the sony playstation arrived during a
bridge era a time when we made a
transition from 2d to 3d as a primary
graphics style
for home consoles as well as pcs one
technique that migrated with this
transition was dithering
the application of noise to help create
an illusion of greater color depth
many 2d games for console arcade or
computer platforms made use of this
technique for years to help enhance
their limited palette
for the sega genesis in particular
dithering has been a controversial topic
regarding whether or not to
intentionally use composite video to
enhance the effect
the same controversy exists for the sony
playstation but
dithering on the ps1 is a much more
complex topic
call it charm or call it annoyance the
playstation applies
dynamic dithering at the discretion of
the developer sometimes blanketing
everything with a checkerboard dithering
pattern at the time the graphics are
rendered
this leaves two big questions number one
why is dithering necessary on a 32-bit
console and number two what are you
talking about i don't see any dithering
in ps1 games
let's examine dithering on the sony
playstation as well as find out why it
seems to be extinct
in the modern era the playstation gpu
has
two modes in regard to color depth one
of these is a 24-bit direct mode that
allows for 16.7
million colors but is essentially used
for still
image display we need to do a lot more
than that
the second is a 15-bit direct mode this
drops our total on-screen maximum color
count
to 32 768 when totaling the colors of
all the polygons map textures and
shading on the screen at the same time
will never surpass this total there are
additional details to mention for
development and colors on the
playstation regard to this restriction
but
let's move past the system programming
and focus more on the results we see
as gamers i'll simulate some playstation
s dithering in photoshop
we'll start with a smooth gradient now
let's drop the image to only 16 colors
notice the banding the transition from
left to right is jarring as we move from
one color to another
now let's perform the same conversion
but apply a dithering pattern
it still only consists of 16 colors but
the use of dithering makes the
transition from one color to another
much smoother
dithering such as this is applied
dynamically and ad nauseam
on the ps1 in order to compensate for
lack of color depth
not just to gradients but also to
textured polygons and even 2d
pixel art at times the results will vary
depending on the surface receiving the
dithering
so why does it seem like you don't see
it as prominently with ps1 games these
days
well there are several reasons emulators
can simply
ignore the color restrictions of the
original hardware and render in 32-bit
color
ps1 games on the ps3 are upscaled with a
degree of smoothing
regardless of your smooth setting on the
system and therefore present dithering
that is less prominent
online video footage of ps1 games often
consists of a low resolution capture or
is highly compressed therefore hiding
the dithering details in an unnatural
way
contrast the modern machine solutions
with those individuals that elect to use
original hardware
such as a ps1 or ps2 paired with rgb
cables this approach most definitely
allows for the dithering pattern to be
seen
the irony of course is that there are
several that take this approach and
state
that they don't like the dithering and
would prefer it not be present
they had their wish granted within the
last year as we now have the ability to
disable dithering
on actual playstation hardware to
observe the various appearances of
dithering i'll use the game tinchu
stealth assassins
the first image is from a crt using
composite video
the dithering patterns are not quite as
pronounced as they would be with a
superior signal
moving to s-video using the same display
we can begin to see the pattern
now a switch to an upskilled capture
and now an emulator if we remove the
dithering notable
color banding is present if however we
let all color calculations for a
rendered image be performed in a 32-bit
color space
color transitions are much smoother in
late december of 2017
tech enthusiast and retro developer
chris covell tweeted some information
regarding dithering on the ps1
and the relative simplicity of disabling
it
by altering instances of values pushed
to the system's drawing attributes for a
given game
dithering can be disabled on graphics
output from original playstation
hardware
to accomplish this you can either alter
the values in the game's files
and burn a disk to play using your
homebrew friendly playstation
or you can use a cheat device such as a
game shark or
action replay and disable dithering in
the same way you would activate cheats
by inputting codes before starting the
game
this footage of tinshu is running on
original hardware but with dithering
disabled
with the ability to disable dithering
for a game running both in an emulator
and
on an actual playstation we can dive
deeper into how dithering affects both
the graphics
and gamer experience of a ps1 game
it was a limitation of the hardware at
the time true but
does it also define the aesthetic of the
ps1 these many years later
silent hill is a survival horror game
and makes heavy use of dithering
this not only provides a transition
between different colors but also
enhances the mood
we'll start with an emulator on pc
simulating ps1 hardware
now let's disable dithering immediately
you see banding between the colors there
are abrupt and deliberate breaks
throughout the draw distance from the
player
dithering in a 3d space like silent hill
helps
mask a short draw distance provide a fog
effect
and limit visibility in such a way that
adds to the tension
if konami had not used dithering here i
feel the silent hill experience would
have been quite different
now let's use original hardware this is
a composite video example
the dithering gets a bit of assistance
from the degraded color resolution
and seems to create an intended look and
feel if we slide over to s video we can
see the dither patterns emerge
and if we then disable dithering on the
original hardware the patterns disappear
leaving a cleaner image that perhaps
isn't quite as stark as the emulated
capture thanks to a crt display
let's shift gears to examine castlevania
chronicles chronicles is a 2d game that
applies dynamic dithering to the 2d
artwork
the results are rather odd in addition
to the questionable application of
dithering to the 2d art the patterns
appear to shift
as simon walks across the screen notice
the colors of the pixels in this section
and where they are relative to the
surrounding areas if i slide forward
just a bit
the location of the dark and light
pixels appears to oscillate
pixels once darker are now lighter and
vice versa
the same oddity is present on a ps3 but
is not as pronounced
due to the inherent smoothing during
upscale
i'm not sure why konami deliberately
decided to apply dynamic dithering to
castlevania chronicles
when they did a playstation release of
the sharp x68000 game
i suppose you could make an argument in
favor of it if you use composite video
but
my theory is quite simply either konami
thought adding dithering would improve
the
older graphics or they used their own
graphics functions and just
happen to have dithering enabled i feel
this game is an
obvious example of an instance where you
would want to disable dithering
as for the more popular castlevania
entry in the system symphony of the
night
the use of dithering was more subtle at
least from what i saw
instances include menus such as the
background layer on file selection
screen
and save confirmation boxes
one example during gameplay appears when
death takes away alucard's powers
you can see it applied to a background
effect
[Music]
metal gear solid leans on dithering
quite a bit and i feel that it is part
of the game's charm
you'll notice that even the konami logo
screen is dithered
now one thing interesting about metal
gear solid is that it appears to make
use of dithering on the graphics used
for textures
and then also apply an additional layer
of dynamic dithering over those graphics
the intro of the game makes heavy use of
it just as the rest does
we can examine the application of
dithering during that intro by comparing
still shots
with and without dithering watch the
radar screen in the foreground as we add
dithering to the scene
you can see that it certainly adds some
depth to the color yet
also seems to create a bit of a
checkerboard feeling of sorts the radar
is only on screen for a couple of
seconds as the camera sweeps across the
inside of the sub
so even if a still shot may have
dithering that seems distracting
perhaps the motion negates that
distraction and promotes the scene's
mystique
this shot seems to gain both depth and
mood with dithering applied and
the details are very easy to see with
rgb or an emulator
gameplay graphics without dithering also
take away from the depth as you see with
this screenshot from the first playable
area
the codec and mgs allowed for snake to
talk to other characters via certain
frequencies
unless we haven't found the codes to
disable dithering here it looks like the
dithering is baked into the 2d graphical
assets similar to graphics on older
consoles and that makes sense
personally this is my favorite codec
look in the mgs games and i would want
to disable dithering even if i could
transitioning into another major genre
of the playstation era
the jrpg we have 3d battle scenes that
apply dithering to the heroes enemies
and environment
squaresoft rpgs such as chronocross take
this approach and pepper the battle
scenes with dithering
does it add to the cohesion or is it
distracting i suppose it depends on
camera location and movement as well as
display output
like in many other cases star ocean the
second story demonstrates an instance of
pseudo sprite based characters placed on
a 3d environment during battle
dithering is used in the hud as well as
the environment
character sprites appear to stay clear
of it this seems like a good selective
use of dithering
strider 2 is a rather interesting
example that also combines 2d with 3d
this stage is heavily dithered you can
see how it is not only applied to the
environment but also to the character
sprites it is especially present during
sword slashes
after defeating the boss of the first
area the second area loads and does not
appear to use dithering
i suppose it is possible that this was a
choice made due to the lighter color in
the area personally i would have just
left it off the 2d sprite graphics
similar to star ocean's approach
ridge racer and gran turismo also used
dithering quite a bit
and it helped add to the realism in
early 3d racing games
high quality video output in larger
displays may lead some people to dislike
the dithering even more now than they
did in the 1990s
others may say that heavy dithering is
what makes gran turismo gran turismo
and as we wrap up this last example
demonstrates the splintering of how we
experience
ps1 gaming original hardware
dithering on or off emulation with
32-bit color
i haven't even touched on rendering at a
higher resolution at some point perhaps
you just decide you might as well play
one of the newer releases in the gran
turismo series
dithering is an interesting topic for
the ps1 two decades after the system's
release
and i've only scratched the surface when
it comes to examining individual games
you're ultimately left with a salad
bar's worth of decisions as to how to
play your ps1 games
i don't feel we need consensus as gamers
only knowledge of what is out there
the decision of how to play your games
is yours of course
i hope you enjoyed this video on
dithering for the playstation 1. if this
video
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leave a comment telling me what method
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thanks for watching
[Music]
you