Thanks for the complements on the post guys. God knows I read & re-read seemingly every tech article, PDF, white paper, etc. available out there in addition to the ones I already possessed.
(even my brother-in-law chimed in) There are some aspects I didn't focus on, such as the 1T-SRAM-Q's capicator being built vertically into the bit cell, (specifically for the FAC) whereas the 1T-SRAM's capacitor was built horizontally.
What I tried to do is use language that would appeal to the techies, aspiring techies,
(myself included) & even the non-techies who come to these boards seeking technical insight. Before my next lengthy post there were some comments made I would like to address.
Ooh-videogames said:
Do developers need the exact same number of pixel pipelines in Xenos/RSX, just to have features like Volumetric Clouds, Soft Shadows, Realtime Ambient Lighting be technically possible on Revolution?
No, they do not have to possess duplicate pixel pipelines in order to acheive the same effects. There are many different approaches a programmer can take to realize the same effect, some which differ drastically in their implementation. As early examples of some aspects which were demonstrated in the Crytek engine, take the volumetric fog & soft shadows
(Eternal Darkness, RSIII) that were both accesible features on the GC w/out the luxury of a dedicated GPU. Although I am unsure if the volumetric fog featured on the ground of Eternal Darkness interacting with it, engulfing its surface was rendered in real-time.
(iirc though, this was the claim & it is a feature supported by the hardware via the Flipper's TEV) As most fog in software this gen. was strictly using layered alpha images afaik. What was done in RSIII on the forest floor of Endor is a perfect example of
true soft shadowing. As Eagle-vision said on
pg. 6 of this thread:
soft shadows covering the forest (and everything on it) while subtly moving around are really amazing.
Indeed it was, & was done wide-scale
this generation on the GC. (albeit even if on one title) Of course the soft shadowing shown for Crysis differentiated itself solely by the sheer amount of different foliage casting shadows in that scene, the level of detail, & nigh-photorealistic texture clarity. Volumetric clouds & the ambient lighting shown in the GDC demo presentation by Crytek for Crysis are much, much, more difficult to utilize, but also what we saw was running on a dev. PC of unknown requirements with a
DX10 SDK no less. Btw, did anyone else notice that the fire shown paled in comparison to
RE4's?
And the v-clouds while impressive, were simply a camera fly-through. (which is no easy task, light-scattering, cloud dynamics, texture maps, & shading for cloud opacity, etc.) Although once you begin adding planes, characters, etc. interacting in the sky the algorithm bounds in its complexity. I know that there are various versions of the Crytek engine in development for the 360/PS3
(it is EA afterall, even a Rev version is rumored) but will it look identical is the question? In order to accomodate so many various differing architectures
(as well as power) one must assume that it will be
extremely scalable. The PC is still
ahead, did you not see Will Wright's GDC powerpoint presentation "What's Next in Design" specifications?
OS: Windows QP
RAM: 2 Terrabytes of DRAM + 256 Qbits QRAM
Molecular Storage: 2.5 liter polymerese lattice sol
Video: GeForce 12-8 gig of VRAM
WTH?!! The generation following this one (Rev, PS3, 360) in another
5 yrs won't be able to scratch this, but back on topic. The Rev doesn't have to match the 360/PS3 feature for feature, plainly put
it cannot computationally. But volumetric clouds can also be faked quite convicingly with height maps, I remember so many people
thought they were truly witnessing
HDR lighting in the Splinter Cell series.
Ingenu said:
That exhaust fan is no bigger than the NGC one, and likely smaller in fact, according to Iwata 3 DVD case stacked size.
I don't think anyone expected passive cooling anyway...
function said:
That's what I thought. Heck, they may even be using the same fan as for the GC (which would be a shame, as it can be a bit high-pitch and noisy like the DC!).
Quite unlikely they're incorporating the same fan as the GC function. You all haven't been paying very close attention to nearly every Iwata quote regarding the Revolution since E3 '05.
"Small, quiet, low-power consumption, loading times, affordable, etc." The silence of the machine while in operation seems to have taken on a very high priority on Nintendo's list, as they have
stressed this point & it has been repeated numerous times like a company mantra.
Iwata-san said:
Nintendo is applying the benefits of advanced technology, but we're using it to make our machines more power-efficient, quieter and faster to start.
http://cube.ign.com/articles/522/522559p1.html
Vysez said:
I'd take any information about the Revolution GPU performances with a grain of salt, for the moment.
Vy, you mean other than the fact it will be capable of DX9 level functionality?
zidane1strife said:
If ram is as low as expected. Ram constraints should prove a substantial impediment.(heck 256MB of ram was considered lacking for this new generation, and 512MB barely enough for next gen content. 1GB of vram has been suggested as apt. for max detail on engines like UE3 on pcs.). When even some early titles for more powerful platforms ps3/x360 are having to resort to 30fps to achieve content worthy of the next gen title, I just dunnoh if rev. will hold up.
Actually, 256mb was the original set number, but then MS
(being urged on by Bungie) upped the ante forcing Sony's hand iirc. You also must remember the target resolution, the bandwidth, fillrate, nor the pixel pushing capabilities need to be on par with the 360/PS3's. That said, games designed from the ground up expoiting the architecture's strengths & weaknesses should be worthy of the
"next-gen" moniker. The XBX didn't even have a truly dedicated 64mb for textures, (due to the UMA, no e-DRAM) yet it is still somewhat hard to distinguish what titles couldn't be done from the XBX to the 360 currently.
(as ERP said) I do realize that the central processor has a much steeper learning curve, & many of these titles have jumped platforms, yet & still. I'm not blind however, regarding any form of port
(unless completely redesigned) would be more than significantly glaring on the Rev.