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Frostbite Dev Explains The Difference Between Native 1800p vs. 1800p Checkerboard On PS4 Pro

Battlefield 1 and Mass Effect: Andromeda run at checkerboard 1800p instead of native 1800p on the PS4 Pro and the devs explain the reason.

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gearnuke.com
3354d ago
3354d ago Replies(7)
CyrusLemont3354d ago

I'm not sure if this article is poorly worded or I'm just confused. Do they mean that the games are running at lower resolutions (e.g. 1440p) and are being checkerboarded to 1800p, which then either the pro or user's TV upscales to 4k? How bizarre, I always thought 1800p checkerboarding meant they run a game natively at 1800p, then use the checkerboarding feature to create more color pixels or whatever cernimonology is used (I understand nothing.) to give a convincing pseudo-native 4k image.

Man, there needs to be a clear definition on the phrase "1800p checkerboard" if this is the case. Either way, the comparison shots between PS4 and PS4 Pro are impressive!

DarkLordMalik3353d ago

It is a type of rendering resolution that is different to native 1800p but results in a better performing 1800p resolution that is then upscaled to 4K on your TV. So the process is 1800 CB -> 4k. They can also go for native 1800p but in that case, the frame rate will dip below 30 fps and hence not ideal.

kevnb3353d ago

It needs to be upscaled somehow regardless because tvs today just don't accept 1800p.

Ju3353d ago (Edited 3353d ago )

It always outputs 4K. The signal will be 4K, scaled by the Pro. The output is only a handful resolutions (480p, 720p, 1080p and 2160p=4k), everything else is handled internally by the PS4 HW scaler.

extermin8or3353d ago

@darklordmalik they can do it like. That, they've chosen not to however ,

tywinlannister0003353d ago

They make it as vague as possible on purpose because they know it's a joke.

starchild3353d ago

Nah, man. I'm a PC gamer and I've played many games at high resolutions and I can honestly say checkerboard rendering is a good technique. I hope it will be used by more games on every platform. It has an extremely positive cost to benefit ratio. Those resources can be put to better use elsewhere.

If you have the extra power left over, like on some high end PCs, then sure, crank the native resolution and it will look even better. But that's only if you have everything else maxed out and you simply have performance to spare.

SirBradders3353d ago

Have you played Horizon? the game looks lovely on my pro / 4k HDR TV.

kevnb3353d ago

A tv won't accept 1800p, most don't even accept 1440p.

nitus103352d ago (Edited 3352d ago )

The HD standard is 720p, 1080i and 1080p while the UHD standard is 2160p (4K) and 4320p (8K) anything else is scaled to fit the appropriate pixel sizes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wi... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Most TV's have an aspect ratio (ie. Width to Height) of 16:9 which is a compromise industry standard** however, you can get screens that have a different aspect ratio.

Personally, I don't know of any TV that supports 900p, 1440p or 1800p although you can get monitors that do support 1440p.

Note**: When a display source is other than a 16:9 aspect ratio you will see what is know as "letterboxing" which in the majority of cases will be black bands top and bottom (ie. Cinemascope) of the screen. For many viewers, this is preferable to bands left and right. Hence the compromise. Unfortunately, a HD or UHD TV will display a standard definition (aspect ratio of 4:3) signal with letterboxing left and right although it is possible to stretch and possibly clip the picture to fit the 16:9 standard the result is usually not satisfactory.

kevnb3352d ago

If you try to input 1440p to a 4k tv it usually just doesn't work. 900p will usually actually work even on 1080p sets, but the scaling from 1440p or other higher resolution just isn't supported on most current televisions.

Ju3353d ago

It's always the framebuffer size which is used here. 2160p checkerboard uses a full 4K framebuffer, but it doesn't mean, each pixel is rendered 1:1 but instead the renderer includes CB. Same with 1800p. The native framebuffer is still 1800p, how ever they are able to generate that pixel, in this case CB. And that buffer, if it isn't native 4K is then scaled to 4K using the HW scaler.

donthate3353d ago (Edited 3353d ago )

1800p Checkerboard means, it is rendered at a lower resolution than 1800p, but with the checkerboard technique you get 1800p. Thus the image isn't as crisp as native 1800p, and certainly not as good as 4K. It still better than 1080p.

Basically it is a cheat to get 1800p, but not quite as good as native 1800p.

Bathyj3353d ago

It doesnt mean that at all. Its rendered at 1800p, theyre just only rendering half the pixels. The next frame they render the other half of the pixels and it looks like the full image. Also, when the pixels arent being rendered, they extrapolate the data from the previous frame to fill those gaps.

Checkerboarding does not mean its rendered at a lower resolution. Although in this case its 1800p so there will be upscaling to dispaly at 4k, but 1800pCB is 1800p resolution. 4kCB is 2160p resolution. They are just not native. I thing a lot of people are grasping this.

donthate3353d ago

Bathyj:

It's still not 1800p, but 1800i. It essentially renders half the frame every frame tick. So to call it 1800p is the same as saying an upscaled image is 1800p. I mean after all, the output is 1800p, it's just not native, right?

Aenea3353d ago

There is no 'lower resolution' and no, it's not interlaced either. You could call it 1800c if you want....

Ju3352d ago (Edited 3352d ago )

All the guys knowing better amuse me. Play the games and stop theorizing if the pixel is actually rendered in one pass or not. All one needs to know, is that a 1800p framebuffer is composed in about 20% less time than with a brute force straight forward render pass. The result are 3200x1800 pixels (like a 100% JPEG compressed image). So what is the point in questioning how they get there?

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Aenea3353d ago

You're confused (as many are tho)! Checkerboard rendering isn't a (traditional) upscaling technique, it's a rendering technique that doesn't start with a base resolution, it straight up renders the targeted resolution. It renders half the pixels of a frame in a full frame buffer (this case 1800p), which pixels are rendered is like a checkerboard pattern, the next frame it renders the other pixels and then it fills in the gaps using the previous frame and all kinds of information like movement data.

So checkerboard rendering at 1800p means just that, that you get an 1800p framebuffer... Which is then upscaled to 2160p by the Pro using a traditional upscaling method.

Doing it this way means they render half of the pixels each frame saving time. Some of the time is lost of course due to the combining of the two frames and keeping track of extra information, but saves enough to get good results.

Horizon for instance checkerboard renders straight to 2160p without traditional upscaling...

Bathyj3353d ago

Boom. There you go. Im sick of people calling Checkerboarding "upscaling". Its not. Not the same thing at all. In fact its closer to interlacing than upscaling, like the old 1080i TV's, but since its a checkerboard pattern (hence the name) you get better results than interlacing used to give you with every second horizontal line missing.

Like you said imagine a checkerboard (they really should have called it Chess, sounds a lot smarter and it is an intelligent technique,) for one frame all the black squares are rendered at whatever the full output resolution is, which can be up to 4k (2160p), then the next frame all the white squares are rendered. The only difference with native is its doing every square, every frame. Checkerboarding is literally doing half the work, while allowing similar results and freeing up power to worry about things like framerate. Its a very smart idea.

In this case of course its only 1800p CB not 4kCB so it will be upscaled. In Horizons case at 2160P it is not upscaled at all.

CyrusLemont3353d ago

This is very enlightening, thank you for taking the time to write this. It's the simplest explanation I've read about this technique and what it does.

Guyfamily9993353d ago

Checkerboard rendering is technically rendering less pixels natively, but not in the traditional way. It renders half of the pixels the usual way, and then renders the other half using complex math and data from surrounding pixels and/or previous frames. It's a more efficient but complicated way; you're essentially getting 90 percent the image quality of a native image, but for two thirds the performance needed (it takes a chunk of processing power to do all that math and generate the other half, it's not free).

This actually lends well to the Pro vs Scorpio debacle. Native rendering at a said resolution takes about 40 percent more power (which is how much more powerful the Scorpio is), so chances are a lot of games that run at some checkerboard resolution (CB 1800p, 2160p, etc) will run at that same resolution but natively on Scorpio, leading to an image that might look around 10 percent better. In motion, however, that's not noticeable.

But yeah, if a game runs at (example) resolution checkerboard, it essentially means the devs are sacrificing a tiny bit of image quality to have better performance. Native rendering will always win in a head to head match, since CB is simply trying to educate rendering as best as possible, but CB is a more efficient method in terms of image quality to performance ratio.

joab7773352d ago

If there is a difference it is really hard for me to see on my TV. It's actually a brilliant way to allow us this advantage on a $400 machine. Just last year if you told me for $1000 I could play 4k games I woulda said you were crazy! I thought 4k TV was possible but not actual gaming!

Playing Horizon in 4k with HDR is unbelievable. I switched to Zelda and it had me yearning for a Nintendo console with this much power. Zelda is an unbelievable game, and I can't wait for the day we can play it in 4k. Seriously, it will be mind melting!

yeahokwhatever3352d ago

at nintendo's current rate. you'll get 4k zelda in 2025. Luckily for you, Im sure the reviews have already been written and theyre all tens. because why bother comparing games with other games? just compare them to your fond childhood memories!

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KingKionic 3353d ago

1800 checkboard. Thankfully dice mentions what "resolution" the game "runs" at here even though it uses checkboarding. Apparently the effects they use are so demanding that 4K and 1800p is just too much for the ps4 pro.

I was gonna say "Horizon zero dawn did checkboard 4k with ease" but then again theres tons of effects and gun fire going on in Mass effect battles.

Mass effect is a cpu bound game after all.

ItMatters3353d ago (Edited 3353d ago )

some games are really demanding with explosions and destruction and demanding on the CPU, while games like horizon zero dawn are really demanding on the GPU for the pretty graphics. There are few games that do both well, Battlefiled 1 is the prime example of both done well, all on top of the incredible destruction and chaotic online multiplayer which games like horizon zero dawn don't have so its a little less impressive in my book. Dice are true wizards in this industry.

KingKionic 3353d ago

Agreed.

Dice are the masters of graphical fidelity on consoles currently from there back to back releases.

GNCFLYER3353d ago (Edited 3353d ago )

Yeah Dice is great. I'm currently thinking GG are the masters for pulling off horizon ZD on a regular PS4. And then there is the PS4 pro 4k version.

tyasia03353d ago

You two are just talking out your asses.

If it's CPU bound and "supposedly" Xbone has a more powerful CPU then why is it lower resolution on Xbox than even the base PS4?

Trez12343353d ago

You don't seem to appreciate HZD. Almost no loading screen, solid framerate, fast combat and variety, big machines, no screen tearing and high quality textures that loads really fast with little to no pop ups, big and varied world and fantastic looking explosions ( big ones too). Technically, horizon is pure magic and its 1080 on the ps4.

To say it's not cpu bound it's ridiculous. Reminded me of some PR nonsense about QB being low res and ran poorly because of " powers" while infamous SS had more power, opene world, higher quality texture, higher framerate and higher resolution.

HZD is a true technical masterpiece. It's pure magic.

starchild3353d ago

To be fair Horizon Zero Dawn often has quite a lot going on. I've been impressed at the large number of humans and machines that can be involved in a hectic battle and the framerate basically never drops.

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Ju3353d ago (Edited 3353d ago )

Which is actually interesting. Because 2160 = 1800 * 1.20. Those 24ms frametime could be scaled to 33.3 > 24*1.2 = ~30ms for a full 2160p CB renderer. Makes me wonder why they don't do that. More headroom for some reason?

livininsin3353d ago

It's because 2160p has 1.2 times more horizontal pixels and 1.2 times more vertical pixels as well.
3840 x 2160 = (3200 x 1.2) x (1800 x 1.2) = 3200 x 1800 x 1.2 x 1.2

3353d ago
Guyfamily9993353d ago

As livininsin said, 2160p is actually 44 percent more pixels (1.2 squared). That would put the frame time at 34ms in the example (the game would probably stutter around 26 to 29fps). CB 1800p should hopefully provide really stable performance. BTW, from personal experience, 1800p vs 2160p is a small difference that's hard to see, even inches from your TV. Still a huge jump from 1080p.

SirBradders3353d ago

Yeah but the way the current consoles are made the CPU can offload to the GPU. Correct me if i am wrong.

AmUnRa3352d ago

Your correct about the PS4 doing just that.

3353d ago
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70°

Microsoft Gaming Revenue Drops 7% Year-on-Year, Content and Services Down 5%, Xbox Hardware Down 33%

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simulationdaily.com
Jin_Sakai11d ago (Edited 11d ago )

Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.

dveio11d ago

To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.

Jingsing11d ago

The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.

Tanktopmaster9211d ago

Once they re-evaluate exclusive all will be fine….

S2Killinit11d ago

Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.

Jingsing11d ago

15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.

Tanktopmaster9211d ago

These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse

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60°

Steam Controller (2026) review

Second time's the charm.

cl198312d ago (Edited 12d ago )

Seams like a nice controller

Reaper22_11d ago

Two analog sticks acrossvftom each other is a no go.When will everyone learn.

30°
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