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Feature Article: Graphic Glitches 101

Wed May 14, 2008 at 01:00 PM ET
Tags: High-Def Gaming, Wayne Santos (all tags)

Editor's Note: Columnist Wayne Santos is a dedicated gamer from the infancy of the medium. He is a contributor at IGN and associate editor of Southeast Asian gaming publication GameAxis. In this new, semi-regular column, Wayne will be discussing a broad range of topics related to High-Def Gaming.

By Wayne Santos

High-Def Digest already has a rigorous system in place for evaluating the picture quality of movies, documentaries, and concerts that are presented in High Definition. Over the course of the mainstream transition to HD, this has given a lot of neophytes to the world of visual fidelity a good grounding in what they should look out for to discern the difference between a quality transfer and ones that sport minor or even major flaws. With a little information, more and more people can now make out the distinctions in picture quality for themselves, and make more informed decisions about which movies really make the most of their televisions. The same also holds true for games, although the criteria for judging the visual quality of a game does differ. Movies have issues such as artifacts, banding and color. Games have their own issues like frame rates and collision detection, for example.

For many years, the graphical quality of games was severely hindered by the constraints of the hardware, and this was particularly true for consoles, where earlier hardware such as the Nintendo Entertainment System – or even the original Playstation – while considerably more advanced than the clumsy, colored squares of consoles in the 70’s (like the Atari 2600), still required a lot of imagination on the part of the gamers to create a sense of realism and suspension of disbelief that film found so easy to instill in audiences. This is gradually changing now with the introduction of more powerful consoles into the home and the transition into HD gaming, but that doesn’t mean that gaming is anywhere near achieving a degree of photorealism that will instantly fool the human eye. While the visuals in games get more polished and refined, with developers getting a better understanding of the machines they work on, or developing new graphics engines, there are still things that can – and frequently do – slip through the cracks of visual presentation. In this article, we’ll look at the deficiencies or “glitches” that can separate top tier graphical work from more functional efforts. This is meant to be a general introduction, so nothing will get too technical here, and it should help those new to gaming as the result of obtaining a 360 as an HD-DVD player, or a PS3 as a Blu-Ray player, get more familiar with the interactive aspect of their machines.

Frame Rate

When it comes to film, the accepted convention very early in the inception of the medium was 24 frames per second. That is to say, the illusion of movement was created when 24 images were played back in the space of one second. For years this has been the standard, although in recent times with the introduction of HDTV broadcasts, this is starting to change to rates like 60 frames per second. In games however, the frame rate is nowhere near the universal standard that film has enjoyed for decades, and this is chiefly because of the limitations of the technology. While film generally manages to create a sense of movement from 24 frames per second, or fps, that illusion is maintained because of the consistency; except for deliberate camera choices such as slow motion or fast forward, a viewer can generally expect the film to run at 24 fps without ever noticing a dramatic change.

The same however, does not hold true of games. Unlike a digital disc, film reel, or tape, which is used as a playback device, a game console takes the data of the game and must virtually recreate that information as objects and environments that the player can interact with. As a result, the processor of a console is constantly “creating the world” around the player, and depending on how intense the action is – or simply depending on how well the game has been programmed – there can be some variance from the 30 fps or 60 fps that are generally accepted as the standards for the gaming industry today. For example, Grand Theft Auto IV the game which recently took the record for best selling piece of entertainment in a 24 hour period, normally runs at 30 fps. However, the scale of the world the game is trying to create, or “render” can be quite taxing on consoles, and if things get too hectic, for example, causing a gigantic firefight with helicopters, police teams, S.W.A.T. vans, explosions and screaming pedestrians in the virtual equivalent of Times Square, with neon, lights and the occasional explosion from rocket propelled grenades… this much chaos can occasionally strain the 360 or PS3 and will have a noticeable drop in its frame rate, though this doesn’t carry on for very long. On the other hand, games with fewer variables to consider, such as Gran Turismo 5: Prologue have an easier time with more controlled conditions. In the case of GT Prologue, the fact that its resources are devoted to simulating only a track and the behavior of the cars on the track means that it was optimized to display at 60 fps during gameplay and it never drops from this. .

Spotting a drop in the frame rate is one of the easiest glitches to identify as the human eye immediately notices the change in movement. One moment everything is relatively smooth, but as soon the frame rate drops, the eye sees the change as a “stuttered” motion. Depending on the severity of the drop in frame rate, this can even be as serious as the movement no longer appearing to be movement, but instead bearing closer resemblance to a slide-show, with images present for a second or more before moving onto the next. Games today rarely – if ever – experience a drop in frame rate this serious, although in the infancy of gaming, some games actually functioned at far lower frame rates – as low as 6fps – for the simple reason that that was all the retail processors of the time were capable of.

Screen Tearing

Screen Tearing is a relatively recent phenomenon for consoles, although PC gamers have been familiar with this particular glitch for a number of years. The glitch gets its name from the effect it has on the visuals, such as the shot of the original Halo: Combat Evolved shown above. Take careful notice of the area between the player’s gun and soldier to the left. What should be a view of the shore with the water washing up has a section that doesn’t match with the rest of the image, as if the individual section has been shifted or “torn” from the fabric of the rest of the image and isn’t aligning correctly. Screen Tearing is related to frame rate issues in that it’s a conflict between one image and another. In this case, the glitch occurs when a new image is being displayed, but the older image is also still being displayed.

This issue is normally addressed by a technique known as Vertical Synchronization, or Vsync, which is essentially a “gatekeeper” that ensures one image is fully rendered and ready to discard before another image is rendered. However, the dynamic nature of games can still occasionally cause screen tearing to occur, particularly if the action on screen forces the processor to make a choice between keeping the frame rate smooth and displaying some screen tear, or eliminating the screen tear at the cost of dropping the frame rate. This can happen to varying degrees on graphics intensive games, indicating that either the software is pushing the hardware to the limit, or the hardware itself is not being fully utilized. For example God of War 2 on the Playstation 2 had moments of screen tearing, but it was widely accepted that this was simply because the Sony Santa Monica team had pushed the PS2 about as far as it could go, and were using nearly all the resources the machine had with little leeway left for flawless Vsync. On the other hand, early launch efforts like the Xbox 360 First Person Shooter Perfect Dark Zero showed screen tearing simply because the technology was new and the game was rushed out in order to release in time for the launch of the console. It’s usually normal for the first wave or generation of games on a new console to display the most obvious graphical flaws because of the lack of familiarity with the hardware at the time. However, it all rests in the hands of the developer, their understanding of the hardware, and how hard they push the boundaries when it comes to this issue. Even today there are still some high profile games that are occasionally prone to this glitch, such as Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, which has extremely rare occurrences of this glitch, while other games such as the critically acclaimed Mass Effect on the Xbox 360 suffer from it on a regular basis.

Pop-Up/Draw-In

This is a graphical glitch that will probably remain an issue for this generation of gaming and beyond. The simple fact of the matter is the current hardware, while impressive, is not all-powerful and it will still hit definite limitations in terms of what it’s capable of displaying. In order to not tax the resources of a machine, developers will normally set a “draw distance” which – in virtual world terms – is the area that game is instructing to the console to display or render. After all, if a player is only going to see, say, the first 30 yards of the environment around him, it’s more economical for the hardware to concern itself with only creating that 30 yard radius the player sees to the fullest possible detail, rather than creating the whole environment to that intricate level for miles around.

This is also where the problems come in. Once again the understanding of the hardware, the quality of the programming and the dynamic nature of games all conspire to make the issue of draw distance a less than straightforward affair, and when things go wrong, that is where pop-up or draw-in can occur. Put simply, this glitch occurs when players are interacting with the world too quickly for the game to keep up, and when the game does finally get back on track with where the player is and what they are doing, the game must suddenly make up for lost time and start rapidly populating the area with the things that are supposed to be in that environment. The clearest example of this is something like Grand Theft Auto IV where the world is truly massive. If players manage to get a good run in a car, hurtling down roads at breakneck speeds, they can be traveling so fast that elements of the game world no longer gradually appear in the distance and get closer as the player approaches. Instead, objects – like trees, lamp posts and even pedestrians – can magically appear out of nowhere as the game finally “catches up” with the player and starts populating the area once it realizes where the player is. Obviously with the previous example of a high speed race, this can mean the player colliding straight into buildings or other obstacles that weren’t there a split second before and have seemingly “teleported” into place before the player’s very eyes. This is pop-up. Draw-in is a similar glitch, which works at a slower pace. Instead of magically appearing in front of the player with no warning, draw-in usually works somewhere in the distance, where the environment actually appears to be quickly “drawn in” before the players very eyes, as if a construction crew were rapidly building up the world a short distance away, trying to finish in time before the player arrives.

Here’s a good example of pop-up courtesy of GameSpot, from the game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

For the example above, imagine that the player has just teleported into the area, and this what they see when they first arrive; a hut and a fence. However, a second later, this happens:

The world has suddenly become more populated with trees, horses, even a sign on the hut. The game has finally caught up with the location of the gamer, and in a hasty effort to get back on track with what the player is supposed to see in this area, it has made all the extra objects instantaneously appear. This is not a problem that is going to go away any time soon, as developers are constantly pushing the hardware to create bigger, more detailed and expansive worlds. Pop-up and draw-in can be hidden to some degree, something that racing games excel at, by hiding the places where these glitches occur thanks to natural obstacles such as turns or even mountain walls that can obscure the objects normally viewable at a distance. But as consoles get more powerful, developers will be constantly encouraged to push the limits of that hardware, and as such the pop-up and draw-in issues will likely still be with us for a while until developers either truly master the “cheats” to hide it from players, or else hardware becomes powerful enough that it’s feasible to simply render everything in high detail within the viewable distance in real time.

Aliasing/”Jaggies”

The above screenshot is from 1998’s Ridge Racer 4 on the original Playstation and is an extreme example of an issue that still occasionally crops up in games today, aliasing or “jaggies.” This is the clear, “stair step” effect that registers on our eyes when we see something displayed at lower resolution. Of course, higher resolutions have helped clean this up considerably in recent years, but the feature most responsible for giving us cleaner images is called Anti-Aliasing, which is simply devoting more processing power and specific programming techniques to “smoothing out” those edges and giving images a more naturalistic look in line with what we’re accustomed to seeing in real life. Compare the above image from 10 years ago that had no Anti-Aliasing on the original Playstation with Gran Turismo 5: Prologue on the PS3 to see what a difference “AA” as well as increased polygon counts and a host of other graphical upgrades can have on a game’s visuals.

Aliasing is another glitch that has become less pronounced in this new HD generation of games, although, surprisingly, it can still crop up. AA, like everything else about a game, will demand certain resources from the system, and as a result, sometimes developers will deliberately choose not to maximize this feature for a particular game if it means compromising the game in some other way, such as dropping the frame rate as the hardware struggles to smooth out everything on screen. It is this delicate balance between all these graphical considerations that forces developers to perform a juggling act of sorts, deciding on draw distances, AA and many, many other considerations to keep the game playable versus keeping the game beautiful. Games with longer draw distances and little pop up or draw in might suffer from more aliasing issues. Games with smoother frame rates and lots of anti-aliasing might suffer from smaller environments, etc, etc. In a sense, aside from the actual monetary cost of developing the game, the game developers have the additional worry of a “technological budget” where they must consider what sacrifices they make – and to what degree – in order to create a game that the audience will find both visually pleasing but also fun to actually play. Frequently they fail to strike the right balance, as evinced by the wealth of games that don’t meet up to either playability or graphical quality, whereas games that successfully do both are rare indeed.

Collision Detection/Clipping

The final glitch is one that doesn’t necessarily detract from the overall quality of the visuals, but has a tendency to break immersion more noticeably when it occurs. One of the fundamental rules of Newton states that – at least on the level of reality we’re familiar with – two objects cannot occupy the same space. Poor collision detection ( or “clipping” a nick name picked up from the game Doom from a built-in developer cheat called “No Clip”) is when for reasons of time or simple neglect, developers release a game in which virtual objects break this fundamental law. If you look closely at the above screenshot from famed online virtual reality Second Life, you’ll see a few examples of this in action. The man with the sunglasses has his right hand passing into his thigh, and to his left, the Smurf’s TNT is actually sinking into his thighs as well.

Poor collision detection is a fairly common glitch because it requires an enormous amount of time and care to properly address it. Usually game developers simply don’t have the luxury of that time or attention to detail because it would mean delaying a game that people are already screaming for in order to address what most would regard as a small nit-pick. These days, the most common times you’ll see poor collision detection in action is during shooters where players must kill other opponents. Usually collision detection is spot on and works as expected when everyone is alive, but when characters are killed, it’s not unusual for the game to no longer regard the victims as “objects” and often heads, legs and other extremities will now pass through walls in ghost-like fashion, since the game no longer deems it necessary to pay the same amount of attention to detail to an essentially “finished” asset of the game. It’s not the kind of thing that normally interferes with gameplay, at least not to the extent that a drop in frame-rate can, which is the most serious glitch, but poor collision detection is the one that most pulls the gamer out of the world the developers are trying to immerse people in, and remind them of the artificial nature of the game they are playing.

As with movies, these visual flaws are normally very minor things that don’t necessarily detract from the overall quality of a game, unless they reach serious levels. It wasn’t even until the last two generations that Anti-Aliasing was even a practical feature for console games, and plenty of games received critical acclaim without AA. But, as with film, the additional technology can enhance the gaming experience and contribute to the sense of suspension of disbelief, provided that the fundamentals – that is a strong game, with a compelling mechanics – is there to begin with. Like film, games are a marriage of elements, and if the gameplay isn’t there, the character isn’t there, and the story isn’t there, then all the visual fidelity in the world is not going to save that game from being a critical and commercial failure. Glitches such as the ones listed above can either be minor blemishes to an otherwise masterful game, or be more damning flaws in an already poor one.

Wayne Santos's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of this site, its owners or employees.

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Amazon Offering $50 Gift Certificate to HD DVD Customers

Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 03:00 PM ET
Tags: Amazon, Industry Trends, High-Def Retailing (all tags)

In a move reminiscent of last month's Best Buy offer, Amazon has begun contacting customers who qualify for a $50 gift certificate for purchasing HD DVD players.

In a company email that has begun going out to qualifying customers, the company states that players purchased before February 23, 2008, the same date specified in the Best Buy offer, qualify for the gift certificate, which can be used for new purchases on the site.

The email states, "New technologies don't always work out as planned. We at Amazon.com value our customer relationships more than anything and would like to support customers who purchased these players by offering a credit good for $50." The announcement does list some restrictions for the certificate's use.

Unlike the Best Buy offer, the company does not mention trade-in options for HD DVD media, but does state that the "Amazon.com Marketplace is available to sell items you might not want anymore as you upgrade to new ones." Perhaps suggesting that customer's might want to use their certificates to bring down the price of a shiny new Blu-ray player.

The program will run through April 9, 2009, so customers have plenty of time to take advantage of the offer.

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.

Vanguard Ends HD DVD Support with 'Disco Pigs,' Makes Move to Blu

Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 01:00 PM ET
Tags: Industry Trends, Vanguard (all tags)

Indie Vanguard has confirmed that it will close out its HD DVD support with the June release of 'Disco Pigs,' and that it plans to begin releasing titles on Blu-ray later this year.

Although Vanguard says there will be no official statement to come, the company has released an updated high-def release schedule that confirms they will no longer issue any new titles on the format following the June 24 HD DVD debut of the Cillian Murphy-starrer 'Disco Pigs.'

Also nixed from the company's schedule were two previously-announced HD DVD releases, 'The Low Life' and 'Animal Room.'

When asked for comment on Vanguard's future high-def plans, a company rep told us that a move to Blu-ray is currently in the planning stages for later this year. Initial titles and street date information are yet to be determined, however, so we expect to have additional information in the coming months.

As always, we'll keep you posted on further details of Vanguard's transition to Blu-ray as they're announced.

In the meantime, we've removed 'Animal Room' and 'The Low Life' from our HD DVD Release Schedule.

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.

Discs mentioned in this article: (Click for specs and reviews)
Disco Pigs (HD DVD)

BCI Moves to Blu, Cancels Upcoming HD DVD Slate (UPDATED)

Wed Mar 26, 2008 at 11:00 AM ET
Tags: Industry Trends, BCI (all tags)

UPDATE 03/26/08: We've received word from BCI that the 'Son of Paleface/My Favorite Brunette' HD DVD will be available via select retailers as originally scheduled. The company has no plans to support the format with any further releases. We've updated our database accordingly.

BCI/Eclipse has announced it has become the latest indie to go Blu, and has cancelled all previously-scheduled HD DVD titles.

The indie distributor was the first major indie to announce HD DVD support in late 2006, with a line-up of diverse cult gems that included 'Galaxina,' 'Golgo 13' and 'The Way of the World.' After a delay of over a year, however, only 'Galaxina' finally showed up in stores earlier this year, joining such recent BCI HD DVD releases as 'Ultimate Force' and the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby double-feature 'Road to Rio/Road to Bali.'

BCI had originally announced its latest HD DVD title (another Bob Hope double-header, 'My Favorite Brunette'/'Son of Paleface') was due to hit stores this week, but it failed to materialize on retail shelves. When asked for comment, a BCI rep confirmed to us that the company has nixed the release, as well any future support for the format.

Fans can still look forward to future next-gen BCI titles, however, as they will continue to throw their weight behind Blu-ray (the company has so far released 'Ultimate Force' on the format, as well as the "double feature" titles, 'Night of the Werewolf/Vengeance of the Zombies' and 'Sister Street Fighter/Sister Street Fighter 2'). According to the rep, it is planning a more aggressive Blu-ray line-up for later this year, although exact titles and street dates have yet to be determined.

As always, we'll keep you posted of all of BCI's future announcements as soon as they are officially confirmed.

In the meantime, we've removed the listing for 'My Favorite Brunette/Son of Paleface' from our HD DVD Release Schedule.

Discs mentioned in this article: (Click for specs and reviews)
Galaxina (HD DVD)
The Road to Bali/The Road to Rio (HD DVD)
Ultimate Force (HD DVD)
Ultimate Force (Blu-ray)
The Night of the Werewolf/Vengeance of the Zombies (Blu-ray)
Sister Street Fighter/Sister Street Fighter 2: Hanging By a Thread (Blu-ray)

Earlier on High-Def Digest:
BCI Sets Fall Release for First HD DVD Titles; Blu-ray Also On the Way (Jul 03, 2006)

Verdi's 'Il trovatore' Set for HD DVD

Mon Mar 24, 2008 at 01:00 PM ET
Tags: Disc Announcements, Music on High-Def, Opus Arte (all tags)

In a late-breaking announcement, Opus Arte is bringing its latest musical release 'Guiseppe Verdi: Il trovatore' to HD DVD this week.

Shot entirely in high-definition, 'Il trovatore' features Jose Cura and Dmitri Hvorostovsky leading an all-star cast of Verdi’s blazingly passionate opera, in Elijah Moshinsky’s Royal Opera House production co-produced with Teatro Real Madrid and featuring sets by noted Italian film designer Dante Ferretti.

Opus Arte has set a March 25 street date for the stateside HD DVD release.

Tech specs include 1080i video (at 1.78:1), with Dolby TrueHD tracks in 5.1 Surround and 2.0 Stereo.

Supplements include a suite of three behind-the-scenes featurettes, including "Meet the Cast," "All About Schläger" and "Designing Il trovatore."

Suggested retail price for the HD DVD has been set at $39.99.

You'll find disc details for 'Guiseppe Verdi: Il trovatore' linked from our HD DVD Release Schedule, where it's indexed under March 25.

We've also set up a dedicated thread for Opus Arte's latest in our Forums area -- click the following link to discuss the 'Il trovatore' HD DVD release.

Discs mentioned in this article: (Click for specs and reviews)
Verdi: Il Trovatore (HD DVD)

Best Buy Offers $50 Gift Cards To HD DVD Buyers

Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 03:00 PM ET
Tags: Best Buy, Industry Trends, High-Def Retailing (all tags)

Hoping to help heal the battle scars of the High-Def format war, Best Buy has announced plans to offer $50 gift cards to all customers who purchased HD DVD players before February 23, 2008.

As announced via press release this morning, customers will receive the gift cards for every HD DVD player or HD DVD attachment purchased at Best Buy before the February 23, 2008 cut off date. All told, the company estimates it will distribute more than $10 million dollars in gift cards.

“The DVD format war has divided our customers in a way we haven’t seen since Betamax took on VHS,” said Brian J. Dunn, President and Chief Operating Officer for Best Buy. “Now that the format war is over, we hope these gift cards will reassure our customers that we will help them make a smooth transition into the right technology for their needs.”

Best Buy says it will proactively mail the cards to all customers whom they can determine purchased qualifying equipment. Best Buy Reward Zone members, Performance Service Plans (PSPs) participants, and online customers should expect to receive their gift cards in the mail by May 1. Other customers should have credit card proofs of purchase or Best Buy receipts ready and call (888) BEST BUY.

“The beauty of this offer is that it doesn’t require our customers to give up their HD DVD player,” said Best Buy’s chief marketing officer, Barry Judge. “We know that many people who purchased these players have HD DVD movies that they would like to continue to watch. We’re telling our customers they can keep their players to play these movies as well as their older DVDs and use the $50 to treat themselves to anything else in our stores.”

Customers who want to trade in all of their HD DVD equipment and movie libraries will also have that option. By visiting www.bestbuytradein.com beginning March 21, visitors can get instant estimates regarding the value of their collections, regardless of where they were purchased. If they agree to the estimates, they will then be able to send their items to the Trade-In Center for free by downloading prepaid shipping labels. These customers will also receive payment in the form of an additional gift card.

Further information can be obtained by visiting the Best Buy HD DVD Action Center.

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.

Related links:
Best Buy Stands Behind Customers By Awarding More Than $10 Million in Gift Cards to HD-DVD Purchasers [Press Release]
Best Buy HD DVD Action Center [Best Buy]

'Freedom: 6' Comes to HD DVD This June

Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 09:00 AM ET
Tags: Disc Announcements, Bandai Visual (all tags)

Bandai Visual says it will bring the penultimate installment in the popular 'Freedom' series to HD DVD this June.

Originally presented as a seven-part series in Japan, entitled The Freedom Project, Bandai has retained the same strategy for the series' stateside release, issuing a new 30-minute episode as a stand-alone title every few months.

The company says that despite the imminent end of the HD DVD format in North America, it plans to finish out releasing the series on the format. Due in stores June 24, 'Freedom: 6 ' will again see a "twin format" configuration like the first five volumes of the series. (The company says that the last installment, 'Freedom: 7,' will be released on HD DVD sometime this August.)

Tech specs include a 1080p/VC-1 transfer (at 1.78:1 widescreen), and Japanese tracks in Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 Surround (1.5mbps) and PCM 2.0 Stereo (optional English subtitles are also provided).

Extras remain slim, with the disc including only a theatrical trailer, and for web-enabled users, a "digest version" of 'Freedom: 5' plus a TV spot for 'Freedom: 7.'

Retail for the HD DVD has been set at $39.99.

You'll find disc details for 'Freedom: 6' linked from our HD DVD Release Schedule, where it's indexed under June 24.

We've also set up a dedicated thread for Bandai's latest in our Forums area -- click the following link to discuss the 'Freedom: 6' HD DVD release.

Discs mentioned in this article: (Click for specs and reviews)
Freedom: 6 (HD DVD)
Freedom: 5 (HD DVD)
Freedom: 4 (HD DVD)
Freedom: 3 (HD DVD)
Freedom: 2 (HD DVD)
Freedom: 1 (HD DVD)

Digital Leisure Grounds 'Space Ace' HD DVD

Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 09:00 AM ET
Tags: Street Date Changes, High-Def Gaming, Digital Leisure (all tags)

Citing Toshiba's "cessation of support for the format," Digital Leisure has pulled the plug on its planned HD DVD port of the arcade classic 'Space Ace.'

As previously reported, Digital Leisure had announced a dual-format release for 'Space Ace,' with both the HD DVD and Blu-ray due to touch-down on April 8. The company's decision now leaves only the Blu-ray still on track for release.

Also blasted like an asteroid is the "head-to-head" online gaming feature that was to be an exclusive to the HD DVD version. (At press time, Digital Leisure says the Blu-ray version of 'Space Ace' will not be BD-Live enabled. Whether the company plans to reissue the title in the future in a Profile 2.0-compliant version that includes the online gaming component remains to be seen.)

Although the company says it does not plan to issue an official statement regarding its HD DVD support, a company rep tells us that with the cancellation of 'Space Ace,' Digital Leisure is no longer planning any future titles for the format. That leaves 'Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp' (which the company had previously indicated in press materials would see a dual-format release sometime in 2008) also DOA on HD DVD.

As always, we'll keep you posted on all future Digital Leisure announcements as they come to us.

In light of the nixing of 'Space Ace,' we've removed the title's listing from our HD DVD Release Schedule. You'll find complete specs for the Blu-ray version in our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under April 8.

Discs mentioned in this article: (Click for specs and reviews)
Space Ace (Blu-ray)
Dragon's Lair (Blu-ray)
Dragon's Lair (HD DVD)

Earlier on High-Def Digest:
'Space Ace' Rockets to Blu-ray, HD DVD (Feb 06, 2008)

Microsoft: “We’ll support Blu-ray”

Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 03:00 PM ET
Tags: Microsoft (all tags)

Amid rumors that Microsoft is in talks to add Blu-ray support to its Xbox 360 game console, CEO Steve Ballmer has indicated the company’s intention to support the remaining high-def format.

As reported by The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took part in an onstage conversation at the company’s Mix08 Internet conference in Las Vegas Thursday, where the topics discussed included Microsoft’s high-def plans following the discontinuation of Toshiba’s HD DVD format.

Without offering specifics, Ballmer said the company will work to support Blu-ray.

“We've already been working on, for example, in Windows, device driver support for Blu-ray drives and the like,” Ballmer stated. “I think the world moves on. Toshiba has moved on. We've moved on, and we'll support Blu-ray in ways that make sense.”

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.

Related links:
Ballmer lets out his inner Monkey at Mix08 event [Seattle PI]

Image Cancels Upcoming HD DVD Slate

Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 11:00 AM ET
Tags: Street Date Changes, Image Entertainment (all tags)

Image Entertainment has canceled its entire remaining HD DVD release slate, and says an official announcement ending support for the format is forthcoming.

One of the leading suppliers of independent titles on high-def, Image had previously supported both the HD DVD and Blu-ray formats, releasing a variety of music, special interest, and theatrical releases over the past two years.

A company spokesperson tells us that a written press release, due in the next several days, will confirm an end to their HD DVD support. Furthermore, effective immediately, Image has canceled all of the remaining HD DVD titles on its release schedule.

Among the HD DVD titles affected by the change are 'Before the Devil Knows You're Dead' (originally due April 15), and a spate of IMAX films (which had been set for an April 8 release).

Image's upcoming Blu-ray release schedule will be unaffected by the news.

We'll keep you posted on Image's official exit from the HD DVD format as soon as an announcement is released.

In the meantime, we've removed all of the distributor's upcoming titles from our HD DVD Release Schedule.

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.

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