Sony demos 19-inch FED display running Gran Turismo 5 at 240 fps
By Donald Melanson 
posted November 20th 2008 6:46PM
posted November 20th 2008 6:46PM
FED (or Field Emission Display) hasn't quite caught on as quickly as some other display technologies, but Sony's still out there doing its best to move things forward, and it certainly looks to have turned more than a few heads with its latest demo. Apparently not content with simply showing off a new 19-inch display from its spin-off, Field Emission Technologies, Sony went so far as to demo it with a customized version of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue that's playable at 240 fps. To do that, Sony used four PS3s to increase the frame rate, something it had previously done to run the game at quadruple the resolution of 1080p on a Sony SXHD projector. While that setup is out of the reach of most folks, Field Emission Technologies says that FED displays are now finally heading to market, and that some high-end professional FED video monitors up to 32-inches in size will be available sometime next year.
[Via OLED-Display.info]
[Via OLED-Display.info]
Actually the human eye can only see 15 FPS, the standard of most PMP's
@iEye
wow you actually changed how many fps of your eye to match your ipod.
sad, just sad.
Hmm seems like each corner of the screen is rendered at 60fps then added together. So really its just four screens each at 60fps seamlessly added together.
http://www.gran-turismo.com/jp/binary/images/2788/illustration2.jpg
I dont think thats 240fps only 60 =/
How can you fail to understand such a simple chart!?
Nope. They are rendering 60fps from each machine, and then doing a synchonization/merge from the four boxes. The diagram shows that pretty clearly.
Just like SLI and Crossfire.
Look
http://www.gran-turismo.com/jp/binary/images/2788/illustration1.jpg
http://www.gran-turismo.com/jp/binary/images/2788/illustration2.jpg
each ps3 renders 1/4th of the image at 60fps. The images are then synced/merged create one large picture. So there are 240frames being rendered a second but the overall image will only be refreshed at 60fps. Get it?
If you had a flight sim running on four monitors each one getting 60fps would you wouldn't say you were running it at 240fps would you?
I get that there are 240frames being rendered a second since each 1/4 is basically its own screen but after they are synced/merged it would only be 60fps would it not?
@bjrcboy
Those two illustrations in your argument appear to be quite different things entirely. Illustration 1 is entitled "Principles of the HIGH RESOLUTION Demonstration"; Illustration 2 is entitled Principle of the HIGH FRAME RATE Demonstration. They aren't the same thing, so that argument is ... a little flawed.
all of those playstations. such a little screen.
That's great and all, Polyphony, but how about actually getting back to work on getting GT5 released? Enough of these tech demos already!
How did they get the PS3s to "crossfire" like this?
skill.
It's sony... what can't they do?
how about make a proprietary format that doesn't fail? ;)
@xell
Newsflash buddy, bluray didnt fail.................yet
@Xell: CD [Sony/Phillips proprietary format] didn't really fail either (may be dying now, but it's had a good few years).
Not really convinced by the screen technology personally. (As in, doesn't seem like something particularly necessary.) 60 FPS on CRTs was unbearably shit (flicker), 60FPS on LCDs is fine for me though...
This reminds me of the youtube video with the guy going "for I have THREE PS3's" over and over again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh1jB4hVJRg here you go:)
Except they have FOUR...PS3s.
@ubn2
First off...
Welcome to Engadget.
Second....
Feel free to look at iEye's posts. You may even enjoy one or two.
But I must warn you.....
Never, do not ever, feed the iEye.
dear iEye watch these and scream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLxq90xmYUs&feature=channel
and this too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1ckCkm8YI&feature=channel
@ jimmyfinch
sorry i just hate his iCrap
So ever wonder what happened to ThinCRT (Candescent Technologies)....well Sony was going pump 50 million into ThinCRT and pulled out but kept the marketing rights. Short story... ThinCRT became FED. The best part of FED(ThinCRT) is you don't need clean room spec manufacturing like Plasma and LCD. You can have 20% failed emitters per pixcel element and it will still work, basically no more dead pixels because a speck of dust got into the manufacture facility. This why it will be cheaper to produce than plasma and LCD.
But... wil it run Crysis?
So are they showing off the monitor or the four PS3s? (I'm actually more impressed by that ;))
So... PS4 is just going to be four PS3 stacked on top of each other? I don't see why not! It would cut R&D costs by leaps and bounds!
So, to achieve both demos at once, GT5 driven Quad HD at 240 FPS, it would take 16 PS3's and a 240 FPS 4096 x 2160 FED display that hasn't been made yet.
Perhaps by the time they make that display, it will only require 4 PS4s to maximally drive it.
Maybe Sony will surprise us and do it with just one. ;-)
16 PS3s have already been used together with Linux and a Gigabit switch to make 200 Gigaflop supercomputers. Such a PS5 would be a protein folding monster... ;-)
i'd like to see how the multi-PS3 cooperative rendering thing works, that sounds pretty cool.
I can see the difference between 24hz 56hz 60hz 65hz in monitors the freaking refresh rate is visible (Specially the CRTs).
I can only work comfortably at 70hz or more.
So i will be happy to see a game at 120hz and 120fps better if is 240fps
i for one would love to see the 4 PS3's setup,i think i could get a few of my friends to try this out...if one were to try this out,how would we hook these machines up?....and yes i can get a TV to run at that framerate(sp)(is that one or two words?..lol)
Nice to see a demonstration like this. While FED does have it's challenges it appears that it will be available before either SED or OLED in a decent size. The price will initially be horrifying but you get what you pay for.
FED technology video:
http://www.fed-tv-reviews.com/very-good-fed-tv-field-emission-display-demo-video/2008/07/26/
it would be nice if they'd just finish GT5 instead of wasting time on this crap they might actually sell playstations instead of making crap displays...
same with blizzard and sc2...
A frame rate of more then 60 fps doesnt make any sense to me.
A normal computer game has 40-60 logic updates per secound, if you update the display faster then you update the game logic you will only be redrawing the same surface won't you?
hmm.