3D Super Stardust boosts 2D performance

By Richard Leadbetter Published 12 June, 2010

1080p60, extra AA, split-screen upgrades.

Housemarque has said that the 3D update to its stunning PSN shooter, Super Stardust HD, also significantly boosts elements of the existing 2D version of the game.

Writing for the official PlayStation Blog, Housemarque CEO and co-founder Ilari Kuittinen said that the original Super Stardust HD only utilised around 50 per cent of the SPU power available, so the original game code was upgraded to run in the studio's brand new engine.

Housemarque talked about this process in a Digital Foundry interview back in January. The enhanced tech, combined with the SPU overhead, made an effective 720p120 a reality, but also allowed for improved graphical fidelity in 2D mode.

The original game's 1080p mode actually ran at 1280x1080, with the hardware upscaler expanding the image outwards to simulate full HD. The new engine sees Super Stardust HD running at the full 1920x1080 at 60FPS for the first time. The game's 720p mode also gets a useful boost in terms of image quality with anti-aliasing bumped up to full 4x MSAA.

There's also a very useful performance upgrade for those who purchased the additional split-screen co-op pack. The existing Super Stardust runs this section of the game at 30FPS. Thanks to the upgrades added for the 3D version of the game, the horsepower is not there to boost this to a full 60FPS.

Kuittinen also revealed that development on the 3D upgrade was actually carried out without access to any of the new Bravia 3DTV tech.

"We had the first 3D version of SSHD running in autumn 2009. We didn't have a proper 3D television at that time and we had to use paper anaglyph red-and-green (or cyan to be exact) glasses to see the 3D image on our monitors," he said. "The images we could produce didn't even have proper colour in them, but it was still really impressive."

Suffice to say, even if you don't own one of the new 3D sets, the new update is well worth a download, especially as it's free.

Picture of Richard.

About Richard Leadbetter

Rich has been a games journalist since the days of 16-bit and specialises in technical analysis. Commonly known around Eurogamer as the Blacksmith of the Future.

Read more articles from Richard by visiting the Richard Leadbetter archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Skire #1 2 years ago

    wow that's really impressive!

  • JHuxley #2 2 years ago

    Honestly, that's pretty damn impressive.

    It was a very nice looking game to begin with, but true 1080p and 60fps...wow.

    Very much looking forward to their zombie shooter...

  • galerian86 #3 2 years ago

    That's awesome. If only they could include online co-op as well....

    What? A man can wish, can't he?

  • Crembo #4 2 years ago

    Red-green? Maybe red-blue. Colour blind, lol.

  • StooMonster #5 2 years ago

    DigitalFoundry: "with the hardware upscaler"

    Sorry to be pedantic, but I'm under the impression that PS3 doesn't have a dedicated hardware upscaler such as the Xbox 360's Ana chip; and that's why there were all the (initial?) problems with outputting video at different resolutions.

    Is that not the case, does the PS3 have a hardware upscaler after all?

  • INSOMANiAC #6 2 years ago

    Ooo, a patch that improves a game, thats pretty damn impressive

  • superjag86 #7 2 years ago

    @StooMonster:

    There isn't a dedicated hardware scaler like the 360 has but I believe it is the RSX that is used.

  • RandomTerrain #8 2 years ago

    Such a good game, but I already have all the trophies for it!
    Still, I'd love to try it on a 3D television anyway, it does sound pretty amazing.

  • Arwin #9 2 years ago

    RSX can hardware scale horizontally, but not vertically.

  • Darren #10 2 years ago

    Is this update v5.0 because, if so, I was prompted to install it when I tried to load SSHD but it never starts, instead my PS3 beeps and then restarts. Has anyone else been able to update?

  • StooMonster #11 2 years ago

    Ah ha, thanks for clarification chaps.

  • chessboxer #12 2 years ago

    This is one of the best games on the PSN. Geat work from Housemarque.

    @ Darren

    "Is this update v5.0 because, if so, I was prompted to install it when I tried to load SSHD but it never starts, instead my PS3 beeps and then restarts. Has anyone else been able to update?"

    This seems to be a common issue since the latest update (it might be a safety feature to help prevent data corruption that has been implemented). What you need to do is wait for the HDD activity light to stop flashing before you accept the update.

  • omisnad73 #13 2 years ago

    @ Darren

    It didnt install for me 1st time. 2nd time of trying it worked fine. Maybe chessboxers theory is correct.

  • Darren #14 2 years ago

    @omisnad73 & chessboxer - Thanks for the help. I'm now downloading the new update. Stupid bug but very Sony nevertheless!

  • Vitor #15 2 years ago

    Never bought this game but have to say this and all the positive reviews have my interest peaked... Might take the plunge and download finally

  • johngrat #16 2 years ago

    Custom soundtracks have been removed since the update. Boooooo

  • Retroid #17 2 years ago

    Oooh, handy! \o/

    Nice to get at least some benefit from this.

  • mgillespie #18 2 years ago

    @StooMonster

    PS3 has always had a hardware scaler. It was initially locked out when the PS3 launched, and the API not available for developers to use. Microsoft's viral marketing department (with the help of Xbox fanboy sites like Eurogamer, Joystiq and Kotku) then set to work to spread the no-scaler FUD.

    the reality of course:
    Version 2.20 firmware unlocked the API for horizontal upscaling in hardware.
    Version 2.80 firmware unlocked the API for vertical upscaling in hardware.

    [link url=h ttp://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2007/01/6783.ars
    ]http://ar stechnica.com/gaming/news/2007/...[/link]

    We don't know, but the suggestion it was originally locked out, was because there may have been issues with it at launch, so the API was removed, and only added back in when the firmware updates addressed the bugs.

    Either way, ALL PS3's have a full hardware scaler, and an extremely good one at that (much better than the turd that's in the XBox). If you have seen the PS3 DVD upscaling in action, it easilly outclasses a £1500 pro Denon DVD upscaler.

  • Johnson #19 2 years ago

    >> The existing Super Stardust runs this section of the game at 30FPS. Thanks to the upgrades added for the 3D version of the game, the horsepower is not there to boost this to a full 60FPS.

    Isn't it? Oh dear, never mind.

  • woodnotes #20 2 years ago

    @mgillespie

    If that's the case, then why don't all PS3 games upscale to 1080p like they do (extremely well) on the 360?

  • freakzilla #21 2 years ago

    I love people these people. They're always the first at doing the new things, first (or thereabouts) to support trophies, custom music and now 3d.

  • hesido #22 2 years ago

    @johngrat: The custom soundtrack is not gone, but your music should be playable through XMB, I read somewhere (didn't check it myself, tho)

  • Widge #23 2 years ago

    Think that should be "now" rather than "not"

  • MaoZedong #24 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:40:08 17-12-2011

  • hesido #25 2 years ago

    @chessboxer, @darren:
    I had the exact same problem, my Ps3 reset trying to update. Like you said, I waited quite a while for the HD activity to finish, there was still a blink every once or two seconds, but it managed to start installation after then. Thanks for the tip, but this is a very nasty bug. How will an ordinary, or even a seasoned user will think about waiting for the right time? Sony should fix this asap.

  • Darren #26 2 years ago

    Can anyone tell the difference between the old 1280x1080p scaling and true 1920x1080p in this latest build because I'll be damned if I can. I guess that just shows how effective the horizontal scaling was. Housemarque would have been better off adding 2xAA really and keeping the scaling.

  • StooMonster #27 2 years ago

    mgillespie: "easilly outclasses a £1500 pro Denon DVD upscaler"

    Interestingly, one of my friends designs the chips that Denon (and others) use for deinterlacing and upscaling in their high end solutions. :)

    By what measure do you claim that PS3's upscaling "outclasses" this technology? I assume that you have a said "£1500 Pro Denon" that you can directly compare with your PS3? Also that you've run benchmark discs and tests through the PS3 and done same against your £1500 Pro Denon player? Such as Spears & Munsil, HQV, ABT and have done so after calibrating your video with Avia, GetGrey, and Digital Video Essential or even a humble THX setup?

    No mention that PS3 overscans DVDs and truncates the sides when in 'Normal' mode? I am sure in your comparison you selected 'Full' (which doesn't)?

    Now I haven't benchmarked deinterlacing performance of consoles, but I am under the impression that the PS3 isn't that hot at cadence detection and in particular the 2:2 pattern with which 25p content is encoded in 'PAL' territories (3:2 pattern for 24p in 60i 'NTSC' is easy to detect); and that it subsequently defaults to 'video' rather than 'film' deinterlacing which produces moiré artefacts. Hey, but I've only heard that, not seen it.

  • StooMonster #28 2 years ago

    Darren: Can anyone tell the difference between the old 1280x1080p scaling and true 1920x1080p in this latest build because I'll be damned if I can.

    It's harder to distinguish changes in horizontal resolution than vertical, remember all the "HD Ready" screens that were 1024x768 with very rectangular pixels in 16:9 ratio? Not many people noticed because of this.

    Similarly, ITV HD broadcast in 960x1080i (half-horizontal resolution) which is then upscaled to 1920x1080i precisely because they know most people won't notice. They've done similar for years, using 544x576i rather than 720x576i but then many people notice that their SD output sometimes looks like YouTube.

    Therefore it's no surprise that it will be difficult to see the difference on a 1080p display; but on a lower resolution "HD Ready" (e.g. 1366x768) it will be impossible to tell the difference as the downscaling to native resolution will remove any difference between the two during the interpolation.

  • Lee_Morris #29 2 years ago

    I went to the Sony store in Leeds today. Even though I couldn't play it we got to see a video with the glasses and this game looks like it was made for 3D. The sphericalness of the the planets stood out more and you could get more of sense of the asteroids falling towards the planet. If this is a indicator of the quality of Sony's 3D output then I may have to buy a new TV in the new year.