In regards to the FEAR games on the consoles

[Mobius1aic]

First of all I'd like to know your thoughts on why the 360 version at least didn't run the game with soft shadows like available in the PC version. Also, I'd like to know the soft shadow rendering method they used. It looks like some kind of double rendering, with the "light" one placed under the "dark" shadow. I highly doubt its a truly soft penumbra and I'm aware of the PC version not letting the game run soft shadowing and AA at the same time. And even still, I wonder why the game didn't run at 60 frames a second either (or is there a way of forcing it?). The Xenos is pretty powerful, and if it's close to or equal to a GeForce 7900 class GPU, which is easily powerful enough for running the game steadily at 60 FPS w/o slowdowns (w/o soft shadows), why not let it?

However, looking back on it, I must say that playing the game seemed more creepy on the 360's locked lower framerate than at 75 Hz and soft shadowing enabled on my PC. Then again the 360 version was also my first real run through with the game.

 

[Neb]

The soft-shadows did affect perfomance quite some. I think it is doen through redrawing the scene or just shadows several times, each brighter than the other.

The Xenos is pretty powerful, and if it's close to or equal to a GeForce 7900 class GPU, which is easily powerful enough for running the game steadily at 60 FPS w/o slowdowns (w/o soft shadows), why not let it?

Maybe it is just to much for it, memory bandwidth and GPU wise, maybe ROPs suffer?

However, looking back on it, I must say that playing the game seemed more creepy on the 360's locked lower framerate than at 75 Hz and soft shadowing enabled on my PC.

Soft-shadows did add a creppy "soft blurring" for objects making it more "nightmarish". Also soft-shadows and AA did work on the PC version with a trick. it did give me ~22-30+fps (30-60fps and mostly at 45+ without soft shadows) at 1280*1024 res, vsync enabled and 4xAA/16xAF, on a 7900GT. The thing is it had to be done every time level changes or game is restarted...

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w193/NebulasPhotoPocket/FEAR-5.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w193/NebulasPhotoPocket/FEAR-1.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w193/NebulasPhotoPocket/FearAAwithSS.jpg

 

[Acert93]

Games can be CPU limited as well...

IMO softshadows were very poor in FEAR. The visual return was poor for the performance hit.

 

[Bohdy]

FEAR's engine is not a CPU-limited one. Trust me, I ran it on a crappy PC with high framerate once I turned the graphics down

 

[Acert93]

FEAR's engine is not a CPU-limited one. Trust me, I ran it on a crappy PC with high framerate once I turned the graphics down

Xenon isn't a PC CPU though. Just look at the PS3 port which has a number of issues (at lower resolutions even) than would be initially indicated. I don't believe FEAR is threaded very deeply, so it is going to be impacted by the unique design and limitations of the PPEs in Xenon and Cell. It wouldn't be the first time a PC game ported to the consoles was CPU limited.

 

[keptcopsup]

I think it was a lazy port.

My computer isn't even specwise as good as a 360, yet I got nearly double the framerate.

The textures are also downscaled on the 360 version...

Before the 360 version was released, the PR people said the game would "run at PC settings on max plus HDR". Now the settings the actual game ran at weren't even close to max, and I've never seen any signs of HDR in FEAR for 360...

 

[Hazuki Ryu]

Before the 360 version was released, the PR people said the game would "run at PC settings on max plus HDR". Now the settings the actual game ran at weren't even close to max, and I've never seen any signs of HDR in FEAR for 360...

I have not played the pc version for a while now, but i have the x360 version, and it looks like its running with max pc settings, maybe you're confusing blurring due to lower resolutions and lack of 16xAF (or any af) with lower texture resolution.

I think the game could have been done better on the 360 though just like Oblivion could, they were ment for pc anyway so they're just Lazy ports(like you said) on x360, also consoles will never outperform high end pc.

Frame rate could probably be higher if they didint lock at 30 wich im not sure but i think it is locked, but that would make u notice slowdowns alot more ofcourse, so they made the right choise

 

[Mobius1aic]

FEAR's engine is not a CPU-limited one. Trust me, I ran it on a crappy PC with high framerate once I turned the graphics down

The Turion TL-56 in my laptop had no trouble running max CPU settings for FEAR. It really helps that FEAR is at least dual threaded. It's the graphics that are really the killer when it comes to running it on my laptop. Thank God for my desktop rig

 

[Hazuki Ryu]

I have not played the pc version for a while now, but i have the x360 version, and it looks like its running with max pc settings, maybe you're confusing blurring due to lower resolutions and lack of 16xAF (or any af) with lower texture resolution.

My mistake i installed fear on my pc and xbox 360 textures seem equivalent to medium on pc.

 

[Turok]

I would say it's a lazy port. Looking at the Project Origin video, which seems to be running on a 360, everything looks worlds better than FEAR on the 360, runs at a much smoother clip too.

 

[Dave Glue]

I have not played the pc version for a while now, but i have the x360 version, and it looks like its running with max pc settings, maybe you're confusing blurring due to lower resolutions and lack of 16xAF (or any af) with lower texture resolution.

Nope, it's definitely running with reduced textures. The PC version is far graphically superior. Remember that if you select Max textures on the PC, you really need a system with 2GB to avoid stuttering - no surprise they had to lower them for the 360 with 512 megs total.

I think the game could have been done better on the 360 though just like Oblivion could,

Oblivion ran at 1024x600 initially (I think they updated the res later with a patch) - Radeon 1900XT's at the time could run it at a higher res with a better framerate.

Remember that while the 360 GPU is a shader monster, it doesn't have the texturing speed of most modern PC GPU's.

I think primarily is that it's just a very PC-tailored engine, same thing with Unreal Championship on the Xbox sucking, then Epic made a version heavily tailored to the Xbox and UC2 was far smoother despite also being far better looking.

 

[Hazuki Ryu]

Nope, it's definitely running with reduced textures. The PC version is far graphically superior. Remember that if you select Max textures on the PC, you really need a system with 2GB to avoid stuttering - no surprise they had to lower them for the 360 with 512 megs total.

I guess you didnt see but i posted above my mistake i just didnt play it in a long time