Gameinformer interview of Darkness: Technical Talk

[3roxor]

Wouldn't be surprised if 360 versions of multiplatform will actually look better in the beginning looking at some of the DEV comments we read. I think there will be big quality differences between early PS3 games.

 

[Acert93]

Wouldn't be surprised if 360 versions of multiplatform will actually look better in the beginning looking at some of the DEV comments we read. I think there will be big quality differences between early PS3 games.

I am thinking the reverse :smile:

I think RSX fits right in with regard to the current game designs on the PC side. A lot of new games/engines are slowly requiring SM2.0 (Oblivion, UE3, Crysis, etc) and SM3.0 features are being used very much like SM2.0 were from fall 2002 to spring of 2004 (i.e. the infamous "lens flare" class add ons and some speed ups). And even when SM2.0 became popular, it did so with explicit DX7 support as a fallback. It has took the PC industry nearly 4 years to transition to SM2.0 as a baseline for top end titles.

RSX follows the 'traditional' design pattern of PC GPUs. As we saw with the X1900 it will be some time before the balance between math and texturing shifts in game designs.

I also believe NV's close relationship with Epic will help out significantly with UE3, in that I would expect Epic to have designed much of the engine around where the PC market was head as a baseline, and there is no question that NV's NV40/G70 design are the baseline for SM3.0 compatible parts based on install base alone.

RSX was a good move by Sony, as well as getting SLI in the alpha kits to give a rough baseline of features and performance to developers to work with early on. I personally expect most multi-platform games with a PC heritage to look better on the PS3, at least early on.

Sure, they may lose a little texture resolution and there will be some work needed in regards to bandwidth, but outside of the ROPs and memory RSX is like a 7900GTX @ 550MHz in most ways. It is a very fast GPU for current PC engines, and I would expect the graphical end of multi-platform titles coming from the PC to the PS3 to reflect this in a good way :smile: I think RSX is the right GPU for a lot of PC title right now and what developers are trying to do on the PC side of things which tends toward a bit of texturing and 'shorter' shaders and a focus on SM2.0--all things RSX screams at. Most upcoming PC titles look well suited for G70 style design with the exception of possible Crysis, but even that is too early to say.

IMO of course, time will tell. Starbreeze Studios may be one of those exceptions based on their past comments about the Xbox 360 GPU being faster for their engine.

Not claiming that Darkness is such a game. But those screenshots do look pretty uninspiring.

Starbreeze made the critically acclaimed Chronicles of Riddick title that added some much needed depth to their FPS, especially a movie adaptation. The graphics were also really good.

Based on past screenshots with the darkness things picking up a car and what not, it seems to be decent looking. Will have to wait to see how the end product finishes up though.

 

[Powderkeg]

I also believe NV's close relationship with Epic will help out significantly with UE3, in that I would expect Epic to have designed much of the engine around where the PC market was head as a baseline, and there is no question that NV's NV40/G70 design are the baseline for SM3.0 compatible parts based on install base alone.

I wouldn't put too much stock in that relationship with Nvidia. I daresay that after providing MS with 3 exclusive games, having their middleware adopted by MS (Before Sony) and their heavy reliance on MS based OS's for the vast majority of their PC revenue that they will make every possible effort to have their engine run equally on the 360, if not better.

I mean, MS has invested tons to secure games like Gears of War. Sony is getting what from them? A port?

 

[Acert93]

Maybe, who knows (yet)... but considering their latest criticisms of Intel, they seem to be aligned with AMD, NV, and MS to a degree... got to toss Sony in there. If they were to pull a stunning change, like flip flop to ATI like Crytek did they would have that ATI-AMD thing down

But I do think UE3 was designed originally with the GF series very much in mind. Not only is Epic a close partner with NV, but they also first showcased GOW on SLI 6800s. We will see though.

 

[ZiFF]

http://ps3.ign.com/objects/800/800596.html
http://ps3.ign.com/objects/800/800597.html

Apart from UT2k7.. Epic has two multiplatform projects published by Midway. PC, 360 and PS3 i guess.

 

[Jesus2006]

But I do think UE3 was designed originally with the GF series very much in mind. Not only is Epic a close partner with NV, but they also first showcased GOW on SLI 6800s. We will see though.

Any chance the AA might work on the PS3 then

 

[Acert93]

Any chance the AA might work on the PS3 then

I believe the reason MSAA is not being used with UE3 is because the deferred rendering techniques result in huge performance penalties. This is true of all current hardware, I am not even sure if they will open the feature in the PC control panel for user selection. Anyhow, unless RSX is running the game so fast they can absorb the penalty then it would be no because all the NV GPUs do MSAA basically the same way ATI does.

 

[Titanio]

Any chance the AA might work on the PS3 then

UE3 and AA isn't tiling related or anything like that. It's a general issue, so AA won't be used in the majority of cases anywhere.

 

[Jesus2006]

UE3 and AA isn't tiling related or anything like that. It's a general issue, so AA won't be used in the majority of cases anywhere.

I know it's because of the deferred renderer. But maybe since they are using NV cards as "primary development" platform they might have got around it, somehow