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archbrix on 12 December 2012
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zarx said:
archbrix said:

The problem is that the guy contradicts himself. He also said, "CryEngine tech is way beyond next-gen consoles already". And when you take into account this paragraph:

"Yerli's comments suggest that he and his team know all about the capabilities of Microsoft and Sony's next-generation systems. But what exactly is he prepared to let on? Well, for starters, he thinks that the current high cost of memory and processors means that it's "impossible" for next-gen consoles to make an impact similar to that of the previous generation, and as a result, "the focus of next-gen" is not on graphical horsepower..."

... it sounds more like the next-gen consoles will fall a bit short of what some people are expecting.


I think it's more likely he means what he said next gen will not use tech that is beyond what is available for PCs like last gen did. Things like the CELL, and the X360's Unified shader architecture were far more advanced than anything available in PC hardware, hell dual core CPUs were just launching, tho it was still possible to out muscle the consoles with a dual GPU setup even at the time especially when the PS3 launched. The comming gen will use what ammounts to off the shelf PC parts as the RD costs are way too high for them to dev a all new architecture like last gen. And naturally you won't put a GTX680 in a console, but I don't think anyone is honestly expecting that. For Crysis 3 they are pushing high end PC so of course there will be some aspects that are beyond what next gen consoles will do mostly in terms of resolution, but if it's anything like Crysis 2 those things will look like crap and be there more so they can say they have them than anything like the slap-dash tessellation they added to 2.

That does not mean that next gen won't be a lage leap over last gen, after all they are looking at a 7+ year gap in tech. And even midrange PC components today far outstrip current consoles. Even a Radeon HD 7750/7770 would be a huge jump over current gen and that is a mid range card, with a TDP of 80W or less so about the same as last gen launch if not a tad less.

Remove API/driver overhead, tight system intergration and add some platform specific optimisation, and Crysis 2 maxed out/BF3 near max 1080p 30fps could be what you see from launch titles, and of course 720p30fps for Star Wars 1313 etc.

And the once rumoured 1.8GFlop GPU (likely not true but lets say it is) would be a around a HD 7850 (~1.76GF) which doesn't seem to far a stretch for what is looking like 2014 consoles according to the delay rumours. No where near high end PC but still a large leap in power from current gen.

Oh, I have no doubt that the tech/numbers will show a next-gen increase over PS360, but my question is will we actually be able to see a leap that pronounced?  I mean, looking at some of the PC games coming up (Star Wars 1313, Watchdogs, Fortnite), while they do certainly look better than the current consoles, I don't personally see a leap as large as, say, the PS1 to the PS2.  Perhaps on a high end PC where they're running at native 1080p/60fps with full effects, but as you said, the next gen consoles won't be at that level.

I'm not trying to downplay the next-gen consoles for what they'll offer; I think they'll be great.  Heck, I think WiiU is great.  I just think that what Yerli says makes sense in that it's just not feasible to include the tech that would show a complete head-and-shoulders jump (for the enthusiasts and the masses alike).