[Kreigyr]

I was doing a bit of research not too long ago on Unleashed, and I ended up finding the back of the boxart for the JP release. I was perplexed to notice:

http://www.cheatmast...5_3606_back.jpg

The game claims to support 1080p output. I could have swore that I only saw screencaps at 720p, so I checked the back of Unleashed:

http://info.sonicret..._box_PS3_us.jpg

Sure enough, only 720p. This holds true with the UK and AU release, both stating 1080p support. Google Image results for "sonic world adventure ps3" net screencaps at 1080p, while "sonic unleashed ps3" are only at 720p.

My only real question is; why, exactly? Different regional releases supporting different resolutions would have made more sense back in the days of RF input, not so much the same game on the same platform with the same engine using digital input.

Happily, though, seeing as the PS3 has no manner of regional lock, I'm considering importing it for the visuals.

[Lanzer]

Well, thats rather strange indeed. maybe its upscaled 1080p from 720p quality?

Why would SEGA make one region a HD quality version and give the rest of the world a lower quality?

[KingofHarts]

Kreigyr, on 14 April 2012 - 09:54 PM, said:

Happily, though, seeing as the PS3 has no manner of regional lock, I'm considering importing it for the visuals.

News to me... I tried playing a DVD movie that my girlfriend has. (Her DVD is from China, My PS3 is from the US)
It didn't work... due to regions.

Also tried out a game on it while in the Phillipines, same result.

[Kreigyr]

Lanzer, on 14 April 2012 - 11:12 PM, said:

Well, thats rather strange indeed. maybe its upscaled 1080p from 720p quality?

Why would SEGA make one region a HD quality version and give the rest of the world a lower quality?

Actually, after a bit more looking, it doesn't appear as if it even outputs true 720p. Rather, it's rendered internally at 880x720 and the NN'd up to 1280x720, where a blur filter is used to mask the upscale.

I'm not too surprised at this; Generations uses a very similar filter on any un-antialiased settings. At a native resolution, it hides any aliasing pretty well and manages to reduce the optical horrors from running a non-native resolution. Same engine, probably the same method.

Although it's pretty obvious this means there's no way in hell it's putting those kinds of graphics out in full 1080p; at best, just upscaling it even MORE. Not exactly worth an import.

The only plausible reason I can imagine is just for marketing purposes. I'm pretty certain I've never heard anyone cry wolf about a game not supporting 1080p output, although I don't know how it is in other markets. Just a thought.

[Covarr]

KingofHarts, on 14 April 2012 - 11:17 PM, said:

Kreigyr, on 14 April 2012 - 09:54 PM, said:

Happily, though, seeing as the PS3 has no manner of regional lock, I'm considering importing it for the visuals.

News to me... I tried playing a DVD movie that my girlfriend has. (Her DVD is from China, My PS3 is from the US)
It didn't work... due to regions.

Also tried out a game on it while in the Phillipines, same result.

Was said game a PS3 game? PS3 games are not supposed to be region-locked, but the machine still honors it for PS1 and PS2 games, as well as all movies.

[Caniad Bach]

KingofHarts, on 14 April 2012 - 11:17 PM, said:

News to me... I tried playing a DVD movie that my girlfriend has. (Her DVD is from China, My PS3 is from the US)
It didn't work... due to regions.

Also tried out a game on it while in the Phillipines, same result.

The simple answer is that DVDs have region lock while *most* Blu-Ray's do not.

[Jaseman]

Box arts are sometimes wrong. Since VERY few modern games run at 1080p, most of them run at at most 720p, and upscale it. Some games, like Halo 3, CoD, and Generations/unleashed, need all the CPU cycles they can get and run at an even lower res, and simply upscale it to 1080p.

[Black Squirrel]

I think you may be looking too far into this.

The Japanese cover lists all of the screen settings Sonic Unleashed will run at, from 480p to 1080p. To reassure customers who have set their PlayStation 3 at one of these settings that the game will work, even though it would be more uncommon if it didn't.

The US box states the native resolution. I imagine the game detects and behaves differently if it spots an interlaced setting.


Also PlayStation 3 games are actually kind enough to state which region's hardware they're compatible with. The Japanese box has a number 2, the US box has a number 1. The only difference between Blu Rays and DVDs as far as regions go is that there's less of them - 6 for DVD, 3 for Blu Ray. I don't have a PlayStation 3, but I would imagine if it weren't region locked, they wouldn't bother printing this information on game boxes.

This post has been edited by Black Squirrel: 15 April 2012 - 01:05 PM

[Kreigyr]

Black Squirrel, on 15 April 2012 - 01:04 PM, said:

I think you may be looking too far into this.

The Japanese cover lists all of the screen settings Sonic Unleashed will run at, from 480p to 1080p. To reassure customers who have set their PlayStation 3 at one of these settings that the game will work, even though it would be more uncommon if it didn't.

The US box states the native resolution. I imagine the game detects and behaves differently if it spots an interlaced setting.

Rather, I haven't seen a differentiation like this with any other game released in multiple reasons.

In the case where the display is at a higher resolution than whatever the internal resolution happens to be, yes, it does upscale; on the other hand, as far as I had known, the listed resolutions are only those which it renders at, not outputs, seeing as it's pretty well implied that any standard display will work provided it supports the input hardware.

I dunno'; maybe I am overthinking it.

Jaseman, on 15 April 2012 - 12:47 PM, said:

Box arts are sometimes wrong. Since VERY few modern games run at 1080p, most of them run at at most 720p, and upscale it. Some games, like Halo 3, CoD, and Generations/unleashed, need all the CPU cycles they can get and run at an even lower res, and simply upscale it to 1080p.

True; the only game I can think of off the top of my head that runs in true 1920x1080 on a console is Lair. The real problem is that, even now, most television sets aren't nearly as accurate as PC monitors, justifying their cost; the gains by using actual 1080p is lost with the fact that it's never handled well by the display. That, and generally a smooth framerate is usually heralded above slightly better looks. Unfortunate tradeoff depending on your tastes.

This post has been edited by Kreigyr: 15 April 2012 - 01:45 PM

[Hinchy]

Black Squirrel, on 15 April 2012 - 01:04 PM, said:

Also PlayStation 3 games are actually kind enough to state which region's hardware they're compatible with. The Japanese box has a number 2, the US box has a number 1. The only difference between Blu Rays and DVDs as far as regions go is that there's less of them - 6 for DVD, 3 for Blu Ray. I don't have a PlayStation 3, but I would imagine if it weren't region locked, they wouldn't bother printing this information on game boxes.

Actually, that's not true. PlayStation 3 games are not generally region locked. The only disc-based software that is region locked are games with pervasive online functionality. It has nothing to do with Blu-Ray regions, as the games do technically have coded regions and Blu-Ray movies are still region-locked on PS3, but Sony made the conscious decision to not region lock game software. The same applies to the PSP and Vita.

This post has been edited by Hinchy: 15 April 2012 - 02:39 PM