"As far as game content, I will swear on the lives of my children that nothing was cut," said Willits in an early shoot-down of the rumor.

But what of the compression issue? During his QuakeCon speech in August, Carmack put pressure on Microsoft to drop its royalty fees for additional Xbox 360 discs in order to free up more space for the game's content, saying the title would look worse on the Xbox 360 due to compression. Now Willits says the whole thing was a classic misunderstanding.

"Microsoft is not being di*kheads," he said. "It was a simple kind of miscommunication. Microsoft does not charge a royalty per disc, but there is a cost of goods that goes along with manufacturing. "

However, Willits noted that the cost of manufacturing a third disc was not behind the decision to spread the game across two discs. Instead, the game's story structure was the decisive factor. The narrative Willits produced split well into two acts, and the company wasn't planning for enough content to justify a third.

"I had the story all written out, and we decided to make it into two acts, with a logical place in the middle where players will remove one disc and stick the other disc in, and they never have to load that other disc up," elaborated Willits. "The story is constructed in such a way that I would be very sad if we had to make it fit into three discs, because where would you switch the disc if it's three and you had a two-act story?"

And what of the comments by Carmack that the game will look worse on the Xbox 360 due to compression and space limitations?

"Yes, I mean, technically that is correct, but realistically and practically they look the same," explained Willits. "The confusion over three discs was just a simple mixup here at id, not a disagreement.. John is so black and white. John is so technically correct. You know how John is."

Willits went on to explain that the engine's "reachability calculation" will determine whether the game needs to load resources based on the character's location. When pressed, he admitted that some differences will be noticeable: "If you know what you're looking for, you will notice it, yes."

However, the designer was adamant that the average user will not notice the compression, and that in the end, the whole confusion amounts to a very minor graphics compromise for the sake of a convenient place to split the story.

"Practically, it's not really gonna make a big difference. We're trying to make it look awesome on all the platforms," he said, while adding that Rage "would require a lot of design rework to turn it into a three-disc game."

"We haven't solved all the compression issues yet. We're close to it. The PS3 streams things slower than the 360, so by the time we ship, there may be the case where getting things off the disk faster may ultimately look better. Until we are really done, and until we can get a reporter to come to id for a 'first look,' it's really difficult to predict, because DVD streaming may play a factor."

"The wasteland is big, and then you'll drive up to something like an old bunker, and then you'll get out of your vehicle and you'll enter that bunker," added Willits. "And that will actually load the level, and it will be like a Doom 3 level--not like Doom 3 technology, but a first person, classic id style level. Then you complete your mission, and you'll come back into the wasteland. and drive back to your settlement, or you'll drive to another level, or you'll drive around and blow up bandits."

http://www.shacknews.com/fe...

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LOLOLOL --> @ Half-Mafia

EARLY Rage footage looks on Par with Killzone 2's first TWO GAME Cinematics... but better already than any IN-GAME Killzone 2 gameplay graphics.

So much for the talk that the Xbox 360 has been --> MAXED OUT <-- Heheh.

And Doom 4 is stated to have 3Xs more processing available to it - meaning it'll have even MORE graphical detail - because Rage is targeted for 60 frames per second vs the 30 frames per second target for Doom 4... even though both games will use the same game engine.

All-3 you fail because for all you know (and most likely) we have only seen media from the PC version.

Enjoy swapping those disks..

This whole real time texture streaming looks very interesting. This could put an end to blury images on games (or at least most of them)

Add to that stellar lighting and particle effects and it will knock off any console game to date.

READ...

While the fact that id Software is working on an entirely new franchise is exciting, the big news, Hollenshead said, is the engine the game is running on an engine that can allow a developer to create games for the Mac, the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 simultaneously by using identical media for all four platforms.

"Rage looks the same on all four platforms. It's all the same media, it's the same art, literally" he said. "It's damn hard to do that, but if you're a genius you'll figure out how to do it and that's what (Carmack) has done."

And read this --> http://www.beyond3d.com/con...

The Golem.de reporters were able to SEE the game running on --> ALL FOUR PLATFORMS <-- the game will ship in (from the left: Mac, PC, PS3 and XBOX 360) and --> AND THEY WERE ALL <-- purportedly running at 60 frames per second at 720p resolution. In that photograph it's visible that the PC also has a XBOX 360 controller plugged-in.

And read this --> http://uk.videogames.games....

Carmack showed us the game running on ALL FOUR PLATFORMS simultaneously, and said that --> EACH VERSION <-- of the game is essentially --> IDENTICAL.

The id Tech 5 engine is "platform agnostic" and no platform will have an advantage or disadvantage. He did note that id is developing Rage to be a T-rated game, a departure from the company's dark and Mature-rated titles. "We did make the decision that, 'Yeah, the game would probably be a little bit more fun with exploding bodies, but it won't kill us to keep it down at a T rating,'" he said.

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As for swapping discs... it's NO big deal for me. The game has been designed to be swapped when the second half of the story begins... BESIDES --> I have a PS3 as well as an Xbox 360. Duhh!

id Software is looking for a publisher for Doom 4 --> so maybe one of the console developers will step forward with the $$$$$$$$

If Sony or Microsoft does... then it'll be exclusive to a particular console, won't it?

Read what I did say.. and THINK-ABOUT-IT.

I wasn't trying to be serious, silly... d ' ohhh!