There’s been a lot of talk about how the process of producing a 3D image in videogames requires other visual sacrifices to achieve, but now Sony has revealed that their official guidelines to 3D PlayStation 3 games do in fact limit games to a resolution no higher than 720p.
Although the PS3 is indeed capable of presenting games in 1080p, Sony’s Simon Benson explained during a 3D demo at the Develop Conference this week that their guidelines prohibit 3D games from being portrayed in the highest resolution, as it wouldn’t allow for a smooth 60-frames-per-second (via Joystiq). This means that even games that run natively in 1080p (like Super Stardust HD) will still be locked in at 720p in 3D.
Benson admitted that a “more cinematic game” might actually benefit from a lower frame-rate and higher resolution, but he said the Sony guidelines don’t allow for it. He also assured that even trained computer graphics artists could barely see a difference between a 720p and 1080p image in a 3D game, so it’s unlikely many regular consumers will notice.
