Why to be excited and buy the new Generation Video Cards?

[Albuquerque]

I'm actually a little curious to see how much additional development overhead comes into play now that the X360 is a largely different beast than a PC. The original XBOX was essentially just a PC in a smaller case; you needed the additional development time mostly for making the game fit within the console's limited storage capacities (DVD, video ram, system ram) and tweaking the interface for the different controller methods.

But now it's a different processor architecture. The engine is gonna need a rewrite; maybe not completely, but enough to have to spend more time for sure. Along with all the other necessities, it seems like there's gonna be less "shitty ports" only because the devs are going to NEED to spend more time to get it working on both sides.

Maybe it's a good thing? Or maybe it will really still end up producing shitty ports?

 

[YeuEmMaiMai]

I'm actually a little curious to see how much additional development overhead comes into play now that the X360 is a largely different beast than a PC. The original XBOX was essentially just a PC in a smaller case; you needed the additional development time mostly for making the game fit within the console's limited storage capacities (DVD, video ram, system ram) and tweaking the interface for the different controller methods.

But now it's a different processor architecture. The engine is gonna need a rewrite; maybe not completely, but enough to have to spend more time for sure. Along with all the other necessities, it seems like there's gonna be less "shitty ports" only because the devs are going to NEED to spend more time to get it working on both sides.

Maybe it's a good thing? Or maybe it will really still end up producing shitty ports?

We'll still end up getting "crappy" ports since they will develop the game for the console first and then adapt it to some PC based engine like Doom3's engine

 

[Skrying]

We'll still end up getting "crappy" ports since they will develop the game for the console first and then adapt it to some PC based engine like Doom3's engine

Uhh no, they'll just change the code in their own engine. Like Carmack even said, the Xbox 360 is very easy to develop for, and I'm betting money Microsoft has made it really easy to port from the 360 to Windows. Also, Carmack said that starting development on the 360 was the easiest way to port to the PS3 and PC.

 

[Randell]

LOL You are crazy.

well I have to say you are if you think 1280x720 is worse than 1024x768!

Look there's room for both, both have very good points and weaknesses.

Overall you can always get better image quality in a high end PC pretty much before any top console game hits the market, but now consoles are getting to HD resolutions that be pretty moot.

I game on both, you'd be a fool to be blinkered to one format or another.

 

[YeuEmMaiMai]

Uhh no, they'll just change the code in their own engine. Like Carmack even said, the Xbox 360 is very easy to develop for, and I'm betting money Microsoft has made it really easy to port from the 360 to Windows. Also, Carmack said that starting development on the 360 was the easiest way to port to the PS3 and PC.

Have you forgotton some of the ports for the PC from the console like halo? that was a crappy PC port

How about Spiderman 2?

Or Nightfire?


You actually think that this won't happen in the future?

 

[Skrying]

Have you forgotton some of the ports for the PC from the console like halo? that was a crappy PC port

How about Spiderman 2?

Or Nightfire?


You actually think that this won't happen in the future?

Uhh, you totally misunderstood what I said. What I said is that you will not see some company developing a game with their own engine on the 360 then doing it over in a totally new engine on the PC, that's just to much of a resource taker. What you will see is the same leel of ports as done before, do I really care? Not really, I dont really care for any console games, they all seem so basic for the most part, polished but basic.

 

[Thelacky]

I mean, common - 600/500 bucks for a X1800XT/7800GTX while you have XBoX360 coming in the next month with a better Hardware and a cheaper price. I don't get it. You are too much anxious.

Only if every Xbox360 came with an SDK. Development tools, leads to connect it to the PC and good hardware/software programming manuals. A nice cheap but powerful platform to play with.

 

[Sandwich]

You gave no other reasoning, so what am I supposed to say?

What's funnier is, my quote you chose to put in your signature exactly makes that point. Good for you

Nice to see you got your new sig too.

So, Albuquerque, would you, or do you have a widescreen on your pc desk then? Because I prefer the 19" 4:3 I'm used to and I don't have a use for a larger monitor.

 

[Doomtrooper]

FYI: 720p is a lower rez than 1024x768. I don't think many here will play at lower rez than that.
1080i is even worse.

 

[Doomtrooper]

PC games>console games.
Also it only has 512MB shared between cpu and graphics card (textures not as good, but superior shader effects?) and I dont own high def tv, or even a SD progessive scan tv.
While the graphics card is quite good on the 360 an ps3, graphics alone don't make a game.

I disagree, and alot of console games are better than modern PC titles because that is all most PC titles are marketed as, a giant graphics demo. The Xbox360 has support for anything a PC gamer would want including seamless in game voice, seamless hosting and online gaming, very high resolution for HDTV, almost impossible for cheating which was a main reason why I retired from PC online gaming. As for textures not being as GOOD as a PC, I think your thinking of last generation.

FYI

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/07/01/pgr3_screenshots

 

[Geo]

Can you edit posts on this forum?

When you get to 10 posts in the technical forums (i.e. General Discussion, RP&SC, and Site Feedback don't count for this purpose), 10 days registered, and good behavior (i.e. no net negative reputation given you in that time from Senior Members or Regulars --these folks can usually be recognized by their title which will identify them as such or be a custom one like my "Mostly Harmless"), you become a Junior Member when the board runs its daily maintenance, we throw you a bar mitzvah, and Edit and PM works. Welcome to our slice of viddy card geek heaven.

Damnit, this time I am putting that in a text file and will never, ever type it again.

 

[ChrisRay]

One thing I can say right now. As far as PC games go. Consoles simply dont have the games I enjoy the most. Which should be obvious from my title. Its possible that MMORPGs will eventually saturate places like Xbox Live. But after seeing EQ online adventures for the PS2. I realise that we still have a very long way to go until consoles are caught up with PCs on the MMORPG front.

I do sometimes wish PCs got a few more traditional style RPGS that you see come out of Japan though.

 

[swaaye]

MMORPG people need to expand their horizons. If it's the only thing you play, you are missing out on an awful lot. Of course I have friends that only play MMORPGs. Don't understand it at all.

 

[ChrisRay]

Just because MMORPGs are my primary preference for gaming. Doesnt mean I dont play other games. Honestly would you choose a PC platform to play traditional japanese translated RPGS? No you wouldnt. But that doesnt mean they dont play first person shooters or MMORPGs. Right now PC is undisputed on the MMORPG front and thats where I do my primary gaming. And I dont see consoles closing that gap anytime soon.

 

[Skrying]

Actually I would. What game genre can you not play on a PC?

 

[ChrisRay]

There are RPGS for the PC. But they are not traditional storybook driven turn based RPGS that come from Japan. You cant tell me the PC RPG market can even touch the likes of the PS2 in this market. There are just too many dedicated RPG developers for consoles. Such as Square-Enix and Ubisoft.

 

[Skrying]

I didnt say their was a market for it, I just said I would play them on my PC.

 

[ChrisRay]

If they existed they would you mean. I was simply saying that buying a PC for standard RPGs is a bad idea. Just as buying a console for MMORPGs is a bad idea.

 

[Neeyik]

Move to the GD due to the wandering (but still pleasant) nature of the topics being discussed.

 

[soylent]

I disagree, and alot of console games are better than modern PC titles because that is all most PC titles are marketed as, a giant graphics demo. The Xbox360 has support for anything a PC gamer would want including seamless in game voice, seamless hosting and online gaming, very high resolution for HDTV, almost impossible for cheating which was a main reason why I retired from PC online gaming. As for textures not being as GOOD as a PC, I think your thinking of last generation.

FYI

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/07/01/pgr3_screenshots

Surely you don't think you can tell texture resolution from low res screenshots? Those have good lighting and a few neat shaders, yes, but texture resolution is not at all apparent. For all I know the brick wall textures can be anything from 128x128 to 2048x2048 and I still wouldn't be able to tell the difference from looking at a stamp-sized image.

That said I don't think texture resolution is everything. Good art work, shaders and lighting can easily make up for 10 times less memory over a brute force solution. Preferebly you'd want both though, good art work on a huge number of large textures and gloss maps, normal maps, parallax displacement maps, cube map reflections and and what not; but that will take an ever increasing amount of man power to achieve so I don't see that happening.