no matter what people say...
games > features/gimmics
no matter what people say...
games > features/gimmics
Landguy said: Aren't they both basically using x86? |
That's incorrect ...
The Xbox 360's CPU is based off of one of the Power architecture family.
The funniest thing here is people are so quick here as to point out the culprit being both of the consoles CPU being x86 as an excuse to not expect a lot of improvements overtime when people here should really be focusing on both of the console's GPU and it's ISA to really see the difference. After all, why pay attention to a component that does less than 10% of a game's workload ?
The GPU's in both consoles offer sooo many more things compared to last generation that it's not even funny. You get programmable vertex pulling which takes GPU independent rendering to the next level so that in turn dramatically reduces CPU dependence on rendering, more fixed function operations being handled in shaders which gives developers more freedom in how they program shaders, tessellation units, cache coherence for L2 cache, and they're even capable of doing a true function call too!
Hiku said: I lived through the transition as well, but it passed me by fairly unnoticed as the only person I knew who had a Laser Disc player was my friend's sister's boyfriend. And I can't even recall what we watched on it. |
Ah, I had moved to Canada before trying 480p mode on ps2. 480i to 480p made a big difference on my HD ready CRT tv.
PAL had the superior DVDs with 576 lines of resolution compared to 440 lines for PAL laserdiscs. I was still living in The Netherlands at the time yet PAL DVDs weren't available yet. So I was comparing the early imported 480p dvds to 440 line PAL Laserdiscs. I don't recall any real stand out DVD moments, just that it gradually improved. The early dvd rentals in The Netherlands were piss poor, burned straight from VHS masters with the Dutch subtitles burned on the picture...
HD-DVD instantly impressed me on the 34" HD ready CRT. Titles like fear and loathing in Las Vegas were like night and day, especially in the color department. Blu-ray has since steadily improved on that.
The first time I was really impressed with a so called HD game was when Gears of War came out. The first game I played on my 52" 1080p tv. It was with 1080p over component cables which that tv luckily supported. I was a more avid PC gamer at that time though. Oblivion on my 1280x1024 LCD monitor blew the xbox 360 version out of the water in 2006. It took that tv upgrade and Gears to show me what the xbox 360 could do.
deskpro2k3 said: no matter what people say... games > features/gimmics |
Agreed, I just also appreciate new ways to play my games. Streamlining the experience to where I don't have to keep pausing the game to manage equipment and items or change loadouts by allowing me to manage these things on the fly with the gamepad is definitely where the future of video games will be. The only problem for systems outside of the Wii U is while Xbone and PS4 may have different ways that CAN use this functionality, it's something that will rarely if ever be used due to taking more development time to get these functions to work and work well. It's easy to create a console that is powerful, but finding a way to change the way we play games for the better is seemingly impossible, which is why the dual shock and Xbox controller is practically the same after 4 gens. If people can't see the value of the gamepad that's fine, most haven't really experienced it yet. But they will, it's the next step in gaming like Nintendo mainstreamed motion controls.
Tachikoma said: What we have here is a poor understanding of how power translates to visuals, and how large differences to visuals in motion can look like minor differences in static screenshots, there are large differences in both power and capability, the changes go way beyond "just slightly higher resolution" and if people want to persist with claiming this bs, then they're going to get their asses schooled. |
I guess my ass could use a little schooling. If it's not too much to ask, can you help me appreciate the leap?
d21lewis said: I guess my ass could use a little schooling. If it's not too much to ask, can you help me appreciate the leap? |
But of course my boy.
First we need to address the primary issue - When comparing the new generation to last generation, people automatically do so with the newest games of last generation, these games have benefitted from nearly a decades worth of development experience, SDK updates and shared development community expertise and workarounds, to get the clear picture of the technological leap, you have to strip back the consoles to their launch offerings, in which case the best we can do here is with comparing Resistance : Fall of man to Shadowfall, people tend to romantisize the past and remember thinkings looking better than they actually were, as is the case with retro games and people fast discovering that they looked a lot worse than they remember.
The best way to see this shift in development is to compare a launch title on PS3 with a much later game such as beyond two souls or the last of us.
Beyond the obvious differences in texture quality, mesh complexity, bump mapping and shadows have all taken a considerable step in improving, the biggest difference however is the ability to use multi layer textures, shaders and subsurface level shaders to produce multiple material lighting and coloring effects, but these effects show very little in static screenshots as shown above, the real meat of the meal comes from the game in motion.
Compare the lighting/shader effects used in Resistance: Fall of man here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n79Efwn22w0 (select 720p), noting that the gun is primarilly flat textures with poor active lighting and a rough lightmap.
With the lighting/shader effects used on the gun in KZ:SF here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTrFMof-bDo The lightmap is significantly better and not only in resolution but in refracting colors from the environment, as well as the colored light from the weapons fire itself.
These same reflective and refractive properties are echos throughout the games texture collection, adjusted for each material type, a common occurance for games on all three of the newer systems.
It isn't that these features were impossible on the last gen systems, because they were, it just required so much power from the paultry hardware that it was rarely used properly and often faked using other effects for a less than satisfactory result.
So what we end up with is:
Tachikoma said: |
Great write up. I kinda compare this gens transition from pre-baked to realistic lighting, to going from pre-rendered backdrops to full 3D environments. At the start it won't always look better than the best made pre-baked light maps. Yet once you see secondary illumination in action and light having different effects on different materials, last gen starts to look pretty outdated. The last of us still looks very good in 1080p, but it falls short in the lighting department which is firmly stuck in 7th gen.
I think it's the same story with PC vs 360/PS3 as last gen, plus this gen is a lot cheaper. PS3 was starting at $500, and the X360 was also the same when you added HDD, wifi, etc. The PS4 was $400 out the gate and the performance is well suited for 1080p, so I don't agree with complaints about power. Would you rather it was more powerful but $500 and consume more Watts? That's not what most people want. There are PC rigs for those who do.
The visual improvement is there, but it's notably smaller than prior generational gaps. Take Killzone; 2 & 3 look closer to Shadowfall than to the original.
Gen is early but all signs point to yes, much weaker hardware improvement compared to past generations. Which, if it means no more 8-9 year generations, is fine by me.
Graphics are great but what I am more excited about with new consoles are the new gameplay possibilities. I got my Xbone early this year and my first game was Dead Rising 3. It is not a beautiful looking game but could something of that size and scope with that amount of on screen action happened on last gen consoles? Nope.