Potential for better graphics on PS3 than 360, says dev

The PS3 has the potential to achieve better graphics than the Xbox 360, a Volition developer has told VideoGamer.com.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com at THQ's Gamers Day in San Francisco, California, this week, Jeff Carroll, associate producer in charge of multiplayer and PS3 on upcoming third-person action game Red Faction: Guerrilla, said that while developers will struggle with the PS3 at first, once they "figure it out" they will find "a very powerful system underneath".

Red Faction: Guerrilla, the third in the popular series, sees a switch from the FPS view seen in the first two games to a third-person view. Scheduled for a simultaneous Xbox 360, PS3 and PC release in THQ's fiscal year 2009, the game has come on leaps and bounds since its first-look public unveiling earlier in the year.

When asked if there would be any differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, Carroll replied: "We've got the PS3 running at a similar frame rate to the 360. We're finding some of the challenges of the PS3 beneficial. We feel like we're doing rather well with the PS3."

Carroll went into more detail on the benefits of the PS3: "We have been getting the physics system, the Havok system and our own proprietary destruction system running on the SPUs, as well as our animations. We're seeing quite a decent speed improvement now that we've effectively got that running on the SPUs instead of the CPUs."

Carroll agreed, however, that many developers have found the PS3 to be a challenging platform, and admitted that Volition shared that struggle, at first.

"We were like that at the beginning. But I think mainly because we had to get our destruction system running on the SPUs, we had to get it running well in order to succeed, we felt a tremendous pressure right at the beginning to learn as much as we could about the PS3. And our programmers have done a wonderful job."

When asked whether it is possible to achieve better graphics on the PS3 compared with the Xbox 360, Carroll said: "I think potentially you will. I think early on people are going to be struggling to figure out exactly how to make the PS3 work. But I think once they do they will see it's a very powerful system underneath. They both have their advantages. The Xbox 360 pushes polygons rather well, which for us, because everything is destructible, that means that we have a tremendous number of polygons in our game compared to regular games, we see a great benefit with the Xbox 360, but we just learn to optimise in different ways for the PS3."

In Red Faction: Guerrilla, players will be able to destroy every building they see through a combination of weapons, vehicles and explosives. Real world physics are applied to the structures, often leading to a collapse through real-time structural stress.

Carroll added that the game is "very much" pushing the PS3, "both in terms of memory and processing power".

You can see for yourself how Red Faction: Guerrilla is shaping up over at our hands-on preview, and cast your eyeballs over some brand new screens hot off the press.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is due out some time during THQ's 2009 fiscal year for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.