There's a false either-or dichotomy presented here. Sure, if you step down in resolution, you get more fillrate, but that only helps you if you're fillrate limited. By the same argument, could not console games of the previous generation be made with even higher quality by rendering to a 320x240 framebuffer and upscaling? Likewise, you could use lower quality textures to relief bandwidth pressure. However...
The next-gen consoles have 720p as a minimum design point just like previous gen consoles were designed for 480i/p. Even at 720p, they have substantially more shader power than previous generations. The Xbox could execute about ~1giga shaderops/s. The Xbox360 is 24-48 times more powerful on paper, and real world efficiency of the XB360 is alot higher, so it is likely to be up to 100x faster at shaders. The real world (non-shader) achievable fillrate is the XB360 is alot higher too. The XB360 is probably able to handle a real world fillrate close to 4 gigapixels and 16 gigasamples. I'd be surpsied if the Xbox1 could hit ~1gigapixel when texturing and alpha blending.
I would argue that when we have so much power, we can afford to move up the minimum design point to HD. If some game wants to push more, then drop back to 480p, just like some X-Box games didn't even support 480p. But the majority of games should strive to achieve the new design point.
I have plenty of PC games that let me enable extra details if I go down a step or two in resolution. But you know what? Most of the time, the result isn't worth it! Sure, if I drop half-life2 down to 640x480 or 800x600 and turn off 4xMSAA or 16xAF, I can enable higher reflection options or high quality shadows. But the resulting loss in resolution actually makes the game look far more jagged and lower quality IMHO.
As a result, I find myself turning off some details in order to run at 1600x1200. The overall look of the game remains largely the same in most cases.
If we follow the former argument in this thread, than no matter how powerful consoles get in the future, they will always run at 480p, because going to 720p loses you 3x in fillrate. So in 2020, we'll still be rendering at 480p given this argument.
I tend to take the view that fillrate is only one factor of the look and feel of the game, and I want a balanced approach that raises resolution and effects, instead of concentrating on one extreme or the other.
The next-gen consoles have 720p as a minimum design point just like previous gen consoles were designed for 480i/p. Even at 720p, they have substantially more shader power than previous generations. The Xbox could execute about ~1giga shaderops/s. The Xbox360 is 24-48 times more powerful on paper, and real world efficiency of the XB360 is alot higher, so it is likely to be up to 100x faster at shaders. The real world (non-shader) achievable fillrate is the XB360 is alot higher too. The XB360 is probably able to handle a real world fillrate close to 4 gigapixels and 16 gigasamples. I'd be surpsied if the Xbox1 could hit ~1gigapixel when texturing and alpha blending.
I would argue that when we have so much power, we can afford to move up the minimum design point to HD. If some game wants to push more, then drop back to 480p, just like some X-Box games didn't even support 480p. But the majority of games should strive to achieve the new design point.
I have plenty of PC games that let me enable extra details if I go down a step or two in resolution. But you know what? Most of the time, the result isn't worth it! Sure, if I drop half-life2 down to 640x480 or 800x600 and turn off 4xMSAA or 16xAF, I can enable higher reflection options or high quality shadows. But the resulting loss in resolution actually makes the game look far more jagged and lower quality IMHO.
As a result, I find myself turning off some details in order to run at 1600x1200. The overall look of the game remains largely the same in most cases.
If we follow the former argument in this thread, than no matter how powerful consoles get in the future, they will always run at 480p, because going to 720p loses you 3x in fillrate. So in 2020, we'll still be rendering at 480p given this argument.
I tend to take the view that fillrate is only one factor of the look and feel of the game, and I want a balanced approach that raises resolution and effects, instead of concentrating on one extreme or the other.
