Technically, are any developpers pushing the PS3 more than Factor 5

I wish they make the game in 720p. The fire effect and ground environment will surely look much better.

1080p dick waving is not worth the compromise they have made in the game. Most PS3 owners can't afford a 1080p TV for godsake.

But to answer your question, no. Maybe Naughty Dog's game but we don't know yet.

 

They are really like a Second Party developer...they compare themselves to Insomniac. They choose a system and create an engine for it...they have naother game in development to release this year.

Yes Naughty Dog are also pushing the envelope.

But how about Temco with Ninja Gaiden Sigma...60fps, 1080p and real-time self-shadowing.

Or Ninja Theory...next-gen animation, HDR, 4xAA, 8xAF, Cinematic Camera...

 

In any given engine couldnt we make a list of technical phrases that the engine uses?? In the end to me its all the quality of the game itself (which Im eagerly looking forward to Lair) but simply listing a few keywords doesnt make their efforts on the console superior and/or inferior to other PS3 devs. Particularly if the engine is geared towards a game that is the only one in its genre. In the end "technically" impressive is most likely beyond my understanding when spoken in accordance with an entire engine.

IMO

 

I cannot believe you made a point of this

To be honest, there isn't much in Lair that impresses me right now, water is nice tho.

 

Not sure why you think that. Much of what you've listed as technical plus points are present in Naughty Dog's and Insomniac's and Ninja Theory's upcoming games, but in different ways. ie. Not the same huge draw distances perhaps, but just as many poly's on screen. And with better lighting and animation.

 

Though we can only judge from an alpha build it seems that F5 got it right with the streaming thing. This is a pretty open enviroment and it looks very impressive i guess the BR drive can deliver some pretty nefty results.

 

F5 has put a lot of different tech features in Lair, but I'm not sure that really qualifies the engine as pushing the PS3 hard. Little Big Planet, Motorstorm and Heavenly Sword all look far more appealing to me, and they can't do that without being technically very good.

 

Interesting, according to Julian Eggebrecht the draw distance is 20000 feet (6096 meters). This he say in the 'Lair in depth interview' at ~3:26 into the video.

Lair in depth interview video.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=18644&type=mov&pl=game

 

I'm tracking quietly since post like this will attract flakes
Many of the techniques have been tried before. The problem is we don't have any performance indicators for reference to back up Lair's impressiveness ...or lack thereof.

Also I think the technologies need to be put in context. e.g., How hard is it to have creatures ranging in size from human to coral snakes, how hard is it to zoom from far to near in flight time ? How many objects are "active" at any one time ?

I think you forgot cloth simulation too.

I also don't know how to quantify the music and imagination in this game. I supposed unlike most in the Lair thread, I appreciate their courage and hard work being so early in PS3's lifecycle. Good job F5 ! I am glad you're developing PS3 games.

 

yeah, the 32(square) km is the size of a level i think, not the draw distance.


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As for Lair, we definately have no other game with such (scalable) detail and draw distance and such an amount of action going on on screen at once.

 

That's the altitude of the dragon he's talking about. He wants a view from 20,000 feet up, which ought to be a huge draw distance. Though those figures mught just be representative rather than accurate, with 20,000 feet just being a nice, high sounding figure to describe players being very high up.

 

Yeah, but the 32km x 32km definitely refers to the maximum size of a single level that can be travelled without load times.

I think the real-time day and night cycle of the game deserves mention as well - not that many games support this (and on the PS3, none that I know of so far?).

It really is a very ambitious game, featuring an impressive list of technologies. It could still be crap, and each implementation of it could be botched as a result, but on paper, it sure does support an impressive list of technologies.

 

I think it was a good call highlighting this. As others have mentioned it was the lack of texture streaming in Resistance that constrained the graphics in that game.

As you can see with something like Gears of War, being able to stream textures has a huge impact on the final look of a game.

 

You may be very correct about the view thing, neverthless here is a quote of what Julian Eggebrecht said (3:14-3:28).

 

I'd say Hideo Kojima.