*spin-off* Lead Platform... stuff

[Cyan]

DICE says the game will be scaled down on the PS3 and 360 and the engine will run at full specs on PC. Also PC gamers will enjoy a special treatment.

http://www.computerandvideogames.co...n-on-360-and-ps3-but-still-amazing-says-dice/

"PC gamers are going to love to hear this"

DICE has conceded that its gorgeous upcoming shooter Battlefield 3 will have to be "scaled down" onto PS3 and 360, but claimed that the game will still be "amazing" on both platforms.

CVG saw the game running on PC at GDC earlier this month, and it's shaping up to be very special indeed.


However, DICE boss Karl Magnus Troedsson admitted that developing the game on PC will inevitably lead to the non-360 and PS3 SKU being the most advanced option.

"PC is the leading platform, conceptually, for this game, definitely. We are going to make this game on 360 and PlayStation 3 as well, [but] we need to scale it down to those platforms," he told the latest issue of PC Gamer in a special preview.

"The PC players are going to love to hear that, but it's a fact. The hardware specs on the console are limited. At the same time, for each iteration on these console platforms we can utilise the power of them better and better, so what we do on the other platforms is going to be amazing, and look much better on the PC too.

He added: "There's going to be unique features on the PC version of this game, some of which I think people are going to be very pleased about. I can't reveal all of them... but I can reveal that there will be a lot of extra love put into the PC version of this product."

Battlefield 3 is one of a handful of major FPS releases coming to PC, PS3 and 360 this year - fellow EA-published release Crysis 2, which is due to hit shelves on March 22 in the US.

The boss of Crysis studio Crytek, Cevat Yerli, has claimed that the PC is, technologically speaking, a "generation ahead" of its console siblings.

Sigh, I think that as usual some effects might be missing on consoles, but here is hoping they will be there, just slightly toned down in some cases.

Crysis 2 is a clear example that this might be possible after all.

 

[Arwin]

Yes, they mentioned very clearly at GDC that the PC was the lead platform for this title. I think that's also something that's important to realise when using this engine to say anything definitive about the relative merits of each platform.

 

[L. Scofield]

Sigh, I think that as usual some effects might be missing on consoles, but here is hoping they will be there, just slightly toned down in some cases.

Crysis 2 is a clear example that this might be possible after all.

That's because (sadly) consoles were the lead target for Crysis 2.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

That's because (sadly) consoles were the lead target for Crysis 2.

Can't really say that definitively. But we'll have a pretty good idea next week when we can finally compare the single player IQ of each platform.

Back to FB 2. It's VERY nice to hear that they are dedicating significant developement time to bringing out the best of PC. It's been far too long since there was a game that really looked like it was pushing the PC platform.

Regards,
SB

 

[Ike Turner]

Can't really say that definitively. But we'll have a pretty good idea next week when we can finally compare the single player IQ of each platform.

Regards,
SB

We will have to wait longer..t'ill the DX11 patch is released. Cause as of right now the PC version of Crysis 2 is only marginaly better than the console versions.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

We will have to wait longer..t'ill the DX11 patch is released. Cause as of right now the PC version of Crysis 2 is only marginaly better than the console versions.

Based on the MP demo? Which is basically just the X360 demo ported to PC with very little PC-centric material other than a few tweaks to the config file that still don't appear to match PC only settings?

Regards,
SB

 

[homerdog]

Sigh, I think that as usual some effects might be missing on consoles, but here is hoping they will be there, just slightly toned down in some cases.

Crysis 2 is a clear example that this might be possible after all.

The console versions will look good, but I wouldn't expect them to be only "slightly toned down" from the PC version which will run on machines that are vastly more capable than PS360. Even my rapidly aging GTX260 + 3.2GHz Conroe is blisteringly fast compared to either console and has 8x the RAM, not counting the 896MB on the GPU. There is nothing slight about the comparison.

 

[Ike Turner]

Based on the MP demo? Which is basically just the X360 demo ported to PC with very little PC-centric material other than a few tweaks to the config file that still don't appear to match PC only settings?

Regards,
SB

And the leaked beta. The only difference is the high-res shawdows, AA volumetric lightning (Textures are identical for the most part). The whole project (Crysis 2 on the PC) is essentialy just a port of the the console version anyway. It's a DX9 game from top to bottom. That's why it doesn't even support DX10 and needs a patch to enable DX11 features. So far Cyrtek has shown nothing related to the PC version of the game or any PC-centric material because there's probably none other than the POM and Tesselation which will be enabled via the patch (confirmed by Crytek).

 

[Andrew Lauritzen]

Sigh, I think that as usual some effects might be missing on consoles, but here is hoping they will be there, just slightly toned down in some cases.

How is this surprising in the slightest? If you're actually pushing the bleeding edge of the PC platform by definition anything on the consoles has to be "scaled down" - the hardware delta is just too large at this point. The console versions of Frostbite 2 might still be the best thing we ever see on this-gen consoles.

Crysis 2 is a clear example that this might be possible after all.

From what we've seen of Crysis 2 so far, they took the other approach... it doesn't seem to really be pushing the PC platform very much. Maybe the release of the DX11 path will change things, but the very fact that it's not coming out on day 1 is a strong indicator that it's more of an after-thought than a "lead platform". Thus it'll be interesting to see how Crysis 2 looks on consoles compared to Frostbite 2, but I doubt there will be much of a contest on the PC. Happy for Crysis to prove me wrong though

 

[pjbliverpool]

DICE says the game will be scaled down on the PS3 and 360 and the engine will run at full specs on PC. Also PC gamers will enjoy a special treatment.

http://www.computerandvideogames.co...n-on-360-and-ps3-but-still-amazing-says-dice/

Exactly how it should be done, a game that's realeased on all platforms but plays to the strengths of each - including the PC. MOre sales all round.

 

[AlNom]

Spun-off from FrostBite 2 Tech thread because it just isn't really tech discussion.