Correct, they are not only used for textures but re-mapping of surface normals of the high detail model. Ultra high poly models are used as sources for normal mapping, and displacement mapping. Artist may may create up to billion polygon models, but also make a low poly version of it. There are automated processes to apply the details of the ultra-high poly versions, creating normal maps /displacement maps for the low poly versions.
4658d ago 0 agree0 disagreeView comment
It's a very valid question, but the possibility that 1.5 times the power providing double the frame rate is not entirely baseless. You may have cases where you get 55+ fps all the time on PS4 and it would be OK to go without Vsync, and cases where you have ~40 frames with XBone where the developer would have to vsync down to 30. (40*1.5 = 60). Very rough explanation but just a basic example of how 1,5 times raw power can mean double the amount of frames.
I'm not sure if multiplats will use GPU compute, or how XBone's architecture handles it, but we clearly know PS4 is designed to do compute concurrently to graphics tasks, that means if devs choose to do so, they'll have all those extra compute units laying around to do more stuff with higher precision.
Half times more performance suddenly won't let PS4 do stuff Xbox One cannot (the games will not look 1.5 times better, like you imply, the relation is not linear), but it will allow better framerates, better anti-aliasing, more eye-candy compared to XBone, and it will be easier for devs to hit performance targets. Having very similar architectures, high level optimizations done to get things faster on XBone should most of the time also benefit the PS4.
BigFnHooters: I'm a PS person, and while PS's exclusives look spectacular, you cannot use the word "crush" to compare PS3 graphics to the Xbox360. Multiplats most of the time were more comfortable on the Xbox360 while looking very similar, not something that you'd expect if PS3 lead the performance department by a long shot. They have vastly different architectures that makes comparison of raw power not helpful.
PS4 vs XBone is a different story, with bo...
Let's not forget, that the GPU on PS4 will have more bandwidth, something which is needed to turn those theoretical power into practice. The fact that developers won't need to decide what data has to reside where, at any given time on the PS4, as opposed to the XBone's 32MB ESRAM vs the slower DDR3 ram, will also let devs use more of that theoretical power in an easier manner, on the PS4.
Vita can be used as cross controller AND second screen. As second screen, you'll be able to use your phone or tablets also, so that info is missing.
Any Kinect game is automatically an XBone exclusive, I have 0 interest in them. How many of those 15 exclusives, which I'm sure MS would like to count in the exclusives list, are Kinect games? The fact that Kinect is included default makes me think they won't really refrain MS from putting a lot of Kinect games on the system.
2 people have no idea about math.
With Activision making so much money, you would think they would have money to burn doing re-search for new engines, maybe just have a core technology group doing only research. Maybe they already have but it is under wraps, but usually we have developers like Crytek, DICE, Sony's ICE team, Guerilla Games etc. sharing valuable information with other devs, publishing papers about their work...
I guess their main goal is to milk their engine as long as possible, maximizing ...
Killzone SF supports Volumetric lighting on every type of light source, they sure won't be manually placing light-shafts!
Axonometri: Why would they waste resources accounting for "Volume caustics" before they account for the primary light rays that should be coming from where actually the sun is? This is clearly fake lighting (and even if it were physically viable, which I think is not, it doesn't make sense to waste your GPU cycles on.)
You'd better save up for The Last of Us and maybe Beyond Two Souls if you like Heavy Rain (it should be cheap, also make sure to check out Uncharteds!)
I'll agree with you if they can make those games run at 60fps on consoles (which I do hope, I'm a sucker for 60fps). If the competing games go with 30fps, we cannot know if they would look better at 60fps than Call of Duty, on consoles. After all, it is easier to do more stuff at 33ms compared to 16ms. John Carmack was mentioning how they could add 3x the detail at 30fps for the next installment of Doom compared to Rage at 60fps, not just 2x the detail.
4660d ago 0 agree1 disagreeView comment
I'm a r****d because some random good for nothing person calls me a r****d on the internet.
Take it easy, and be civil. I applaud their commitment to 60fps gaming, and I prefer temporal resolution over eye candy. It's a matter of preference.
You meant XBone.
Yes, I hope Sony is not in on this either. Remember the trash talk EA did on Nintendo, could it be partly because they did not give in to second hand offline pass fees?
I don't think MS can act alone in this, but there may be some sort of agreement between two major console producers, under pressure from publishers. If MS does this thing alone, it is madness, that's why I think they can't be so brave and Sony may have also bent under pressure (I sure hope not)
It's clarified that although the game will be locked to account, other accounts will be able to play the game if they share the box.
And there's little to stop Sony if they wanted an add-on (PlayTV for PS4), it could even be cheap if they can make use the PS4 encoder to do stuff (although USB 3.0's bandwidth is not sufficient for full HD uncompressed 1080p60fps video (1080i or 720p would work), so it would have to do its own compression for such cases.
Their TV integration and sports extravaganza could demoed within 15 minutes with every single talking point on the reveal. They could still have a good 45 minutes for games. This is 3 months AFTER Sony Reveal, where we had live demos of 2 exclusives (Knack played on VITA, Killzone SF) and Unreal Engine.
We even read how Guerilla was under pressure to get Killzone to work flawlessly for the reveal, even with stream upload to put an icing on the cake. Sony made sure we got the ...