Cheebee said: Why don't they just stick over 9000 PS3s together?

 They almost did with warhawk server :

on talented programmers:

let me just say that, my general impression is that top-notch programmers and computer scientists go to companies that pay better than the game programmer. as far as i know, google, microsoft, facebook etc pay much better than any game companies out there.

interest is another thing. i'm not a computer scientist by training, but if i were to choose, there is absolutely no way i would pick something as monotonous and hair-pullingly boring as low-level optimization, even if it pays 20-30% more. all my formally trained computer science friends echo my sentiment.

@Profcrab:

please stop scoring your posts. it was cute for a couple of posts, but now it's just flat-out annoying. in another 5 posts it will become creepy.

Hmm I was curious, does anyone know much about CUDA? I don't have time to work it out, but I think thats where the biggest competition to the Cell is going to come from. It seems Nvidia and IBM have similar goals but vastly different architectures.

A modern RV770 chip does what, 1-1.2Teraflop FP single precision, probably 100gflop+ double vs a PS3 cell that does 250ish single precision... The question, can the Cell architecture in a cluster compete with future GPU designs as they become more general purpose?

@prof: so your rating range is between 9.0 and 10.0? Are you a professional game reviewer over at IGN?

@ alpha_dk

I agree with your ahead of its time perspective, but IMO releasing a product like this years later would have mainly pushed the problems forward into the future. I think it was best to have this technology in mass production as soon as possible, so developers are pushed towards adaptation (game engines and middleware development) and the chip can be cost reduced quicker.

Having a Cell based popular games console will IMO do wonders for this technology. It was expected scientists and smaller university projects would be first to tap into the potential, because they can focuss at specific uses and game engines are far more diverse.

Legacy game engine will have to be adapted step by step and new games engines designed from scratch will take a few years of development. People will have to realize that many legacy game engines have been under development for many years as well. Rome just isn't built in a day. So time and effort is required.

Nevertheless some of the most impressive console games are already on the PS3. Having the Cell in a Playstation console ensures a long term gaming and multi-media future for Cell technology, a stable platform to optimise code for the long run. The potential gains are just so large, I think it will push developers towards technology competition, no developing company will want to be left behind and viewed as incompetent.

What PS3 developers aren't using current gen engines at this point for their games?

Squilliam said: What PS3 developers aren't using current gen engines at this point for their games?

I think there's no clear answer to your question. How would you define a current-gen PS3 engine?

PS3 game engines will evolve a lot this generation. The Resistance 2 game engine does nearly everything on the SPEs so in this regard they may be ahead of Killzone 2, which a at least a while ago still overloaded the PPE. But there are many other factors as well, Killzone 2 implements some novel interesting rendering approaches for example, etc.

Some additional comments on CNN:

" Some elements of the Roadrunner can be traced back to popular video games, said David Turek, vice president of IBM's supercomputing programs. In some ways, he said, it's "a very souped-up Sony PlayStation 3."

"We took the basic chip design (of a PlayStation) and advanced its capability," said Turek."

Government unveils world's fastest computer

MikeB said: Squilliam said: What PS3 developers aren't using current gen engines at this point for their games? I think there's no clear answer to your question. How would you define a current-gen PS3 engine? PS3 game engines will evolve a lot this generation. The Resistance 2 game engine does nearly everything on the SPEs so in this regard they may be ahead of Killzone 2, which a at least a while ago still overloaded the PPE. But there are many other factors as well, Killzone 2 implements some novel interesting rendering approaches for example, etc.

 I would have to say that pretty much all Console developers are using an engine designed for consoles first and most PS3 engines are built from the ground up or have already been. The examples are - Uncharted - MGS4 - FFXIII - RFOM2 - KZ2 are probably the best ones.

Squilliam said: MikeB said: Squilliam said: What PS3 developers aren't using current gen engines at this point for their games? I think there's no clear answer to your question. How would you define a current-gen PS3 engine? PS3 game engines will evolve a lot this generation. The Resistance 2 game engine does nearly everything on the SPEs so in this regard they may be ahead of Killzone 2, which a at least a while ago still overloaded the PPE. But there are many other factors as well, Killzone 2 implements some novel interesting rendering approaches for example, etc. I would have to say that pretty much all Console developers are using an engine designed for consoles first and most PS3 engines are built from the ground up or have already been. The examples are - Uncharted - MGS4 - FFXIII - RFOM2 - KZ2 are probably the best ones.

You are wrong for example Resistance: Fall of Man is a PS3 modified version based on the PS2 Ratchet and Clank game engine, the Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction engine is a PS3 enhanced version of the Resistance: Fall of Man engine and so forth.

Building a new games engine up from scratch takes more time. Resistance 2's engine although it will be based on the Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction engine won't have much in common with the original PS2 game engine anymore. But if the game engine would have been built up from scratch for the PS3, there may have been some fundamental design considerations which would have resulted in a different game engine design approach.

Most current PS3 game engines are based on PS2/PSP, 360 and/or PC game engine technology.