Assassins Creed GAMEPLAY Trailer

[PiNkY]

DOH! I always get those two mixed up, thx for the linkage.

Now considering Sweeny's verbal track record, I wouldn't read to much in that quote.

 

[Acert93]

What's about The DarknesS? didn't hear anything about it except for that PS3 thing having more TV set standing around or so...

You need a GI account (I don't have one) but a lot of sites (e.g. first on Google) have quoted this:

GI: What do you like about working on the PS3? How about the Xbox 360? Will there be any major differences between the two versions?

Högdahl: So far the two versions look pretty much the same – quite unsurprisingly, since we use the same shader source code and content for both platforms. They will be identical gameplay-wise. There will only be very minor cosmetic differences, such as the PS3 will have better quality video for the in-game TVs and on the Xbox 360 we have a bit more room for textures in memory.

So the thing you remember is from the exact same quote about textures. The most relevant part imo:

So far the two versions look pretty much the same – quite unsurprisingly, since we use the same shader source code and content for both platforms. They will be identical gameplay-wise. There will only be very minor cosmetic differences

And it seems much the same can be said of AC for the most part. I don't get the impression most ports will differ much this generation, at least not until developers start building libraries and techniques that exploit (and overcome the hurdles), of say, Cell and Xenos (i.e. the most unfamiliar parts in the two consoles).

 

[archangelmorph]

I would look at it in terms of man hours. You can't simply stick 5x's as many programmers on the problem, maybe you add a few more guys, but you need to give the skill guys time to do their thing I presume.

Even if this IS true, I wouldn't assume such high costs would carry over to subsequent projects though.. Once the first engine has been built and the knowledge base and experience gathered, I'm sure it would be as simple as "expand & explore" in terms of developing new techniques and imrpoving on existing execution models..

I'd say such an investment would only benefit the developer as a whole and probably allow alot of the newly obtained skillsets and mastery of parrallel-processing architectures to transfer over into the PC development space aswell..

But then there's the problem however of the fact that the more qualified/skilled your programmers become, the more they'll expect you to pay them (otherwise they may jump ship causing you to have to invest in training new upstarts, continuing the expanded cost cycle.. Dont mind me i'm just speculating)..

 

[-=P3tRaN=-]

What world is he coming from??

Those sound like extremely exaggerated figures to me.. Considering the fact that the bulk of the costs in games development are attributed to content creation (3d modellers, texturers, concept artwork, animators, mo-cap, game design & pre-production etc etc..), AND considering these figures are even moreso this generation with the average 3D asset containing greater levels of geometry detail, more & higher res textures (& if normal mapped, means two sets of models need to be developed; high poly & low poly, per model..) means that when he says "development costs" I assume he's talking about code/engine development rather than "overall development costs" as it's inplied by your post (I havn't read the interview so I don't know what context carmack originally intended it..)

Also this fact is reflected in the fact that the average development team of around 60 people will probably have only around 15 programmers for engine, sound, graphics, gameplay, tools and AI/physics.. Not to mention the fact that in any company code is re-useable from one franchise/IP to the next whereas artistic content definitely doesn't have that luxury..

Maybe he assumes code development to be so much more expensive for multi-core because he's considering the costs of training and developing the skills required to develop high-performance, highly multi-threaded apps for an unfamiliar platform such as PS3 or Xbox360.. At least with Xbox360 your still using general purpose-cores, DirectX and probably microsoft-based development IDEs which i'm sure will allow for a much greater deal of code re-use even from the PC platform as opposed to programming on PS3 which would probably require much more specialised code in all areas of the game engine architecture to be built from the ground up..

*Shrug*

it was sweenie, I'd hate myself if I'd missed a JC interview. :smile:

gabe newell has given an interview quite some time ago (I couldnt find the link now, but when I do I will update this msg)
where -in a summary- he explained (well, he was quite mad actually) about what next-gen will do to him as a company.
the rising costs for the content that your position is based on, is one thing.
but what gabe was yelling about, is that with these machines all the coders had basically turned newbies.
he was yelling at microsoft for quite a while (+he doesnt seem to like the complete control m$ want to have over live), but he was much more fierce at sony.

he said that in order to produce something good with cell, only his best senior coders would have to work on it. and slowly.
that basically meant that they would not produce nothing else.
he said that letting a jr. programmer even touch the code would make it fall apart, and not only that, but then he would have to spend extra time to restore it,
and this back&forth would damage all schedules.
that sounds reasonable. at least until they have the machines sorted out.
we can see this being verified by the recent announcement that valve's half-life package will be released some months later than was originally planned in order to be simultaneously released on 360/ps3.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Even if this IS true, I wouldn't assume such high costs would carry over to subsequent projects though.. Once the first engine has been built and the knowledge base and experience gathered, I'm sure it would be as simple as "expand & explore" in terms of developing new techniques and imrpoving on existing execution models..

I'd say such an investment would only benefit the developer as a whole and probably allow alot of the newly obtained skillsets and mastery of parrallel-processing architectures to transfer over into the PC development space aswell..

But then there's the problem however of the fact that the more qualified/skilled your programmers become, the more they'll expect you to pay them (otherwise they may jump ship causing you to have to invest in training new upstarts, continuing the expanded cost cycle.. Dont mind me i'm just speculating)..

For sure, I really look forward to what dev's can squeeze out of CELL in generations to come, DeanoC's comments are pretty inspiring. For the time being though, I wouldn't be surprised to see it be at a disadvantage in alot of cases.

 

[slapnutz]

It looks very nice indeed.

One question, can anyone with the earlier "pre-rendered" video please see if the on-screen crowd numbers have been cut down in the realtime demo?

 

[Cheezdoodles]

It looks very nice indeed.

One question, can anyone with the earlier "pre-rendered" video please see if the on-screen crowd numbers have been cut down in the realtime demo?

The CGI render you mean? Its not cutdown, seems to be the same amount of people.

 

[Jesus2006]

Guess i was right about IGN, after all, could someone delete that negative rep?

www.consol.at (News)

(improved google manual translation)

AI not better on the 360:

Recently we reported that perhaps the Xbox 360 version could offer a better AI in Assassin's Creed (according to a statement of a female Ubisoft employee). Now the developer team itself denied this. The AI for both platforms is developed at the same time and thus on both consoles the same results are to be expected, since the programming code for the AI on PS3 and Xbox 360 is about the same.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

http://images.xboxyde.com/gallery/public/4371/1029_0004.jpg

I've told you that it'll look better if they loose the blue tint

 

[Arwin]

Guess i was right about IGN, after all, could someone delete that negative rep?

www.consol.at (News)

(improved google manual translation)

You're right, the original IGN story has been fixed:

While the PlayStation 3 and 360 versions of Assassin's Creed are virtually identical, Raymond did say that on the 360 the team is putting a special emphasis on Achievements. And while the 360 hardware enables Ubisoft's team to use multiple threads to enhance the crowd's AI, the end result for the game on both systems will be the same. "While the method for distributing AI load is different on each platform, the AI code itself is the same. Players will experience the exact same crowd results on PS3 and Xbox360," Ubisoft explained.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/736/736325p1.html

 

[Arctic Permafrost]

I love how until AC was announced for the 360 it was the pinnacle of Next-Gen software, only doable thanks to the potential of the PS3 and Cell (not to mention the ubiquitous Bluray since that game was going to be 20+Gigs), and now it's "oh, well, it probably was just running on the PPE anyway, so the porting to 360 is obvious".

Same thing is happening with Bioshock (looked "okay" when only confirmed as a 360 title, then "absolutely gorgeous next-gen uber graphics" when rumored to be PS3/360, and now back to "just okay, and won't sell anyway" since exclusivity has been confirmed (of course, PS3 fans can gloat about the "superior version" supposedly coming if it's a timed exclusive).

It's not limited to Sony fans, though, look how Nintendo fans who swore that RE4 on PS2 was crap because of somewhat lesser graphics now spin that "graphics don't matter" or "Zelda TP looks next-gen to me", and I'm sure Lost Planet would suddenly become "just ok" for many XBox fans if announced for PS3.

The only thing that grows faster than computing power when changing generations is fanb0y silliness. That's absolutely maddening. Solving the energy crisis will probably require using fanb0y-powered dynamo engines, since each of them generates enough spin to power a medium-size city.

Actually correct. I must admit that I am a Xbox 360 fanguy, but this is what amazes me, people flying like the wind. Not to mention some -a minority- Sony's hardcore fans, whom are mostly a bunch of mindless slobs with the intelligence of a slug, automatically assume that X360 is not able to run top next gen games. When a game doesn't follow the plan exactly (i.e. a multiplatform game looking awesome for the PS3, while running way worse on the X360), they rail on it.

As time goes on I think it is the other way round, looks like XTS GPU is the future of next gen graphics.

Regarding the AI.., from what I've gathered over the internet and through the forum, Xenon -symmetric CPU- works specially well because of its capability of dealing with several types of code ranging from AI to *general* code, etc, while PS3's CPU is best suited for particles, physics, streaming...

Jesus2006, do better or go off continuing to be ignored.

________________________________________

"Unlucky in games, lucky in love"

Gamertag: Cyaneyes or Arctic

 

[wco81]

Well the trailer or clips from TGS shown on G4 don't look as impressive.

The frock he's wearing seem stiff and it's puffed out so it's even more noticeable.

The parts where he's jumping up the wall looks a lot like Prince of Persia current gen. The camera angle doesn't do the graphics justice.

I don't know which version of AC it was from.

 

[Carl B]

Regarding the AI.., from what I've gathered over the internet and through the forum, Xenon -symmetric CPU- works specially well because of its capability of dealing with several types of code ranging from AI to *general* code, etc, while PS3's CPU is best suited for particles, physics, streaming...

Which forum is *the* forum you've gathered this through?