Engine scalability doesn’t necessarily mean that your game will simply run on less capable hardware out of the box.
It just means you can target that lower spec hardware. The implementation and optimization of code and assets, is still up to you, and not many studios have the resources or the will to do this. In fact, difference in hardware might mean essentially designing two different games, even if running on the same engine.
What algorithmic innovation has occurred? I mean, devs have gotten a bit better at tapping that old hardware, but this knowledge is, in great part, only applicable to dealing with this particular hardware.
Much of the improvement in the way things look in modern console games, is lighting techniques and tight control over level design (one reason why we see so many “corridor” games). But things light deferred shading and lighting have been around for a while, it’s just it took current console hardware muscle to be able to do it in real time.
No idea; I’ve never bought a handheld. However, for those who have it, it’s a nice feature.
When are they going to show us the freaking machine? I’m curious about how it looks. they must have it ready to show, or at least an empty case of it so we can see what it looks like.
Ugh, they’re going to have easy features for recording game footage and posting it online. That’s going to flood youtube with a ton of low quality footage that’s going to make it difficult to find well made stuff.
It’s already a glut of terrible content. If this changes the amount of crappy camcorder/smartphone recorded content to a bunch of console-captured content, I call that a win.
I may not be searching for the same stuff, but I see almost no camera captures of video game footage. TV and such, yeah.
People that have to buy a hardware capture card or use something like fraps to upload footage typically put a lot more care into selecting what’s worth posting and taking care to edit it and all that. Games which allow automatic uploading to youtube tend to get a whole lot of crap shoveled up onto them because it becomes easy for people just to hit “share” on everything.
The game they’re demoing now seems to have a lot of draw distance and objects in the background, lots of stuff on the horizon, lots of world detail. Good to see.
Keep in mind that whatever they are having isn’t necessarily what the end product will be like. These are essentially tech demos. But the killzone game looked good. Let’s hope things actually turn out to be like that.
An interesting focus on how many people are talking about how they’re finally able to create teh games they’ve always wanted to make. How technical limitations have held back creativity and options, blah blah.
I’m told on good authority that improved technology only adds glitz, so I think someone should rush the stage Kanye West style and interrupt these guys.