Playstation 4 Catch-All

Trashie wrote:

This might be a general AV question but I'll start here as it's specific to Spiderman on the PS4. Basically, only when playing Spiderman, my audio will cut out for a second and the screen will flash white. I only have this problem with Spiderman. Faulty HDMI cable?

It's definitely the first thing to check. Could just be loose or the cable might have gone bad. It's possible that you're pushing more data through it than it can handle, but that would be odd if you've never experienced that problem before with any other games.

JC wrote:
Trashie wrote:

This might be a general AV question but I'll start here as it's specific to Spiderman on the PS4. Basically, only when playing Spiderman, my audio will cut out for a second and the screen will flash white. I only have this problem with Spiderman. Faulty HDMI cable?

It's definitely the first thing to check. Could just be loose or the cable might have gone bad. It's possible that you're pushing more data through it than it can handle, but that would be odd if you've never experienced that problem before with any other games.

As I've been thinking about it, it might be related to adding the PSVR setup to the AV mix. While I can't recall having issues with Spiderman before adding the VR to the system, I'm also seeing some weird HDMI handshake issues where for the first five minutes I have the system on, I'll get an "blink" where every 10 seconds or so, the screen and sound will go black.

I'll try replacing the new HDMI that was added to the system (fortunately, it's clearly labeled). See what that does.

Do you have HDR enabled? I read something not too long ago that the PSVR breakout box doesn't support it.

Concur. The PS4 appears to be sensitive to HDMI cable quality/specification.

vypre wrote:

Do you have HDR enabled? I read something not too long ago that the PSVR breakout box doesn't support it.

I do have HDR enabled. I believe the V2 PSVR headsets support HDR pass-through. I'll try the cables first - the weird blink on other games (like Apex which doesn't have any HDR) makes me think something is up with the cable they provided.

Trashie wrote:
vypre wrote:

Do you have HDR enabled? I read something not too long ago that the PSVR breakout box doesn't support it.

I do have HDR enabled. I believe the V2 PSVR headsets support HDR pass-through. I'll try the cables first - the weird blink on other games (like Apex which doesn't have any HDR) makes me think something is up with the cable they provided.

Just to confirm - the launch PSVR blocks HDR information, but the current v2 PSVR does not. In fact, I discovered just last night if you try to enable HDR in the PS4 OS with a v1 PSVR it will specifically tell you it can't because of the model PSVR that's hooked up.

Which means when my remarkably-still-going-strong ten-plus-year-old HDTV finally dies there will be an extra bit of cash I'll have to shell out for a replacement.

I have had it where pretty regularly (usually within the first few minutes of playing a game) the screen will go blank and sound will cut out. Only for a second or two and then it reliably comes back on. I guess I always figured it had to do with the HDMI cable as well.

PSN name change finally launched.

Apparently there are some games where changing will break trophies, saves, or even currency you may have purchased. So be careful.

First hit is free. And reverting to original ID is also free. $10 for other changes.

Honestly the only thing stopping me from changing my XBL and PSN IDs is that they match my username here. But maybe I'll change them anyway...

Grr.. Somebody already had Tanglebones, so I'm Tanglebones_Rob now, instead of my AIM name that's been unused for almost 15 years

Tanglebones wrote:

Grr.. Somebody already had Tanglebones, so I'm Tanglebones_Rob now, instead of my AIM name that's been unused for almost 15 years

Maybe you could convince the PSN tanglebones to swap with you.

If nothing else, it would make for a fun IRL re-enactment of the origin story of Lord Smoked-Meats-And-Fishes.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

Grr.. Somebody already had Tanglebones, so I'm Tanglebones_Rob now, instead of my AIM name that's been unused for almost 15 years

Maybe you could convince the PSN tanglebones to swap with you.

If nothing else, it would make for a fun IRL re-enactment of the origin story of Lord Smoked-Meats-And-Fishes.

If I never made any effort to get the Twitter one to swap with me, I'm definitely not going to expend any on PSN

Wired has an exclusive featured regarding the next PlayStation console.

There's not really a lot to go off of. They remark that it will be 8K capable, and all the other fancy boosted hardware talk that ensures better looking graphics but not necessarily better performance. Ray tracing capability is discussed, though I feel like I read somewhere that a lot of modern implementations of ray tracing are imitation or simulation? Like, close to but not actually. Someone else with more knowledge can clear that up. Regardless, while Cerny didn't say anything more than confirm Sony's devotion to PSVR, I wouldn't be surprised if that's part of the reason the system is packing the power it is (and would consequently be capable of supporting 8K).

What will no doubt please everyone is confirmation that the PS5 will accept physical media and is backwards-compatible with PS4. So your library will still be relevant.

The new bit of hardware that has my interest is the fact that they're using a Solid State Drive that has been optimized specifically for the system's purpose. At the same time, SSDs are expensive, and the PS4 takes a 2TB standard hard drive at most. Similarly, if this SSD truly is optimized, does that mean we're right back to having to purchase Xbox 360 brand hard drives? Or am I misunderstanding what's being communicated by Cerny and the article's author? Because their wording makes it seem like this isn't just any off-the-shelf SSD.

Regardless, I'm not sure I'll be in day one as it seems like this thing could easily go for $500 minimum already. I'll be glad to make the migration and yet still retain my entire PS4 library when I do, though.

If it truly has BC I will be an early adopter even if the 500 dollar price tag is accurate.

Sounds interesting, I agree that it doesn't sound like an off-the-shelf SSD drive. I know after the PS4 came out folks did various comparisons of loading times between HDD and SSDs, and the results weren't dramatic. Cutting a 15sec load time to 0.8sec is pretty nice, but I do hope we're not locked into a Sony branded drive. Their pricing on such things in the past has been predatory.

Backwards compatibility is always nice, it sounds like MS won the marketing war there, even if it's a feature most folks don't/won't use after a while. Hopefully they don't yank that support like they did with the early PS3 models that had PS2 compatibility. I suspect it's hardware compatibility though, so I'm not as worried about that.

I'll likely be on board, though of course how soon will depend on what the launch titles are, as always.

Fastmav347 wrote:

If it truly has BC I will be an early adopter even if the 500 dollar price tag is accurate.

Yeah, that absolutely helps fill in the gap of cost.

Then again, Xbox is offering it without the extra premium.

I think Chris was just guessing at the price, I don’t think there was anything stated or otherwise rumored?

There was a rumor/leak the PS5 would be $499.

If it isn't launching for another year, even Sony likely haven't decided on a price.
A bit hard to see how they can fit in an SSD, of a usable size, for a reasonable price though.
BC sounds nice. Not extremely important, but nice to have. Well, as long as it means your PSN games are also available, and not just discs. Not entirely sure I have any discs for my PS4.

I have never bought a console at launch, but if PS5 ends up with a decent line-up, which it seems like it might, considering the upcoming 'PS4 games' missing in action, this might be the time. Though, in reality, the one game I care about is Horizon 2. Assuming Last of Us 2 will be cross-generation.

beanman101283 wrote:

Sounds interesting, I agree that it doesn't sound like an off-the-shelf SSD drive. I know after the PS4 came out folks did various comparisons of loading times between HDD and SSDs, and the results weren't dramatic. Cutting a 15sec load time to 0.8sec is pretty nice, but I do hope we're not locked into a Sony branded drive. Their pricing on such things in the past has been predatory.

I bought an external SSD last year, and it makes a huge difference for some games. I'm talking less than half the time on some big loads. Here are some numbers for Monster Hunter World, Bloodborne, and Destiny 2.

beanman101283 wrote:

Hopefully they don't yank that support like they did with the early PS3 models that had PS2 compatibility.

PS3 was the most trash, half-assed "backwards compatibility" all around. It "could play PS1 games", but some of the ones I tried had very obvious visual glitches and other errors that made it pointless. All the digital downloads had some level of codework and emulation done to get them running as close to the original as possible, just like PS2 games on PS4 have. I remember shortly after launch there were laundry lists of classic PS2 titles that had issues and couldn't even be played on PS3, and Sony never bothered to address it because... well, Cell Processor headaches, no doubt. They "removed support" because the actual "support" was nonexistent.

That PS5 shares PS4 architecture means it'll be closer to, say, Wii and GameCube, or WiiU and Wii, where it's able to play the prior generation's titles due to similarities inside the machine.

steinkrug wrote:

I think Chris was just guessing at the price, I don’t think there was anything stated or otherwise rumored?

garion333 wrote:

There was a rumor/leak the PS5 would be $499.

Steinkrug was right in that I was guessing, as I hadn't heard any rumors. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony is looking at $500 for now, but I also wouldn't be surprised that they're waiting to see what Microsoft puts their NeXtBox at before announcing anything official.

The early snippets sound really good, I'm glad Sony seem to be going all for a powerful next gen effort with big leaps forward in processing, sound & the unexpected news of a highly optimised SSD.

The backwards compatibility wasn't a must have personally for me but a great feature to have nonetheless (thanks to Microsoft for that). Better still would be that games that are 30fps on PS4 running at 60fps on PS5 at 4K, Uncharted 4 & The Witcher 3 being on my wishlist in that regard.

It does seem likely that the PS5 launch price will clock in at £450 odd ($500) with all these components. I'd love to see real leaps forward in physics & A.I for next gen consoles, which the new processors should allow for. I can see a late 2020 launch happening.

Dyni wrote:
beanman101283 wrote:

Sounds interesting, I agree that it doesn't sound like an off-the-shelf SSD drive. I know after the PS4 came out folks did various comparisons of loading times between HDD and SSDs, and the results weren't dramatic. Cutting a 15sec load time to 0.8sec is pretty nice, but I do hope we're not locked into a Sony branded drive. Their pricing on such things in the past has been predatory.

I bought an external SSD last year, and it makes a huge difference for some games. I'm talking less than half the time on some big loads. Here are some numbers for Monster Hunter World, Bloodborne, and Destiny 2.

Nice, i was basing my statement from things I saw two or three years ago, so I'm glad the situation's improved there.

Didn't read the article yet, but does it mention built-in VR? If so, that would be worth $500 to me. Otherwise, not so much.

I think that BC is absolutely must-have for the new generation of consoles. Their target market has grown up in a world where digital purchases carry over from on phone to the next, provided you maintain OS continuity. For the major console developers to say “all those digital purchases you made last gen? Yeah, they’re gone now” would not, I think, go over very well. If they’re trying to compete with phones, and this half-step console business indicates that they clearly are, then backward compatibility is a marketing necessity.

Physical disc compatibility, now that’s the thing that’s less critical since the trend is away from physical media anyway. But being able to redownload old purchases is bare-minimum customer service these days.

Or maybe I’m wrong and nobody think of game ownership like that anymore. I mean, they play competitive shooters using touch screens, and actually seem to enjoy it, so who knows what the new generation is thinking.

ccesarano wrote:

PS3 was the most trash, half-assed "backwards compatibility" all around. It "could play PS1 games", but some of the ones I tried had very obvious visual glitches and other errors that made it pointless. All the digital downloads had some level of codework and emulation done to get them running as close to the original as possible, just like PS2 games on PS4 have. I remember shortly after launch there were laundry lists of classic PS2 titles that had issues and couldn't even be played on PS3, and Sony never bothered to address it because... well, Cell Processor headaches, no doubt. They "removed support" because the actual "support" was nonexistent...

I don't own any PS1 games, but my memory was different launch models of PS3 had either hardware-based backwards compatibility with PS2 (essentially a PS2 inside the PS3) or software-based backwards compatibility. I had the full hardware-based BC model (came with a 60 GB drive), and never had an issue with the 20 or so PS2 games I tried on it (including finally finishing Beyond Good And Evil, and my 3rd and 4th runs through Shadow Of The Colossus). In addition to playing the games without issue, it did a great job of upscaling them, adding additional anti-aliasing, and supporting progressive rather than interlaced display if the original games did. Obviously my sample isn't comprehensive, but for all the PS2 games I tried on it the hardware-based BC PS3 was a superior way to play PS2 games.

And of course the digitally-downloaded PS1 games have nothing to do with the console's own backwards compatibility, as those are expressly wrapped in their own emulator that plays the same regardless of any backwards compatibility the console may have. They're PS3 games running PS1 assets, and any issues with them are about the implementation of the individual emulator, not the console.

Yeah, I was thinking of the hardware-based PS2 compatibility that the original PS3's had. Eventually they removed that.

I like the sound of the SSD performance, but it's hard to believe that they're going to put what they describe as a much better than average SSD in there for a reasonable price. I think they learned their lesson with the PS3 that $600 is a non-starter.

To my mind, if they want to offer different price points, like both the Xbox One X and PS4Pro represent, they can offer both SSD and traditional hard drives. However, the discussion about HD speed limiting gameplay in Spider-Man makes it sound like they're all-in on the tech.

Personally, I love the idea of SSDs in consoles, and I hope MS has similar plans.

There is a good deal to the re-architecture of subsystems and how textures are compressed and loading that impacts speeds beyond the SSD. You can add an SSD to the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X with minimal changes in loading times today.

I suspect what is happening is a complete overhaul to increase bandwidth and loading speeds that relies on the speed of an SSD and would go to waste if you had a traditional magnetic platter HD.

Remains to be seen if this means that the PS5 will essentially be a complete generation update that would require new OS and thus new "platform" with Devs now having to build two separate versions of games one for the PS5 platform and one for the PS4 platform.

If I had to guess.. Sony will go this route.. and Microsoft will go the incremental refresh route.. We will see which route gamers and devs reward.

Evan E wrote:

I don't own any PS1 games, but my memory was different launch models of PS3 had either hardware-based backwards compatibility with PS2 (essentially a PS2 inside the PS3) or software-based backwards compatibility. I had the full hardware-based BC model (came with a 60 GB drive), and never had an issue with the 20 or so PS2 games I tried on it (including finally finishing Beyond Good And Evil, and my 3rd and 4th runs through Shadow Of The Colossus). In addition to playing the games without issue, it did a great job of upscaling them, adding additional anti-aliasing, and supporting progressive rather than interlaced display if the original games did. Obviously my sample isn't comprehensive, but for all the PS2 games I tried on it the hardware-based BC PS3 was a superior way to play PS2 games.

And of course the digitally-downloaded PS1 games have nothing to do with the console's own backwards compatibility, as those are expressly wrapped in their own emulator that plays the same regardless of any backwards compatibility the console may have. They're PS3 games running PS1 assets, and any issues with them are about the implementation of the individual emulator, not the console.

beanman101283 wrote:

Yeah, I was thinking of the hardware-based PS2 compatibility that the original PS3's had. Eventually they removed that.

Hrm. I could be recalling incorrectly then. I know mine was a "slim" PS3 model, so it would have lacked the backwards compatibility tech, which also means my experience using a PSOne disc was not the same as the original PS3. I could have sworn, however, that I read about games like Devil May Cry and even Metal Gear Solid having issues on the original PS3 systems.

PaladinTom wrote:

Didn't read the article yet, but does it mention built-in VR? If so, that would be worth $500 to me. Otherwise, not so much.

No mention of built-in, just that Sony is dedicated to pursuing VR. Given the system's specs, I think it's blatantly obvious they're trying to have better hardware for handling VR, and features like 8K capability are just the bonus for those not using VR.