There’s never been any doubt that the PC has always been at the forefront of gaming technology. But it comes in waves. There’s a reason why many companies didn’t touch the consoles until the most recent generation, the PC always too far ahead in terms of graphics and tech for their ambitions to be realised elsewhere. Although for quite a few years now it’s become an equal race. Not realistically – the PC has been artificially held back as a consequence of cross-platform development, its current capabilities barely realised by this generation of developers. As has been the case previously, there comes a point where developers start to see the possibilities away from the plastic boxes, and the PC once more has its day. It’s my opinion that that time is coming, and it feels rather validated by Crytek recently telling EDGE that the PC is a generation ahead of the consoles.

CVG reports the story, stating that Crytek’s boss, Cervat Yerli, believes that the focus on 360 and PS3 is “holding back game quality on PC.”

There’s a reason to listen to Yerli and Crytek. Their November 2007 game, Crysis, is still used as a benchmark for PC graphics. (That it’s three years old is perhaps strong evidence for Yerli’s statement, PC games not seeing any significant steps forward in a long time.) And Crysis 2 shall inevitably replace it, perhaps in competition with id’s idTech 5 engine.

Of course, Crytek are just as much a part of the cross-platform bonanza. While they’ve been exclusively PC in the past, Crysis 2 is being developed across all three platforms. But Yerli says to EDGE that the creative expression of the developer is “limited” by Sony and Microsoft. He said,

“PC is easily a generation ahead right now. With 360 and PS3, we believe the quality of the games beyond Crysis 2 and other CryEngine developments will be pretty much limited to what their creative expressions is, what the content is. You won’t be able to squeeze more juice from these rocks.”

However, he also identifies the issue that developers aren’t taking the PC seriously at the moment. He explains that sales expectations are set so low that they don’t consider the PC a “big issue”. Which of course is a self-fulfilling prophecy. He adds, “Until the PC market creates comparable revenues, companies are not going to spend enough on the PC SKU of a game.”

Which means it’s perhaps time that the digital distribution services stopped being such massive idiots, and started publicising their sales figures. The secrecy around the subject is possibly causing the PC immeasurable harm. And we know some of those numbers are very large. Otherwise Valve wouldn’t be working in that floating platinum castle, paying their employees in diamonds.

Crysis alone sold over one million copies on PC in four months. The myth that the PC sku doesn’t sell needs to be overcome.

Like Yerli says, one more year and the consoles will be looking especially primitive. PC versions of games are already outshining the console equivalents when the developers make the effort. When a Crytek or an id or an Epic is looking at building their next major engine, they’re going to have to rely on the PC to go anywhere new. Clearly Microsoft and Sony are already working very hard on their next-next generation console, and that gap will likely be smaller than ever. But I really think a time is coming for the PC to get its nose out ahead once more.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/11/25/crytek-say-the-pc-is-a-generation-ahead/

also crytech announced a new game

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/11/25/war-in-your-face-its-cryteks-warface/

Talking of Crytek, they’ve just announced a new game. It’s looking to be aimed at Asian markets, a multiplayer shooter with the eminently shoutable name, Warface. And that’s about all we know just now. It’s in the CryEngine 3, as you might imagine, and if my Chinese is up to scratch, it’s emphasising “positive versus” gaming. I’ve no idea what that means, but I imagine it’s some sort of tactical co-op. The Taiwanese site, GNN, that has the info is here. We picked up on this story from VG247. You can see the two new screenshots in full size by clicking below.

WARFACE!

The technical prowess was never an issue. Its the budget to make the models and shaders and artwork which actually puts some strain on a modern PC in a realistic fashion.

It's definitely a time and reasources issue on PC.

You don't have to throw a stone far to hit plenty of low resource games on PC that wouldn't be approved on a console, even in PSN or XBLA format.

But he does have a point in that developers have to take the time and effort out of their R&D budget to optimize their games to run on the limited resources of consoles.

If you are a PC developer, it's a liability compared to developers who specialize on console platforms.

Then again, he's conveniently overlooking the vast majority of PCs in circulation that are similarly running with limited resources, completely incapable of playing even moderate resource games at acceptable performance levels unlike your $299 console.

I'm guessing it's just assumed that if you want to game on a PC, you either buy a new one at regular intervals (more regular than the typical console) or you upgrade your VGA card with a game specific card every 2-3 years.

Is it possible that next gen consoles could support tesselation, or is it too soon ?

well this is without any research. From what I have

The Current Gen Nvidia Cards have tesselation in them. Cause my 460gtx does.

When the PS3 was released I believe the 8800gtx series from nvidia was released for PC and what's in the the ps3 is a modified 7800gtx (I believe)

So yes. in my uneducated opinion. Since current cards have tesselation when they get released in a few years it will have it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I obv didn't research this. beyond what I do for my PC.

edit listen to dudie below me.

The 360 already uses tesselation in a decent number of games. Viva Pinata and Forza being among them.

Originally tessellation was going to be part of the DX10 spec, and since MS was working closely with ATI on the 360, ATI helped them write up DX10 as well (the same thing happened with xbox 1, nvidia and dx 8). Since tessellation looked to be part of it, ATI spent a fair amount of time designing a tessellation engine for the xenos, and it was something that every card from the 2000 series on had as well. The problem was nvidia wasn't let in on the dx10 feature set until fairly late in the game, and when they got wind of things like tessellation, they threw a shit fit. After enough whining MS backed down, the dx10 spec was revised and we ended up with the rather paltry dx10 we all know today. Only recently with dx11 has ATI finally been  able to take advantage of all that R&D they did 5 years ago on hardware tessellation.

Tell me something I didn't know already :P but being honest, even my rig is still only about 15 times stronger than a PS3 or an X360 (and some 200 times stronger than a Wii). To be a full generation ahead I need about 20 times I guess.

And then few months later nvidia released Fermi line of cards which stomp ATI into ground in every tessalation heavy game and benchmark ironic isn't ;)

And Crytek guys are quite generous in their statement i'd say more like 3 generations ahead

First was when 2900xt and 8800gt moved gaming from 1280x1024 and 1024x768 resolutions into first entry into full hd at framerates comparable to console 720p.

Second was when GTX280 and radeon 4870 released moving us from full hd @30 fps into full hd with plent of AA and framerates soaring into 60 fps

Third is 5870 and GTX 480 release where our gpus are getting bored with only full hd and every single detail maxed in game and stuff like triple monitor 5760x1080 became playable with Eyefinity.

The funny thing is Fermi doesn't have a hardware tesselator. Its essentially software running on the shader units, and thus the speed is dependent on how many shaders the card has.