Ducks demo


The Ducks demo was a tech demo that demonstrated the capabilities of the PlayStation 2 at E3 2000 and the PlayStation 3 at E3 2005. In the PlayStation 2 demo, only one duck is shown interacting with the water in the bathtub. In the PlayStation 3 demo, there are many ducks interacting with each other and their environment, as a visual representation of the leap in processing abilities from the PlayStation 2 Sony executives promise the PlayStation 3 will deliver. The Ducks demo was the basis for Super Rub 'a' Dub which is a downloadable title for the PS3 produced by SCEE.

The 2005 Demo

In the demo, Phil Harrison showed the crowd a small bathtub with rubber ducks in it. He used these to demonstrate the real-time water ripples and their dynamics. He then used two toy pirate ships to demonstrate cloth dynamics. To show the Cell's processing power, he added a huge amount of ducks to the tub. Phil commented dryly: "This is only possible with the use of LOD technology. For those of you that don't know, LOD stands for "Lots of Ducks."

The EyeToy

Phil Harrison then invites the creator of EyeToy to show the new technology the PlayStation 3 can use. Plugging a standard PlayStation 2 EyeToy into the PlayStation 3, he picks up two ordinary cups and proceeds to move the cups in a scooping motion, which scoops up the water pictured on screen.

Trivia

The ducks demo was the basis for Super Rub 'a' Dub, a downloadable title for the PS3 published by SCEE.