
The Case for the PS4K - fomoz
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DavidGalindo/20160422/271014/The_Case_for_the_PS4K.php
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forgottenpass
The Case for the PS4K reads a lot like the case that consoles are so desperate
they're going to caniablize everything that distinguished them from PC.

Consoles once represented predictability, stability and ease of use. Do they
have much left beyond the set top form factor, 10 ft UI and a bit more
flexibility on how often you're required to be online?

I don't see this evolution of the console market as positive for consumers.
But according to the article people will complain online about anything good
or bad, so fuck them, right? Using your adult brain to ask if something is in
the interest of consumers is not necessary when children online irk you.

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w0utert
>> _Consoles once represented predictability, stability and ease of use. Do
they have much left beyond the set top form factor, 10 ft UI and a bit more
flexibility on how often you 're required to be online?_

I'd say console still have all of these properties. Also, some of these things
like set-top form-factor should not be underestimated. Other important
advantages are that the buying experience is much nicer (only 1 online store,
or a disc), you can expect any game that runs to at least run well enough for
a decent experience, every game is optimized for the control scheme that comes
with the console, and initial cost of buying a console is a lower than a
capable PC.

Really, the only downside is lower graphical fidelity, and lack of games that
are not well suited for controller input.

I have a PS4 and a PC with Steam BPM hooked up to my TV, and while I enjoy
both I still can't cease to be amazed by the abysmal experience playing some
PC games, it really is hit & miss. Even though my PC far exceeds the system
requirements of some games they still run like crap (screen tearing, framerate
spikes/drops, crashes), they have poor to no controller support, tiny fonts
that are unreadable from the couch, they like to pop up mouse-only launchers,
popups, updaters, whatever.

PC gaming can be great but let's not pretend any of the advantages of consoles
are suddenly lost because they will have mid-cycle HW upgrades (which I
personally think are a great thing, if executed well).

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paulmd
Try a monitor with GSync or Freesync. They sync the refresh rate of the
monitor to the framerate the GPU can actually deliver, so you don't get
tearing and judder as the FPS drops below refresh rate. Dropping into the 40s
or high-30 FPS range is no longer a big deal. It's a game changer, I can't
wait for it to make its way into TVs.

Right now GSync is more expensive (custom electronics) and has a better
experience (consistent, often wider sync ranges) but long-term FreeSync is
going to win because it's a VESA standard (VESA Adaptive Sync) and cheaper.
You can often get a FreeSync model for the same price as an old plain monitor,
GSync is usually a $200 increase in price.

The points you raise are all true though, the PC experience is not optimized
for a 10 ft UI, and the performance tuning is often not as good (although PC
is usually pushing a lot more pixels - many consoles render at 720p and
upscale, whereas 1080p is standard and 1440p/4K or supersampling are common on
PC). The other thing that bothers me is that every PC game is tied to an
account somehow, so you can't buy/sell used games.

~~~
w0utert
I game on my flatscreen TV so GSync is not (yet) an option ;-)

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monk_e_boy
Well, Sony have two things in the pipeline, VR and PS4K so I assume that they
are linked. The PS4 never felt like it was powerful enough to drive VR in an
interesting way. Sure it just about works, but can you build interesting games
with just the power of PS4?

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oflordal
There are games and experiences that people seems to think are interesting
enough to play on the GearVR. The PS4 will be more powerful than the phones
powering that. Obviously you have to adjust your expectations compared to the
Rift but it seems like there can be value for VR platforms that are not as
fast as the Rift/Vive minimum specifications.

~~~
cm3
And it's important to recall that VR works best with >=90fps which requires
more horse power.

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radiorental
You do realize the PSVR is 120fps, the PS4 as-is will drive that if the game
allows, otherwise is drops back to 90.

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cm3
My comment was in reference to GearVR.

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andrewclunn
If I wanted an incrementally upgradable console with games as a service and
backwards compatibility, I'd just plug a 360 controller into a computer
running Steam. In fact, that's exactly what I do.

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cm3
But in that case wouldn't it be better to just stream games, provided the
connection is sufficiently low-latency?

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snvzz
How low latency are we talking about?

At 60Hz, a frame is 16ms, which is already tight.

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cm3
Yep, so for VR it's practically impossible to stream over the internet.

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PaulHoule
I disagree with his assessment of the console lifecycle.

I bought an XBox 360 and a PS 3 at dirt cheap prices around the time the 1 and
the 4 came out and these are both great values, still going strong, etc. Today
I am starting to want to play Yakuza 6 and the new Hyperdimension Neptunia
game but I can save that for later.

The technological story is that (i) console APUs are in a state of
technological improvement but that PCs are not (i.e. Intel is obsessed with
making a notebook computer that can fit under the door at a hotel and not with
improving any product attributes that matter) and (ii) no way Sony can
Nintendo get ahead with a more powerful console.

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joesmo
Does the new PS4K play games in actual 4k (not upscaled bullshit)? No. It
won't have titles designed to run on 4k screens. It won't be able to have
games run at 4k. Sony has already told us this.

This is simply an update for people without a PS4 or for people whose original
PS4 breaks (I assume it's just a matter of time based on my and others' PS3
experience). It's a ploy to get more money for essentially the same product.
Yes, you'll be able to watch 4k Netflix on it, something you can do with a ~
$100 box nowadays, but other than that the name is a misnomer and the upgrade
certainly unappreciated in the gaming community. As others have said, if we
wanted upgrades every year or two, we'd stick to PC gaming thank you very
much.

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cloudjacker
Being unfamiliar with the leaks, this article fails to mention what the PS4K's
supposed features are.

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overcast
The thing that people need to realize about this 4K PS4, is that is just the
up-converted output. There is NO WAY this new PS4 is rendering anything at a
full 4K resolution. You need an extremely powerful desktop to handle such
resolutions, even without post processing.

It's sad because Sony has made all the right moves this generation, completely
crushing competitors, and now they attempt this incremental nonsense, which
was the whole reason consoles were separate from PC's.

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gambiting
The thing you need to realize is that you haven't had a chance to play with
the new PS4 or seen its documentation, so you don't know. Rendering at 4K is
not difficult at all, the question of course, is how much fidelity you need to
sacrifice to enable smooth gameplay in that resolution.

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overcast
Yes, sure, if you want to render a 4K floating cube. However, a single $700
GTX 980 or even a $1000 Titan X , can't even handle 4K games. Unless you enjoy
playing at sub 30FPS levels. PS4 surely isn't fitting either of those monsters
in its form factor for $400.

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dbgm
This push of hardware may be for 4k videos and not necessarily 4k games. It
may also be for better VR. 4k games are an absurd idea that probably no one
even considers tbh.

Plus, it's not even talked about in the article. What motivated your comment?

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overcast
4K is the whole reasoning behind the "PS4.5" being a thing. It's been
mentioned from the very beginning. Yes I agree, it's probably for the VR
aspect, but the real issue is going to come when games actually run better on
the 4.5 hardware. "Early" adopters get screwed, which defeats the purpose of
console hardware.

