Enchant Arm Dev Comments on Xbox 360 Beta Kits

And it won't until you see the final games so who cares?

 

Well, some time ago I calculated some details about the gap between xbox and xbox 360.

- Polygons per pixel and second
- Shader ops per vertex and second
- Shader ops per pixel and second
- Some other comparison I did not remember

Any of them were something between 4 and 15 times higher the xbox 360 than xbox, being 640x480 the xbox resolution and 1280x720 the xbox 360 resolution and both running at 60fps, if i remember correctly. This approach counts the best and the worst case in shading balancing and I can't be more accurate because I didn't save the data.


So we have a 5-10 times more "stuff" per pixel, whith much more pixels, which is quite good.

 

My point.

 

This really make me think, even more, that HD is a big wast of power and money (less edram). But is nice to see the HDD with a good use.

 

Thats a bad thing to say. High Def in itself is giving you better visuals. Therefore you don't need more power because the resolution alone is giving you better graphics. Super great graphics is great, but it will be nice to actually have some clarity with these systems.

I had to look at the MS video of PGR3 to fully understand the High-Def concept. I suggest you look at both videos to see this, even if the HD version is a slideslow on your computer.

 

But, will the HD be used only for games? Or can i save what i want there? And even if it will be used for cache, when you have lots of games you will have to delete one of them to put another?

 

The current xbox already removes a previous game's cached data from cache when the cache partition is full. Its not a big deal. Its not like you spend 5 minutes loading the game onto the HDD, its done in the background. Also, the HD will be used for storage, not just games but game related items (downloaded levels and whatever else) as well as whatever else MS puts on Live!

 

and don't forget personal music (which will also be interactive with games) or pictures copied from a disk, camera or a PC.

The current Xbox has room for 3 concurrent game caches AFAIK and purges one anytime a 4th game is loaded.

 

Ok, but I would prefer to have 2x more intructions per pixel, or use it in GPGPU (e.g.physics) features instead of HD, HD is nice but it is not worth that, besides I dont own or pretend to own a HDTV anytime soon (only if my broke and they are very cheap, uneless I may think in using a PC monitor... but I would prefer no HD consoles.

I mean, I (we all?) still prefering see a e.g.LOTR with their actuall effects than that reduced in half with 2x the rez, I know that in CGI things are different (already are HD+++++++), but is enough to make my point.

 

US poor HD owners

/*OT slight rant: Is it really necessary for NON-HD owners to consistently bash HD. For those of us that DO have HD and have seen and experienced the difference, the PS3 and xbox 360 are godsends. The death of the jaggies should never be interpreted as a bad thing, IMO.
I find it strange that people will drop $300-600 on a graphics card that lasts 6-18 months, but won't drop the same amount on an HDTV that lasts 5-10 years. If I were to sell my 30" Samsung I could MAYBE get $350-500 (original cost $1000) for it, maybe. */

Back to topic,
I would think it strange if devs. didn't run into problems, and he didn't elaborate on what problems have occured, it could have been software, hardware, production flow...anything. I would only worry if they could not overcome the problems, I am sure we will hear the same thing for the PS3 and maybe the Rev as well.

 

Anyone who thinks HD is a waste just hasn't played Forza, Halo 2, Psychonauts etc on a HDTV, the difference is amazing, so crisp, you can see evry reflection, the flaws in every texture. The only problem is the resolutions are still too low, textures too flat...

The IQ of these next gen games on HDTV is going to be absolutely kick ass, and I can't wait...

 

Dont flame me, it is just a opinion, at least going to 720p is a wast IMO 480p makes a bit more sence it can be good to HDTV and it is not a wast for the others, anyways what I means is that even if I had a HDTV I would prefer no HDTV, specialy if it can give us GPGPU or if those transistors are used in more CPU power.

But as I said I may see a PC monitor soluction try it more (probably after a lot of use I think in another way).

BTW I never bought a 300 card, and really doubt I will ever do (or equivalent price), unless I really need.

 

I put that option open (after very used change my mind), but even not being used (already saw, and did not impressed me), from what I saw I think that way, I may had a bad experience (bad TV?), but being used with the PC put the rez up IMO is only really good (or at mostly) to take off allising and with 4xAA(probably more if 480p) that is not really important, I mean 480 --->720 is nice , but I (we?) still tone down to get better imagem/fremerate.

 

I disagree, right now 480p is the bottleneck of console graphics. Why do you think so many PC gamers won't make the swith over to consoles? (Besides the MODs and better online?)

BECAUSE 480p OR LOWER SUCKS

We'll be to the level this gen where 480p won't be enough room to diplay all the pixils you need to play the game at it's best.

Now that we have 720p thats equal or better than 1024x768, especailly since TV's are so much larger than PC monitors, the larger the screen the higher deffinition you need to keep the same image quality.