Digital Foundry tech analysis channel at Eurogamer

[Richard]

The Creator's Club requirement for debugging XNA apps on XBOX is a real hassle. I did a few XNA workshops and getting it to work required an account MS made especially for demonstrations; except in many places the proxy/connex/whateva wasn't working and it couldn't access Live and validate it so I could never show the workshop project running on the real hardware. Why couldn't they restrict it only for release builds?

 

[AzBat]

In addition to the TV Calibration app, there also is a Plasma TV Break In app too. You might be able to contact either creator & see if they would also send you a Windows version for comparison.

Tommy McClain

 

[AzBat]

This looks ideal, but I very much doubt I'll be able to run it on the test kit. I do have a retail unit of course, but the idea here will be to compare the framebuffer with the HDMI capture.

With the test kit I can dump the framebuffer and simultaneously capture the HDMI output.

Double check on the XNA forums, but from that I believe they will run on a test kit. I was talking about that they may not offer additional features or debugging feature since the tools were designed for retail boxes.

Tommy McClain

 

[Alucardx23]

I never said it was confirmed.

I said some things might have changed since then

Yeah so the information that I found about slowdown is valid until something else comes. I kept looking and found a couple of videos of Tekken 6 running on 360 with motion blur at this year E3.

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14288369/tekken-6/videos/tekken6_armorkingowns_gmp_e3.html

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14288369/tekken-6/videos/tekken6_losetheflat-top_gmp_e3.html

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14288369/tekken-6/videos/tekken6_helipadbrawl_gmp_e3.html

 

[Dural]

Get the calibration test patterns from AVSforum, they're free and can be used on the 360.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=948496

 

[grandmaster]

The picture viewer on the 360 is all kinds of awful and can't be trusted. It has to be generated from within 360 code. I'll see what I can dig up.

 

[obonicus]

The picture viewer on the 360 is all kinds of awful and can't be trusted. It has to be generated from within 360 code. I'll see what I can dig up.

If you have a test unit, can't you run unsigned code? Maybe someone with a dev unit can generate a binary for you?

 

[Iron Tiger]

Yeah I was trying to find info about that, when you wrote that the 360 version did not had motion blur I thought that you had it confirmed from somewhere.

I saw with my own eyes that none of the Xboxes running it at either Namco or Microsoft's booths had motion blur. Perhaps it was working back then, but toggled off by the people managing the booths. I even saw the game running before the show floor was officially open on Day 1, so it hadn't been turned off by any of the attendees.

 

[grandmaster]

If you have a test unit, can't you run unsigned code? Maybe someone with a dev unit can generate a binary for you?

Yup this would be awesome!

 

[Billy Idol]

Hi grandmaster, are you planing an Uncharted 2 special similar to the Killzone 2 special (which was really 'special', thank you for this!)

BTW, hi everyone

 

[LordNerevar]

Hi grandmaster, are you planing an Uncharted 2 special similar to the Killzone 2 special (which was really 'special', thank you for this!)

BTW, hi everyone

I'd like to know this as well... Killzone 2 review was really, really special.

 

[grandmaster]

I've got a germ of an idea for something really special for U2, but I'd like to do the first Uncharted to begin with. Tech analysis similar to the KZ special, but with Naughty Dog's side of the story too - gearing up for PS3, the developmental challenges... in an interview with OPM, Evan Wells said that the entire pipeline was scraped and rewritten after 10 months. There's clearly an awesome story there.

I've actually been sitting on annotated captures for almost all of the first game for a few months now - the move to Eurogamer kind of delayed things...

I'll get to U2 given time

 

[FirewalkR]

So, when are you gonna visit their offices, grandmaster?

 

[grandmaster]

No plans for that, and typically any contact with Sony first party developers needs to be completely arranged with SCEE first. Besides, my schedule all the way up to Christmas is packed...

 

[Laa-Yosh]

A small note regarding the ODST feature...

According to the credits, Bungie has used a tool called Facegen. Based on what I've seen from the program, I'd say that it's the primary reason for the lackluster character head models and textures in the game. These semi-procedural things are just not good enough for high quality content... I sure hope Kenneth Scott is working on Reach.

 

[Pugger]

Are we expecting an entirely new engine for Reach? Or will it be an amalgamation of the Halo 3 engine with new tech chucked in?

 

[AlNom]

A small note regarding the ODST feature...

According to the credits, Bungie has used a tool called Facegen. Based on what I've seen from the program, I'd say that it's the primary reason for the lackluster character head models and textures in the game. These semi-procedural things are just not good enough for high quality content... I sure hope Kenneth Scott is working on Reach.

Ah... interesting.. Any idea why they wouldn't/couldn't have used FaceFX

Are we expecting an entirely new engine for Reach? Or will it be an amalgamation of the Halo 3 engine with new tech chucked in?

Not everything has to be re-written from scratch.

 

[Acert93]

Not everything has to be re-written from scratch.

But everything should!

 

[Pugger]

Not everything has to be re-written from scratch.

So we could still up with an engine using the double frame buffer to calculate HDR? And could we still end up with sub 720p render?

 

[obonicus]

So we could still up with an engine using the double frame buffer to calculate HDR? And could we still end up with sub 720p render?

You could end up with that even if they rewrote the engine from scratch, if they think the tradeoff is worth it. Are there any indications at all that Bungie might reconsider the tradeoffs they made for Halo 3?