PS2 and DTS support.

[Ktulu]

I just purchased a ps2 so Im kinda out of the loop when it comes to console games. Anyway Ive played nhl2003 with dts but havent really looked into what other games are available in dts.

 

Is it very well supported and are developers going to begin using it more or is it something that is not really going to catch on?

 

Is EA going to continue dts support with the nhl series? Madden does not have dts so I am curious to know the reasoning behind how they decide which titles will be in dts and if there are technical limitations which prevent dts from being used.

 

Thanks

[Chris F]

I only own one game that has DTS, and that's GTA:VC. I don't think it's widely supported. Well, not yet at least.

[General Zot]

I remember reading about the PS2 and digital sound a while ago. I believe they said the reason more games don't support it is that the programmers have to actually implement it in the programming, which obviously sucks up resources. The difference between that and say the Xbox is that the Xb has dedicated hardware to produce a 5.1 digital sound. So the programmers don't ahve to explicitly code the support, it's sort of intrinsicly there in the hardware. Supposedly this is why the Xb does 480p on all game sand only some PS2 games support it. The video hardware produces everything in 480p on Xb, so why not dispaly it that way if it is free?

 

I might be wrong about this, but that's the way I understood it. It is a hardware issue that prevents more developers from pursuing it. BTW I'm not trying to bag on the PS2, this is just what I have gathered.

[Ktulu]

Thats what I figured. Actually GTA:VC was the game I couldnt think of that Ive played, so that and NHL2k3 are the only ones that I am aware of. it seems to be difficult to find detailed sound info about games.

 

I guess its pro logic for most games then.

[Camp]

I think SSX Tricky has DTS too.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but the PS2 implementation of DTS is bandwidth limited. I didn't think it was putting out a 20hz to 20khz signal on the five main channels.

[ChoiceStriker]

Camp: you're right - at least on SSX Tricky, it's not "true" DTS - it's really a 4.1 mix with no center channel.

[EnemaEms]

Camp,

 

You are correct my friend. SSX Tricky didnt sound too bad in DTS, but I prefered decoding Vice City in Pro Logic II. DTS just did not have that "full" sound it should have with music.

 

-Dean-

[dogbert]

I believe they said the reason more games don't support it is that the programmers have to actually implement it in the programming, which obviously sucks up resources.

 

Last time I read up on this, and it's been a while, the libraries that DTS provided for the PS2 essentially dominated one of the Vector Units on the PS2 (VU0), which effectively takes away a good chunk of parallel processing & high speed maths processing, which is a large price to pay. If a game /doesn't/ need that power & is capable of being run on just the main processor with a little VU0 time, then it's a price worth paying. For a lot of titles, it's not.

 

With the Xbox, it's basically got hardware encoding for Dolby Digital in its chipset, which is why it's referred to "as free". It's not, obviously, as it still takes up memory, resources etc to implement, but on the runtime side, it doesn't take up processing.