Is the next generation really that exciting....really?

[Nick Laslett]

Physics, AI and more interaction is what I'm looking for in the next generation.

Imagine HL2 physics/graphics coupled with a city the size of GTA:San Andreas, with the same level of freedom. Then imagine adaptive AI that makes every game different and accomodates emergent behaviour so it seems like you're playing Counter Strike online.

The problem is that this type of game won't arrive until 2008. The first wave of games will just be graphical updates of what we see today with better physics.

Half Life 2 took 5 years from engine development and content creation to release. If you expect a game that surpassess HL2 to arrive before 2008, you're expecting too much.

 

[Conker Live]

It seems that a lot of you guys think resolution is the next big thing and I would have to agree with ya. I think that most games will be limited to 480p to 720p but still that image quality is great...of course 1080p would be nice

BTW, who here thinks that Xenon will be announced at the Jan CES?

 

[wco81]

I would be disappointed if 720p30 was not at least a baseline, along with NTSC, for all the games, regardless of platform, regardless of genre, regardless of online or offline.

Image quality and lighting effects will vary but not at the sacrifice of a full 1280x720 frame (no black bars on the sides like Soul Calibur 2) and good frame rate.

 

[cthellis42]

--ahem--

It's all about the shiney-shine, baby.

 

[speng]

I think for next-gen what we are going to see is more gameplay changes.

Physics, environment deformation, real environment simulation (immersion).

Now that developers might have the power to do these things, I think that's where things are going. HL2 showed us how great physics can be for gameplay.

Speng.

 

[cthellis42]

True. I think graphics will perhaps not be as visually impressive as the leap from this generation to last, but they will still be suitable cleaner, more impressive, and aimed at the HDTV generation, and developers will be able to use the extra horsepower in all the other areas that usually get short shrift to make the gaming experience a lot more immersive in general.

Hopefully they'll work up the AI's a lot more to boot.

 

[Conker Live]

Well, I for one hope that games of the next generation include better animation. Motion capture is a good start but it's not as simple as just capturing motions and putting them into the game. Those motions have to be tweaked to look right...just as they did for FF:TSW. Now if they could calculate inverse kinematics and dynamics in realtime, this would allow for realtime animation instead of precalculated stuff. It would do for character animation what 3D did for visuals...well almost. I remember talk about PS2 doing this but the CPU power needed for this is very high. Maybe with these multi-CPU powered machines they will finally be able to do this.

 

[Xeno]

I wonder what Devs working on next gen titles expect out of the consoles... 8)

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/570/570703p1.html

Though the trailer appears to be CG cut-scenes, Digi-Guys seems to suggest that the in-game visuals won't differ much. If this is true, WarDevil would rival today's current PC graphics, truly putting Xbox 2 on the console cutting edge. The cinematic experience of WarDevil is intentional, as the title will also become a CGI high-definition short film.

 

[PC-Engine]

I wonder what Devs working on next gen titles expect out of the consoles... 8)

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/570/570703p1.html

Though the trailer appears to be CG cut-scenes, Digi-Guys seems to suggest that the in-game visuals won't differ much. If this is true, WarDevil would rival today's current PC graphics, truly putting Xbox 2 on the console cutting edge. The cinematic experience of WarDevil is intentional, as the title will also become a CGI high-definition short film.

So the game will be coming out in 2005 on Xenon and there will be a CGI HD short film also? Will the short film be included with the game on DVD using VC-1 compression?

 

[Ooh-videogames]

Iwata already, somewhat confirmed that the Revolution will be able to connect to a P.C monitor out of the box.

The graphics will only be impressive if the developers use them for more than just visual flair. There have to be a good amount of polish to the titles. Things like the grass in Madden realisticly deforming from players running and pulling up large chunks of grass, jersey tackles, accurate ball physics, better collision detection.

 

[Wunderchu]

I wonder what Devs working on next gen titles expect out of the consoles... 8)

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/570/570703p1.html

Though the trailer appears to be CG cut-scenes, Digi-Guys seems to suggest that the in-game visuals won't differ much. If this is true, WarDevil would rival today's current PC graphics, truly putting Xbox 2 on the console cutting edge. The cinematic experience of WarDevil is intentional, as the title will also become a CGI high-definition short film.

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18452

 

[Conker Live]

OK....so some good news about the PS3 and Nvidia. But, this is not the megaton bomb that so many think it is. Graphics between the Xbox 2 and PS3 will be smaller than the difference between Xbox and PS2 unless the PS3 was released in 2007. In addition, the graphics of the Xbox 2 should be "good enough".

So I think this generation will be the least dependent on what's under the hood then any before it. What matters: Interface, connectivity and physics calculation capability.

 

[London Geezer]

Next Gen will definately be all about the physics and animation, if you ask me. With the realism those machines will be able to output, devs better slap some realistic physics engines on those visuals or thigns will look rather embarrassing.

 

[Qroach]

slap out realisitc phsyics engines? you're not serious are you?

Physics on future consoles are going to look nearly identicle, simply because more companies will use off the shelf physics packages.

 

[London Geezer]

slap out realisitc phsyics engines? you're not serious are you?

Physics on future consoles are going to look nearly identicle, simply because more companies will use off the shelf physics packages.

That's what i was saying...?
Or at least, what you said (the fact that next gen will have standard physics engines - middleware) doesn't make my statement untrue, that next gen games need to have very realistic physics engines.

 

[Qroach]

When you said "Devs better" you made it sounds like devs "better create" and not devs "better use". There is a difference...

 

[London Geezer]

When you said "Devs better" you made it sounds like devs "better create" and not devs "better use". There is a difference...

Oh i see, no what i meant is, there better be some damn good physics in next gen games, or things will just look bad. Whether the Devs want to create their own physics engines or go middleware, it doesn't matter, as long as things move realistically.
But i'm confident, after HL2, people will focus on physics more and more.

To be honest, everyone could just use Havok2.0(and successors) for all i care.

 

[pc999]

That not bad, I mean physics are all the same , so ( if they are realistc ) they are the same , this way it is probably better have just a few so they can have a real good R&D.
Probably the deal will be ( like always ) have more detailed physics per object, or less for a lot of objects.

When (if) gfx became foto-realistc the same argument could be used .

 

[London Geezer]

That not bad, I mean physics are all the same , so ( if they are realistc ) they are the same , this way it is probably better have just a few so they can have a real good R&D.
Probably the deal will be ( like always ) have more detailed physics per object, or less for a lot of objects.

When (if) gfx became foto-realistc the same argument could be used .

Yep, unless there's a strange game set in a strange world with different physics rules, our universe's physics are always the same. So all the games set in our world could just "load the plug-in" so to speak and devs wouldn't have to care about anything, cause physics are just physics. The only variable is the accuracy, one game could afford to spend more of its performance on physics than another one, but the algorithms should always be the same, i guess.

 

[pc999]

I hope that we get a game like that, really , it would really defy dev imagination.
Anyway they will need to dev their own engine, so I keep my point.
I guess that you agree with me.