Raven Tesio
Liandri Hel-Jumpers
Liandri Covenant
39
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Posted - 2013.04.17 16:06:00 -
[1] - Quote
The limitations for this isn't actually the Technology (i.e. PlayStation 3 Hardware) although working around the quite meagre limitations of memory can often be maddening ... but actually the problem lies more with CCP, as honestly I don't believe they have the technical understanding, talent and well experience to pull it off.
Seriously this isn't even a knock on CCP here, but trying to achieve Open Worlds on the PlayStation 3 itself is difficult even for seasoned developers, such-as Bethesda and Obsidian. To achieve it is also one thing, to get it working in a practical and STABLE way is well another.
What many developers tend to forget when developing for a Console is unlike the PC where having more robust rather than optimised code often is a much better route to go down. This is almost the entirely opposite from the Consoles, as you want to streamline what you put on them specifically to that hardware.
It is actually that optimisation to take advantage of the more specialised hardware design (which the PS3 honestly tried to copy a Desktop PC without having the same Memory Architecture to handle it) ... bit like how the Ford Focus RS is designed to give a sense of a sports car, but isn't overly amazing on a track. You specialise the car for that track, without really swapping out to "better parts" simply tweak the specs for that given track and reduce the weight by taking stuff out of it not needed.
From the outside they'll look identical but performance wise they are simply worlds apart.
Really that is how Developers often should be looking at their Development Cycles.
First you make the code robust, then you optimise and cut what isn't needed to make it run.
Seriously almost every console game is like one big magic trick crossed with a Hollywood practical effect to achieve the illusion of something awesome, that really shouldn't be possible on the hardware.
One of the best examples I can think of recently has been Halo 4 ... it looks absolutely amazing, seriously anyone who doesn't think so frankly is either actually blind or blinded by fanboyism for another platform. Yet the way the visuals were achieved in that game were for the most part through smoke and mirrors.
There are scenes that should the camera move more than a few degrees, the illusion is instantly broken.
In-fact there are some ViDocs on HaloWaypoint.com where some of the artists actually cover a few of the tricks they used to achieve the unbelievable fidelity in the game.
Uncharted 3 is the same way, there are so many slight-of-hand tricks used to maintain the performance but also are there to make sure the scene isn't calling too much data that can't stay in memory. There are whitepapers from Naughty Dog about some of the incredible stuff they did, just to get the world seem as alive and atmospheric as they did.
As I said with the Windows PC, most of the time these are things you really don't need to think about much of this; perhaps just making the code run a little smoother but no visual trickery that Console games REQUIRE to show similar performance you expect.
Right now, I don't think CCP has the experience to effectively pull of DUST 514 properly with the more condensed vision they currently have; they're still not thinking like a Console development team, they also seem quite unfamiliar still with the Unreal Development Kit. Something I will admit is that UDK (Unreal Engine 3) is well a bit of a ***** to optimise until you learn some tricks with what it is doing. This is actually especially true of Memory optimisation as well, it has a habit of automatically trying to optimise everything to fit into available Memory, so more often than not you HAVE to sort out custom solutions to maintain the illusion that at least everything in a close view of the player is updating when it should to provide high fidelity close with low-fidelity and "spare resources" are spent on long-range stuff, hell even anything medium range.
So yeah I wouldn't push CCP to start working on something that right now they lack the skills, and understanding to really pull off properly. |