DivX video encoding now available to PS3 game developers

[NeoPlayStation]

DivX Video Encoding Now Available to PS3 Game Developers

The availability of DivX video encoding technology will enable developers to take full advantage of DivX compression technology while maintaining the integrity of high quality video. PS3 is the first gaming system capable of playing back DivX video.

"We are excited to work with Sony Computer Entertainment to offer DivX video encoding to PS3 game developers," said Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. "PS3 users can already use their PS3s to watch their own DivX videos, and now they'll also be able to enjoy the quality of DivX in the games."

Products that bear the DivX Certified(R) logo have undergone a rigorous testing program to ensure a high-quality DivX media experience that includes reliable video playback and excellent visual quality. DivX is currently working to certify PS3 in order to provide a superior digital media experience to PS3 consumers in the near future.

For more information on PlayStation, visit www.playstation.com.

For more information on DivX, visit www.divx.com.

About DivX, Inc.

DivX, Inc. is a digital media company that enables consumers to enjoy a high-quality video experience across any kind of device. DivX creates, distributes and licenses digital video technologies that span the "three screens" comprising today's consumer media environment--the PC, the television and mobile devices. Over 100 million DivX
Certified(R) devices have shipped into the market from leading consumer electronics manufacturers. DivX also offers content providers and publishers a complete solution for the distribution of secure, high-quality digital video content. Driven by a globally recognized brand and a passionate community of hundreds of millions of consumers,
DivX is simplifying the video experience to enable the digital home.

[b]Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature constitute "forward-looking statements." Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding DivX's visibility within the investment community. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause DivX's actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to: the risk that customer use of DivX technology may
not grow as anticipated; the risk that anticipated market opportunities may not materialize at expected levels, or at all; the risk that the Company's activities may not result in the growth of profitable revenue; risks and uncertainties related to the maintenance
and strength of the DivX brand; risks associated with DivX's ability to penetrate existing and new markets; risks regarding the effects of competition; DivX's dependence on its licensees and partners; the effect of intellectual property rights claims; and other factors
discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of DivX's quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities Exchange Commission on May 9, 2008. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. DivX is providing this information as of the date of this release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

"PLAYSTATION" is a registered trademark and "PS3" is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

DivX, Inc.
Media Contact:
Genevieve Gutierrez, 858-882-0892
ggutierrez@divxcorp.com
or
Investor Contact:
Karen Fisher, 858-882-6415
kfisher@divxcorp.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008

Source: Reuters

Good for PSN games developers.

[VG Aficionado]

I thought they could do this already. I believe Lair's cutscenes use DivX.

What would be interesting is whether this means PS3 will become a DivX certified device soon, as they're working on it.

[NeoPlayStation]

I thought they could do this already. I believe Lair's cutscenes use DivX.

What would be interesting is whether this means PS3 will become a DivX certified device soon, as they're working on it.

Video Store?

[cliffbo]

pity this wasn't available to Kojoma, then he could have used even more of the 50GB!

[Sephiroth_VII]

They said they were working on making it DivX certified way back in fall 2007, so it should be ready soon :)

[VG Aficionado]

pity this wasn't available to Kojoma, then he could have used even more of the 50GB!

MGS4's scenes are real time, man.

Video Store?
Yeah, good point.

[cliffbo]

LOL... it's a typo fella (Kojima).

edit: yeah my bad... i remember that now

[Killing Moon]

I personally think that this is a VERY good option. I'm used to seeing Bink for X360 and then ported over to the PS3 and results always appeared marginal at best to me. But Divx was always my favorite for its quality and compression values.

Hell, most of my MMA video end up being in Divx format, so I trust its quality.

[Epix]

MGS4's scenes are real time, man.Realtime, or realtime recorded as video (ala RFOM)?

[Sephiroth_VII]

Realtime. Helps keep loading to a minimum as well.

[cliffbo]

Realtime, or realtime recorded as video (ala RFOM)?

yeah that's what i originally thought

[Z]

this is old news.
Realtime, or realtime recorded as video (ala RFOM)?
I don't know about RfoM, but I know that RE4 on PS2 had pre-recorded while on Cube they were real-time.
Realtime. Helps keep loading to a minimum as well.
playing a video is easier on the machine than rendering it in real-time.

[Killing Moon]

Realtime. Helps keep loading to a minimum as well.

Nuh uh, video always loads faster. Real time cut scenes are beautiful, don’t get me wrong, I always prefer them. However, they present problems with memory leaks and crashes when in development, which creates more headaches.

I personally believe that many developers choose video for more extravagant scenes that only CG can provide at this time (such as transitions from scene to scene or certain graphic effects). But, for general in game cut scenes, memory leaks tend to happen via sloppy code, I’ve noticed.

[cliffbo]

i always remember an idea i had after seeing Fear Effect. my idea was to have CG in the distance that spawned polygon models as it moved towards you. i thought this would be good for linear games. that way, more polys and better textures could be assigned to the foreground.

[yoshaw]

Man, I miss Fear Effect. I wish they make a true next-gen iteration of it. Especially with cel-shading now gone totally insane anime like(thanks to Namco Bandai's Naruto Storm game).

Make it happen, God!

[Jay Gee]

That's exactly what the PS3 needs: Next-gen lesbian fanservice through the FUCKING roof.

[Sephiroth_VII]

this is old news.

I don't know about RfoM, but I know that RE4 on PS2 had pre-recorded while on Cube they were real-time.

playing a video is easier on the machine than rendering it in real-time.

I'm fairly sure they're realtime, based on the system they used in MGS3.

[VonGak]

I thought they could do this already. I believe Lair's cutscenes use DivX.

What would be interesting is whether this means PS3 will become a DivX certified device soon, as they're working on it.

Heh, entered the tread to say the same.

I wonder if it also will be used for other things like texture compression? Would be nice if a dev dropped by and explained if it's possible. ^^

[Viper]

I'm fairly sure they're realtime, based on the system they used in MGS3.

The RE4 cut scenes were actually recorded from the GC build. The GC cut scenes were rendered in real time and Capcom recorded them for the PS2 version because it couldn't render the cut scenes very well and it saved a lot of time developing those parts.

MGS is a Konami franchise.
RE is Capcom.

[Sephiroth_VII]

Why did you quote my post? :huh:

[Viper]

I thought you were referring to RE4 on PS2 but after reading again I see what you meant.

[Segitz]

Well, videos can also be used to load data simultaneously...

I read at B3D that the PS2 had the possibility to mux video, audio and gamedata into a stream and thus, while playing the video, the game also loaded^^ Quite cool actually (I always thought, this would be too hard for a system like the PS2).

And, MGS2 and 3s cutscenes were mostly (not all) done in realtime. MGS3S disc 3 is however not realtime sadly^^ (the quality is lower...)

And Bink... I SO didn't like this format^^ (Afaik, Blizzard always used it, until WoW, which uses Divx)

Using Divx as their compressor is actually nothing major, as (I hope at least) they now use either H264 or VC-1 for the videos, which is actually better at compression (but needs more CPU cycles to compress... at LOT more) and a standard feature in BluRay. Mpeg2 would be possible too, but VERY lossy.

[cliffbo]

what did Segitz just say?

[Sephiroth_VII]

He talked about PS2's ability to load data in the background while simultaneously playing a video, then switched to talking about the pros and cons of various video formats :)

[cliffbo]

He talked about PS2's ability to load data in the background while simultaneously playing a video, then switched to talking about the pros and cons of various video formats :)

i understood everything but the 'pros and cons'

[Segitz]

Putting it short...

H264 good, Mpeg2 bad, Divx middle ground...

[cliffbo]

Putting it short...

H264 good, Mpeg2 bad, Divx middle ground...

DivX middle ground? it can do 1080p :shrug:

what do you mean by middle ground

[Sephiroth_VII]

H264 takes quite a lot of power to decode though, compared to DivX.

Cliff: He means that more quality is lost with DivX than H264.

[Segitz]

H264 takes quite a lot of power to decode though, compared to DivX.

Cliff: He means that more quality is lost with DivX than H264.

Not really^^

Compressing H264 is ridiculously cpu intensive, but yields the best results with the lowest bandwidth. Mpeg2 is very low cpu dependant, but it compresses like shit... So you either end up with a bad compression (makroblocking etc.) or with a ridiculously large file.

Divx on the other hand uses more cpu than Mpeg2 but less than H264 and the endresult again is in between the both... thus middle ground.

Decompression is not a problem on the PS3. Blu Rays can use 40mbit/s for video only (5 megabytes per second)... I doubt any game will ever come close to this, and even if any would, at 9MB/s (the PS3 theoretical maximum reading speed, which is usually not used on video discs), it could still contain 92minutes of FMV (without a game on the discs however^^).

H264 at 1080P needs quite a heavy PC actually. My old rig (AMD Athlon XP 2500+) could not play the GDC LBP trailer without chugging. My new PC can do it, with less than 50% (1 core) of the 3800+ EE in use. And my GPU doesn't support H264 accelleration.

[lips]

guys, this is ps3 we are talking about here. you will obviously be able to play 50 divx streams.

[VG Aficionado]

And, MGS2 and 3s cutscenes were mostly (not all) done in realtime. MGS3S disc 3 is however not realtime sadly^^ (the quality is lower...)

All cutscenes in MGS2 and MGS3 are realtime. Subsistence's 3rd disc is just the game's extended cutscenes edited as a movie (and in movie format), but they aren't related to the game as in the third disc is not a game. Unless you mean those cutscenes that feature some animated artwork in between, which still use in-game assets when needed.

[Segitz]

All cutscenes in MGS2 and MGS3 are realtime.

Not quite... some of the expose stuff in MGS3 for example (the beginning videos and where Volgin talks about the Legacy et al...

[VG Aficionado]

^Unless you mean those cutscenes that feature some animated artwork in between, which still use in-game assets when needed.

[Segitz]

^

Guess I didn't read thoroughly enough^^

[Z]

Seph, what did you mean exactly and what does MGS3 have to do with anything?

PS. I learned about the RE4 cube/PS2 thing when cutscenes using custom clothes showed up. in Cube, you had the clothes on. on PS2, it was the standard one.

[Sephiroth_VII]

Not really^^

Compressing H264 is ridiculously cpu intensive, but yields the best results with the lowest bandwidth. Mpeg2 is very low cpu dependant, but it compresses like shit... So you either end up with a bad compression (makroblocking etc.) or with a ridiculously large file.

All I know is that my PC has trouble playing even SD H264, while it handles HD DivX just fine :shrug:

Seph, what did you mean exactly and what does MGS3 have to do with anything?
I was trying to say that MGS3 used realtime cutscenes, which were not pre-recorded, so I'd assume MGS4 would do the same.