4D graphics only on PS3

[F9zDark]

I love this quote:
" The following is the main closing featurette of this editorial. This entire PlayStation 3 ad is based on 4D and provides clues most people missed that give meaning to what Sony has been talking as 4D in games. Afrika for one; a clue in itself.

As you are watching this closing main featurette trailer, keep a close eye on the part where the Giraffe chews. This is another prime example of 4D graphics. He chews while the muscles are realistically moving ad the entire head moves. A tiny effect such as this, would take days to render on other consoles. When you are finished, sit back and take time to marvel at what you have just learned. "

Yeah I found that very disconcerting. The giraffe chews the food because it was ANIMATED. Animations don't "take days to render" on any console...

If they did, then I don't think we'd be playing games whatsoever.

[Elven6]

4D is all around us, but we are just unable to see it, which is why I think this is labeled wrong.

[Johnny Rash]

So...the PS3 can render a dimension I can't see?

[PS3Fanboy]

4D is all around us, but we are just unable to see it, which is why I think this is labeled wrong.

no your wrong. the ps3 is 4D because it looks really good and its bigger than all the other consoles so it better.

[Cap'n 1time]

no your wrong. the ps3 is 4D because it looks really good and its bigger than all the other consoles so it better.

That is the most logical thing I have ever heard.

NOT

[cloud_952]

-_-;; that's bs and an abuse of the term '4D'. If they want to coin a cool new research term, go ahead, but it's NOT four dimensions. Stuff like that's massively annoying and misleading.

[bah]

All other games consoles only have games that are still images that never move you see (I dont get why they don't just call them pictures)....

Only the ps3 has movement (time), its one of the great new features. Its almost like your 'playing' the game.

[Cap'n 1time]

-_-;; that's bs and an abuse of the term '4D'. If they want to coin a cool new research term, go ahead, but it's NOT four dimensions. Stuff like that's massively annoying and misleading.

It isnt exactly incorrect to suggest it is capable of displaying 4 spacial dimensions. You are right though, it's still misleading and damn annoying.

[lmtlmt]

hey nice sig cap'n 1time

[F9zDark]

It isnt exactly incorrect to suggest it is capable of displaying 4 spacial dimensions. You are right though, it's still misleading and damn annoying.

I find it very misleading, not from the perspective of whats capable. The 4th dimension as most anyone outside the insane-geometry realm will know of as time. Games have used time (whether it be real-time or CPU time) for years.

Daggerfall had weather that changed with in-game time. Winter months there would be snow on the ground, lakes would be solid, snow would fall, etc.

This was undoubtedly predetermined (if month = 1 then groundtexture = snow), but the perceived effect is the same as "4d textures" to an extent.

The fact that they are called 4d is misleading because, while they have the capacity to change in real-time without being preprogrammed to a set course of change (for instance, they can change periodically, and at random; rather than the example I showed above.

But these textures were seemingly not designed for this purpose. It seems to me from reading about games that use it, that it was solely developed for taking textures that don't exist and making it take any appearance the developers want.

That is the only way a developer could take a game that has a texture set of 1000 megabytes and turn it into a texture that set that takes up 61 kilobytes.

The real term for these "graphics" are Procedural Textures, and fortunately, is a lot less misleading.

Added

Read this, it is far more insightful than that fanboy article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_textures