Digital Foundry - Dirt 5

[DonFerrari]

Ryuu96 said:

DonFerrari said:

"anonymous sources" have been used to spread a lot of FUD, much more than to tell the truth about what no one else wants to talk. And have been like that in other media as well. So I rather believe on several people with a face than rumors from anonymous source, if we were to believe that then PS5 is a 8Tf console that got a rushed overclock that made the console being finished only in August while melting/burning down on factories.

I saw your post, and unless I read that wrong is final version, not that the devs weren't already using the tools in preview (because that would put the devs that openly talked as liars, because they were directly answering instead of just dodging question). And from the way you phrased it didn't came straight from MS document, it came from a reliable insider (we had reliable insiders talking RE VIII was running only at 1080p on PS5 and some other stuff like that).

No developing tool is ever finished truly, they keep evolving and improving. Their DirectX 12 is already something that is building like in the PC, and considering PS4 even though Sony doesn't develop for PC had a very easy time porting back and forth between the two. So I doubt GDK is so alien stuff.

Next-gen only titles will come by 2022 probably, so does GDK cover the crossgen efforts or their will have to develop in GDK plus another version for the older gen?

Just to remember UE5 hadn't even be formelly announced, and on the day it was announced MS was very fast to ensure Ninja Theory was already using it.

Lets try it this way, lets think of the GDK prior to June 2020 as the 'Alpha', so the June 2020 version would be the 'Beta' but as stated in the article, the finished version won't be complete until after the launch of consoles, so lets call that 1.0.

You're correct that they'll be updates to tools even after release, lets call them Ver 1.1, 1.2, etc. but the current version is not the complete version, it isn't the version they have targeted for in spec sheets, it is un-optimised, missing key features, buggy, etc. and was rushed to release.

The document itself is from leaked official Microsoft documents, which also leaked stuff about Lockhart, Thurrot is a very respected and very reliable site when it comes to Microsoft, there's not much reason to doubt them but I'm pretty sure that it wasn't just Thurrot who leaked this stuff either.

This new GDK does cover cross-gen efforts.

Essentially, the Xbox development environment used to be XDK, they dumped that for Series X/S and made a new GDK, this ones main purpose is to make development across multiple devices easier, as stated in the spec sheet it covers PC, Xbox One, Series X/S and xCloud.

Gears 5 was posted above but if Gears 5 is anything like Halo MCC (I can't check right now) but if you check file info you can see that some games are still running the XDK, Halo MCC even with Series X/S enhancements is running the XDK and not the new GDK.

It wasn't until June 2020 when developers could have their games approved for certification/publication, the June 2020 GDK is the baseline for developing next gen titles, it came in pretty hot, coupled with the situation we're in with the pandemic and everything and rushed launches it is no surprised developers are missing things and/or not used to the SDK yet.

Not sure what your point is with Unreal Engine 5...That will go through a similar process, it's likely that developers are using an early access version of Unreal Engine 5 right now or will eventually, with the final version launching in late 2021.

My point with Unreal Engine 5 is that devs had access to them almost 18 months prior to official launch, some even prior to formal reveal. That is why even if the devs don't have the final version of GDK they still received alpha version of it and targets long ago (just look at interview). Also not sure, but if the GDK was in a poor state wouldn't it be more likely that third party devs would use the XDK tool that they were already used to? If it was useable by Gears 5 it also should be useable to 3rd party I guess.

Next gen is always interesting because we have so much question marks waiting to be answered. And if the interview saying the tool despise hot was not behind PS5 isn't factual and he just wanted to expose himself against MS, we now have two questions, when will  the first games with the full and satisfactorely matured GDK will release and how close will be multiplat performance when they do, will the PS5 mature more? So let's say from 6 months in the future, will we still have PS5 ahead by 12-25% in performance, virtual tie or will we get something closer to what specs suggest 15-20% in favor of Xbox or what Colt Eastwod said about VRS and ML putting a 40-50% advantage become true? I have no idea. All I can say is that most of us are quite surprised with what launch games presented and contradicted all we expected, also show that using TFlop without knowing the details of the architecture can backfire.