One other thing, most consoles hav a rouhgly 2 year development cycle (3 years sometimes) so the finished product is almost alwasy 2 years (rouhgly) behind hte current get PC tech. Consoles use the same (ok its loosely correct) video chips PC use, they just use ones that are 2 years older. The 360's graphics are roughly the same as a 1900XT or a HD2900 (they where designed by ATI) whiel the 1900 are long gone, the HD2900 are on sale for about $30 all the time (we used um in work machines about 3 years ago). The PS3 is basicly a 7900(nvidea made the Sony stuff) but the Cell processer can also do shadeing . the 1900 and 7900 where both about the same speed (on PC's) so basicly the graphics of both systems are the same. the 360 suffer when the Edram is used (shared) and shows it on high res graphics the Frame buffer will always be the 360 "flaw". the PS3 had to use the CPU to do alot of the tricks to keep up with PURE video hardware and anytime you add an extra CPU to the mix, there is delay, no matteer how small its there. Where htey shine is the stuff is devoloped strictly for those platforms, those limitations.
But consoles are the PLATFORM kings now, the developers developp for them. And they are all useing tech that is almost 7 years old now...that is the single reason they are holding PC back. Pc's have always operated on Raw power, Console games are developed around platforms (you can have 10 enemies on screen, but not 20, you can have 200 128X128 hi res textures on screen at once, no more).. so games may overuse textures, or limit enemies. The Pc wouldnt have these limitations but if the game was devolped that way....
Crysis may just be the best example (and why the guy is talking). lets not even consider if crysis is a good game or not, that is not hte question. I think most will agree Crysis pushs the boundries on many things, graphics, physics (will it may not be the best physics engine, it sure can throw a tons of crap around). the game has many eneimes on screen at once, is never texture limited, if you can see it, you can climb it. You can destory most objects in the game. Its just basicly a game that pushes as many buttons as it can (again, good or bad game is not a consideration). They (not 3rd party) have been working on ports to consoles and have hit many roadblock and limitations. So do you make a "lesser" game that works on consoles, basicly say "not to much" so it works on consoles?
Sadly this is where we are heading, consoles make the money (just a fact). so when developing and somebody says "lets throw 10 building size bosses into this 10 block arena with flames circleing it" and the hardware guys say. "only if the poly count is 100 on each boss, the flames are 2d and the there is no light sources on any building, becuase that is all the console can do" And the devolpment guys say" but we have it running smoothly on the PC (most dev kits are PC based with a dongle to input beta code to the console to test with)... the Hardware guys just smile and say "this isnt no PC".. so we end up with 2 boss mobs in a football sized arena with 4 spotlights... Who is to say it isnt just as fun... nobody knows.. More isnt always better.. but if we never try more, we will never know.
The one spot I find it amazing is how "dumbed" down console games are. I am an idiot and own several games on the PC and console. Almost every one is easier on the harder settings on a console than the easy settings on the PC. Not all, but most. I used to put that down to the controls (Most of this is based on FPS games) but I know several guys who are so good with gamepads I cant even grasp the fine motor control it takes... that cant be it..at least anymore...
One other thing, most consoles hav a rouhgly 2 year development cycle (3 years sometimes) so the finished product is almost alwasy 2 years (rouhgly) behind hte current get PC tech. Consoles use the same (ok its loosely correct) video chips PC use, they just use ones that are 2 years older. The 360's graphics are roughly the same as a 1900XT or a HD2900 (they where designed by ATI) whiel the 1900 are long gone, the HD2900 are on sale for about $30 all the time (we used um in work machines about 3 years ago). The PS3 is basicly a 7900(nvidea made the Sony stuff) but the Cell processer can also do shadeing . the 1900 and 7900 where both about the same speed (on PC's) so basicly the graphics of both systems are the same. the 360 suffer when the Edram is used (shared) and shows it on high res graphics the Frame buffer will always be the 360 "flaw". the PS3 had to use the CPU to do alot of the tricks to keep up with PURE video hardware and anytime you add an extra CPU to the mix, there is delay, no matteer how small its there. Where htey shine is the stuff is devoloped strictly for those platforms, those limitations.
But consoles are the PLATFORM kings now, the developers developp for them. And they are all useing tech that is almost 7 years old now...that is the single reason they are holding PC back. Pc's have always operated on Raw power, Console games are developed around platforms (you can have 10 enemies on screen, but not 20, you can have 200 128X128 hi res textures on screen at once, no more).. so games may overuse textures, or limit enemies. The Pc wouldnt have these limitations but if the game was devolped that way....
Crysis may just be the best example (and why the guy is talking). lets not even consider if crysis is a good game or not, that is not hte question. I think most will agree Crysis pushs the boundries on many things, graphics, physics (will it may not be the best physics engine, it sure can throw a tons of crap around). the game has many eneimes on screen at once, is never texture limited, if you can see it, you can climb it. You can destory most objects in the game. Its just basicly a game that pushes as many buttons as it can (again, good or bad game is not a consideration). They (not 3rd party) have been working on ports to consoles and have hit many roadblock and limitations. So do you make a "lesser" game that works on consoles, basicly say "not to much" so it works on consoles?
Sadly this is where we are heading, consoles make the money (just a fact). so when developing and somebody says "lets throw 10 building size bosses into this 10 block arena with flames circleing it" and the hardware guys say. "only if the poly count is 100 on each boss, the flames are 2d and the there is no light sources on any building, becuase that is all the console can do" And the devolpment guys say" but we have it running smoothly on the PC (most dev kits are PC based with a dongle to input beta code to the console to test with)... the Hardware guys just smile and say "this isnt no PC".. so we end up with 2 boss mobs in a football sized arena with 4 spotlights... Who is to say it isnt just as fun... nobody knows.. More isnt always better.. but if we never try more, we will never know.
The one spot I find it amazing is how "dumbed" down console games are. I am an idiot and own several games on the PC and console. Almost every one is easier on the harder settings on a console than the easy settings on the PC. Not all, but most. I used to put that down to the controls (Most of this is based on FPS games) but I know several guys who are so good with gamepads I cant even grasp the fine motor control it takes... that cant be it..at least anymore...