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[DMeisterJ]

Wow bulky update with a lot of neat things. Will have to check it out. Not been on home in a few weeks

Samesies... Will definitely check out the changes.

 

[Majine]

"The majority of videos in Home now use progressive download and so should start playing much more quickly while they download in the background."

That is quite an improvement. Videos take too long to start as it is.

 

[Majine]

EU Home this week:

As we announced last Friday, tomorrow we will be releasing a new version of the PlayStation Home client: 1.4 is here! In addition to the features already announced – new wardrobe, grouping, and voice chat – there are several other noteworthy improvements and additions. First amongst those is the new Character Status settings, enabling you to set a status from a variety of new options including Happy, Sad, Busy and more! Even better, many of these status options will adjust your avatars facial expression and idle animations to match.
Other changes coming with 1.4 include improvements to the menu pad and Navigator, which can now be accessed directly by holding down the Start button. With the new cross-game invite support, you can invite your friends to join you in Home more easily than ever before. The new 1.4 client also brings numerous bug fixes, performance improvements and more. Full patch notes will be on the official forums.
Note: When you start Home to apply the 1.4 patch tomorrow, please wait for the orange “hard drive activity” light to stop flashing on your PS3 before commencing the patching process.

Moving on from 1.4, we have a range of new content for you this week. Leading the way is an update to the LittleBigPlanet space, where the LittleBigDerby has arrived! LittleBigDerby is an addictive multiplayer (up to 8!) game involving shooting targets with paintballs. The more targets you hit, the more points you earn … the more points you earn, the faster your racer will progress towards the finish line! Watch out for bonus point opportunities available when hitting targets with the correct coloured paintball.

Check out the LOOT store this week, where you’ll find great new content. There’s festive season furnishings, including presents, a tree, and a throne. You’ll also find the first batch of their fantastic Aliens vs Androids costumes. Watch out for more coming soon, including a bundle pack!

Rounding out the update for this week there’s a range of other new content in the Shopping Centre, including:
Standees from Top Cow’s comics Magdalena, and Witchblade.
New footwear and bracelets from Lockwood.
Australia and New Zealand football kits from Konami

Finally, please note that the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves public space will be removed temporarily tomorrow while we carry out important back end updates.

 

[Winterblink]

"The majority of videos in Home now use progressive download and so should start playing much more quickly while they download in the background."

That is quite an improvement. Videos take too long to start as it is.

Part of this issue was zoning in to an area and having it try to buffer a video while also loading all the people and clothing. Home sometimes tries to do way too much at once.

 

[Man]

This Thursday, November 11th, PlayStation Home will update to client 1.4. In addition to the features we announced last Friday – wardrobe management, grouping, and voice chat – there are several other noteworthy additions, such as the new “Character Status” settings, improvements to the Menu Pad and Navigator, and cross-game invite support (finally, you can invite your friends to join you in PlayStation Home no matter what they are playing or watching on their PS3s). The new 1.4 client also brings numerous bug fixes and performance improvements.

Full patch notes: http://boardsus.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-Home-General/bd-p/ps3home

 

[Majine]

Part of this issue was zoning in to an area and having it try to buffer a video while also loading all the people and clothing. Home sometimes tries to do way too much at once.

One great addition would be if the system could prioritize the most important things to load. Sometimes I'm waiting for a person in front of me to load while it's working on someone else 60 meters away.

 

[TTP]

When you start Home to apply the 1.4 patch please wait for the orange “hard drive activity” light to stop flashing on your PS3 before commencing the patching process.

Can't believe they have yet to sort that shit.

 

[Septimus]

Can anyone tell from the 720p shots if they're using MLAA?

 

[spats]

Can anyone tell from the 720p shots if they're using MLAA?

I doubt that. The engine must be a complete mess as it is, shoehorning something like that into it would propably make it explode.

 

[Winterblink]

Can't believe they have yet to sort that shit.

What the. Seriously, this is like kids playing at software development.

Log in times have been improved once more.

I just love how last time they did this, it logged you in fast but left you sitting at pre-caching for minutes.

 

[Majine]

What the. Seriously, this is like kids playing at software development.

Well, I experienced this issue for the first time last patch. Even if this patch solves it, you still need to install it so... yeah :lol

 

[AndyD]

I just love how last time they did this, it logged you in fast but left you sitting at pre-caching for minutes.

Its weird, mine did that once or twice, but after that it was very very speedy in comparison. Byu the time the navigator loads and i scroll up down at the 2-3 new items for 5 seconds its done caching and everything.

 

[TTP]

Well, I experienced this issue for the first time last patch. Even if this patch solves it, you still need to install it so... yeah :lol

Home wasn't the only "game" affected by that tho. I don't recall which one had that issue, but it sounds like a OS one. Meaning it's SCEJ. Meaning it's clock related.

 

[Winterblink]

Its weird, mine did that once or twice, but after that it was very very speedy in comparison. Byu the time the navigator loads and i scroll up down at the 2-3 new items for 5 seconds its done caching and everything.

Did you crank the cache size setting for Home?

My 60GB launch model's full of so much junk I can't do that, so that's probably why I'm stuck with an annoyingly long launch process.

 

[DrXym]

This picture represents everything that is wrong with Home:

I'm starting to wonder if Sony shouldn't just junk the thing entirely. They're not fixing the fundamental issues with it, just polishing a turd. Where are the clan rooms, matchmaking and other things that would make Home useful for something. For that matter, what happened to the trophy rooms and other shit like streaming movie sharing that was promised 2 years ago?

Assuming Free Realms ever appears for the PS3, that would probably make for a more fun and engaging online experience than Home could ever dream of. Even if it lacked aforementioned clans etc., at least it would be a game in its own right.

 

[Winterblink]

This picture represents everything that is wrong with Home:

I'm starting to wonder if Sony shouldn't just junk the thing entirely. They're not fixing the fundamental issues with it, just polishing a turd. Where are the clan rooms, matchmaking and other things that would make Home useful for something. For that matter, what happened to the trophy rooms and other shit like streaming movie sharing that was promised 2 years ago?

Assuming Free Realms ever appears for the PS3, that would probably make for a more fun and engaging online experience than Home could ever dream of. Even if it lacked aforementioned clans etc., at least it would be a game in its own right.

Even better, where's the XMB-based grouping and game launching support? (aka party support)

 

[AndyD]

Did you crank the cache size setting for Home?

My 60GB launch model's full of so much junk I can't do that, so that's probably why I'm stuck with an annoyingly long launch process.

I did. I maxed it out. Hopefully this patch will speed things up a lot by letting you move most of your wardrobe into "Archive" thus there won't be a need to check those items.

You should consider upgrading the drive. Its cheap and easy.

 

[Winterblink]

I did. I maxed it out. Hopefully this patch will speed things up a lot by letting you move most of your wardrobe into "Archive" thus there won't be a need to check those items.

You should consider upgrading the drive. Its cheap and easy.

*insert rant about game save moving here* :lol

 

[Carl]

I'm starting to wonder if Sony shouldn't just junk the thing entirely. They're not fixing the fundamental issues with it, just polishing a turd.
.

Why would they "junk" something that brings in as much money as Home clearly does?

 

[Majine]

I think they have solved many fundamental issues that were there at launch.

 

[Man]

Can anyone tell from the 720p shots if they're using MLAA?

"The anti-aliasing has been improved. This should mean higher quality shadows and a slightly better framerate."

MLAA confirmed pretty much. My suspicion from Beta.

http://boardsus.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-Home-General/1-4-Patch-Notes/td-p/46387648

 

[Oni Jazar]

This picture represents everything that is wrong with Home:

I'm starting to wonder if Sony shouldn't just junk the thing entirely. They're not fixing the fundamental issues with it, just polishing a turd. Where are the clan rooms, matchmaking and other things that would make Home useful for something. For that matter, what happened to the trophy rooms and other shit like streaming movie sharing that was promised 2 years ago?

Assuming Free Realms ever appears for the PS3, that would probably make for a more fun and engaging online experience than Home could ever dream of. Even if it lacked aforementioned clans etc., at least it would be a game in its own right.

The problem with your logic is that none of those features you mentioned make money.

Virtual clothes make a shit load of money.

 

[patsu]

Not quite true. Increased traffic to Home can have a positive or negative impact on Home depending on how they do it.

 

[AndyD]

Not quite true. Increased traffic to Home can have a positive or negative impact on Home depending on how they do it.

Right. But they added direct game invites, so people can invite their friends straight into a Home room/minigame. Which could increase traffic as well.

And its probably better to offer a ton of stuff to buy/do before you spur a lot of traffic. Otherwise people come through, are dissapointed in what they see, leave without purchasing. Increasing traffic now when there are so many more things to do and see can be a lot better.

 

[patsu]

If they had follow through with integrating party launch with all games, it'd be a good start.

 

[DrXym]

Why would they "junk" something that brings in as much money as Home clearly does?

Because they would make even more money by implementing features that would make gamers visit? More visitors means more ad impressions means more revenue.

Because some of its glaring issues like glacial startup times are annoying and actively detering visitors and therefore ad impressions & revenue.

Because if they did junk Home (rather than the last two options) for something like Free Realms they'd probably make even more money. Free Realms also supports micropayments etc. but it's an actual game into the bargain which again means people are more motivated to visit, but could also hang out and chat if they wanted.

Or they could introduce a new line of bangles and shoes instead. Perhaps Sony is counting on the cross-dressing demographic to carry the service the way it is.

 

[DrXym]

The problem with your logic is that none of those features you mentioned make money.

Virtual clothes make a shit load of money.

You're kidding I hope. Clan rooms could be purchased. Clan rooms need to be decorated / kitted out with pool tables, video games, posters, trophies etc. which means purchases. Matchmaking lobbies etc. can be festooned with adverts.

More visitors in general means lower per-user support costs and higher impression rates. Simply put, the more attractive Home is, the more people will come. The more people who come, the the more eyeballs they get to look at those ads and the more inclined people will be to buy all the virtual crap. Including clothes.

 

[Pachimari]

I don't get it, how do I update to the latest version?
I enter PlayStation Home and then pops up the Navigator - nothing has beene downloaded.

The update isn't available for us europeans?

 

[Oni Jazar]

You're kidding I hope. Clan rooms could be purchased. Clan rooms need to be decorated / kitted out with pool tables, video games, posters, trophies etc. which means purchases. Matchmaking lobbies etc. can be festooned with adverts.

More visitors in general means lower per-user support costs and higher impression rates. Simply put, the more attractive Home is, the more people will come. The more people who come, the the more eyeballs they get to look at those ads and the more inclined people will be to buy all the virtual crap. Including clothes.

I agree that those things sound cool, but Sony isn't putting the effort into Home. They're making clothes and tweaking the UI here and there to keep development costs as low as possible in order to make the easiest profit. They're not going to junk the whole system because it's making money for them. The best you can hope for is that the slow trickle one day actually adds up to something interesting.

I don't get it, how do I update to the latest version?
I enter PlayStation Home and then pops up the Navigator - nothing has beene downloaded.

The update isn't available for us europeans?

Update is tomorrow

 

[Majine]

I don't get it, how do I update to the latest version?
I enter PlayStation Home and then pops up the Navigator - nothing has beene downloaded.

The update isn't available for us europeans?

Both the firmware update and content update arrives tomorrow.

 

[TTP]

It's up.

But servers are down.

 

[TheSeks]

No pets?

Meanwhile ZOMG I LOVE THESE STORAGE OPTIONS. I can now hide a bunch of free useless tees I don't give a shit about and favorite the five I do. :lol

There is storage in your home space for the home items as well. I'm hiding a bunch of ornaments I don't care about. So nice.

Haven't had a chance to try the friends only chat setting yet. I'm sure I'll get to that soon enough.

That said, GREAT update. Now if they would give us trophy rooms, streaming, blah blah blah...

 

[Man]

Everything is live.

MLAA makes such a difference to visuals.

 

[Metalmurphy]

So it really is MLAA?

How's the performance? Home always felt kinda sluggish.

 

[Man]

Performance is slightly improved and PQ is highly improved with MLAA. Shadows also improved.

 

[Lagspike_exe]

Yeah, Home runs better now. FPS seems improved.

 

[Oni Jazar]

loading any faster?

Specifically the avatars

 

[Man]

5.1 surround is also improved.

New features


Groups

You can now create groups in Home.
Groups consist of up to 8 different people.
You may invite your friends and anyone in the same space as you to your group.
Groups work no matter where anyone is in Home – different public spaces, personal spaces or club houses.
Groups have their own voice and text chat channels that work between all group members wherever they are in Home.
If you leave Home then you leave your group.
If the leader leaves a group then leadership is automatically transferred to another member of the group.
The chat log has two tabs “Text” and “Voice”. The text tab handles all text chat while the voice tab handles all voice chat.
Communication in the chat log has been separated into multiple chat channels.


The Chat Log

Local: The existing proximity based text chat in a space.

Group: Text and voice chat through the group channel. Works between all group members anywhere in Home.

Club: Text and voice chat through the club channel. Works between all club members anywhere in Home.

You can only be in one club channel at a time.
If you are in multiple clubs then you can switch the channel between each one.
Each channel has its own prefix and colour scheme so that you can tell them apart in the chat log and understand where chat is coming from.

As part of this change we have removed the display of custom pop-up colours from the chat log.
The label on each tab is coloured and prefixed according to the channel you will send chat to if you type or speak.

Text
Complementing the telephone call system you can now send private text messages to other people through the chat log as well.
Voice
The voice tab lists all of the people in your current voice channel along with a status icon which indicates:

Speaking
Has microphone
Does not have microphone
Blocked, ignored or muted
In addition to the standard menu options there are special slash commands for switching channel or sending private messages quickly:

“/local” or “/l”
/l hello
“/group” or “/g
/g howdy”
“/club” or “/c”
/c greetings
“/privatemessage”, “/private” or “/pm”
In the case of a private message you also need to specify who the message will go to.
/pm <name of friend> how are you?


Wardrobe

We have replaced the old wardrobe background that was tied to the Harbour Studio apartment with a simpler, more neutral one that loads more quickly.
You can now tag “favourite” items in the wardrobe.
It is possible to filter the wardrobe view to only display favourite items, purchased items, rewards or recently acquired items.
Each category in the wardrobe can have the items in it sorted by time acquired and when it was last used.
New items will have a new icon on them (as will categories that contain new items).
There is a storage section into which you can put items that you don’t use very often. Putting some of your items into storage will mean:

The wardrobe loads faster (and depending on how much is being stored Home may load faster as well).
There will be fewer items to scroll through in each category.
You can browse your storage section and swap items back into your main wardrobe whenever you want to.

You can keep a maximum of 500 items in your main wardrobe at any one time. The rest go into storage.
When you load Home for the first time after the patch we will automatically put some of your items into the storage trunk if you happen to have more than 500 items already.
There is a new “Both Ears” category in the wardrobe.
The “Glasses” and “Headphones” categories have been replaced with “Face Accessory” and “Head Accessory”.
Within each category the first option will keep your current selection.
Your character can now be set into one of several different statuses:


Character status

Normal
Happy
Sad
Angry
Confused
Busy
Wants help
Wants to chat
Wants to play

Setting a status will update the information in your character label and in some cases may change the expression on your character’s face and your idle animations.
Improvements


Menu Pad and the Navigator

We have added a simplified carousel of three main options (Navigator, Wardrobe and Settings) to the first page of the Menu Pad.

All of the existing menus can be found under “Settings” now.
The carousel view can be turned off in the settings if you wish.
The Navigator can be accessed directly in Home by pressing and holding [START] without having to go through the Menu Pad.
Extra icons have been added to the side of each space in the Navigator to indicate if this space is a favourite and whether it has any friends in it.
There are extra options in the Menu Pad and Home Safe Screen for setting preferences as to how much of the new character labels you want to see.


Character labels

There are extra options in the Menu Pad and Home Safe Screen for setting preferences as to how much of the new character labels you want to see.

Cross game invites

Home now fully supports cross game invites.
If one of your friends is online but not in Home you can use the Menu Pad or Navigator friend list to invite them to join you.
When the friend accepts the invitation they will automatically load Home and be transported to your location.

Loading screen

The loading screen has been simplified.
Helpful tips are displayed while you are loading.

General

Access to Home is now restricted by parental control level (set on the console) as well as age (set on the PSN account) in each region.
The audio system has been optimised and improved.
Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound is now correctly supported.
Added support for Polish fonts.
Game camera collision has been improved so that there should be fewer instances of it cutting through objects or sticking out of the scene.
The majority of videos in Home will now start playing more quickly (before they have been fully downloaded).
The anti-aliasing has been improved. This should mean higher quality shadows and a slightly better framerate.
General optimisations to improve performance and framerate.
Log in times have been improved once more.
You can now zoom into screens while seated.
The shadows and lighting in the Harbour Studio apartment have been improved.
The club menus have been simplified and made easier to use.

Bug fixes
System and network stability has been improved.

 

[Majine]

This week in pictures:

(Damn it, so many people. Will never be able to play this game. Who said nobody uses Home?)

(I think this guy followed me around because my name said I was taking photos)

 

[TTP]

Damn the sound improvements are massive. I can hear sound effects I couldn't before and the 5.1 is flawless. Didn't step into Siren space cos I'd have shit my pants for sure.

Also, with MLAA it now looks better than 80% of the actual games out there.

And it does load incredibly fast now.

 

[TTP]

loading any faster?

Specifically the avatars

Nope. Those take time as usual I think. Its very crowed out there now tho, so it's hard to tell.

 

[IonicSnake]

That ugly fake smile on the avatars is finally gone!

 

[TTP]

That ugly fake smile on the avatars is finally gone!

Yeah. I like the "Confused" expression :lol

Wish there was a 1st person view tho. It's hard to see faces from 3rd one.

 

[Byakuya769]

space loaded up quickly... still surrounded by grey specters for several minutes though...

 

[AndyD]

That ugly fake smile on the avatars is finally gone!

You can get it back with the happy emote.

I like the update. The AA effect is very visible and the framerate is much better. It looks better than many actual games in terms of image quality. It is also quite busy so there are a lot of gray avatars. I also archived a lot of my items of clothing, so we'll see if it gets snappier to load.

I also tried the new LBP minigame, its fun but tough.

Overall, nice update.

 

[BradleyUK]

My screenshots:

 

[Metalmurphy]

Oh WOW, MLAA is pretty apparent even in those downsized pics. Gotta check this out.

I only log into home when there's free stuff to be had/awarded.

 

[SolidusDave]

some thoughts:

- loading up (including item verification) is basically the same as before 1.4 (though it is at least acceptable now thanks to the patch before 1.4). I moved all items to the storage box(es) to see if it helps, but didn't notice a real difference, probably only helps for your dressing room? I don't get the storage box anyway as it doesn't seem to load longer if I want to browse the stuff in them.
Spaces may or may not load faster but that was also much more noticeable after the previous patch.

- Avatars don't load faster. I think anyway that's only affected by how much other stuff there is to download in the background and the amount of avatars with different outfits (that also affects the quality, resulting in some very quality avatars until they "pop up"). Maybe it saves them on the HDD depending on your cache space. If you are often in Home this is less of an issue as you will then already have all the spaces, trailers etc. saved on your HDD so Home only has to load the avatars.

- Home locked my PS3 when loading up the harbor apartment (fixed as usual by deleting the "savegame" of this apartment)

- dressing room is really good now as it's much faster. Though I couldn't see thumbnails of my saved characters. You can fix this by loading a slot and save it in the same slot again.
Btw, I really hoped they would now display the names of the respective clothing item, but I guess with the new sorting options it's less annoying.

- groups are easy to create, though for friends that are not in Home you have to go to friends tab and not the group invite screen. I think groups for launching games are separated (so I guess you have to manually join and be in the same area, should be done via the new groups though I couldn't really test it yet)

- I don't think Home had bad PQ, but now aliasing is much less visible. I noticed some ledges that were quite bad from certain perspectives but now that's basically gone.

Here is a screenshot comparison:

before 1.4:

with 1.4:

to make it clear, the space itself did not change (it loaded it from the HDD).

You can see that the one darker fern in the back (next to the butterflies) benefits from the better AA, though imo the fern in the front looks now a bit more washed out. Not really visible in these screens but the shadows of the butterflies are now better/sharper, too.


overall a nice update but not really ground-shaking, the previous update was definitely more important.


more pictures taken today:

stereotypical angry black guy:

hooker in the back gets dp and swords are crossed:

raises eyebrow at that furry guy in the back:

still waiting for user video sharing, Sony

jizzing over the balcony while that old guy watches me:

sucks that we can't take screenshots of the chat, e.g. I would like you to show you the guy running around in the Star Wars bar with a text balloon saying:
"im bored, anyone wanna have vr sex??"

 

[GraveRobberX]

Me trying out my new COD outfit lol:

Strike that Pose!

 

[Ploid 3.0]

Why don't games unlock home stuff? There's like every other xbox game unlocking things for their avatars, but nothing for PS3. I'd love for trophies to unlock stuff then I'd be interested in unlocking them, like the stupid SF4 shirts.