Age of subsidizing is over?
- Thread starter assen
- Start date
This, well not virtual texturing specifically, but software in general. I think that if subsidizing anything there would be a greater benefit and effect if that money went to software development, rather than some % higher number GPU transistors or RAM.
Make it easier for developers to generally make kick ass looking games and specifically be able to take advantage of the strengths of your system overcome/hide the weaknesses.
I don't want to turn this to a vs thread, but looking at how long it took to develop GT5 and although I don't know the cost I can't really see it being a cheap game, compared for example against forza. Does it look better, over all yes, was it worth all the money and delays, a matter of opinion I guess, but business wise it might not have been the best choice.
As much as I enjoy all the tech talk, and theoretics here and there and how to do what on a system, in the end it is about making your livelihood and I think it is very few that can spend years upon years just so that they can cram every little trick in the book in one single game...
This paragraph reflects reasons most developers think consoles need equal "rights", that maybe fellow developers don't see a given console as priviledged in gaming industry, etc. The fantasy developers have about consoles, is that they are paid once for their whole life cycle, and shouldn't need any more extra expenses at the beginning.
I think 2GB should be the minimum amount of RAM next gen, taking into account it will probably start in 2014-2015. Being 4GB the ideal choice, imo.
Think of games like Supreme Commander.... which was a truly memory hog, most PCs of the time couldn't run it properly.
A 4GB RAM console could run a game like that just fine.
And there are still people like me who like this way, although it seems it won't be as common now.
Why not -instead of subsidizing consoles using less RAM- adding more and subtract 2GB of flash memory? 16GB of flash memory would be almost useless except for games saves.
Obviously, none of the types of memory should be discriminated against...it's much more minor than that. It's a mix on both sides of the coin, but all of it is very, very minor stuff.
If you think about it, it's the nature of the differences in multiplatform games today to be subtle and invisible.
But regarding price, you can be subtle the same way with new consoles, launching them at a 300€ initial price at most.
Streaming won't help much if you want to do crazy things like Supreme Commander, which for me it's what is all about, crazy and good stuff you can't do nowadays.
Don't you think RAM will be cheap enough in 3 or 4 years to not have to subsidize consoles?
When I had my first PC 1 Megabyte of RAM costed 30€
. Back in September 1995 I recall buying a Pentium 100 with 32 MB of RAM, plus Windows 95 and its prize was 3.300€
, 1,000€ of the total price were the cost of RAM alone.20 years after that RAM is getting cheaper, thankfully. If not 4GB would be currently... 30€ x 4000 Megabytes = 120.000€
I don't think there should be any reason to hide the fact that I believe in un-subsidized RAM here on Beyond3D.
Unfortunately, you have to hide the fact that life made you silent in your gaming profession because of NDA... but that's a whole different thing, isn't it?
I have to say--STAY AWAY from developers if you value your sanity. The site in threads like this is like one big parody of developer-positive predilection and it's pretty actively hostile to everyday users like me, as well as any other people who aren't getting what the developers consider the correct amount/type of memory to show how "liberated" consoles will be using streaming -which is a technique older than the hills, so using it means no evolution, which NEXT gen is all about- and who don't take the "OMG streaming is teh best thing EVAR and everyone should use it all the time" attitude. It's just awful.
Developers are just worried about assets and stuff. Yeah, right.
To the OP, well, yeah. Shareholders are a tetchy, impatient bunch and the videogame business isn't really much of a moneymaker these days for anyone but Nintendo. Stringer has shown his appreciation for Nintendo's strategy with the Wii already.
They're already going to burn a lot of money on R&D and they'll be under pressure to recoup it. Add to that that we're already seeing diminishing returns on process shrinks and they're not going to dare going too crazy on hardware.
They're already going to burn a lot of money on R&D and they'll be under pressure to recoup it. Add to that that we're already seeing diminishing returns on process shrinks and they're not going to dare going too crazy on hardware.
