Quote:
Originally Posted by Deano
I have a masters degree in computer science and created a 3D online game for my 4th year group but yeah whatever. Yes, physics engines and co-processors have advanced significantly in recent years and we're getting closer to realistic physics in games, but at the moment they only seem to be used for making people collapse more realistically when shot. Realistic physics is just being used to again, improve a game visually but not in terms of gameplay. Half Life is a good example of an exception to the rule, actually using the physics engine to explore new gaming ideas, but it's an exception. And yes, AI should improve in the next few years, but that's as much down to improvements in AI algorithms and the ideas behind emergent AIs than it is the increased processing power. Also remember you have to decide where to put all this new processing power, if you throw it into AI, the graphics/frame rate will suffer. And since all 360 and PS3 games have to support hi-def, the vast majority of it is going there, as everything has to be rendered in twice as much detail as before. The Wii will likely be able to pull off in standard def almost the equivalent of what the 360 and PS3 can do in HD, just not looking quite as nice.
100s of enemy ships in Warhawk - so what? You could have 100s of enemy ships in a PS1 game if you just made them out 2 triangular polygons each. It'd look poor but play identically. No, Gears of War couldn't be done on the Gameboy as it doesn't have any 3D rendering hardware. The shift to £D graphics 2 generations ago was a big one. It could be done on the PS1 though, again, using much more basic textures and low-poly models.
I already said, console add-ons do not work: Mega CD, 32X... there's a litany of failures out there. No-one would develop for the new controller as in doing so you limit your potential market to people that buy the add-on. Nintendo will get away with it as it's included in the console package, and hence they know for sure that all the Wii userbase will have one.
|
I find it strange that you claim to be a 3D programmer but seem to think that any CPU is capable of processing anything at a fast enough rate for a game... it just doesnt work like that im afraid. Ask yourself why did the orignal gameboy not have 3d rendering? that can be done any CPU according to you? no - obviously not - CPUs have a limit as to how fast they are, and how many operations they can perform at an acceptable speed, time frame based. Its not that hard to understand why a slow CPU could not compute the information of hundreds of warpships fast enough for a game, and a fast one could. And even if you could somehow coax the ps1's 33mhz cpu to do all the AI processing and vertex processing etc etc required to display and control hundreds of warships as "2 triangle polygons", what kind of experience would that be?
You should read some interviews with REAL game developers, for example this extract of an interview with Tim Sweeney of Epic games (Gears of War) where he explicitly states the CPU is the most important factor to them for crafting the gameplay.
AnandTech: What kind of performance improvement (rough estimate) do you expect from a dual core CPU compared to a single core CPU with the same core? (A few percents, a bit more than 10%, tens of percents?) In other words, will a gamer "feel" the difference between a dual core and single core or between a single and dual CPU system running an Unreal 3 engine based game?
Tim Sweeney: It's too early to talk numbers, but we certainly expect Unreal Engine 3 titles to see significant gains on multi-core platforms.
AnandTech: In the past years, games have typically depended more on GPU power than on CPU power (a mid-range CPU with a high end video card was/is faster than a high end CPU with a mid-range video card even at relatively low resolutions). Is the multithreaded nature of the Unreal 3 engine a sign that CPU performance is playing again a more important role in the gaming experience?
Tim Sweeney: Unreal Engine games have always been more CPU-intensive than the norm, for two reasons. First, we're always trying to push the leading edge with physics and other CPU-based features. Second, the Unreal Engine has a much more extensive gameplay scripting interface aimed at empowering mod authors and improving developer productivity by enabling safer and higher-level gameplay development. So we're not going to have any trouble keeping up with increases in CPU power.
Multi-core will be especially valuable because CPU performance scaling due to frequency improvements has tapered off over the past few years.
