Mirrors Edge : PS3 Cell lets DICE push texture res "much higher"

[MikeB]

@ Deneidez

Well, you can load stuff real fast from mass storage(as procedural stuff takes much less space), but memory bandwidth and lack of memory just makes it unusable with large amount of data real time.

The memory bandwidth situation within the PS3 is very good, actually much better than on the 360 for stuff like this. Just like 7.1 quality audio is well suited for streaming, texture data is very suitable for this as well.

Procedural approaches can actually provide memory usage advantages.

Potential advantages include reuse & modify content, placement of texture taking into account shape, better 3D Mapping, resolution independent, visually accurate shading, less storage, less texture memory requirements and bandwidth advantages.

Potential disadvantages include aliasing issues, speed and most importantly difficulty.

I am not saying procedural methods are to the end be all with regard to games development, just that the PS3 is much more powerful for procedural synthesis than the 360 can be.