Epic Games’ Global Illumination technique is called Sparse Voxel Octree Global Illumination (SVOGI), a technique that was developed by Andrew Scheidecker. Despite what Epic Games showcased at last year’s GDC, it seems that this technique is too heavy for actual games.

Sweeney told GameTrailers that SVOGI was extremely expensive. Therefore, Epic Games decided to create a series of graphical effects that achieve the same image fidelity as SVOGI with far better performance.

Global Illumination refers to the calculation of light bouncing around a scene and gives realistic glossy and metallic reflections.
This means that UE4 supports realistic real-time reflections, realistic lighting, and a combination of direct lighting with pre-computed Global Illumination.

As Sweeney stated, the aforementioned features enabled them to achieve that level of effects of SVOGI without all the cost.

At the PlayStation Meeting, some amazing graphics using the replica of SVOGI were shown. Considering how the games have looked so far for the PS4, none of the console gamers have complained.

The post PS4: Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney Explains Lack Of Global Illumination In Unreal Engine 4 appeared first on PlayStation Gang.

Check out Yoshida’s comments on a host of topics below.

Possibility of PS4 blocking used games

When you purchase the disc-based games on PS4, it should work on any hardware. So that’s what I’m saying.

Whether or not the PS Vita price cut in Japan will become effective worldwide

No, it’s not. It’s a region-by-region-based decision. Always.

Activation codes for secondhand PS4 titles

It’s a publisher decision. We are not talking about it. Sorry.

Sony’s decision not to show PS4 hardware during the announcement

I’m sorry we did not show the hardware. But we have plans from now–in February–through the year for the launch. We like to disclose things based on what we think we really want to communicate first. And next time we will talk about these things.

3D support for PS4

No, it’s not a focus, but it does [support 3D]. More games will run at 1080p and 60 frames per second, so it’s an easier and better experience when you watch on 3D TV. We like what we can do on PS3 using 3D, but now the consumer electronics side [of Sony Corp.] has shifted focus from 3D TV to something else, so if they are not talking about it, why are we?

4K support for PS4

The official answer is the PS4 supports 4K output, but does for personal content like photos and videos, not games. PS4 games do not work on 4K.

Support for legacy platforms now that the PS4 has been announced

So we have Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls coming out this year; these are pretty big titles. And after that we haven’t announced any new software for PS3.

The possibility of bringing PS3 titles to PS4

It’s an interesting concept. We’ve been upgrading PS2 games to PS3 with better resolution and better frame rate. And people love it. So I think at some point it makes sense and it’s great for developers to be able to develop some things that they missed or couldn’t get working properly on the older hardware because of the performance to be able to make it better for newer hardware. So we are open to look at that.

Gaikai integration for PS4 launch titles

So we are saying virtually every PS4 game will be playable on PS Vita via Remote Play. I would be heartbroken if it doesn’t day one. On day one, my expectation is that we have to have all games work on PS Vita.

Whether or not Sony would acquire Quantic Dream

We don’t look at developers in the world who are making great games for some other publisher and say, ‘We have to acquire them.” We never do that. The way we acquire developers, when we do, is the natural evolution of the relationship that develops. When it makes sense, we sign a deal. In terms of Quantic, we worked with them on Heavy Rain, and we are working with them on Beyond: Two Souls, and they are showing something very interesting on PS4. So we are definitely developing that stronger relations and we love them as well.

Possibility of PlayStation App store

Personally, I would like to see that. Our PlayStation Mobile is really targeting to do that so smaller developers can really publish from the countries we support. But on the console side, for the PS3 and PS Vita, we still treat publishing like our disc-based model in terms of certification, approval, quality assurance. So we are discussing internally how we can make it a bit more open or a bit easier especially for smaller developers to publish. Because we totally believe in the importance of supporting these smaller developers because they provide really unique and interesting ideas to the platforms.

What the PlayStation 4 Eye Camera is capable of

The PS4 Eye has two HD cameras, and these two cameras can be used in several different ways. One way is to use it for triangulation, so that space in front of the camera can be measured so that when you do this [motions with his hands] the game knows you are doing this. The other way is to make the augmented reality games like Wonderbook, using one camera for the video streaming, the other camera to…optimize for that task.

We totally believe in the importance of supporting these smaller developers because they provide really unique and interesting ideas to the platforms.

Whether or not the PS4 will be region-locked

I know the answer, but I don’t want to be quoted and get a call from my PR guy saying, ‘What did you say?’

Whether or not PSN will remain free for PS4

We totally believe that we want to provide more functionality and more services and more content on the network. And so we are looking at how we are going to structure that. And we are not ready to talk about that.

Possibility of backward compatibility for PS3 discs

No. You can quote me on that.

Whether or not the PS4 will make another appearance before E3

[Looks at PR rep] I hope not (laughs).

Whether or not The Last Guardian is still a PS3 game

I’m not ready to talk about it. Sorry. Because we’ve broken promises [before], we are waiting for the right time to reintroduce The Last Guardian.

Status of Rockstar’s Agent and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy Versus

You are asking the wrong person. I have some knowledge, but I’m not in a position to talk about it.

The post Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida Gives Lots Of Information On PS4 appeared first on PlayStation Gang.

If you can’t outweigh the pain of potential inconvenience to whatever proportion of your audience, then you simply aren’t going to win that battle.

Sony Computer Entertainment seems to have reached this conclusion at a system level for the PlayStation 4. As a result, the new console will do pretty much whatever you want it to do when it comes to the internet.

Sony’s super-slick PS4 conference talked about a lot of functionality that will clearly benefit from an internet connection more than ever before.

Does the PlayStation 4 always need to be connected to the internet?

“You can play offline, but you may want to keep it connected,” Shuhei Yoshida suggested. “The system has the low-power mode – I don’t know the official term – that the main system is shut down but the subsystem is awake. Downloading or updating or you can wake it up using either the tablet, smartphone or PS Vita.”

Are all of those things optional? For people who have broadband data limits, for example? They can customize everything?

“Oh yes, yes, you can go offline totally. Social is big for us, but we understand there are some people who are anti-social! So if you don’t want to connect to anyone else, you can do that.”

Sony clearly isn’t afraid of technical nuance. This is a company that announced its next-generation console by declaring it has an x86 architecture, advanced PC GPU, 8GB of GDDR5 memory and a massive hard disk. You may like some of its networking ideas, but Sony obviously has other priorities.

The post The PS4 Can Be Customized And Will Not Require Internet Connection appeared first on PlayStation Gang.

Square Enix CTO Yoshihasa Hashimoto took the stage at the PlayStation Meeting to explain how Square’s powerful new Luminous Engine will work on the console. He introduced a “cinematic demo” on stage that seems to be the same Agni’s Philosophy demo shown off at E3 last year.

The Final Fantasy director Shinji Hashimoto also appeared on stage to announce a next-gen Final Fantasy title for the PlayStation 4.

“Please be excited for E3 this year,” Hashimoto-san said.

The post New Final Fantasy Game Announced at PlayStation Meeting appeared first on PlayStation Gang.

The game will have fullscreen 4 player co-op and playable demos will be made available at PAX East.

Blizzard Entertainment thinks the PS4 is looking “killer” and is “happy to partner with Sony.”

The post Diablo 3 Announced For PS4 And PS3 appeared first on PlayStation Gang.

The new 3D PS Move can create ideas and 3D sculpting. Simply hold the controller and click to assemble your dream. Sony wanted to change music, gaming, etc., and with the new 3D PS Move, they believe they have.

You can watch the trailer tease down below

More details as they arrive.

The post 3D PS Move Revealed At PlayStation Meeting 2013 appeared first on PlayStation Gang.

The gameplay shown at the event shows the action unfold, taking complete advantage of the new processing and graphical power of the PlayStation 4.

Killzone: Shadow Fall is a story about a loss of home, search for a new home, and the lengths people will go to defend it. The demo showed some really nice looking visuals as well as a very realistic look on lighting and normal human interaction.

In the demo we saw that guns can switch between scopes and reload regularly. You can climb buildings, hide behind cover, throw grenades, and use c4. We also saw some slow motion action similar to Black Ops 2.

The post Killzone: Shadow Fall Announced for PS4 appeared first on PlayStation Gang.

The trailer for what can be seen as an amazing new IP was shown during the Playstation Meeting taking place live right now. The game is taking full advantage of the DDR5 graphical power that would normally be seen in high end PC rigs.

The game looks very interesting with a creature that seems to be made out of blocks who fights goblins. Check out the debut trailer.

The post Knack Announced for PlayStation 4 appeared first on PlayStation Gang.