[Megadrive1988]

When "middleware" engines like Unreal are available on multiple platforms, porting a game between them becomes much easier. Sweeney's already working on unannounced hardware. "We're expecting a fourfold or better improvement in graphics performance for the coming generation of consoles, so the work we're doing now is just the tip of the iceberg," he explained.


Which consoles? Sweeney was cagy. "We can't really announce anything right now -- I shouldn't really use the plural yet. We have the engine running really well on the development kit for one next-generation console." Draw your own conclusions, but thanks to the Unreal engine's strong PC heritage, we'd speculate it's Microsoft's Xbox successor. "We've really gone all-out to support the next-generation feature set," he continued.

http://gamesdomain.yahoo.com/preview/28441

[Wunderchu]

"We're expecting a fourfold or better improvement in graphics performance for the coming generation of consoles

highly, highly disappointing, IMHO

[Paul]

"We're expecting a fourfold or better improvement in graphics performance for the coming generation of consoles

Ok

[Phil]

Originally Posted by Wunderchu

highly, highly disappointing, IMHO

I'm pretty sure he was talking about a fourfold improvement over current PC graphics? On the other hand, if you fourfold every single number of what ever was the basis (xbox? a 2004 PC?), the results could be quite convincing... well, for a next generation console to launch next year anyway. :?

[Guden Oden]

Originally Posted by Wunderchu

highly, highly disappointing, IMHO

Umm, , kinda.

You'll notice he's not saying 4-fold increase as compared to WHAT...

[Evil_Cloud]

Ah come on... The newest pc generation graphics cards are something like four fold of current consoles graphics cards (pixel pipelines and such, not 'it looks four times as good'). Besides it's not only graphics performance that can be improved.

[pc999]

Originally Posted by Evil_Cloud

Ah come on... The newest pc generation graphics cards are something like four fold of current consoles graphics cards (pixel pipelines and such, not 'it looks four times as good'). Besides it's not only graphics performance that can be improved.

Probabily more, a lot more...

[borntosoul]

i find it hard to believe that in 5-6 years that next gen consol will only be 4x faster. has to be at least 20 (im hoping).

[Megadrive1988]

the 4 times faster comment probably stems from comparing the basic raw Xbox specs to the supposed leaked Xenon raw specs, like:

vertex rate (116M ===> 500M)
pixel fillrate (932M ====> 4 billion)
memory amount (64 MB ====> 256 MB)
main memory bandwidth (6.4 GB ====> 22.4 GB)

overall though, we should be seeing a 10x to 20x leap from Xbox to Xenon, in the worst case, overall when the entire system output of Xenon is compared to Xbox, assuming of course, the leaked specs are close to accurate.

that is *also* assuming that Sweeny was talking about what is widely concidered the most powerful current console (Xbox, even though it has weaknesses compared to PS2 and Cube) to the next Xbox.


he could also have meant a 4x increase from the current fastest PC cards to the next gen consoles, which would be a reasonable thing to think.

[Wunderchu]

Originally Posted by Megadrive1988

the 4 times faster comment probably stems from comparing the basic raw Xbox specs to the supposed leaked Xenon raw specs, like:

vertex rate (116M ===> 500M)
pixel fillrate (932M ====> 4 billion)
memory amount (64 MB ====> 256 MB)
main memory bandwidth (6.4 GB ====> 22.4 GB)

as I wrote,

[AlStrong]

still quite a lot of power to render @ 640x480

[Bunnyman]

He's talking about NV40/R420 - Xenon difference.

[pc999]

EA talks about 10x more

[Megadrive1988]

1up.com

Unreal Engine 3 On Next-Generation Consoles?
And we'd bet it's the next one coming from Microsoft.



By David Smith
07/01/2004



The third generation of Epic Games' Unreal engine is currently the hottest thing going in terms of PC graphics technology -- or at any rate, conventional wisdom projects it will be once it winds up powering games in 2005 and 2006. Speaking to Yahoo Games, Epic's Tim Sweeney lately also hinted that it may be gracing consoles as well, at least somewhere down the line.
"We can't really announce anything right now -- I shouldn't really use the plural yet. We have the engine running really well on the development kit for one next-generation console," said Sweeney. "We've really gone all-out to support the next-generation feature set," he continued.

The most likely suspect would be Microsoft's next console. The successor to the Xbox is to be powered by an ATI graphics solution not too distant in relation from the ATI hardware Epic used to produce its first Unreal 3 demos at the Game Developers Conference earlier this year.

In general, Sweeney expects big things from the next wave of console hardware. "We're expecting a fourfold or better improvement in graphics performance for the coming generation of consoles," he said, "so the work we're doing now is just the tip of the iceberg."

the obvious mistake in above article is that Unreal Engine 3 was shown running on Nvidia GeForce 6800, not an ATI card, although they're both roughly equivalent in power compared to whatever Xenon will be packing.

yeah, I do believe he is talking about a 4x leap from the current GeForce 6800 and Radeon X800 cards, not from present gen consoles.

[AlStrong]

whoa... yeah... I forgot....

Sweeney should only be comparing current gen (NV40/R420 etc) since UE3.0 doesn't run on xbox/ps2/GC so he couldn't really be comparing those.....

Besides, R420 or NV40 are at least 4 times more powerful than NV2A... and what can we expect from R500 (or whatever it's called now )

[GwymWeepa]

Originally Posted by Megadrive1988

1up.com

the obvious mistake in above article is that Unreal Engine 3 was shown running on Nvidia GeForce 6800, not an ATI card, although they're both roughly equivalent in power compared to whatever Xenon will be packing.

yeah, I do believe he is talking about a 4x leap from the current GeForce 6800 and Radeon X800 cards, not from present gen consoles.

Hmm, I read someplace that the engine was also shown on ATI cards.

[AlphaWolf]

Originally Posted by Megadrive1988

the obvious mistake in above article is that Unreal Engine 3 was shown running on Nvidia GeForce 6800, not an ATI card, although they're both roughly equivalent in power compared to whatever Xenon will be packing.

yeah, I do believe he is talking about a 4x leap from the current GeForce 6800 and Radeon X800 cards, not from present gen consoles.

The demo was shown on both ATi and Nvidia hardware at gdc.

This thread covers it.

[j^aws]

Can't find the link but the UE3 ran on the NV40 at 15fps so 4* the power >>>60fps target for consoles.

[Megadrive1988]

Can't find the link but the UE3 ran on the NV40 at 15fps so 4* the power >>>60fps target for consoles

yeah I read that UE3 ran at 15 to 20 fps on NV40-GeForce 6800 so 4x that should put it at 60fps with perhaps a little bit more geometry. it's a very rough estimate I suppose.


btw, I guess I was not aware of UE3 running on R420-Radeon X800 as well. cool beans then.

[AlStrong]

Epic is going to have quite a bit of knowledge on Ati's console VPU.... could this result in UE3.0 running better on next gen Ati PC hardware just because of Xenon? Especially since XNA is involved?


edit: maybe I should have asked this in the other thread in the 3d tech forum..... Probably would have gotten a "no comment" answer or something though. :P

[london-boy]

So this means that a NV50 will be 4 times as powerful as a NV40? Same for R420/R500?? Nice...

[Bunnyman]

In fact, the just-released GeForce 6800 is the first video card that runs the engine acceptably --at about 25 to 30 frames per second. "Not incredibly fast," said Sweeney, but he has his eyes on the generation of cards after it.

Xenon should run it at 60fps with more geometry to boot.

[london-boy]

Originally Posted by Bunnyman

Xenon should run it at 60fps with more geometry to boot.

Well, 25-30 is as fast as Farcry at max settings on most cards out now...

[Qroach]

People need to stop saying "X" hardware will run at 60 fps all the time. Just about any hardware rleased over the past 15 years can do 60fps if you really want it to. The reason they don't is because they push it to hard. If xbox 2 can push 60fps with mor egeometry and textures, then some developers will push it beyond that and it will run at 30 in some games.

[AlStrong]

Itagaki said he'd quit if his games didn't run 60fps most of the time