Sega's first NEXT GEN game!
- Thread starter Berserk
- Start date
From a person involved in a first gen next-gen title, pushing the envelope is hard. We are all stuck on PC, without real hardware to really see whats they are good at (specs and alpha kits only tell you so much).
Also its takes considerable effort just to produce code, let alone good code. So much of the stuff is very unoptimal, it will get better as it gets iterated on but with very limited time for launch don't expect miracles.
If we take PS3 or Xenon, I expect a 'simple' 2 to 3 improvement in performance from chucking functions like GPU command buffer creation, animation and physics onto other threads. Also the graphics will probably be a couple times faster due to lots of ALUs and fillrate. However RAM limits are going to be hard. I'll predict that putting in a 'reasonable' effect into a launch title should be about 2 times better than a high end PC game today.
We also want more complex games, which mean lots of non hardware oriented devs, that will be THE fundementally limits on performance. Each generation we get further from the theoritical maximum of the platform...
Once the next-gen consoles are bedded in (2nd or 3rd gen) expect more, especially on single platform titles.
Also its takes considerable effort just to produce code, let alone good code. So much of the stuff is very unoptimal, it will get better as it gets iterated on but with very limited time for launch don't expect miracles.
If we take PS3 or Xenon, I expect a 'simple' 2 to 3 improvement in performance from chucking functions like GPU command buffer creation, animation and physics onto other threads. Also the graphics will probably be a couple times faster due to lots of ALUs and fillrate. However RAM limits are going to be hard. I'll predict that putting in a 'reasonable' effect into a launch title should be about 2 times better than a high end PC game today.
We also want more complex games, which mean lots of non hardware oriented devs, that will be THE fundementally limits on performance. Each generation we get further from the theoritical maximum of the platform...
Once the next-gen consoles are bedded in (2nd or 3rd gen) expect more, especially on single platform titles.
The Typing of the Dead Next Gen.
I agree that it's too early to get dissappointed.
I don't think anyone has dev kits with real hardware yet.
No one yet has dev kits with fleshed out tools either.
Basically I think we're seeing the efforts of people shooting in the dark as best they can with an uncalibrated gun.
At best these guys are using X800/6800's right now and nothing more powerful than a FX-55. Just think at the dispartity between these components and what should be in the Xbox2 and PS3. I think they're doing pretty good with what they have and will do a HECK of lot better when they get the real deal stuff in their hands.
I don't think anyone has dev kits with real hardware yet.
No one yet has dev kits with fleshed out tools either.
Basically I think we're seeing the efforts of people shooting in the dark as best they can with an uncalibrated gun.
At best these guys are using X800/6800's right now and nothing more powerful than a FX-55. Just think at the dispartity between these components and what should be in the Xbox2 and PS3. I think they're doing pretty good with what they have and will do a HECK of lot better when they get the real deal stuff in their hands.
That magazine picture shows that it's an Xbox 2 (Xbox 360?) launcn title and other platforms are to be determined later. Since it's known that the semi-final Xbox2 devkits are in hands of developers, I think it's a safe bet to regard it as an indicator of the graphics of the 1st-gen Xbox 2 titles.
What about the tech demos?
Depends on whether they'll be real time or movies for each dev.
Render farms for anything non-real time.
Even if the demo's are going to be real-time the PS3 is slated to be unvieled before E3. If this is true someone has their hands on PS3 dev stuff right now but we've no idea who that is and for how long.
I remember that for the Gamecube's unvieling at E3 Nintendo got 'Mist' if I'm not mistaken to whip up some demos in a 2 week expanse of time. People have asked for a game based off that demo ever since
Be patient. You'll see. ...and by the by visuals alone are not where these consoles are going to really kick but....not in the least.
edit:
Where was it made known that devs had final or near final dev kits made available to them?
I've heard some devs were using 9800's and then moved to 6800's to explore and get expertise with SM3.0 but I've not seen anything stating devs had Cells and R500's in their hands just yet. (and this was all Xbox2 related in what's been going around at that)
If this isn't the case I'd like to know about it and furthermore I would ask...where's all that horsepower going!?!
Depends on whether they'll be real time or movies for each dev.
Render farms for anything non-real time.
Even if the demo's are going to be real-time the PS3 is slated to be unvieled before E3. If this is true someone has their hands on PS3 dev stuff right now but we've no idea who that is and for how long.
I remember that for the Gamecube's unvieling at E3 Nintendo got 'Mist' if I'm not mistaken to whip up some demos in a 2 week expanse of time. People have asked for a game based off that demo ever since
Be patient. You'll see. ...and by the by visuals alone are not where these consoles are going to really kick but....not in the least.
edit:
Where was it made known that devs had final or near final dev kits made available to them?
I've heard some devs were using 9800's and then moved to 6800's to explore and get expertise with SM3.0 but I've not seen anything stating devs had Cells and R500's in their hands just yet. (and this was all Xbox2 related in what's been going around at that)
If this isn't the case I'd like to know about it and furthermore I would ask...where's all that horsepower going!?!
Well, Sony *has* the cell chips ready, at least prototypes, we've seen them. So i guess early demos on prototypes won't take long to do. Thing is, these prototypes won't even come close to the real thing, and we've seen how crappy the early PS2 demos were, compared to the games actually released for it...
Evil_Cloud
Veteran
AM2's The Tower of Babel tech-demo for Dreamcast was made in 14 days, time isn't really a factor IMO.
Megadrive1988
Veteran
if you can imagine that Condemned started out being developed on Radeon 9700/9800 a few years ago, then migrated to Radeon X800 or GeForce 6800 later, you can imagine that this game is not showing off what Xenon can do. it has not been coded on Xenon's likely multi-core CPU, nor Xenon's R500 VPU. I agree with most of the other comments here that we're not seeing what nextgen consoles will really be capable of. everything seen so far (Project Avalon, Dark Sector, Heavenly Sword, Elder Scrolls IV, War Devil, and now Condemned) is pre-first generation stuff
Yeah, after the last generation i'm not going to form an opinion from pre-release videos or demos, cause they either look like crap compared to the real thing, or they're prerendered...
Once i can get my hands on proper games (not even launch games) then my brain will work out which one i need to buy.
Once i can get my hands on proper games (not even launch games) then my brain will work out which one i need to buy.