But once you ramp up the detail (by increaseing the number of triangles, for example) the ray tracing model becomes more efficient. It is computationally expensive but if the power is available then it is a lot cheaper to use the power when you play rather then to spend hundreds of hours creating content and shadow maps and the like.
In other words, if the power is available then you change change how you approach creating a video game and there is a potential for a huge cos...
The biggest advantage that ray tracing has is that it automatically gives high quality results. Rasterization is more efficient on the transistor side for reasonable graphics but if you want to have near life-like graphics then you need a lot more triangles and ray tracing is a must (IMO). But the advantage of ray tracing is greater than that - it allows procedural generation or very high level creation of content with the ability to automatically make that content look great. Plus you get...
At $20 I don't mind buying a few movies but at $35 the value starts to trail off. I will stick with DVDs for kid movies and for myself - I do on-demand. On-demand isn't as good as bluray but it is good enough and the price difference 5 vs 35 makes it a no brainer. Some people say - yeah but then I get to watch it again for free. But the reality is that you have to watch it at least 8 times (if not more) to make the cost worthwhile. Not many movies I would be willing to watch 3 times, let...
First - the Wii remote is not that great - the technology used is inherently laggy and therefore not as suitable for FPS type games. It appears that MS has licensed the same patents that Nintendo licensed so I am wondering why the MS version will be any better.
Second - if MS does this and games are compatible with it then I think Nintendo is going to have problems. If you can get simple games on the 360 with a pointer controller and better graphics then the whole advantage o...
Was making the PS3 difficult to program - that made a lot of developers make the 360 the lead platform (cause they kinda need to sell a game eventually in order to make payroll). The architecture was poorly thought out and doesn't make sense for gaming code. That being said - you can make it work if you try. But that is why Gabe said it does nothing for anyone other than develop a hatred for the architecture.
MS's mistake was releasing the XBOX 360 with a cooling system that...
Now, I don't like EA (think they are a poorly run company). But the Unreal engine is not that bad. The recent improvements made to the engine (which is what I am assuming EA will be using) should substantially improve lighting and textures and resolve most of the issues noted above - in other words version 3.5 is decent. Of course, no engine is perfect but using an engine saves a lot of time and effort and hopefully will allow EA to spend more time fixing and improving game-play (try not t...
But if true - it is about time that you could install games on the HDD for the 360. I know people don't like it but the reality of the matter is that decompressing off the DVD (which is often required for the 360 because the DVD is smaller) takes up resources that would be better used for other things. Once you do that you basically remove the advantage the PS3 has for storage space.
Regarding which version to get - it is still too early to say. Sounds like both are about th...
But I work too much and don't get to game enough so I need lots of chances :-)
I don't like having to wait until my buddies die to play again - that seems to promote lame super cautious game play. I don't mind a little delay (because otherwise it becomes a twitch fest without strategy) but this doesn't sound that great to me.
Little disapppointed - there are plenty of FPS to show what works and doesn't work. But maybe I am getting too picky about FPS games.
The linked article is pretty weak - this doesn't seem like a proper post to me.
The real question with ray tracing is whether the computational cost will be worth it or whether other algorithms will turn out to be more effective. I personally think ray tracing will win out but this article is pretty weak.
I am sure MSG4 is going to be great and all but I think there is a growing disappointment with the consoles - as was recognized fairly early on by some - they are not that powerful when it comes to gaming code and you have to use a lot of tricks to get much out of them. Now the GPUs are fairly decent (fine for 720p resolution anyway) but beyond that I am not as impressed as I hoped to be.
Things like procedural generation, automatic lighting (akin to ray tracing), and greatly ...
1) Nintendo doesn't want you to have an advantage by using the conventional controller - that would make all the hype about the supposed genius of the new controller seem a little contrived.
2) They can sell that stupid plastic wheel that has a manufacturing costs of about 50 cents (just a guess) for 15 dollars.
This generation Nintendo is all about making money and not about giving a great value for your dollar - IMO - so I am waiting until the price drops bef...
Nice having a debate without fanboy stuff.
a broad patent means the claims cover a lot of variations - so by definition it is "hard" to design around a broad patent. If you look at the claims of MS's patent (as a side note, it looks like MS has a couple of patents on this idea - you can file continuation application and get more than one patent on the basic concept) you will see that it is not going to be easy for Sony to come up with a system that does not infringe because the claims are broad (e.g. general, not specific) ...
doesn't mean you are going to enforce it. And just because you decide to enforce it one time doesn't mean you are going to enforce it other times. MS has lots of patents that would cover features of Linux but has merely rattled it saber in that regard.
Not sure why you think broader patents are harder to enforce - maybe harder to show they are valid but it is much easier to enforce a broad patent than a narrow patent - you can easily show why the other party is infringing (a...
I check on the USPTO website (government web - not a joke) - MS does have a patent on in-game custom sound tracks. And the claims are pretty broad so it is going to be really tough for Sony to implement the feature without infringing the patent.
I don't see custom sound tracks coming to the PS3 because of this - any attempt to implement without infringing the patent would be very problematic and would probably suck.
So, basically the XBOX 360 is the console to o...
First, the SP was merely okay - the problem was that the difficulty kept spiking and dropping so that one minute the game was tough, then it was impossible, then it was borely easy. So the SP was only decent - about a 7.
But the MP (which I don't play much) was great so that is what made Halo 3 great. Co play and the features added made for a great value. But if you don't do MP then rent it, beat it on medium and return it.
Thanks for the laugh.
The current cost ($400) plus the expense of Bluray disks is going to be a serious downer on the whole format. I personally am still waiting for a player that is complete - all this crap about updating to the latest revision of the spec is a complete turn-off. I want to buy something that is going to work for 5 years without having to screw around with it (kinda like my DVD player). I don't mind screwing around with patches for my PC and my console but if I have to start dealing with that f...
A lot of what I have eard sounds pretty cool so this could be 10/10 but I want to hear from a few tough cites to see what they say. In any event, it is rare to fine a game that is rated as a 10 that is not worth playing and given the length - I'd say this is a definite purchase.
75 hours single player - cool sounding online versions - a 10 is possible.
Remember 10 doesn't mean perfect - it means so good that to take any points away would be unfair because th...