PS News "Remastering by emulation" - Sony's (new?) Backwards Compatibility solution?

Emulating older Video Games on newer Platforms aren't a easy task, no question. Although this is one of the most desired features wished by many Users no matter which platform they support, which is of course understandable. A lot of older Game Titles still shares the Charme and Nostalgic feelings, especially when played for the first time back when they got released for their original platforms. And a lot of Users still asks for having the chance to play their older "Classics" even today. They prefer the Original Release compared to "Remastered" Versions for newer platforms or when Console Manufacturers tries to give those previous mentioned feelings back to the users by releasing a "tiny piece of Hardware" with the look of the same old platform but having half the size and calling them "X Mini" or "X Classic". But while Sony does such mentioned things, it seems that they are also still in research for a new solution regarding Backwards Compatibility, as their newest Patent Application suggests.​

Running PS3 Games on your PS4? Maybe sooner than you think.
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Patent Application Description

• 
  Abstract
  
  Each asset such as a texture called for by legacy software such as a legacy computer game software has a unique identifier associated with it. The unique identifier can be rendered by imposing a hash on the asset, and then the asset stored with its identifier in a data structure. An artist remasters the textures for presentation on a higher resolution display than envisioned in the original software, and stores them back in the data structure with their identifiers. The original software is then played on the higher resolution display, with asset (such as texture) calls being intercepted, identified, and the data structure entered to retrieve the remastered asset having a matching identifier. The remastered asset is then inserted on the fly into the game presentation.
  

Sounds complicated isn't it? Well, similar to their previous patent filing back in February this year, we can again only suggest what Sony's plans are showcasing us. It is again unknown for which platform they will try to use this method of Emulating Legacy Game Titles - for an existing one (PS4?) or for even a newer one. But the Description of that Patent Application kinda alludes that they plan to get older Legacy Game Titles running on newer Platform(s). The differences compared to their current solutions could be that instead of making each older Game Title compatible for newer Hardware by modifying the Game Code or using different "Configuration Settings" for each different Legacy Game Title, they could try to implement a complete Emulation of the older Console Software running on newer Hardware. This is how their competitors such as Microsoft achieved it by emulating the whole Xbox 360 Software under the hood of their Xbox One. While they only need to ask the Developers getting allowed to repack their older Legacy Game Titles for a newer Package compatible with the Xbox One, they keep the Game Titles itself untouched and each Game Title thinks it runs on original Xbox 360 Hardware. This explains why your Online Status is still showing that you are online with a Xbox 360 even when you play the Game on your Xbox One through Emulation.

So what do you think about Sony's latest Patent Application? Is it this Time a "Big Deal" or again just a "Washout"? You are welcome to discuss this down below.

Patent Application: patft.uspto.gov​

 

If this is for the current generation consoles (ps4/ps4 pro), big deal imo since it's an upgrade over playstation now. Never was fan of the whole streaming thing, tho it's becoming more stable. I'm hoping this is more focussed on the ps2 backwards compatibility since sony still hasn't fully got it down.

 

am waiting for this......

 

Sounds like texture packs known from existing emulators... "Good job" Sony, now try patenting the wheel or swinging on a swing.

 

Sounds like texture packs known from existing emulators

Yes, but they mentions "assets" in general, so i guess the same stuff can be made with audio and some more formats, and could be nice if it could be made also with 3D polygonal objects
Is very convenient to apply changes to the game "on the fly", like the config support in the actual emulators, so i guess it could be a new feature to the actual emulators

All this has a limit though, because all the "assets" you load are managed by the (same than original) game engine. I guess there are things like texture sizes, vertex count, polygons count etc... that cant be exceeded

If the original game was squeezing the potential of the console (like the god of wars), then there is no much room for improvement by replacing assets

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From other point of view... this allows them to publish and sell again the whole catalog of previous playstation consoles as "PS2 HQ classics", etc... or whatever name they invents

 

That is how PSP remasters work on PS4. Like you can see in their config file:

Spoiler

; PS4 configuration file for PSPHD
; Game Image
--image="iso/disc01.iso"
; Redirect host0: to a another directory (uncomment to enable).
; By default it's mapped to the working directory where the executable starts
;--host="D:\Sony\PSPHD"
; To dump the original video in PMF format, uncomment the --dumpvideos line
; For example, with the current setting, it will save them in a "D:\Sony\PSPHD\videos" directory (make sure the directory exists)
;--dumpvideos="host0:videos"
; To dump the original audio in Atrac3 format, uncomment the --dumpaudio line
; For example, with the current setting, it will save them in a "D:\Sony\PSPHD\audio" directory (make sure the directory exists)
;--dumpaudio="host0:audio"
; To save the in-game textures as the game runs, uncomment the --texsave line
; For example, with the current setting, it will save them in a "D:\Sony\PSPHD\texdump" directory (make sure the directory exists)
;--texsave="host0:texdump"
;--texmissingsave="host0:texdump"
; To replace specific textures as the game runs, uncomment the --texreplace line
; For example, with the current setting, it will load them from the "D:\Sony\PSPHD\texreplace" directory
; If the --scale setting is set to 4 or 8, the program will also look for replacement textures on '4x' or '8x' directories within this directory
--texreplace="host0:texreplace"
; This forces alpha blending to on for replaced textures. (uncomment to enable)
; With this we can freely make use of a normal alpha channel on replacement textures
;--replacementalpha=true
; This enables bilinear filtering on replaced textures. (uncomment to enable)
;--replacementfilter=true
; Antialiasing mode. SSAA4x looks best, MSAA4x only smooths edges.
; Choices: off, SSAA4x, MSAA4x
--antialias=SSAA4x
; Enable switching between original and replacement textures at runtime using the L3 button on a DS4 or the 'T' key on Windows
--texswitch=true
; Turns on the auto-resampler. Assumes textures in texreplace are at 8x resolution and resamples them at load
;--autoresampler=true
; Turns on filtering of CLUT hashes to avoid repeat indexed textures
--texclutmode=filter
; X/O button mode. "oenter" sets Circle as enter, "xenter" sets Cross as enter. If not present/enabled, it's selected by the system language (Asian
; languages default to oenter, everything else "xenter"). Notice this only works when the game queries the PSP OS for the button configuration.
;--xobuttonmode="oenter"
; Support for multiple savegames
--multisaves=true
; Adjust overall volume level (does not include pad speaker volume). Range from 0.0 (min) to 1.0 (max)
--volume="0.25"
; Force On Screen Keyboard to Chinese Traditional
;--osk="cht"
; Enable encrypted savegames
--securesaves=true

On red i marked additional tip about $ony plans, found also in PS2 emu.
DefaultDNB tested custom textures injection that way in Parappa the Rapper, and it worked fine.

 

@sandungas Yeah, I know, but I just point that, the idea is not new and cannot be patented.