Under the hood: MotorStorm "uses 15-20% of available SPU resource"

Posted May 11, 2007 at 5:32PM by QJ Staff Listed in: PS3 Tags: Evolution Studios

I'm hardly burning up with MotorStorm - Image 1

Talking to Beyond3D about their baby MotorStorm, technical director Scott Kirkland stripped the hood off the game and revealed how many of the PS3 gears MotorStorm runs on. In SPU usage terms, he says the game "only uses between 15 and 20 percent of available SPU resource."

On how it stacks up with an earlier assertion that MotorStorm uses all of PS3's SPUs, we can infer that the game runs across all of the Cell Processor's processing units, but it still all averages out to 15-20% of total available processing resources. After all, Scott enumerates exactly what runs on those SPUs:

Havok physics.
Determination of object visibility.
Concatenation of hierarchies.
Billboard object culling and vertex buffer creation.
Updating of particles and vertex buffer creation.
Updating of vehicle dynamics.
Updating of vehicle suspension constraints.
Audio (MultiStream).
Video decoding.

Not on that list are rendering MotorStorm's dirty graphics: "We donÂ’t use the CellÂ’s SPUs in this way at the moment. All of our lighting and transformation work is done in the RSXÂ’s pixel and vertex shaders." In the future, however, Scott believes that "cooperative rendering" between the RSX and SPUs "will become far more widespread"... given enough experience, of course.

That leaves how a future MotorStorm could look like open to the imagination.

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Comments

# amazing — Guest 2007-05-11 13:20

the ps3 is awesome if it can do this with 20% tops of power

# Whoa... — Guest 2007-05-11 14:01

This game is badass, I'm surprised it only uses 20% max...I'm guessing the sequels to Motorstorm will eventually make that E3 2005 video look inferior...

# ... — Guest 2007-05-11 14:33

it's too linear for me and the online is glitchy. (especially mics) i might buy it when the ps3 greatest hits come out.

# Not Quite El_colombiano — Guest 2007-05-11 18:20

For the last damn time. SPUS have NOTHING to do with graphics rendering bud. Graphics are rendered on the GPU ONLY! Can you guys not understand that? The cell doesn't do sh**t for graphics. It can make raw calculations only...just like any other cpu on the damn planet so Sony, stop F**ckin ranting about a processor when it does nothing for graphical capabilities.

# ..... — Guest 2007-05-11 18:44

You, my friend, know nothing. Plain and simple. Any cpu is just as capable of rendering graphics as any gpu..... given the proper programming. Correct me if I'm wrong, (i'm not), but wasn't there a certain rubber ducky demo at a previous E3 that was being rendered and run 100% by the Cell........Yeah...i think so.

You have won the award for "Too Quick To Jump To Conclusions" for today....

# OMG — Guest 2007-05-11 18:58

Team Ninja is currently using CELL along with RSX to produce graphics is SIGMA. And in GDC phil use only cell to produce that Getaway scene. NO RSX. so sss go ***** yourself.

# I'm speechless — ld_ruiz69 2007-05-11 19:53

So if Motorstorm awesome graphics only use up to 20% of PS3's power, then what would it look like using all of it?

# bh — Guest 2007-05-11 20:24

and if you remember, there was a story of people rendering graphics on the ps3 though linux with the cell. so its logical to think that it could at least contribute to the graphic quality.

# @ sss — Guest 2007-05-11 21:09

sss u fool, you obviously dont kno *****, all the gpu's main chip is, pretty much more or less a cpu, hence why a cpu can render graphics and a gpu can make calculations, they both can do the same thing >.< ones just more dedicated to graphics and the other to calculations.

# lol? — Guest 2007-05-11 21:24

if it uses 20% of ps3 power the why the hell it takes literally whole minute to load vehicles on "select car screen?? it's bs imo.

# YER RIGHT 32 FPS max, + graphic/ram problems — Guest 2007-05-11 21:24

Interesting that considering they had to drop the 64fps down to 32fps and no split screen option, so the problem must be in the graphic card/RAM which means no matter how much cpu grunt it will always be weak..

# PS3 is flopping in Japan, theyare not fooled by this nonesense either — Guest 2007-05-11 21:29

REMEMBER THE EMOTION ENGINE AND ALL ITS CLAIMS LMAO, FOGGED OUT DISTANCE IN CAR GAMES, JUDDERING,REDRA W ETC SAME CLAIMS AGAIN ONLY THIS TIME ON A FILM PLAYER.

PROBLEM IS THE PS3 HAS ***** RAM PROBLEMS, IT HASNT GOT ENOUGH AND WHAT IT HAS HAS BEEN SHARED WRONG SO IT WILL ALWAYS BE DOWN ON POWER ON THE GAMES FRONT, IT WILL SOON BE LEFT BEHIND.....

# Actually, you're wrong! — Guest 2007-05-11 21:43

"Correct me if I'm wrong, (i'm not), but wasn't there a certain rubber ducky demo at a previous E3 that was being rendered and run 100% by the Cell........Yeah...i think so."

You're right that any CPU can render graphics, the same is true on the 360, and it was happening for YEARS on the PC before the arrival of 3D graphics cards.

But regarding this demo, you are making the same kind of assumptions many made about the Getaway demo, where they claim is was only running on Cell, whereas is WAS using NVidia's GPU.

The rubber duck demo is demonstrating the ability of Cell for rendering numerous objects with physics (in this case ducks), together with real-time water ripples and dynamics. The actual graphics themselves are rendered by RSX, NOT Cell.

# omfg — Guest 2007-05-11 21:49

Jesus f*cking christ you are such a tech noob... just go and die plz..

# spus can support rsx — Guest 2007-05-11 21:57

the clouds in warhawk are rendered by cell for example...

# ninja — Guest 2007-05-11 21:59

ninja gaiden 60fps 1080p xbox360 can not handle if it would then it would be multiplatform so u all xbots dont cry about ps3 fps when ps3 will reach at 80 percent of its power which xbox360 is powering up right now then it will show u all xbots what a nextgen graphics is all about wait till 2008

# WRONG! The Getaway uses RSX — Guest 2007-05-11 22:04

This claim has been made many times, and yet at NO TIME does Phil ever say the Getaway demo is running ONLY on Cell. Go onto youtube and search for 'PS3 Getaway demo' and you will see he never says this. Search the net for 'Phil Harrison Getaway' and again you will find he never says this in interviews.

It's a false assumption made by fans (and fanboys) and has spread on the net because gamers WANT to believe it. But the fact is, the Getaway, just like the duck demo, uses RSX for rendering the graphics.

# Ninja Gaiden Sigma... — Guest 2007-05-11 22:10

...is basically an enhanced version of the XBox game. It looked great on the XBox at 60fps, so of course a next-gen console should be able to enhance the graphics and resolution, including the 360 (yes, the 360 could run it at 1080p and 60fps too).

"wait till 2008"

Really? What's happening in 2008? Oh yes, that's right, the graphics of BOTH consoles will continue to improve and still look about equal. Thanks for that insight. ;)

# errr — Guest 2007-05-11 22:11

What the f*ck does the disc-read speed have to do with the CPU u dumbf*ck??

nothing...

# to the noob — skyler 2007-05-11 22:19

who says cpu cant render, did u see the 3d, light, shadow render demo that was made that was only using the cell, ur a noob, dont shout other people down when u duno how wrong u are. infact there are 2 examples of this rendering here on QJ at least if u search.

# Haha! — Guest 2007-05-11 22:27

What a crap site. All people do here is insult each other, the intelligent conversation is kept to a minimum. And Qj often gets their reports wrong,

Hahaahahahahaha ha "tears rolling down my eyes"

# Only 20% of power.. — Guest 2007-05-11 23:19

Whats the problem, could they not find a use for the other 80% of the spus, which is odd because didn't they have to limit their game from 1080p 60fps to 720p 30fps just to get decent performance?

Surely with only using 20% of the power they should have been able to get 1080p with 60fps if they used 100% of the spus (although it would probably be 90% percent being that last 10% is the hardest to get), maybe like I said earlier, they just couldn't find a use for all the power, and more money should have been spent on the PS3's GPU instead of the CPU.

Sure the cell is brilliant, but the only thing is seems to excel at is folding@home

# Question- — Guest 2007-05-11 23:27

"did u see the 3d, light, shadow render demo that was made that was only using the cell"

Just curious but, which demo are you talking about? I'm sure there must be a movie available somewhere. :)

# well — comedy 2007-05-11 23:49

i tell you what, why don't you start making games which fully utilise rsx and cell in perfect harmony.. what, you can't? hmm... maybe it's actually a difficult programming challenge to make that happen.

look, sony have created cell and rsx with the idea of cell sharing some of the graphics load, the problem with this is that it takes ages for the techies to learn how to make that happen. so they gave the cell all the physics etc in motorstorm and it basically ran at about 20% of it's max, i reckon rsx was probably pushed all the way, so if they wanted to make it better they'd need to nail the incredibly difficult task of making the cell and rsx both do graphics together....

this game was released very early in the console's life cycle, just like ps2 the ps3 has some power but it needs time and skill to unlock. motorstorm is a good demo of what it can do with conventional wisdom, just like ffx was a good demo of what ps2 could do... now we must wait for them to get the really hard stuff working so that we can see motorstorm 2 - which will hopefully be like ff12 was on the ps2... do you see?

i don't want to have to start being a total nerd but the cel is not a normal cpu... the spu's are far closer in design to a gpu than a cpu... the ppu in the cell is the real 'cpu' part, so where a regular cpu is very generalised in it's processing power, a gpu is very specific (graphics calculations only) and this means a gpu is way better at graphics. in the past there was cpu graphics rendering before 3d cards came out - it was crap. but the cell has 7 working spu's which could at least help the rsx gpu due to their being more specialised, just like gpu's are.

ok, so without the rsx ps3 would output chunder graphics but the spu's can do some of the heavy lifting, making it *possible* for devs to improve the graphics in a game even when rsx is working 100%.

that's the truth.

motorstorm had its limits as the devs didn't know how to make the two work together on graphics, meaning only rsx dealt with that... give them time and a lot of money and they'll figure it out.

# ... — Guest 2007-05-12 00:23

I guess these kids don't know about software rendering from the olden days when CPUs were used for graphics.

Spoiled Gen Y kids with their discrete graphics chips. Sssshhhehs!

# WOW — Guest 2007-05-12 00:27

U so smart. The RSX rendered the graphics...

Of course the grahics chip will place the pixel on the screen, but that's what software rendering is about.

Software (CPU or in case of PS3 SPU) calculates all the qualities of the pixel (location, shading, etc.) and the graphics chips just places the pixels on screen.

# LOL — Guest 2007-05-12 00:28

Welcome to the blogs where anything typed is true.

# What are you talking about ME? — Guest 2007-05-12 00:37

Don't try to act smart unless you know what you're talking about.

The duck demo is NO different to any PS3 game that you've played today. The Cell processor is handling the code, physics, objects etc, the RSX is rendering the graphics, and that's it.

So the duck demo is making no more use of the Cell processor for graphics than a game like Resistance. So far, the only PS3 game making use of the SPUs for rendering is WarHawk, where they are used to create the volumetric clouds.

So talk all you like about pixels and shading, it doesn't change the fact that the duck demo is not rendered by the Cell processor.

# bull — Guest 2007-05-12 01:27

s hit! sony keep f ucking lying all the time!

No one believes it for God's sake....

# CONTRADICITON — Guest 2007-05-12 03:47

Contradiction on a huge scale, first they drop Motostorm to a puny 32fps over Forza 2 64fps and now they say this......

# lol as well XD — Guest 2007-05-12 05:16

haha

# RE: YER RIGHT — rein 2007-05-12 05:58

"Interesting that considering they had to drop the 64fps down to 32fps and no split screen option, so the problem must be in the graphic card/RAM which means no matter how much cpu grunt it will always be weak.."

That is only if you are talking about graphics (which are far from "weak"). It will have a much larger impact on A.I. and Physics in games if used correctly.

# Sigma... — Shatterdome 2007-05-12 08:29

Uh..."xbots" don't get Sigma because the main branch of team ninja is working on Ninja Gaiden 2 for the 360....so go cry about that, you tard...

# Well... — Shatterdome 2007-05-12 08:37

That's the thing, there is not much the SPU's are good at, except for linear, pre-determined mathematical calculations.

That's why there is no A.I and VERY little game control being processed on the SPU's, they are really just left for Physics....

In theory the cell can be used as a software rendering engine....but also in theory we can creat mini black holes to tear time/space and travel to other galaxie.....you know, just takes enough time and dedication....guess they didn't want to wait till 2010 to release motorstorm...

I agree they should have put more resources into the video card....as it doesn't help if Cell can aid RSX, as it is only capable of vertex shading and not pixel shaders...and since RSX has a set number of pixel shader pipelines and are not dynamic like 360's....there will NEVER be an increase in pixel shading capabilities...so things like lighting, reflections and special effects are really going to reach a plateau soon and not get any better, if they havn't already....

# DEEETROIT!!! — Guest 2007-05-12 09:03

detroit pistons 3-chicago bulls 0

# eh — Guest 2007-05-12 09:24

If there are only 15 cars max in motorstorm 20%.... then

that must mean...

15 x 5 = 75 cars!? OOMFGGGG TRUE MOTORSTORM!

the graphics will probably be the same because the RSX but...

75 cars rocks! =D

# I forgot — Guest 2007-05-12 09:31

75 cars, OMG, WTF that a apice of ***** Compare to 300+ car on Forza 2. stick this up ur a$$ and drive ur non-costomizeable cars.

PS3 sucks!! it diserves one finger up and that is.......

.................... .. ... /´ /)

.................... ..,../¯ ..//

.................... ..../....//

.................... ..,/¯ ..//

.................... ./... ./ /

............./´¯/' ...'/´¯`•¸

........../'/.../... ./... ..../¨¯\

........('(...´(... ....... ,~/'...')

.........\.......... ..... ..\/..../

..........''...\.... ..... . _.•´

............\....... ..... ..(

..............\..... ..... ...\

# you forgot — Guest 2007-05-12 11:27

300+ cars, OMG, WTF that's a piece of **** compared to 400+ cars on GT4. Stick this up your a$$ because you can't afford a PS3.

You see I can look like an idiot too. Now STFU and stop making this site look like the an asylum. I guess you just learned that symbol and I'm happy for you by the way but it doesn't make you cool it just makes you an arrogant jerk.

# Questions on Lair development. — Guest 2007-05-12 11:56

I saw an interview for the game Lair and I remember one of the lead devs saying that the RSX could render somthing and the cell could repeat it many times over in different locations to form a mesh made of completely similar polygons. Is this true? Just wondering if that's how progressive mesh works. I also heard they could use streaming textures from the Blu-Ray disc in the drive. Is this because it has a constant read speed?

# ps3 is awsome — Guest 2007-05-12 12:10

I went to to best buy and played the ps3 and it was the most amazing system ever compared to the elite.

Ive notice that my elite on a hdtv, the character look chucking and wide and kind of itchy or churchy on Gow and Crackdown.

# uhm — Guest 2007-05-12 12:14

orgasmic

# I forgot — Guest 2007-05-12 12:14

Oh well slohomo its the sight that u put up ur a$$ and u should put dis sign up ur a$$ wen u get better games with way better framerates and also some some better invironment that look like smeer SHlT with undisgested peas as trees(Motorstor m)

PS3 sucks!! it diserves one finger up and that is.......

.................... .. ... /´ /)

.................... ..,../¯ ..//

.................... ..../....//

.................... ..,/¯ ..//

.................... ./... ./ /

............./´¯/' ...'/´¯`•¸

........../'/.../... ./... ..../¨¯

........('(...´(... ....... ,~/'...')

................... ..... ../..../

..........''....... ..... . _.•´

................... ..... ..(

................... ..... ...

# erm — Guest 2007-05-12 12:17

i remember the ps2 kicking the gamecube's ass in japan.

Like it or not, Sony is an electronics company and knows what it's doing when it comes to designing hardware.

They may suck at marketing, planning and software, but they know how to make a good machine.

# aww so cute — Guest 2007-05-12 12:21

did you google "giant typed finger" to get that or did you spend an hour and a half typing it in yourself?

Look at me! 74598762958 cars! Real LIFE!

# uh — Guest 2007-05-12 13:05

are you freaking stupid?

its 75 cars all on one screen.

....isnt it shocking to find how stupid people are nowadays?

# GO SUCK A ***** — Guest 2007-05-12 13:53

YOU ARE A DUMBA$$ GO AHEAD AND SUCK ON YOUR MOMS ***** YOU F*********** A$$HOLE . YOU DESERVE TO GO TO HELL

# i mean — Guest 2007-05-12 15:10

if they could use 50% for some software rendering and the 30% for AI, Physics, etc.

# lol — Guest 2007-05-12 16:22

EA have also stated that they have only used about 20% of the ps3 power and i can just image when they start to use 50%. Cant wait to play those games lol.

# crap — Guest 2007-05-12 17:10

do u have vision problems cause i have the game an yes it takes 5 secs but not a minute.

# hmm — Guest 2007-05-12 17:18

Please go away.

# one last thing — Guest 2007-05-12 18:18

I left out this:

as a kid I was raped by my Danish dog with his massive c0ck. However I end up liking it :-)

lol!! And I let him ram his c0ck up my ars3 daily. Now that I finally come out of the closet I invite all of you to stick your middle finger down my arse without lube and real hard!!! When I'm finish cumming I will suck your middle finger clean too !!!

.................... .. ... /´ /)

.................... ..,../¯ ..//

.................... ..../....//

.................... ..,/¯ ..//

.................... ./... ./ /

............./´¯/' ...'/´¯`%u2022¸

........../'/.../... ./... ..../¨¯

........('(...´(... ....... ,~/'...') put this in my arse please!!!!

................... ..... ../..../

..........''....... ..... . _.%u2022´

................... ..... ..(

................... ..... ...

lol

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