Questions for Tim Sweeney?

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

I am definitely curious.

After that soft shadowed demo he showed at the NV30 launch, we've seen nothing. UT2004 is obviously not the real deal. In the following week, I might have the chance to have a chat with him. Any suggestions (non NV vs. ATI please) on game / engine / 3D technology would be most welcome.

 

[Reverend]

Will you be presenting this possible interview in a magazine or website? Do they (mag/website) have their own forums for what you're asking of B3D forum participants?

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

Will you be presenting this possible interview in a magazine or website? Do they (mag/website) have their own forums for what you're asking of B3D forum participants?

Yes (mag) and Yes. But the members of this forum no doubt will raise more "quality" questions. Speaking of which - where are they?

 

[Reverend]

I was "crucified" for asking B3D forum participants for questions they may have for NV when I was with Voodooextreme (after having left B3D for a while back then) for a article I intended to write for VE then. Dvae and Kristof, back then, told this site's forum members to not respond to me (in cases like this, the word" friends" can be easily forgotten).

That's a hint for you.

 

[vader]

Is it true that the next engine will be 64-bit only? And if so, what will be the strategy for 32-bit emulation?

 

[Pete]

JF, if you're getting paid for this article, it's understandable that B3D may not want you to use this forum for help. At the very least, you should elicit questions here with the understanding that you'd credit B3D's forums. I think that would be only fair. I don't know how your situation compares to Rev's, though. I understand that you're probably asking here because of the respect and possibly friendship you have for B3D's forum members, but remember that this site ain't free for the owners to run, so their goodwill may depend on their wallets. Sure, some are doing this for the fun of it, but people's gots ta eat, too.

I have a rather obvious Q about shadows, but I'll wait to see what the site policy is before posing it. (Really, it's almost too obvious to repeat. )

 

[Bjorn]

Is it true that the next engine will be 64-bit only? And if so, what will be the strategy for 32-bit emulation?

AFAIK, this was only discussed when it came to the editor and i think it's already verified that it will work in 32 bit also. The supposed requirement for 64 bit was mostly because the editor uses a lot of memory to work properly.

Edit:

http://www.firingsquad.com/features/sweeney_interview/page2.asp

FiringSquad: How important a role will the 64-bit instructions play in your next generation engine? Will you be adding exclusive features for 64-bit users?

There's a good chance 64-bit will likely be mandatory for content development. Since we release the Unreal level editor and scripting framework to users, this affects gamers and not just us internally.

For playing the game, we'll support both 32-bit and 64-bit. Depending on how much content we end up with, there's a good chance that we'll expose high-detail modes that will require 64-bit, giving you higher texture detail, for example. But there won't be any divergence in the gameplay itself.

 

[Mummy]

Im wondering something non technical related, sweeny always criticized american publishers for producing crap games, how come he and epic let Legend brutalize Unreal 2 ?

 

[Luminescent]

I'm wondering whether Sweeney's soft-shadow technique is based to a shader, shadow buffer, or other implementation.

 

[Waltar]

I am definitely curious.

After that soft shadowed demo he showed at the NV30 launch, we've seen nothing. UT2004 is obviously not the real deal. In the following week, I might have the chance to have a chat with him. Any suggestions (non NV vs. ATI please) on game / engine / 3D technology would be most welcome.

Guh? I must've missed this demo..link?

 

[jb]

JF_Aidan_Pryde


going to the unreal classes next week?

 

[MfA]

Mr. Sweeney in the past you have suggested rendering would move back to general purpose processors, but on the other hand you have admitted reservations to massively parallel processors like Cell ... how do you unite these views?

 

[demalion]

As specifically as you have time for/can allow yourself to, what do you envision higher bandwidth GPU<->host interfacing will allow you to do, and, if anything, when do you expect to be able to do it?

What things do you think will be important for the next level of shader functionality target beyond capabilities exposed in something like PS/VS 3.0? Have you noticed any places where it seems likely occur (that you can talk about)? For example: OpenGL 2.0, "future DX", "XBox 2", etc.

Vertex Shaders don't seem to get as much prominent attention and discussion as Pixel/Fragment Shaders, seemingly because of typically offering less unique visual impact compared to CPU techniques. Any comments and thoughts you can share that might relate to whether you think that might change in general, or you disagree with the statement in general? Also, whether it has been/is/will not be true as far as more specific personal experience, even if just theoretical?

 

[Tahir2]

I was "crucified" for asking B3D forum participants for questions they may have for NV when I was with Voodooextreme (after having left B3D for a while back then) for a article I intended to write for VE then. Dvae and Kristof, back then, told this site's forum members to not respond to me (in cases like this, the word" friends" can be easily forgotten).

That's a hint for you.

Hmm Rev that's not quite true as you asked members of the forum to e-mail or PM you with the questions.
If this was the reason why you were "crucified" then I guess I would agree with the response from B3D at that time. If it was some other reason then since I don't know it so I can't comment.

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

but remember that this site ain't free for the owners to run, so their goodwill may depend on their wallets. Sure, some are doing this for the fun of it, but people's gots ta eat, too.

How does my asking for suggestions burden Beyond3D financially more than any other thread?

In anycase, I intend to post some feedback on his thoughts and Beyond3D will be credited in print; it's mutally beneficial.

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

I am definitely curious.

After that soft shadowed demo he showed at the NV30 launch, we've seen nothing. UT2004 is obviously not the real deal. In the following week, I might have the chance to have a chat with him. Any suggestions (non NV vs. ATI please) on game / engine / 3D technology would be most welcome.

Guh? I must've missed this demo..link?

The demo was shown at the NV30 launch party and was only available via streaming. I don't think there's a live link anymore..

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

Mr. Sweeney in the past you have suggested rendering would move back to general purpose processors, but on the other hand you have admitted reservations to massively parallel processors like Cell ... how do you unite these views?

Hi MfA,
I intend to ask him something regarding Cell. But I guess the big question is whether IBM will have the tools to generate parallel code. If yes, then no one need to worry, if no, then with 'arbitrary cells', it's hard to see how one can program for them..

 

[Pete]

How does my asking for suggestions burden Beyond3D financially more than any other thread?

I was thinking more along the lines of using the forum's resources without credit, but you say you'll credit B3D, so it's all good. The flip side, of course, is that forum members may want to help you out, no matter what B3D thinks.

I was mostly playing devil's advocate. I didn't think you'd take Q's posted in this thread without due credit. I intended no offense, JF.

 

[991060]

I'd rather ask him how the next engine's physics system will be,and how they will improve the gamer's interaction experience. Max Payne 2 set a good example of exploring the feeling of interaction to a new level, is there any possiblity that game developers shift the focus to improving the gameplay rather than the graphics engine ? Today's games are already looked good, maybe too good comparing to the average playability.

 

[MfA]

I intend to ask him something regarding Cell. But I guess the big question is whether IBM will have the tools to generate parallel code.

Those kind of tools dont get you very far, you need large granularity parallelism ... if the developer does not take care not to introduce dependencies in his code that kind of parallelism isnt present to begin with, and even if it were it is hell on a compiler trying to analyze wether there is any dependence on that scale. You'd have to put a restrict modifier on every pointer