[360] Alan Wake - Still awake

[nightshade]

I don't think its using 64bit HDR, that coupled up with 4*MSAA in 720p buffer is just too much.

 

[Hazuki Ryu]

I don't think its using 64bit HDR, that coupled up with 4*MSAA in 720p buffer is just too much.

I think that's what was on the Alan Wake faq a while ago, so what do you think it is?

 

[AlNom]

"Awhile" ago could have meant the PC edition.

 

[Hazuki Ryu]

That's very likely. Anyway I'm trying to get an understanding of how much of the edram bandwidth is lost when tilling is involved and how much is left, either way it would seem to me based on what little knowledge I have that for the framebuffer to fit in the 360's edram with hdr and AA it needs to be below 720p correct?

 

[nightshade]

I have that for the framebuffer to fit in the 360's edram with hdr and AA it needs to be below 720p correct?

Yup, that's the case if tiling is to be avoided.
I can't tell about the actual size as I am not certain of it..though I believe Al can certainly tell you about it.

 

[AlNom]

Well, to have 4xMSAA, FP16, it would have to be sub-SD. And that's if we assume it is a forward renderer (you'd have just over 109K pixels to use). Since we have no details on their engine at all... well, all I can say is that a single 4xMSAA FP16 720p buffer will be 29MB. Multiply by the number of render targets + depth buffer.

Btw, you're losing geometry processing performance rather than eDRAM bandwidth.

 

[warb]

That's very likely. Anyway I'm trying to get an understanding of how much of the edram bandwidth is lost when tilling is involved and how much is left, either way it would seem to me based on what little knowledge I have that for the framebuffer to fit in the 360's edram with hdr and AA it needs to be below 720p correct?

4xMSAA has been suggested. It's probably safe to assume the framebuffer doesn't fit into edram.

 

[Hazuki Ryu]

Well, to have 4xMSAA, FP16, it would have to be sub-SD. And that's if we assume it is a forward renderer (you'd have just over 109K pixels to use). Since we have no details on their engine at all... well, all I can say is that a single 4xMSAA FP16 720p buffer will be 29MB. Multiply by the number of render targets + depth buffer.

Btw, you're losing geometry processing performance rather than eDRAM bandwidth.

I see, thanks.

 

[AlNom]

Well, who knows. Maybe they're using light pre-pass or deferred shading & they do the colour & lighting in FP16. Or they're just calling the 7e3 format "HDR" or they're doing something else. *shrug* No info.

 

[Hazuki Ryu]

I'm sure the tech analysis will be very interesting once the game is out.

 

[scently]

The already mentioned that it is 4XMSAA.

 

[eloic]

Jacket...

Alan's jacket is more like a joke to me, really. Lighting is good and all, but that is a very low-res piece of geometry with lots of aliasing in the textures and far too sharp normal maps.

Alan's jacket is more like a joke to me, really. Lighting is good and all, but that is a very low-res piece of geometry with lots of aliasing in the textures and far too sharp normal maps.

I am surprised by your statements, because I thought the jacket was neat as it appears to have some sort of cool cloth phyics when Alan moves, which looked good to me...

On the other hand, the phyics for large moving objects need some more tuning, as for instance the big wooden lighthouse piece (or what ever it is) seems to weigh only 10kg, when hitting Alan and afterwards falling down the bridge.

The geometry of the jacket is indeed awful, just look at his arms (eek)...the red "fluffy" like jacket worn by Alan's friend seems to be very nicely detailed though.

P.S.[I think that the sharp normal maps somewhat helps in giving the jacket a coarse & wooly look.]

Perhaps the jacket is low poly to facilitate cloth physics. Haven't watched any of the recent video's so just throwing that out there.

Regards,
SB

I've always thought that the jacket is weird. It looks way too bulky and stiff, as if he wears another jacket under this one.

I don't think that is something that artists couldn't "fix". They just did it like that.

Alan Wake graphics look pretty good, but the jacket is plain ugly, in my opinion.

 

[groper]

Personally I think that they have done great work with the clothes. The jacket is supposed to be bulky as Alan wears it over another hoodie jacket. And although this may result in some slight clipping issues in the spot under the armpits, still their clothes modeling (textile surfaces and physics) looks phenomenal and a benchmark for future games.

 

[scently]

Funny, I think the jacket look realistic. Very realistic actually.

 

[ultragpu]

The sleeves on the jacket are really low poly, when you look at them from a lateral view the folding parts are basically sharp triangle so they stick out like a sore thumb. It'd be best if they go with the normalmap route rather than polygons for the sleeve folds imo.

 

[eloic]

The sleeves on the jacket are really low poly, when you look at them from a lateral view the folding parts are basically sharp triangle so they stick out like a sore thumb. It'd be best if they go with the normalmap route rather than polygons for the sleeve folds imo.

Or a clever combination between both. In my opinion, wrinkles and folds look ugly on a low polygon geometry... like a fake texture painted on a tube and I've seen this rather frequently, this generation (such as the sleeves in soccer games).

Well... it seems that Alan's jacket is becoming a 'love it or hate it' matter, instead of other technical aspects or the game itself. 'The jacket is wack'

 

[groper]

Using real geometry (and bm on top of it) to represent wrincles and folds in a more believable 3dimensional way, is certainly better than the traditional method that is only able to render a rather 2.5D visual representation of the clothes surface.

 

[scently]

New preview from Gamersyde.
http://www.gamersyde.com/news_gamersyde_preview_alan_wake-9022_en.html

 

[Billy Idol]

I just read an article in a game mag, where they talked to the devs:

What I did not know was, that they go for an episodic structure of the game, i.e. the game is subdivided in several episodes (like a TV series, not like a cinema movie the dev claryfied)...he mentioned for instance Lost as an example of the game structure.

What I am thinking about: if you go for, lets say, a Lost type structure...did the dev unintentionally spoil that we maybe get an open ending (to be ready for the next game aka next 'season') and that this is kind of cliff hanger ending game?!?!

I know, much speculation on my side, but interpreting the statements of the dev...

Bah, I hate cliffhanger:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=237763

but who cares as long as the game is good!?

 

[JB9861]

Weather effects look great.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcgt66_harvester-of-sorrow_videogames