Screen grab of the nextgen Madden football.

[Qroach]

Guys, that Madden model has normal mapping all over it. It makes much more sense to use a higher res model (then we have in the current gen) with some really high res normal maps instead of going nuts on the poly count.

 

[jvd]

Guys, that Madded model has normal mapping all over it. It makes much mroe sense to use a higher res model then we have in the current gen with some really high res normal maps instead of going nuts with the poly count.

right modest gains in poly count with high res normal maps = huge leap in graphics

 

[Qroach]

damn I gotta take time when I type stuff.

 

[London Geezer]

As long as i can't see sharp poly edges when things should be rounded, i'm all for going the normal maps way.

 

[Ooh-videogames]

What is your assesment?

 

[see colon]

you can almost see the track marks from steroid use.

seriously, these shots look great.

 

[Qroach]

damn!

 

[StefanS]

I have to admit when we saw the first screenshots of supposedly next gen games I was a little bit disappointed. But those EA pix look like true next-gen...

 

[pc999]

I`m starting to get happy, with next gen gfx.

 

[PC-Engine]

Subdued colors and lighting with some blurring can make a huge difference.

 

[Ooh-videogames]

You know what strange, its hard far some to believe that the hardware is capable of this.

 

[Qroach]

it's a bit more then that...

 

[Evil_Cloud]

Now a game scenario please...

 

[therealskywolf]

What is your assesment?

Looking good, thats definitilly realtime. Look at his right arm, you can see some effects of the normal mapping. I'm getting very very anxious to see the Xbox 360.......

 

[PC-Engine]

it's a bit more then that...

Yeah I know. The lighting definitely makes the models more solid though. It's more on the scale of VF4. It looks great no doubt considering there will be many players onscreen.

 

[Nightz]

Wow thats amazing,
just imagine what the Revolution and PS3 version will look like

 

[BigGamer X]

What they also need to do is make the crowds look more realistic in sporting games. Nothing like having a photo realistic field, players, and even sidelines, just to see "cardboard in the stands".

(do you think such limitations next gen. will be cpu/gpu limited, or RAM limited?)

 

[Qroach]

technically you could have thousands of 3D animating fans in sports games on the xbox. Just look at Top spin or any of the last XSN sports title from MS. They all had the same 3D fan technology (video sprites is what MS research called them i think). They look good until you get "really" close to them.

I figure it's a combination of everthing. (CPU GPU and memory, not one specifically). It depends how you want to render them.

 

[wco81]

Frankly, I couldn't care less if they only rendered the football field, not even the sidelines.

But most people want atmosphere and presentation, a quasi-TV broadcast type of presentation.

Don't get it, if I want something that looked like TV, I'd just watch a football game on TV.

But then, I'm not that into cutscenes either. After I view them a couple of times, I just press buttons to dismiss them and get to the playcalling screen. When you play Madden online, you don't get these replays (or any for that matter, not even the user-controlled ones from the pause menu) so no biggie.

But I would have to say that most of the gameplay action occurs on zoomed out cameras to see as much of the field as possible. In those views, you don't have to have high LOD on the players. But then you see the background, like sideline and parts of the stadium.

Still, if giving too much detail to the crowd hits the frame rate, most people would not accept that tradeoff.

 

[Kolgar]

OK, if Xbox 360 games can look this good, will anyone even care if it's "less powerful" than PS3?

If these shots are representative of the actual game and Microsoft secures some great software support, Sony may not want to wait too long to launch PS3.