Epic’s forthcoming Gears of War for the 360 is widely anticipated to be the first title to really push the potential of the next-generation. © Microsoft.

Once the preserve of PC gamers, high-resolution graphics are a key weapon in the console wars being fought by marketeers at Sony and Microsoft. For artists and players, HD means a generational leap from robotic characters and blocky sets toward cinematic photorealism. For publishers and developers, though, next-generation hardware offers immense possibilities at considerable cost.

“The biggest challenge is one of expectation,” admits David Braben, co-author of legendary PC game Elite and founder of U.K.-based developer Frontier Developments. “The HD display is a magic magnifying glass on what we do. The higher the resolution, the more perfect the graphics have to be because you can see where the cracks are. HD opens up whole new sets of tools for making games look real. It’s an exciting time to be in game development especially if you’re an artist.”

David Amor, creative director at Brighton’s Relentless Software, agrees: “You could get away with lower polygon counts since CRTs inherently blur lower-res graphics. LCD and plasma screens mean you have to pay greater attention to the underlying models. Where we had skin, we now have to think about pores.”

Microsoft expects 160 Xbox HD titles on release by Christmas. Some, like Gran Turismo HD (for the PS3, above) and Call of Duty 2, are essentially up-res'ed ports of an existing PC game. © SCEA. 

Microsoft expects 160 Xbox HD titles on release by Christmas. Some, like Gran Turismo HD (for the PS3) and Call of Duty 2, are essentially up-res'ed ports of an existing PC game. Others like Call of Duty 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion have been overhauled to take account of the hardware’s greater processing power. Epic’s forthcoming Gears of War for the 360 is widely anticipated to be the first title to really push the potential of the next-generation.

All next-gen games will be produced to 720p, although developers for the PS3 could feasibly build to 1080p -- a “true HD” capability much hyped by Sony in the run up to the 360’s launch. A progressive scan would produce a smoother image during horizontal pans and movements but most developers have dropped support for the spec -- initially at least -- because the additional processing time would make all but the most premium project unmanageable.

According to Rick Gibson of analysts Games Investor, “Even with native 1080p, hardware developers can’t render complex animations across the entire screen without the whole processor slowing down. If you switch a crowd scene from 720p to 1080p, you’d have to significantly reduce the amount of animation in the shot.” Scaling to 1080i is less problematic, although developers might consider adding anti-aliasing (an effect that smoothes the appearance of jagged, pixilated edges).