Rage - Amazing Graphics! - Running at 60FPS on PC & Xbox 360, 30FPS on PS3

Rage is a premier game currently in development at id Software. Rage uses a new custom graphics engine known as the Tech 5, and is said to push consoles to their absolute limits. In fact, Rage is based on next-generation programming technology which will be used in the next generation of consoles. As time has passed, Rage has continued to gain a larger following due to its amazing graphics and game play.

Legendary game developer, John Carmack, has made it clear the Xbox 360 version of Rage will be the best-looking console version of the game – approaching the high-end PC in graphics quality. Unfortunately for PS3 owners, even the developers at id Software have admitted the PS3 version of Rage will not offer the level of graphic quality seen in the PC and Xbox 360 versions. In an interview with Edge magazine, John Carmack specifically said the Xbox 360 version of Rage will match the PC versions frame rate of 60 frames per second, while the PS3 version will run at “Just 20 – 30 frames per second.”

This is ironic, because people originally thought the PS3 version may have an advantage due to the fact that John Carmack had talked about how texture compression might have an impact on graphics. Consequently, people thought the extra space of a blu-ray disc may pay off in Rage. But, less than 1% of games see any form of advantage because of extra space on a blu-ray. Now that Rage is nearly complete, we clearly see texture compression will not be a problem since Microsoft has given approval for the huge Rage game to be released on four DVD discs. If disc swapping is an issue, simply install the game onto your hard drive.

During a recent interview, John Carmack compared the Xbox 360 to the PS3 hardware by telling us “The PS3 lags a little bit behind in terms of getting the performance out of it. The rasteriser is just a little bit slower - no two ways about that.”

John Carmack went on to tell us, "The RSX is slower than what we have in the 360. The CPU is about the same, but the 360 makes it easier to split things off, and that's what a lot of the work has been, splitting it all into jobs on the PS3.”

Rage is not the first game to have significantly better graphics and/or resolution on the Xbox 360. For example, the Xbox 360 version of Soul Calibur 4 runs at a 40% higher resolution in the Xbox 360 version. The PS3 version runs at the standard resolution of 1280x720p, while the Xbox 360 version runs at a resolution of 1365x960p.

Another example is All-Pro Football. One review of this game said, “The Xbox 360 version runs smoothly at 60 frames per second, while the PS3 version struggles to run at 30 frames per second.” This is no surprise considering the Xbox 360 can display nearly twice as many polygons as the PS3.

In technical terms, it all comes down to the specifications of the hardware. The GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) of the Xbox 360 has the ability to display up to 500,000,000 polygons per second. The PS3 GPU has the ability to display up to 275,000,000 polygons per second. This is the reason why Xbox 360 versions of games have smoother frame rates and higher resolution.

After this controversial interview with John Carmack, id Software was flooded with a lot of messages. Most of these messages were from disappointed PS3 owners. These PS3 owners claimed id Software lacked the development talent needed to make the PS3 version as good as the Xbox 360 version. Although the developers at id Software knew this was not true, they still didn’t like the idea of possibly losing sales.

The following statement was issued on Twitter: “The article has caused quite a ruckus. We are committed to ensuring that gamers on all platforms have a great RAGE experience.”

But this apparently didn’t keep the knowledgeable PS3 fans happy. These fans knew 60 frames per second looks much smoother than 30 frames per second. And a frame rate as low as 20 frames per second can look bad at times.

Consequently, id Software released another update saying: “Everything is designed as a 60 hertz game. We expect this to be 60 hertz on every supported platform.” The developers at id Software go on to say “The work remaining is getting it locked so there's never a dropped frame or a tear, but we're confident that we're going to get that.”

For those of you who don’t know, your TV set runs at either 60hz or a multiple of 60hz. This is referred to as the “refresh rate,” because it represents how many times your TV screen is updated each second. For example, most LCD HDTV sets on the market nowadays run at either 60hz, 120hz, or 240hz. Most Plasma HDTV sets are very smooth and run at 600hz.

Each of the native 60hz in the game are handled by the videogame hardware, while multiples of 60 are handled by separate video processors found in HDTV sets in order to add smoothness. The reason why 60hz is so important is because 30 progressive frames per second represents 60 interlaced fields per second. A field is a half-frame. If the PS3 version could reach 30 frames per second (rather than 20 frames per second), it would represent a large step in quality. 60 is only one multiple from 30 – every field could be transformed into a frame relatively easily in a way that is optimized for performance at 60hz.

The Xbox 360 and PC versions will run at an incredibly smooth 60 frames per second. This means each of the 60 hertz (screen updates) will be completely filled with data. You will be looking at progressive frames rather than interlaced fields. So there is no doubt the Xbox 360 and PC versions will in fact be noticeably smoother, even if the PS3 version reaches 30 frames (60 interlaced fields) per second.

Currently the graphics champion on any console is the Xbox 360 version of Crysis 2. The candidates for King of Graphics all use next-generation technology and will be released within the next year. From what I’ve seen, Gears of War 3, Rage, and Forza Motorsport 4 really are the leaders of the pack. Games like Mass Effect 3 and Uncharted 3 are definitely impressive, but they are based on previous graphics engines and do not represent next-generation technology. It will be interesting to see what happens at E3!

This video of Rage is awesome! The game starts out very similar to a Starship Troopers style theme. Rather than squashing "bugs" you will be squashing "mutants," right? WRONG! Apparently you will be fighting humans, too!

More Rage Videos

You can take a look at another video here. This video shows you driving, talking with humans, and fighting with mutants, zombies, and robots. You can also preorder Rage on Amazon, which I suggest you do.