Like a serve aimed straight at Sony's nugget pouch, SEGA just announced that their Virtua Tennis 3 series for the Xbox 360 will come in glorious 1080p. From the press release:
... Virtua Tennis™ 3 on the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, will for the first time in the series' history allow players to compete around the world in Ranked and Player Modes for top scores on the Leaderboard via Xbox Live®. Virtua Tennis 3 will also support stunning 1080p graphics and a brand new VT:TV live spectator mode at launch.
"With the implementation of 1080p capabilities on the Xbox 360, players will experience a new level of visual intensity and athletic drama played out on the court through a wide range of varied and realistic animations and dynamic cloth physics," said Scott A. Steinberg, Vice President of Marketing, SEGA of America, Inc.
Attention Sony: You just got served. Full press release after the jump with more on multiplayer functions for 360 owners. The game is slated to come out on March 20 for the PlayStation 3, PSP and 360.
Press release:
SEGA'S ‘VIRTUA TENNIS 3' ON XBOX 360 HITS THE SPOT WITH XBOX LIVE PLAY AND NEXT-GEN 1080P GRAPHICS
SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON (February 6, 2007) – SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe Ltd. today announced that Virtua Tennis™ 3 on the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, will for the first time in the series' history allow players to compete around the world in Ranked and Player Modes for top scores on the Leaderboard via Xbox Live®. Virtua Tennis 3 will also support stunning 1080p graphics and a brand new VT:TV live spectator mode at launch.
"With the implementation of 1080p capabilities on the Xbox 360, players will experience a new level of visual intensity and athletic drama played out on the court through a wide range of varied and realistic animations and dynamic cloth physics," said Scott A. Steinberg, Vice President of Marketing, SEGA of America, Inc. "Virtua Tennis 3 is a must-have for fans and newcomers to the series due to its great pick-up-and-play ability, life-like details, and incredible physics. Now with unique Xbox Live play, Virtua Tennis 3 has once again pushed the boundaries to redefine what a great multiplayer video game should be."
Supporting the highest digital video standard available, each of the 20 top-ranked tennis athletes featured in Virtua Tennis 3 appear even more realistic and the court environments deliver a newfound richness in color and texture. The increased levels of detail can be seen in the spectators and backgrounds, and the smooth gameplay mechanics and movements of the players are just as fluid as ever.
The online gameplay for Virtua Tennis 3 consists of a number of features set to make the most of the Xbox Live network. Players can take part in Exhibition games or Tournaments in both Singles and Doubles matches across the Live network. The new VT:TV real-time spectator mode allows players to watch their friends or other top-ranked players compete in tournaments, adding more strategy when sizing up the next opponent.
"We're thrilled to be able to say that Virtua Tennis 3 will be coming to Xbox 360, showcasing an online experience with Xbox Live that you won't find on any other systems and spectacular 1080p graphics," said George Peckham, general manager, global third party publishing for the Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft. "Fun and easy to pick up and play, SEGA is hitting another ace with Virtua Tennis 3."
Virtua Tennis 3 is slated for release on March 20, 2007 on the Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system.
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Contest:
1:36 PM on 02.06.2007
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Going from a 1280x720 scene to a 1920x1080 scene is not free. You have to render and process twice as many pixels, and that usually means there's a tradeoff -- fewer effects, maybe turning down the anti-aliasing, or cutting the frame rate. Whether you're developing for the 360 or PS3, you'll have to make these decisions.
Resistance went from 720p 60fps to 1080p 60fps to 1080p 30fps to 720p 30fps (I think) over its development cycle, as they struggled to make the game look as good as it can.
As for why you might want HDMI: a lot of 1080p sets don't accept 1080p except over DVI/HDMI, which means Microsoft's component/vga support doesn't help those people. It's also an all-digital connection (which isn't as awesome as people like to pretend it is), and carries the audio along with the video.
The latest revision of HDMI adds in deep color and lip sync support, but there aren't really any displays or receivers that handle it.
Component is also much, much better at longer distances than HDMI. With HDMI, at 25-50ft you start getting sparkles in the picture, assuming the picture even comes in at all. Component at the same distance looks virtually identical to a much shorter run.
Also, displays treat digital and analog inputs differently, and often apply more filters to the analog signals, making them look, in some cases, better.
Unimpressive, because it's either a typo, or something that won't matter until we get the hdmi port onto the console.
Unimpressive, because it's either a typo, or something that won't matter until we get the hdmi port onto the console.
Did Summa intend for the "got served" pun, or was it just a happy coincidence?
so your saying the 360 could have supported 1080p from launch?
then why havent games supported it?
My uniformed nature comes from the flame wars of November, where topics akin to "HDMI = Awesome" were made. Why do we need HDMI then?
The reason game developers don't take design for 1080p is that, frankly, they'd rather spend the processing power on better effects at 720p. You can freely scale to 1080p, but rendering at 1080p vs 720p is expensive. Because you have to render twice as many pixels, you can only spend half as much time per pixel, so you have to cut down on special effects, anisotropic filtering, anti aliasing, etc.
And your art department has to create bigger/higher res textures that take up more memory, and maybe you'll want to create higher poly models, while you're at it.
Anyway, the reason you see sports games at 1080p is because they're generally a lot less complex than, say, Saints Row or Gears of War or Dead Rising. Much lower poly counts, fewer textures, less intensive AI, that type of thing.
And you have to remember that only 40% of your target market have HD sets, and only 5-10% of those have 1080p sets, and you have to ask yourself if you should really optimize the game for 2-4% of your customers.
I have a 1080p set, but I will always take the eye-candy-rich 720p version over the bland, stark 1080p version.
It's just like when you're playing Doom III on your PC and you turn down texture quality, AA, AF, etc in order to get higher framerates at higher resolutions. It's always a tradeoff, because the GPU/CPU are only so powerful.
next they are going to release that it comes with a 50 dollar rebate.
Content producers LOVE hdcp. It gets them hot and bothered, and they have wet dreams about downscaling non-HDCP-encrypted content to 540p.
That's why everyone is hyping HDMI. Because the movie studios say "if you want to upconvert dvds you have to use hdmi" and "if you want to display hddvds at 1080p/1080i/720p you have to use hdmi".
Neither of these is technically true -- you can upconvert DVDs over VGA outputs, too; and HD-DVD/Bluray only require HDMI/HDCP if the image constraint token (ICT) flag is turned on. And the ICT hasn't been turned on yet, and may never be turned on on any discs, because not everyone who has an HDDVD or Bluray player has an HDCP-capable display. The only thing the studios hate more than piracy is losing 20-50% of their potential audience because they don't have the necessary equipment.
Lol just realized its 360 more than 720p. lolers.
"Slow down... What technical marvel is allowing 1080p? I mean, are they adding it as an option so that version 2 360's will be able to play 1080p on this game... or have they somehow found a way to break the current laws of graphics without an hdmi cable? "
Newsflash: the 360 has more graphical horsepower (gpu power) than the PS3, if any of them is going to be able to render on the fly 1080p visuals, its going to be the 360 first. Its just a PAIN in the ASS for developers to use