Epic on PS3

[Nightz]

Mark Rein On Playstation 3

In addition to the Sony demos being shown by Phil Harrison, the Epic and EA presentations were the only third party portions actually running on the PS3 in real-time. But most of those movies, which I probably watched 3 or 4 during rehearsals for the event, look very achievable and some were probably rendered on the actual box but in non-real-time. When a system is year away, heck even with a system is 6 months away, it is reasonable to expect the power of the dev kits would still only be a fraction of the power of the final system.
I know we'll certainly be able to achieve much more on the final box than we were able to show in our demo after working with the early dev kit for only ~2 months. As Tim mentioned our demo only really showed off the power of RSX and then still we're talk about an RSX that's nowhere near as fast as the final one will be. When we get home from E3 we'll also start diving seriously into the power of the cell processor. This is a very powerful system!

Sony's cell demos were extremely cool and inspiring but are totally achievable, and over time even surpassable, by third developers like us because, as Tim Sweeney said, the development environment is made up of parts we're already intimately familiar with: OpenGL, NVIDIA graphics, Linux, and PowerPC. Think about Epic's experience, for example. We rock on NVIDIA hardware. We have been doing OpenGL since Unreal1. We regularly ship our games on Linux and we've won several Macintosh Game of the Year awards including a special World-Wide Design Award directly from Apple for UT2004. We're going to be able to kick serious ass on PS3, and so are a lot of our licensees and other 3rd party developers, in a way that wasn't remotely possible on past consoles.

I should add that we're in a similar position for XBOX360. It's also made up of parts we're intimately familiar with.

My point is that developers are going to be able to get SO MUCH MORE power out of these consoles than they ever could in the past and so much closer to the raw power of the components.

The next generation is just going to be AMAZING!!! Next gen games will be a huge leap forward over current gen.

http://ve3d.ign.com/#615152

 

[speng]

Thanks, so all these guys *points at jvd* mentioning tall tales. It's quite possible and will likely be surpased on the PS3.

Speng.

 

[Acert93]

Nice even approach from Mark.

I am wondering that with Epic so close to MS (MGS picked their engine for inhouse!) how MS let Epic get so close to Sony. Big blow IMO. If I were MS I would have closed that door with big money, maybe even huge investment into Epic.

Ms has made some really key moves in getting support from companies like Square-Enix and has EA's support, but they need more exclusive imo. PS3 has MGS, Tekken, GTA. If MS could have closed up Epic it would have been a good move to keep UT2007 and other very high quality games on their platform.

Epic going multiplatform is good for them, bad for MS. Surprised MS is not spending money where it counts: Developers.

 

[jvd]

Thanks, so all these guys *points at jvd* mentioning tall tales. It's quite possible and will likely be surpased on the PS3.

Speng.

I'll wait and see.

But also notice he says the same thing about the x360 .

I doubt we will see either of the ps3 tech demos on either system .

But we will see gamesl ooking better than gears of war .

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Nice even approach from Mark.

I am wondering that with Epic so close to MS (MGS picked their engine for inhouse!) how MS let Epic get so close to Sony.

You might say the same with Square / Sony.

Epic is close with Sony, but they are also close with nVidia.

Surprised MS is not spending money where it counts: Developers.

anyone who says MS (or Sony) is not "spending on developers" is a bit off their rocker, IMO.

 

[PC-Engine]

I think TS is talking about the tech demos not the prerendered stuff.

 

[speng]

If you look at the games and line-ups.

So far, Xbox 360 and PS3 have just about the same things. The developers support both systems and is spending a lot of time and effort to get their games on both systems, and some also the Revolution.

I think it will be critical for publishers and studios to get their games on all 3 systems for better return on investments. With the cost of developing stellar content on these next gen systems costing so much, you want to be able to reach a very large player base.

I don't think any major dev, will leave out any system. Square-Enix, EA, Capcom, Konami, etc.

It just makes more sense now, and with engines to license, why not.

I think most games will look almost the same on both systems, except for the exclusives.

Speng.

 

[Nite_Hawk]

I think it's quite interesting that given how close Epic and MS seemed to be, that his comment was directly aimed at the PS3 with the xbox360 being tacked on as a bit of an afterthought. I think Mark wanted to be "even handed" by saying "the xbox360 is great too!" , but it's pretty clear given the amount of space he devoted to talking about Cell/RSX that his excitment and enthusiasm is currently more geared toward the PS3.

Nite_Hawk

 

[jvd]

or it could be that he was at a ps3 event and not a microsoft event ?

I highly doubt he cares either way . He is making middle ware and as long as both consoles use his engine he is happy

 

[pegisys]

I think the epic guys were there just to let everyone know the engine runs on the ps3.

Microsoft has an exclusive deal with epic for gears of war, so they probally don't care if they work with sony

 

[Nite_Hawk]

or it could be that he was at a ps3 event and not a microsoft event ?

I highly doubt he cares either way . He is making middle ware and as long as both consoles use his engine he is happy

That's not really the impression I took away from the comment. He outright said how excited he is about the next generation. Certainly you can argue that he's excited in general about next generation hardware in general, but the amount of space he devoted to talking about the PS3 really makes it stand out as the source of his excitement.

Now, if he comes out and starts talking about the xbox360 in the same way, I 'd agree with you 100%.

Nite_Hawk

 

[jvd]

once again he is at a sony show . The time devoted to sony should be greater . Just like you notice tha the guys from square devoted all the time to x360 at the x360 show and all the time to the ps3 at the ps3 show .

I'm sure we will have more comments from him and mabye some suprises soon in regards to the x360

 

[pc999]

I liked this part

I should add that we're in a similar position for XBOX360. It's also made up of parts we're intimately familiar with.

My point is that developers are going to be able to get SO MUCH MORE power out of these consoles than they ever could in the past and so much closer to the raw power of the components.

So PS3 and XB360

 

[satriales]

I think the tech demo's give a good indication of what PS3 games will look like. If you look at the early PS2 tech demo's, today's games have easily surpassed them, so there's no reason why that won't happen next-gen.

 

[Acert93]

Now, if he comes out and starts talking about the xbox360 in the same way, I 'd agree with you 100%.

1. He had the priviledge of being on stage with exclusive time to show his new engine to the world

2. It was a Sony event

3. There were a lot of questions about how the PS3 would be for developers, and Mark was telling how easy it was (translation: It was easy for him, and our stuff is on it, so if you have doubts license our tech)

The fact he even bothered to mention Xbox 360 and then put it in the same league for being able to create games is worthwhile. Basically Xbox 360, in his mind, deserved being mentioned.

 

[liverkick]

I think the focus on PS3 in that little blurb could also have a bit to do with a little relieved angst over making games for the sucker. Some developers seemed rather wary about the impending difficulties of working with Sony's Cell based console. Sweeny wasnt very stoked as I recall. This guy seems genuinely pleased with familiarity of the tools they'll have to work with and what they'll be able to get out of them.

 

[Nite_Hawk]

Now, if he comes out and starts talking about the xbox360 in the same way, I 'd agree with you 100%.

1. He had the priviledge of being on stage with exclusive time to show his new engine to the world

2. It was a Sony event

3. There were a lot of questions about how the PS3 would be for developers, and Mark was telling how easy it was (translation: It was easy for him, and our stuff is on it, so if you have doubts license our tech)

The fact he even bothered to mention Xbox 360 and then put it in the same league for being able to create games is worthwhile. Basically Xbox 360, in his mind, deserved being mentioned.

Epic's Mark Rein dropped by our forums to clear up all the hoohah regarding the Playstation 3 footage from yesterday's unveiling:

Are you saying that Mark's statement was given at a Sony event while he was on stage?

Nite_Hawk

 

[Acert93]

Are you saying that Mark's statement was given at a Sony event while he was on stage?

That is not what I said :sigh: Epic (aka Tim, Mark, and everyone else over at Epic) had the privilege of speaking at Sony's biggest show for the next 5 years. The only reason we are talking about this issue is because of Epic's presence at Sony's E3 conference. Mark's statements are in direct relation to the comments Tim gave at the show.

This all revolves around a Sony event that Epic spoke at and clarifying their statements at the show. That the PS3 would be the focus on Mark's statements about Tim's statements at the Sony E3 presentation is not an issue.

The only thing I see here is YOU trying to downplay the Xbox 360. Mark felt inclined to mention it even though he was primarily clarifying a statement from Sony's E3 show. If you have followed the issue of Epics quesitons about the PS3 developement from months past this would make more sense. Obviously you just want to believe he is "tacking" his Xbox comments on.

But if he is leing and trying to shore up his position on Xbox 360 he might as easily be fudging on the PS3. Easiest to just take things as face value and realize that he is putting the Xbox in the same class.

 

[Nite_Hawk]

Are you saying that Mark's statement was given at a Sony event while he was on stage?

That is not what I said :sigh: Epic (aka Tim, Mark, and everyone else over at Epic) had the privilege of speaking at Sony's biggest show for the next 5 years. The only reason we are talking about this issue is because of Epic's presence at Sony's E3 conference. Mark's statements are in direct relation to the comments Tim gave at the show.

This all revolves around a Sony event that Epic spoke at and clarifying their statements at the show. That the PS3 would be the focus on Mark's statements about Tim's statements at the Sony E3 presentation is not an issue.

The only thing I see here is YOU trying to downplay the Xbox 360. Mark felt inclined to mention it even though he was primarily clarifying a statement from Sony's E3 show. If you have followed the issue of Epics quesitons about the PS3 developement from months past this would make more sense. Obviously you just want to believe he is "tacking" his Xbox comments on.

But if he is leing and trying to shore up his position on Xbox 360 he might as easily be fudging on the PS3. Easiest to just take things as face value and realize that he is putting the Xbox in the same class.

You are getting way too worked up about this. Granted, if you've been trying to play damage control for the 360 all day long I can see why. Perhaps you'll be a bit less accusing when Mark specifically starts going to xbox360 threads and posting about how great the xcpu/xgpu are?

Honestly, point me to statements that he's made to that effect and I'd be happy to take it into consideration. Given *this* statement though, he sounds more excited about Cell/RSX than the xbox360s tech. I'm just calling them like I see them.

Nite_Hawk

 

[Titanio]

I agree with most of what's being said here, but I think PS3 probably is technically Epic's new favourite console. They probably like the GPU more than X360's (nvidia's nextgen is supposed to have specific UE3 optimisations), and as they say themselves, there's still cell to tap.