How Infamous: SS used the PS4's 4.5GB RAM, CPU, GPU to make our jaws drop

DriedMangoes

DriedMangoes

We The North šŸ¦–šŸ
Sep 12, 2013
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For the more technical understanding of how Infamous: SS works. Wtf did I just read.

http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/04...am-cpu-and-gpu-compute-to-make-our-jaws-drop/

http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/04...its-advanced-lighting-and-reflection-effects/

As a wrap-up, Bentley mentioned a few elements we (or at least developers among us, gamers will just see the effects) could see in the future:

  • Much more threading and compute.
  • lighter weight instantiation.
  • Improvement in perforce sync time.
  • less manual ambient and faster baking.
  • Better distant environment LOD (level of detail).
  • Overhauled pathing system.
  • Easier scripting reference for parts of objects.
  • Fewer heavy weight objects.

inFAMOUS: Second Son is definitely one of the most visually impressive games available now on a new generation system, and at the Game Developers Conference Lead Engine Programmer Adrian Bentley Explained the ins and outs of its engine and how the resources of the PS4 were used for the game.

Interestingly enough, the first thing we learn is that the game uses only 4.5 GB of RAM and 6 cores of the eight included in the PS4ā€²s CPU. The data about memory matches what was shared about The Order: 1886.

Hereā€™s what we learned from the panel:

  • The RAM of the PS4 allowed Sucker Punch to increase memory budgets by four to eight times.
  • I/O (input/output) speed was a big problem, even from the hard drive. Input/Output speed is the communication speed between the drive and the CPU.
  • Measures were taken to reduce I/O pressure, caching seven more streaming chunks with a memory budget of about 240 MiB (Mebibyte, basically a more professional equivalent of megabyte) and using more and bigger media streaming pages with a budget of 40 MiB.
  • Texture atlases were used for many purposes, with a budget of over 200 MiB. A texture atlas is a large texture that includes many sub-textures that can be used for many objects, instead of having separate texture files for each object.
  • Ambient index was cached per static vertex with a budget of about 30 MiB.
  • The tiled light list was stored for forward pass (4 MiB).
  • Code was kept simple, using big linear buffers.
  • Most of the 4.5 Gb of RAM actually available were used. You can see the full allocation below.
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iNFAMOUSMemory-670x375.jpg


iNFAMOUSJobs-670x377.jpg


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iNFAMOUSSSRender-670x379.jpg


The PS4ā€²s CPU is defined ā€œdecent,ā€ able to handle 30,000 draws instanced in 10,000 actual draw calls, 100-400 asynchronous raycasts per frame, 50-100 animated characters with 300+ bones, even if prefetch is not a replacement for the SPUā€™s direct memory access.

It was also hard to max out the CPU (while we learned in a previous interview that the GPU is used at its maximum capacity most of the time), with 50-70% used for main jobs and 5-16% for other threads.

iNFAMOUSSSgbuffers-670x376.jpg


iNFAMOUSSPost-670x375.jpg


Compute1-670x376.jpg


Compute2-670x376.jpg


Compute3-670x376.jpg


Compute4-670x375.jpg


Compute5-670x377.jpg
 
VaLLiancE said:
My jaw never dropped
Click to expand...

as a game, it has some sweet looking effects, but the city is wholly empty and lifeless. I have played it a few times, admittedly I do not OWN the PS4 or this game, but I have had some pretty long play sessions on it. It just isn't all that. So far this gen, the only game to make me say wow, I am sure no one else would likely agree on.

These slides are interesting, and some might find it cool to read, but when the slides are done, Infamous is still just a game not a tech marvel.
 
illiniguy said:
as a game, it has some sweet looking effects, but the city is wholly empty and lifeless. I have played it a few times, admittedly I do not OWN the PS4 or this game, but I have had some pretty long play sessions on it. It just isn't all that. So far this gen, the only game to make me say wow, I am sure no one else would likely agree on.

These slides are interesting, and some might find it cool to read, but when the slides are done, Infamous is still just a game not a tech marvel.
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People every where so please explain how it is lifeless. You didn't say what game made you go wow by the way. I'm sure I can guess what game it is though.
 
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It's the best looking console game so far IMO, not only does it look amazing but it's full 1080p and is nearly always 30fps or higher with great AA. I also don't get the lifeless comments, there are tons of people and cars on screen at once and there is a decent level of destructibility as well. The city isn't a character the same way it was in GTA 4, then again I can't think of another open world game that is (not even GTA5) but it sure as hell isn't lifeless.
 
illiniguy said:
as a game, it has some sweet looking effects, but the city is wholly empty and lifeless. I have played it a few times, admittedly I do not OWN the PS4 or this game, but I have had some pretty long play sessions on it. It just isn't all that. So far this gen, the only game to make me say wow, I am sure no one else would likely agree on.

These slides are interesting, and some might find it cool to read, but when the slides are done, Infamous is still just a game not a tech marvel.
Click to expand...
Best game of the generation thus far, both visually and gameplay.
 
Hazard71 said:
People every where so please explain how it is lifeless. You didn't say what game made you go wow by the way. I'm sure I can guess what game it is though.
Click to expand...

pretty sure you can't guess it because you will try to label me as a fanboy and say it is Ryse... you'd be wrong ;)

It is lifeless... the people walk around, like all Infamous games with a "soul-less" feel... I can't quite put my finger on it, but the city doesn't feel alive, it just feels like a set piece.
 
Boy them pics are sure impressive to bad Id on't understand jack s*** of what's on them. Did Sony say if more ram may be opened up in the future or not? I know MS said they hope to do that.
 
TOPDAWG said:
Boy them pics are sure impressive to bad Id on't understand jack s*** of what's on them. Did Sony say if more ram may be opened up in the future or not? I know MS said they hope to do that.
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I think the OS's 3GB footprint will most likely go down as Sony optimizes it more and more.
 
Obscene Jester said:
Best game of the generation thus far, both visually and gameplay.
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The gunplay isn't that fun imo. It's loose and could have used some kind of lockon. Melee isn't even as fun as something like God of War because the camera is problematic.

The most fun aspect is traversing the environments. But the game is amazing visually.
 
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The only knock you could make against the visuals is that the game looks almost too clean. Like a next gen Saints Row or something.

Every single car in the game is shiny and new. Even the rust on the few environmental objects that are meant to look weathered look pristine.

The water puddles look awesome but they don't react to being stepped in. They do react to rain drops though.

Still it's the best looking game I've played on console.
 
No doubt about it. Infamous: Second Son is a beautiful looking game. Sucker Punch hit a home run.
 
I can't believe the PS4 only has 4.5GB for games. That's a far cry from the 8GBs originally advertised. Why is half of 8GBs needed for an OS???
 
illiniguy said:
pretty sure you can't guess it because you will try to label me as a fanboy and say it is Ryse... you'd be wrong ;)

It is lifeless... the people walk around, like all Infamous games with a "soul-less" feel... I can't quite put my finger on it, but the city doesn't feel alive, it just feels like a set piece.
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You are right I was thinking Ryse because a lot of people think that. It has nothing to do with being a fanboy , getting tired of people thinking every remark is meant as a jab or trying to make people out as a fanboy.
 
Kassen said:
I can't believe the PS4 only has 4.5GB for games. That's a far cry from the 8GBs originally advertised. Why is half of 8GBs needed for an OS???
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I think Sony wanted to play it safe but as always with time, I'm pretty sure the 3GB the OS takes up will be reduced.
 
Kassen said:
I can't believe the PS4 only has 4.5GB for games. That's a far cry from the 8GBs originally advertised. Why is half of 8GBs needed for an OS???
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These guys say 4.5GB and their game just released, but in the other thread we have Naughty Dog saying 5GB and their game has yet to release so I think it's safe to assume 5GB will probably be the default going forward. Unless Naughty Dog was misquoted of course, I didn't actually hear them say it in the presentation, but I did skip around a bit so I'm not sure. Worth pointing out tho.
 
pravus said:
These guys say 4.5GB and their game just released, but in the other thread we have Naughty Dog saying 5GB and their game has yet to release so I think it's safe to assume 5GB will probably be the default going forward. Unless Naughty Dog was misquoted of course, I didn't actually hear them say it in the presentation, but I did skip around a bit so I'm not sure. Worth pointing out tho.
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I believe presently it's 4.5GB + 512mb of "flexible" ram.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-ps3-system-software-memory

UPDATE: A new source familiar with the matter has provided additional information to Digital Foundry that confirms only 4.5GB of the PS4's 8GB GDDR5 memory pool is guaranteed to game developers right now, while also clarifying how the PS4's "flexible memory" works in practice.

In real terms, an additional 512MB of physical RAM may be available in addition to the 4.5GB mentioned in the SDK. Flexible memory consists of physical and virtual spaces, and the latter introduces paging issues which impact performance. In our original story we combined them together.

For practical game applications, the correct figures for this story, as we understand it now, are a guaranteed 4.5GB for development and a further 512MB from the flexible pool. We have updated the headline accordingly.
 
VaLLiancE said:
Wait till it drops in price or get a deal.... My son beat it in less then 10 hours.
But if you feel a less then 10 hour game is worth $60....then my bad.
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He certainly didn't play the game like I have been. I just passed 50% and would guess I have about 15 hours in thus far.

I am impressed by the visuals and the ability to see things from lofty perches. What I enjoy most about this game is the ease of moving about the world, there is always something to latch onto but not such that your movement is constantly interrupted. The AI does a good enough job to make gunfights/melee interesting enough without being too easy or hard. I'd say the overall feeling playing is one of balance.

I would love to hear what Illini Guy's visually impressive game is please!
 
illiniguy said:
as a game, it has some sweet looking effects, but the city is wholly empty and lifeless. I have played it a few times, admittedly I do not OWN the PS4 or this game, but I have had some pretty long play sessions on it. It just isn't all that. So far this gen, the only game to make me say wow, I am sure no one else would likely agree on.

These slides are interesting, and some might find it cool to read, but when the slides are done, Infamous is still just a game not a tech marvel.
Click to expand...

Yeah, after the initial "wow" factor wore off concerning the graphics the game has started to impress me less and less. Its fun but there isn't much going on in the city. And the game doesn't have that much content at least not much outside the main campaign where there are only about 5 very short side missions which are always the same from district to district. Like I said its a fun game but my opinion isn't as all praising as it is for many others.
 
BUSTERMAN said:
Yeah, after the initial "wow" factor wore off concerning the graphics the game has started to impress me less and less. Its fun but there isn't much going on in the city. And the game doesn't have that much content at least not much outside the main campaign where there are only about 5 very short side missions which are always the same from district to district. Like I said its a fun game but my opinion isn't as all praising as it is for many others.
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It's not a masterpiece by any means. The story is just passable, some of the side content can get a bit tedious, but I stand by it being the best game this generation because it is just damn fun to play.
 
Obscene Jester said:
It's not a masterpiece by any means. The story is just passable, some of the side content can get a bit tedious, but I stand by it being the best game this generation because it is just damn fun to play.
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Thatā€™s your opinion and Iā€™m ok with it. And fun factor is why Iā€™d have to rate Dead Rising 3 as my pick for best new-gen game so far. Its not a deep game by any means but it was just too much fun and hilarious to put down. Iā€™m so glad I still have DLC content waiting for me to jump back in.
 
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