuffer grabs directly from an Xbox 360 console.



Earlier today, these screenshots were properly identified as compressed framebuffer grabs from an actual 360, and have also been confirmed to be rendering at 960x540, and then upscaled to the full 1280x720 standard HD resolution.

So the question is, why is the game’s resolution so low, and why did Remedy change it from rendering in their originally intended 720p?

Well, it may just come down to their use of A2C for certain transparencies and their need to use 4xMSAA in order to make them look good. According to Remedy the use of 4xMSAA is vital for decent ‘alpha blending’ of the A2C transparency effects, which is required to reduce texture shimmering and transparency dithering caused by using A2C instead of the more traditional, and bandwidth heavy ‘alpha coverage’.

“We like 4xAA. Due to the alpha-to-coverage feature on the Xbox 360 GPU, it's one of the key reasons we can render a lot of "alpha test" foliage like trees and bushes without them starting to shimmer or dither (as alpha-to-coverage with 4xAA effectively gives us 5 samples of alpha "blend" without actually using alpha blend).”


In addition to this, using a lower resolution like 540p allows the developers to continue to use 4xMSAA along with all the intensive framebuffer effects, and geometry hungry tessellation features which usually put a strain on rendering performance, not to mention bandwidth (tessellation excluded). And since the game was already suffering from bouts of terrible screen tearing, it could have looked like the best possible choice in order to secure relatively decent performance from the game engine in demanding scenarios. After all, having the screen tear does less for reducing image quality than a constantly fluctuating framerate, although somewhat more distracting to some people, myself included.

Essentially, rendering at 960x540 with 4xMSAA would allow then to gain a lot of performance back from when they were still rendering in 720p with either 2xMSAA or 4x. This way they could ensure a smooth 30fps update most of the time whilst reducing overall screen tearing, although recent videos confirmed to be using this new rendering resolution still have a lot of tearing going on.

By using 4x anti-aliasing Remedy have reduced the jagged look associated with sub-HD resolution upscaling, and instead provided the game with a much smoother, blended appearance. Sharpness however, is lost as a result, and although some have said that this new blurrier look adds extra atmosphere to the game, it also makes a large dent in overall image quality. Certainly, compared to the clean looking 720p direct-feed screenshots of the past, these recent sub-HD ones make the game look much less impressive in stills. Hopefully in motion, and using the uncompressed video output of the 360 console, they won’t look quite so poor.

IQGamer will be taking a closer look at the technology used in Alan Wake around the time of the game’s release. Until then we shall keep you fully updated on this story, and shed light on more details as soon as we know about them.

The original 960x547 resolution was first discovered by MazingerDUDE on NeoGAF late last night, and the final 960x540 resolution was confirmed by Quaz51 earlier this evening.

Tech Report: Gears Of War 3 Teaser Trailer

With the Gears Of War 3 trailer finally unveiled yesterday, along with a splattering of pre-release information and interesting technical facts, we though it was time yet again to bring about another tech report. This time we’ll be focusing on this week’s teaser trailer and talking about the visual enhancements planned for the title, what they mean and how they could be included when it comes to the final game.

Currently there isn’t all that much to go on. Outside of the trailer - which we’ll be analysing in a moment - only a handful of new graphical features and visual effects were mentioned, and of course the intention to further optimise the title for the 360 architecture. However today’s IQGamer report will be just the first of many, and we shall be updating you every step of the way as new information surfaces. It will be interesting to see how the first in-game shots really stack up to Gears 1 & 2, and how many of the cut visual effects from the second game make it back in, if they in fact do so.


In terms of new graphical effects, Epic Games plan to include a global illumination system in Gears 3, along with indirect lighting, an intentional side effect of GI, and increased amounts of particle effects and specular highlighting. Other undisclosed improvements to the overall game engine are also being coded into the latest version of the Unreal Engine 3, mostly in the way of optimisations with regards to existing features found in the tech.

The first of these, a form of global illumination, is a technique in which a single light source reflects and bounces off every surface it comes in contact to. And whilst something that advanced isn’t going to be possible on the 360 in its entirety, a semi-real-time, pre-calculated approach is certainly on the cards.

The second is that as a result of the inclusion of GI, we can expect there to be a lot more in the way of indirect lighting, a side effect from the light bouncing off one source and providing lighting for another. This in turn will create better ambient lighting relying less on pre-baked shadow and light maps, more dynamic in nature, hopefully being done in real-time, of half real, half pre-baked for an effective but cost saving (resource wise) approach.

Both of these effects should go a long way to increasing the sense of depth and realism into the experience, at the same time complementing the use of baked ambient occlusion and shadow maps nicely.


Looking at the trailer itself it’s pretty clear that a few of the new effects, such as indirect lighting and improved specular highlighting are visible. Although there doesn’t appear to be any sign of the GI solution they mentioned.

The trailer seems to be rendered using in-game assets and the actual in-game engine, though it doesn’t appear to have been done in real time. Much like with the first Gears 2 trailer there appears to have a higher image quality compared to both of the first two games, with better texture filtering and less noticeable aliasing. However the trailer also shows off a few low resolution textures and still doesn’t feature a useable MSAA anti-aliasing solution, meaning that in all likelihood it is a genuine in-engine rendered, which could well be matched in the final game. The trailer looks like it’s being rendered in 1080p and downsampled for AA, rather than having actual MSAA for jaggies reduction.

You can also see much greater texture detail as well compared to before. Characters now have facial hair which has a sense of depth about it rather than being just a flat texture. This is done through the use of shader techniques in combination with normal mapping, which seems to also have been improved over Gears 2. Geometry counts looked to have been upped slightly too, which would explain, along with the shaders, how a lot of that extra detail has been included. I would imagine that whilst some elements have less geometry than in previous games, due to better shader usage, other areas of the game would have benefited from a slight increase in order to give more detail.

The use of shadow maps and baked ambient occlusion appears to be present, with the AO looking to be more prominent than before, and the shadow maps creating contrast to parts of the environment not being directly affected by the game’s lighting system.


The above screenshot shows off clearly most of the new graphical effects that were mentioned earlier on. For example there is an abundance of particle effects on screen being kicked up the giant Locust boss character, and everyone from the Gear’s themselves to the standard Locust enemies have more sheen and a smoother look generally provided by better specular and diffuse maps.

Like with Gears 2 the gunfire lights up the environment surrounding the characters, although this time its reach is greater than before, reacting with increased intensity with environmental specular and diffuse maps. In addition the lighting from above the clouds also creates subtle light and dark areas on the ground, encasing characters in shadows and light as the clouds move and pass over them.

Whilst it isn’t possible however, to see any of the indirect lighting that Epic has stated would go into the game, the overall basic lighting and shadowing model has seen noticeable improvement over the first two games. With GI and indirect lighting it should look even better, even though the implementation is likely to be a simple one in order to maintain engine performance.

So far, whilst it looks better than previous the early trailers and tech demos for Gears 2, this Gears 3 trailer only scratches the surface of the improved lighting, although both the particle effects and shaders have seen significant improvements. The GI solution that Epic are working on for the title should make all the difference, and as long as they keep the image quality increases shown in this trailer we should be expecting another technical showcase for the 360.

Well, that’s all we know for now, and everything we can establish from the very short and hardly revealing teaser trailer for the game. Some of the things we pointed out weren’t exactly new to the series, but simply refinements to an existing graphical base of the Unreal Engine 3. As development progresses we expect to see much more in the way of improvements, mainly in the form of the GI lighting, and hopefully a proper anti-aliasing solution as well.

Either way this short little demo already looks to have better tech than in Gears 2, and all that remains to be seen, is how well Epic will do in keeping all the features introduced in forthcoming trailers in the actual final release build of the game.

IQGamer will be following the progress and development of Gears Of War 3 closely, with more tech news and analysis as it breaks.

Tech Report: Inside The iPad

I’ve been wanting to write a feature on the iPad for some time now, but I simply haven’t had the time to do so. What with so much to cover for the site already, in addition to working another job, well over a month has past since my initial thoughts on the subject. The other idea was to put together another a short tech feature for IQGamer revealing what makes Apple’s iPad work, and how this shiny handheld tablet compares graphically to the PSP and the last generation of home consoles. This also hasn’t been possible; as up until recently there has only been rumours and well-placed guesswork of just what is contained in Apple’s mysterious A4 chip in the heart of the device.

However, now that the machine is finally out, and has been stripped apart by everyone interested in doing so, I can finally bring you that hardware feature for IQGamer, revealing exactly what is the A4 chip, and how it makes the iPad compare to its siblings and Sony’s competent handheld.

The Apple A4 is a package on Package (POP), system-on-a-chip (SOC), designed by engineers at Apple and manufactured for them by Samsung. It is a combination of a CPU, GPU and video decoder all on a single chip. The design of the A4 is based partially on the ARM Processor architecture, and runs at 1GHz, containing a Cortex-A8 CPU core. The CPU is faster than the one used inside previous iPod Touch and iPhone models, thus giving the iPad a higher pixel fill-rate than its siblings, along with greater vertex processing power if developers perform this on the CPU instead of the GPU.

In terms of the GPU, which previously was speculated to be an Img Tech SGX core, but slightly higher up in the family, turns out to be pretty much bang on the money. The iPad uses an Imagination Technologies Power VR SGX535 GPU located on the SOC, and is the very same one found inside both the third-gen iPhone and iPod Touch. The iPhone 3GS still has the most available GPU power per pixel however, using a slightly more advanced version of the same part.

The SGX535 inside the iPad is clocked at 200MHz, and has a pixel fill-rate of 500 million pixels per-second, with a maximum memory bandwidth of 4.2 Gigabytes per-second. It can move up to 28 million polygons per-second, although that number is clearly a theoretical maximum, at best being only possibly obtainable in a direct to hardware customised approach with regards to software development. I don’t for one minute expect the iPad to perform anywhere near close to those numbers, especially with Apple’s software abstraction layer heavily covering direct access to the GPU architecture. Instead, something more along the lines of 6 million polygons per-second, perhaps matching the PSP but with extra visual effects is what is likely to be possible.

Impressively the SGX535 supports Shader Model 4 and Open GL 2.0 for the iPad, so it is capable of performing various graphical effects far above that of Sony’s PSP and the entire range of last-generation consoles. Memory size and bandwidth, along with a closed box development environment, and close to direct to metal access, is required for all these advanced graphical effects to be viable in high-end games. Certainly, with Apple’s incredibly restrictive heavy layer of API used to program and control the GPU, we don’t expect any Xbox 1 style visuals, or performance which exceeds that of last-gen machines. Although things like better bump-mapping and specular highlighting should be present, as we’ve already seen them on the existing iPhone, and iPod Touch software in limited quantities.

Also on board the A4 we find an enhanced/customised version of the VXD370 IMG video decoder chip, called the VXD375 (according to the video driver), and which is used for all video encoding and processing on the iPad. Though it isn’t known whether the GPU or CPU itself also helps out with such duties, I imagine that they would in certain instances. The chip sits right between the VXD370 and 380 in terms of capability, obviously customised by IMG Tech for the iPad, and is part of the VXD video encoder chip family consisting of the 370, 380 and 390, which are all public versions of the chip.

Lastly, the iPad features two 128 MB DDR2 SDRAM chips, and is connected to the processor using a 64bit wide data bus, compared to a 32bit bus used inside both the iPhone and iPod Touch, meaning that more memory bandwidth is available for the SGX535, which could lead to better performance over the other third-gen devices.

This was confirmed from the K4X2G643GE RAM part number on the A4. Although the RAM itself isn’t actually on the A4 chip, but rather sits on the top package of the POP.

Surprisingly the iPad itself isn’t really that much more powerful, if at all, than the current top end iPhone or iPod Touch, with simply an increase in memory bandwidth providing any potential graphical acceleration over the current models. Smoother framerates and an obvious increase in particle and shader effects is one benefit such an upgrade would provide. But it remains to be seen how much optimisation Apple’s latest OS for the task in hand, as better hardware can only go so far.


So how does the iPad compare to Sony’s PSP, a machine which has proven itself to be a little powerhouse in the handheld world despite lacking numerous hard-wired visual effects, and no programmable shaders to speak of?

Well, given the restrictions imposed by Apple’s dominating OS and API layer, actually very well. The PSP at best can be seen regularly pushing upwards of 4 to 6 million polys per-second, whilst from existing iPhone and iPad games like Resi 4 and Doom 3, you could roughly guess that Apple’s hardware is capable of pushing a good 8 million or so in a best case scenario, between 4 and 6 in others much like the PSP. In most cases the hardware is largely in the same bracket as the PSP, with only more advanced shader effects being demonstrated. However, this is likely as much to do with the iPad, iPhone, etc, not being overtly suitable for serious traditional games with it’s lack of regular control inputs, games which would require such a power increase, meaning that there isn’t much of a reason for developers to try and extract maximum performance from the hardware. Also there’s no direct access to the graphics chip, yet another bottleneck in the chain.


The PSP however, has two great advantages over the iPad. One being the ability to code directly to metal itself, extracting and optimising every last ounce of performance out of the machine; and the other, a greater amount of bandwidth available granted by the system’s 2MB of EDRAM.

Sony’s handheld can move up to 5.3 Gigabytes per-second over its 256bit bus, whilst the iPad moves 4.2 Gigabytes per-second over a 64bit bus. What this means is that even though the Apple’s system can push more geometry around, featuring some basic shader effects, the PSP can throw around far more transparency and particle effects, along with better lighting and dynamic shadowing.

In terms of having traditional games pumping out a good few million polygons per-second at 60fps, with reasonable lighting and texturing, the PSP wins outright. However the iPad’s strengths consists of having the ability of feature more accurate texturing with greater texture detail and image fidelity, whilst also providing developers with the option of using bump-mapping, specular, and other such effects by using the SGX’s shader capabilities. In essence it’s easier for Apple developers to push around more fancy texture effects than the PSP with potentially more geometry, but at the expense of performance, or framebuffer intensive effects.


Overall, on paper the iPad is a pretty impressive technical beast, in handheld terms at least, while in reality the software restrictions provided by Apple take away much of the real world potential locked inside the hardware. For developers it means that, like with Direct X and a Windows PC, or Mac, that anyone with knowledge of programming and the Apple API can create software without meticulously learning all the ins and outs of the hardware. At the same time Capcom and id software have shown that it is still possible to extract some impressive performance from the device, matching quite closely what we were seeing on the PS2, and to an extent the GameCube, exceeding both systems in some areas.

Ultimately, the iPad, along with the iPhone and iPod Touch is housing some serious handheld potential under the hood. And if unlocked, would more than certainly blow the PSP out of the water in the graphics department and provide us with some impressive Xbox 1 style visuals effects. Of course for a handheld in which playing games is just another feature amongst many, that isn’t really required, and perhaps that’s the point. It needs to be competitive, but it doesn’t need to really walk all over the competition.

Tech Report: Anti-Aliasing In God Of War 3

Looking at any of the full resolution screenshots from the final release code of God Or War 3, you could be forgiven for thinking that what you are seeing is nothing more than supersampled bullshots, shots created for the purpose of making the game look good when blown up several times its original size for magazine printing. However you’d be very wrong indeed, because although some have speculated that these latest direct-feed grabs of GoW3 are downsampled images like most of the screens released for the demo, we at IQGamer can confirm that they in fact showcase the game’s unique Anti-Aliasing method in action.

That method in question is MLAA, or Morphological Anti-Aliasing, another form of edge smoothing done using the SPUs on the PS3 rather than the RSX GPU. We only heard about the game’s somewhat exciting AA solution a couple of weeks ago, after it was revealed in an online interview with one of the developers working on the title. It seems that whilst the original plan was to use the usual 2xMSAA method of jaggies reduction – and that was present in the recent PSN demo – that all changed at some point this year, in which a programmer at Sony’s Santa Monica Studio found a way of performing a much better method of AA on the CELL, whilst in turn saving the use of precious GPU and memory cycles in the process.


Just take a look at the screenshot above. The AA is absolutely amazing, far better than anything the 4xMSAA 360’s GPU can manage, and in some places matching perhaps what you expect from a high end PC gaming rig performing 16xMSAA. Either way, it is the best example of Anti-Aliasing on any console game to date, bar none.

In addition, the developers themselves at Sony’s Santa Monica Studio stated that they managed to increase both performance and quality of the AA used, along with other effects in the game, by offloading tasks normally done on the GPU to the SPUs on CELL.

“AA on the cpu is MLAA Morphological Antialising. We saved 5-6 miliseconds by moving it off the cpu's. Many props to our coder Cedric for making this happen and it looks way better!”

Of course the benefits of having better AA isn’t just dealing with jaggies reduction, but also reducing aliasing caused by certain shaders, such as specular aliasing for reflections and transparencies, whilst also eliminating texture shimmering caused by a lack of AA, bringing a stability and smoothness to the image allowing the art design to really shine. Its importance is usually only ever compromised due to the lack of available memory and bandwidth available on both systems. On 360 it’s having to fit the final framebuffer into the 10MB EDRAM, while on PS3 it’s dealing with just a lack of available bandwidth altogether. The use of MLAA can alleviate some of these issues providing a more even split of resources, which can then be used to improve other graphical aspects of the game.


The above screenshot demonstrates how well this use of MLAA works on gameplay scenarios. Notice that every single pixel in the shot is covered by the AA, without any extensive blurring of the detailed textures, even smoothing off edges that are small and far off into the distance. Everything remains clean and sharp, minus the parts of the scene which feature the engine's depth-of-field effect, used only on specific areas of the scene. You can see this happening on the botton left of the image, in which the scene is slightly blurred, whilst on the right, just above Kratos, all details are sharp and clear as day, even in the distance.

Another recent release, Metro 2033, due out this Friday, also uses a custom form of AA done specifically on the CPU, but this time on Xbox 360. It’s called AAA, Analytical Anti-Aliasing, and works by finding all the pixel edges, rendering samples of them in a higher resolution, before then downsampling those samples for use in the final 720p framebuffer. Effectively the only performance hit you get, is a slight one caused by having to render a small amount of pixels in a higher resolution, and the end result is another AA solution which allows for the same effect as using 16xMSAA. However the developers still managed to save 11MB of memory by using this technique instead of regular MSAA, which was their original choice, memory used for other visual effects taking up precious space in the framebuffer.

So God Of War 3’s impressive use of AA is just one of an increasing amount of games looking for a more flexible AA solution than the out of the box MSAA fix found on both consoles GPUs. By exploring these other areas, and by doing things differently they can ultimately drive forward better image quality, whilst focusing more on things such as art design, which has always been more important that raw technical prowess.

Lighting is another area in which GoW3 proves this notion of thinking.

“We built our engine around being able to use up to 20 dynamic lights per game object. The light can be big or small, it doesn't matter. In the end, I believe we support up to 50 dynamic lights per game object. We are not using a differed lighting scheme. Our lead programmer Vassily came up with this amazing system during pre-production, us artists love it!!! We can place lights in Maya and have them update in realtime in the game on the PS3, its like being able to paint with lights.”


Again, this is Santa Monica Studio thinking up a solution that isn’t right out of the box, but is technically at the forefront whilst also being very much in consideration with just what their artists were looking for. It’s exactly this kind of attitude and understanding that is driving forward the use of alternative AA solutions, at the same time providing increased graphical fidelity, whilst saving on performance, and making development easier for future titles. This is especially important with regards to memory related issues, which generally keep coming up in every console generation, and in which working smarter, not harder is really the only way in pushing forward console performance years after launch.

From a developers point of view, now has never been a more exicting time to be involved in console gaming, in which both tools and innovation are coming together setting the new standard of videogames production. Anti-Aliasing is of course just one part of the picture, but in GoW3's case, it could be its defining one.

IQGamer will be performing our in-depth technical analysis on God Of War 3 this weekend just after the game’s release. Be sure you check it out, as it will be filled with interesting technological reveals about some of the development process behind the game, and the ever more innovative steps that developers are taking to push the visual envelope forward.