Gamecube hardware

If you think that excuse holds water then I'd say a game like Myst 3: Exile looks better than RE: Remake. Hell, Syberia looks better... not to mention it runs in 1080i on the Xbox.

 

Excuse? Why is it an excuse?

Second, I don't care what your opinon is, as you are not going to change mine. Last, why even bring up the 1080i thing? I don't think anyone cares.

 

It's just funny to listen to the typical response of "It doesn't matter if it's pre-rendered.. the game is still the best looking game evar!11!1". In the end there are very few people who actually feel the way you do. I wonder why...

Why mention 1080i? Because it's a pre-rendered/rendered mix game (ie. interactive CGI) at 1920x1080, not 640x480. High-definition....

But hey... don't let me rain on your parade. Carry on.

 

Sonic

1: From what I've heard yes. It certainly should do since it has a nice big cache and has very low latency system ram to work with.

2: Yes TEV is comparable to XBox's pixel shader. As far as I remember TEV's advantage over XBox's pixel shader is that TEV can do a texture read during a conbine operation. Were as with XBox's pixel shaders all the texture reads have to be done at the start of the operation. So with XBox's pixel shader you can't do a deffered read based on a calculated result without resorting to multipass. Although XBox's pixel shader has more flexible combiners then TEV.. so they both have there advantages.

3: At the moment Rogue Leader. There are prettier games, but Rogue Leader sets the bar for GC game graphics (technically speaking) IMO.. and Rebel Strike will soon move that bar considerably.

Phil

Do you really think PS2 could replicate anything XBox can do in realtime though?

Speaking of Julian, I saw a interview with him recently where he was talking about water in Rogue Leader and Rebel Strike. He was saying that with only just over 2 weeks from Rogue Leaders release there was no water in the game at all. So they quickly slapped in some water with a few bump maps just to get it done, but were very unhappy with it. So this time, in Rebel Strike, they're using Flipper to do pixel shading on the water. I haven't seen that much of the water, I've only seen it from up on high, but it looks very nice, very 3dmark2002

 

You go around looking for trouble, you really do. Why does it matter if the game is pre-rendered, is it because it doesn't "count" or because your mad because Xbox cannot do such a pre-rendered scene in real time? It's all irelavent as it doesn't matter how a game achieves the looks it does, point is HOW it looks in the end.

How about I bring the same topic up for every Xbox game that has bump mapping? Bump mapping is fake too, because the system is not powerfull enough to use actual polygons to do the bumps. Or how about developers who use tricks in the case of PS2 to achieve good visuals.

But whatever you say Greg it's your opinion I guess.

 

is there a 3dmark2002?

 

Gamecube, imho is the most impressive console for its time, that Nintendo has released.

the Famicom/NES was not all that impressive at its release in 1983 & 1985

the SFC/SNES was not too impressive at its release in 1990 & 1991

the N64 was not very impressive when it was released in 1996.

but the Gamecube *was* impressive at its release in 2001

again, all in my humble opinion.


I'm very much looking forward to GCN2/N5 in 2005 or 2006, as are most console gamers.

 

Erm... Why did you quote all but the last few words of his sentence, where he mentiones your very concern? With a wink, even!

Not to say that isn't true, but replicating can mean a lot of things. In the end, I'm pretty certain PS2 could replicate anything Xbox can do aswell - question though is, how fast (at what performance hit)?

He was calling to light exactly the way people should treat Julian's comment as well.

 

Yeah Teasy, Julian said RL used the water from Naboo for N64 but they added bump maps.

Also Xboxen need to give the "HDD streaming data" thing a rest. Halo loads are NOT short before each level and then you have the hickup loads all throughout each level and check points. I've frankly been dissapointed with the XB load times. KoTOR loads were pretty hefty. I dont see how the HD has really been put to great use except with Blinx.

Metroid, SMS and Zelda, all with huge worlds (especially MP) have whipped the XBHDD ass as far as loads and streaming. Chalk that up to the lil old GOD spinning like a mother..and the fast RAM. But yeas the majority of developers I've spoken with say the 64 megs of RAM in the XB is the biggest difference.

 

Megadrive: Huh? I'd say that every one of those consoles was moderately impressive for its time..

Just compare them to fellow console/PC hardware of their respective eras. Those Nintendo consoles weren't the best, by any means, but definitely at least a little impressive.. especially the NES.

 

The level streaming during the 'L' shaped corridors, to me, is very very nice, and allows levels to be far larger than 64megs would normally permit. As for the caching, if you load a Halo level, say "Silent Cartographer', endure the 10-15 second load time, then save and quit, the next time you play the level will pop up instantly (providing its Silent Cartographer again).

However, I agree that the HD hasn't been put to much use, if at all :? The load times in KOTOR were a little gruesome.

 

I gotta say that the GC optical drive is quite loud. This is very apparent when you are watching a cutscene in Eternal Darkness (amazing game, btw.)

I love the GC and think that it's an amazing design (and probably the only console right now that isn't really being sold under cost It's just a very efficient design, doing almost everything XBox can do in a smaller, lighter, cheaper package.

 

Here you have two games with texturing that's pretty minimal, and one game with load times that are quite long. I'm talking about Metroid's "doors and elevators" disguised loading. What's the difference if I'm watching a load screen for 5 seconds or standing in front of a door waiting for 5 seconds?

 

suspension of disbelief?

 

Sure. But I'm a nitpicker. Some doors in MP open faster than others. Yet they all look exactly the same. Maybe they could have made the ones that disguise longer loads look aged and weatherbeaten?

 

I mean 3dmark2001SE, it was released in 2002, which was what confused me

Because it wasn't required, his point was clear without it IMO. His point was even PS2 could replicate XBox given enough processing time. My point was I think there's a considerable difference in what it would take for PS2 and GC to replicate the nicest XBox effect. Meaning while GC would be slower with some of the effects it could at least do them all in game conditions.

I just want to mention that I've never seen a door take 5 seconds to open in Metroid Prime.

All the incredible painstaking detail that's in Metroid Prime and you can complain about something like that.. shame on you [/quote]

 

I had too, 2/5 seconds wait, you can hear (if you listen) disk access.

 

I'm not sure about disc access, I don't tend to listen to it and after all it could be doing various things. All I know is I've never waited 5 seconds from shooting a door to it opening AFAIR. Although I'm only at 60% in the game, so of course I might just not have gotten to either of the two doors your talking about yet. Either way though a 5 second wait is very rare. In my experience, for the majority of doors I've came accross, its usually a wait of 2 seconds or less from shooting the door and the door opening.

 

If this 'loading while a door opens' was done on xbox game, it would be called 'streaming', but if it is used in GCN or PS2 it is called 'waiting to load' :?

 

Rabid:
LOL, man.

Yeah, sometimes it feels that way! In any case, I've been everywhere - more or less - in MP, and I don't think there's a single door you have to wait five seconds for it to open. Maybe if you rush from one door immediately to the next, ignoring all enemies and provided the doors are close together etc...

It's not usual for this to happen.


*G*

PS: The devs certainly call what they do streaming... Was mentioned in the GC special issue of Edge. They load and decompress data during spare time after finishing rendering the current frame. Mute sound and move near a door and you will hear the drive whirr away.