Nintendo 3DS hardware thread
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Different games will require different amounts of memory, however that doesn't mean the engine requires it. Epic Citadel runs on Iphone 3Gs which has around 128MB available at startup before you start adding extra apps. So I don't see ram as much of a problem if 3DS does really have 96MB available for games.
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Honest question: isn't Epic Citadel using PVRTC on the 3GS (or any other device with PVR GPU IP)? Not that I think it would make as much a difference (from say 256 to 96MB) but if we'd be talking 2bpp vs. DXT1 there should be a sizable difference nonetheless.
It uses for sure PVRTC judging from the GL environment data on the GL benchmark database.
It obviously has nothing to do with Epic, but Carmack stated the following for Rage:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/11/post-8.ars/2
3DS, not 3GS.
Pica200 appears to support DXTC and ETC:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://isao76.egloos.com/m/1229434&ei=m7UkTfKaBsL98AbPhLHhAQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFsQ7gEwBzgo&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpica200%2B%2522texture%2Bcompression%2522%26start%3D40%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DRiY%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US
fficial%26prmd%3DivnsfdWhich as far as I'm aware are both 4bpp. So unfortunately no signs of anything better. Which would be a shame given that DS had 3bpp compression.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSX_'Reality_Synthesizer'
OpenGL ES 1.1 + Cg.
Since it's basically a G71 with shader model 3 compliance, it supports OpenGL 2.1.
But OpenGL ES 2.0 is closer to OpenGL 3/4 regarding programmable shaders.
For example, only the latest OpenGL 4.1 introduced full compatibility for OpenGL ES 2.0, and that's only for DX11 cards (GF4xx, HD5xxx and up).
The game gets pretty crowded most of the time, maybe that's why.
But the game runs on the iPad, which has only 256MB RAM, so I think this "512MB minimum" is kind of an artificial limit to keep people from playing it on slower hardware.
The HW supports ALL the features by the Unreal III engine, how they're exposed is irrelevent, by comparison the 3DS HW does not appear to support the required feature set.
John.
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Does not appear to support != Does not support
Nonetheless, UE3 seems to be too demanding in memory amout, so as I said before, I doubt we'll ever see an UE3 game in it.
Even if he knew that it's the latter case he wouldn't phrase it any other way.
If a UE3 game can fit in an iPhone3GS it could fit also into a handheld console.
And just for the record's sake RSX might belong to the G7x family of chips, but it's neither a strict G70 nor G71. There are a few distinct evolutions in RSX besides it being a tailored GPU chip for the PS3 console.
OpenGL ES 2.0 was initially derived from OpenGL 2.0 (the difference spec is still maintained and available from the Khronos site, though it's no longer the normative version). The shading language, GLSL ES 1.00, is mostly GLSL 1.10 with a few things borrowed from GLSL 1.20 (i.e. OpenGL 2.1). It's also less strict in terms of hardware requirements, several things have been made optional.
That's purely about compatibility/portability, not about feature set.
I'm intrigued. Do you have any links to a description?
UPDATE: I'm guessing this is a description: http://kvance.livejournal.com/1029559.html
Does not appear to support != Does not support
Nonetheless, UE3 seems to be too demanding in memory amout, so as I said before, I doubt we'll ever see an UE3 game in it.
It doesn't support SM2.0 as currently _required_ as a minimum by UE3 engine (this from epic themselves), so "does _not_ support" is the correct statement at this time. The only question here is would Epic consider changing things, this sounds unlikely as programmability is inherent in all their authering tools.
Yes memory is an issue given that all the PowerVR platforms are using 2BPP compression so all other platforms requires 2x the memory or consiedrably reduce the resolution of the textures.
John.
The stuff I've seen so far seems way too much like the original PSP but in 3D imho ... I don't have much confidence that the 3DS will even be able to match iPhone 3GS for games in that respect. The recent shots for instance of Ridge Racer 3DS do not look promising.
DMP seems to bank on procedural textures instead. Infinite resolution textures at only a couple of kilobytes doesn't sound bad at all, even if it can only be used for certain textures. And mass storage much faster than flash, let alone optical storage, should help as well.3DS, not 3GS.
Pica200 appears to support DXTC and ETC:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://isao76.egloos.com/m/1229434&ei=m7UkTfKaBsL98AbPhLHhAQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFsQ7gEwBzgo&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpica200%2B%2522texture%2Bcompression%2522%26start%3D40%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DRiY%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US
Which as far as I'm aware are both 4bpp. So unfortunately no signs of anything better. Which would be a shame given that DS had 3bpp compression.
Ridge Racer 3DS looks like a PSP game because it is a PSP game. Or more precisely a port of an iPhone game, which was a port of a PSP game. It's one of the worst looking 3DS games out there for a reason...
Would have thought it'd be obvious that that the way to judge a systems graphics capabilities is to look at its best looking games, not its worst.. Then again this game seems to be the one people focus on when they want to take a shot at 3DS graphics.
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The fact that it's not compatible with SM4.0 cards has to mean something.
Well, if the 3DS is a tremendous success (something obscene like the 3DS selling as much as the DS and PSP combined), I could even see Epic making a new engine (maybe evolved from UE2.5) specifically for the console, however:
Me too.
I'm really not impressed by the 3DS' overal graphic quality, and I fear its way-too-low-ish specs might give it a premature death.
