Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion Archive [2012]

[AlNom]

Yeah... at this point there aren't many significant differences... nothing game breaking. From what I've seen recently, it's more like... "oh hey, that's neat... usual stuff... oh that's odd, but minor (like a lighting bug)."

It's getting towards that point where retrospectives would maybe be more fun to look at, particularly for a series/trilogy/etc.

 

[djskribbles]

Maybe because at this point comparing 7 year old consoles is like comparing a Ford Pinto to a Mercury Maverick, where at the end of the day both are just so damn old does it even matter much anymore?

I have to agree. These consoles are really showing their age. I think that's a large reason why I haven't picked up a controller in over a month. Or maybe I'm just losing interest in gaming...

 

[rekator]

I have to agree. These consoles are really showing their age. I think that's a large reason why I haven't picked up a controller in over a month. Or maybe I'm just losing interest in gaming...

Well they're showing their age, but in same time they have got their better nice IQ and interests games. So it's more their age of maturity. And yes, they're some little "Cougar" in their end of life.

 

[Cyan]

Yeah... at this point there aren't many significant differences... nothing game breaking. From what I've seen recently, it's more like... "oh hey, that's neat... usual stuff... oh that's odd, but minor (like a lighting bug)."

It's getting towards that point where retrospectives would maybe be more fun to look at, particularly for a series/trilogy/etc.

I actually preferred their more amateur-ish articles and analysis from 2009 and before. Also when push came to shove, they were more willing of getting their feet wet.

The more current articles have lost bias, which sounds good, but sometimes you can't keep everyone happy, sadly, and that's life.

 

[Kameradschaft]

Yeah... at this point there aren't many significant differences... nothing game breaking. From what I've seen recently, it's more like... "oh hey, that's neat... usual stuff... oh that's odd, but minor (like a lighting bug)."

It's getting towards that point where retrospectives would maybe be more fun to look at, particularly for a series/trilogy/etc.

I really liked the analysis/face-off articles not for the platform comparisons so much (though that was helpful too) but mainly for the various tech info about the games - res, AA, PP effects e.t.c.

 

[assurdum]

Maybe because at this point comparing 7 year old consoles is like comparing a Ford Pinto to a Mercury Maverick, where at the end of the day both are just so damn old does it even matter much anymore?

Uh I find opinable this statement Could be even more interesting. Anyway a pity, I'm really fascinated to the continuing solutions & approaches of developers to push the limits of close & ancients hardware to 'reach' the time progress

 

[Scott_Arm]

At this point the comparisons are only interesting to the flag bearers. I'm way more interested in the tech interviews, and retrospectives sounds like a good idea. The interviews do tend to have an element of retrospective.

 

[pjbliverpool]

A different Witcher 2 PC vs 360 comparison video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDQbJ6oQznw

Have to say 360 version holds up well, and like DF I prefer the 360 versions lighting by a wide margin.

Were we watching the same video? At 40s and 57s when the PC version cuts over the 360 the difference is night and day. It literally reminds me of the differences we saw at the start of this console generation between games released on the old consoles and the new consoles with "HD content".

 

[Rangers]

If that's a generation gap to you...well you have some really low standards.

Because the PC has this weird yellow glow a lot of ways I like 360 version better.

 

[sebbbi]

Digital Foundy posted a interview with me today:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-trials-evolution-tech-interview

The interview includes tidbits about our Xbox 360 low level optimizations, GPGPU stuff we used, post AA, lighting, particles, virtual texturing, etc. If anyone has extra questions, I try to answer them here.

 

[dragonelite]

Digital Foundy posted a interview with me today:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-trials-evolution-tech-interview

The interview includes tidbits about our Xbox 360 low level optimizations, GPGPU stuff we used, post AA, lighting, particles, virtual texturing, etc. If anyone has extra questions, I try to answer them here.

Cool interview i just finished reading it.
Find it kinda cool the 360 already had some GPGPU capabilities with MemExport.
Always was under the impression it was a dx11 thing.

 

[assurdum]

At this point the comparisons are only interesting to the flag bearers. I'm way more interested in the tech interviews, and retrospectives sounds like a good idea. The interviews do tend to have an element of retrospective.

Yeah, I remember years agos when only noble intent lead the comparisons

 

[TheD]

If that's a generation gap to you...well you have some really low standards.

Because the PC has this weird yellow glow a lot of ways I like 360 version better.

It is called Tonemapping.

 

[Jedi2016]

It is called Tonemapping.

Actually, it's called color grading. Tone mapping doesn't affect color.

Unless this is another example of where games use the phrase "tone mapping" to mean something totally different than photography/VFX. Which is unlikely.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

AFAIK 'Tone mapping' is used to cover the step of changing HDR values to LDR values for display, including whatever colour modifications they make in the process. There's no real sense in making a distinction between when there isn't one programmatically.

 

[Billy Idol]

Digital Foundy posted a interview with me today:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-trials-evolution-tech-interview

The interview includes tidbits about our Xbox 360 low level optimizations, GPGPU stuff we used, post AA, lighting, particles, virtual texturing, etc. If anyone has extra questions, I try to answer them here.

'Thanks sebbi! Very interesting read! I have a general question: it seems to me that you spend a lot of time for optimization. In my business (scientific computing) optimization often means "sacrificing" flexibility. Is this the same for game engines? Are all those optimizations you did directly linked to Trials evolution only? Or to the engine in general?

 

[Scott_Arm]

Yeah, I remember years agos when only noble intent lead the comparisons

You've got a point there.

 

[MJP]

Tone mapping doesn't affect color.

It sure does. In rendering, tone mapping is the step were you convert from HDR radiometric values (AKA how much light hits the sensor/eye and at which wavelengths) to the actual RGB colors suitable for display. Often there will be a color grading step on top of this and that may very well be what's causing the difference in this particular game, but tone mapping is basically what determines a pixel's "color" in the first place so it can absolutely affect a lot of qualities in the final image.

If you want to draw an analogy to photography, tone mapping would account for everything that happens in between a beam of light hitting the film/sensor and the image being developed/processed. With film photography you have various profile curves for different film stock that strongly affect the look of the image, and this is the same with tone mapping curves in rendering.

 

[bkilian]

Cool interview i just finished reading it.
Find it kinda cool the 360 already had some GPGPU capabilities with MemExport.
Always was under the impression it was a dx11 thing.

Heh, memexport was definitely ahead of it's time. It's used heavily for H.264 decoding for the HD DVD player.

 

[Trejser]

Prototype 2 http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-face-off-prototype-2

Interesting that open world game performs slighty better on PS3.