Graphics stagnant until 2012...

[thilanliyan]

http://gamescom.gamespot.com/s...last-until-2012-crytek

Damn consoles!!! Lol but I like my PS3 and am looking forward to more games on it than on the PC.

 

[dguy6789]

On the bright side, that probably means that we can get a longer life span out of current graphics cards.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
On the bright side, that probably means that we can get a longer life span out of current graphics cards.

Woohooo my HIS 3870 512MB GDDR4 will last for years then!

 

[reallyscrued]

...right cuz Crytek's CEO gets to decide when the cycles happen.

Plus I think you could argue that when id Tech 5 comes out, it would be next gen.

Or at least it'll be that gray area where its the cusp of a new generation for PCs but just very high last gen for consoles

 

[dguy6789]

He's not claiming to be deciding the cycles, just making educated predictions. It's very reasonable to believe what he is saying too, considering his qualifications and experience. He could be wrong though. Anything that can run on the Xbox 360 or PS3 is definitely not worthy of being called next gen.

 

[BenSkywalker]

While Yerli claims that the current graphical benchmark has been set, he says that we should still expect "huge gains in physics, AI, and simulation of special effects" over the next few years.

He isn't saying gaming is going to stop progressing, just it will be in a different direction on a technology front.

On a realistic basis, Crytek is doing their Cry3 engine, Carmack is finishing off Tech5 and Sweeney is talking about laying the foundation for a pure software engine. Who is left to push PC gaming visuals? Sweeney's engine won't have the hardware to run it before '12, Carmack's engine will likely scale very nicely(as they always do) but still be focused on consoles first and foremost(strictly due to business considerations) and Crytek is pushing to get their engine running on the consoles now(although they do seem to be ambitious about what that engine is going to do if you read the article).

Anything that can run on the Xbox 360 or PS3 is definitely not worthy of being called next gen.

Depends I would say, perhaps not on a general graphics level, but start pushing those CPUs hard and give us an order magnitude improvement in physics and AI to go along with current graphics? I could live with that, quite happily. They have the potential to do a lot more for gameplay right now then finishing off the hurdles we still have left in real time 3D.

 

[Idontcare]

why games aren't going to get any better looking over the next three years

"Games 'til 2012 will not look very different than [they do today], since engines are bound to console cycles."

These are reasonable statements.

That said, when I look forward to games its not the prospects of their eye-candy that makes me excited to see the game released. Rather its the prospect of a new idea, a new theme, just...something...new for the love of god that I get excited over.

3 more years of the same quality graphics I can handle, three more years of the same staid games being released as iteration IV and V and VI is what really grinds my soul into the ground. Original content people, try and get imaginative and come out with some. (hollywood has the same problem, its a pandemic)

 

[Modelworks]

Don't let those statements get you down. While graphics are nice, they don't make the game. We may see some great new games come out that don't rely on graphics for the selling point. Look at how well Left 4 dead did and the graphics are hardly crysis level.

 

[biostud]

maybe they can focus on other parts of games, like.................innovative gameplay.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: biostud
maybe they can focus on other parts of games, like.................innovative gameplay.

Good point and the games I keep coming back too are not usually the games with the best graphics. I keep coming back to Master of Orion 2 which has 2D graphics but great game play.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: nemesismk2

Originally posted by: biostud
maybe they can focus on other parts of games, like.................innovative gameplay.

Good point and the games I keep coming back too are not usually the games with the best graphics. I keep coming back to Master of Orion 2 which has 2D graphics but great game play.

MOO2, a great classic :thumbsup:

 

[KeithP]

"Games 'til 2012 will not look very different than [they do today], since engines are bound to console cycles."

This statement would only seem to apply to companies that do cross platform (consoles & PC) game releases. Which, granted, are most of them these days. However...

Correct me if I am wrong, but when Far Cry originally came out wasn't it basically a situation where a small developer, Crytek, came out of nowhere with a fun game that used a brand new game engine?

What is preventing another small developer from doing the same thing?

I suppose what he is saying will likely turn out to be the case, but it wouldn't surprise me for him to be proven wrong.

-KeithP

 

[BenSkywalker]

What is preventing another small developer from doing the same thing?

Nowadays? Money. Not many unheard of unproven indies are going to secure ~$20million in development funds which is a reasonable amount to compete with the big boys. Not saying it is impossible, but the odds are exceptionally high against it.

maybe they can focus on other parts of games, like.................innovative gameplay

Innovative gameplay nigh always sucks. Good gameplay(or better) I am always game for however. If you want innovative these days we have it by the truckload, check out the Wii. Most of it is innovative in the kind of way that a Pizza topped with cat food and bird droppings would be innovative, but there is a lot of it

 

[KeithP]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

Nowadays? Money. Not many unheard of unproven indies are going to secure ~$20million in development funds which is a reasonable amount to compete with the big boys. Not saying it is impossible, but the odds are exceptionally high against it.

Actually that is kind of my point. I was under the impression that Far Cry didn't have a budget anywhere near $20 million. You get budgets like that from big developers because of the resources they put behind a project.

It is a little like how Scaled Composites managed to win the original X-Prize with SpaceShipOne with a total production costs of about $25 million. Had NASA tried to compete, they would have probably spent a billion.

-KeithP

 

[Lonyo]

CryEngine 3 is CryEngine 2 with console support and maybe a few tweaks, idTech 5 is id's equivalent of UE3/CryEngine 2. UE3 has been updated to 3.5. They are not next gen engines.

UE4, CryEngine 4 and idTech 6 will be the next gen engines, and won't really be around for a while.

Maybe it's partly due to consoles, but I think it's also just because that's the way things go. The cycle between engines fits with the cycle between consoles.

Unreal Engine went 1998 (May) / 2002 (June) / 2006 (November) and so the next "sensible" time would be 2010 at the earliest, but 2011 wouldn't be too much of a shock and 2012 not unreasonable if there's a slightly extended development time.
Cry 1 2004 (March) / Cry 2 2007 (November) / Cry 4 2012(?). Even with an equal dev cycle 2011 would be a best estimate for the next generation, so again 2012 isn't particularly crazy or console focused, it's just the way it's gone, and if they are going to coincide with next gen consoles, why not optimise for them?
Playstation consoles for example went 1995 / 2000 / 2006. You can see it's not so much consoles dictating generational improvements as it is just the way things have gone. The next consoles might hit around 2012 and the next engines will probably hit around then as well, and be targetted at those consoles, but that's just because the dev cycles fell into step.

 

[imported_Shaq]

There is a rumor that the 360 will get upgraded next year. I hope it's true. Otherwise it will be up to Nvidia and ATI to pay developers to put more eye candy in to drive high-end hardware sales. I guess there will be many more PhysX titles if that is the case.

 

[akugami]

Originally posted by: Idontcare
3 more years of the same quality graphics I can handle, three more years of the same staid games being released as iteration IV and V and VI is what really grinds my soul into the ground. Original content people, try and get imaginative and come out with some. (hollywood has the same problem, its a pandemic)

:thumbsup:

 

[BenSkywalker]

Actually that is kind of my point. I was under the impression that Far Cry didn't have a budget anywhere near $20 million.

Neither did GLQuake, not quite getting your point? Carmack by himself used to develop an entire engine in fairly quick time, now id needs a team of 15-20 programmers and significantly longer. For a single threaded, single platform game using DX8 tech you wouldn't need anything remotely approaching $20Million, pushing out a DX11 engine and title using 4 or more cores is quite another matter altogether.

There is a rumor that the 360 will get upgraded next year.

That upgrade is Natal, they have come out and explained that explicitly.

 

[imported_Shaq]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

Actually that is kind of my point. I was under the impression that Far Cry didn't have a budget anywhere near $20 million.

Neither did GLQuake, not quite getting your point? Carmack by himself used to develop an entire engine in fairly quick time, now id needs a team of 15-20 programmers and significantly longer. For a single threaded, single platform game using DX8 tech you wouldn't need anything remotely approaching $20Million, pushing out a DX11 engine and title using 4 or more cores is quite another matter altogether.

There is a rumor that the 360 will get upgraded next year.

That upgrade is Natal, they have come out and explained that explicitly.

They would never admit it if they were. That would tip their hand and give Sony a chance to respond.

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
On the bright side, that probably means that we can get a longer life span out of current graphics cards.

:thumbsup:

 

[damage424]

*small guy coming though* DX11 seems to prove his point no? Correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is DX11 focuses more on AI, physics and better performance.

 

[Bateluer]

Its doubly sad when you consider that the performance and power of the PC passed the power of the 360 and PS3 a few months before their respective releases. Today, the only real differences are in the price and the openness of the platform.

 

[Modular]

If this is the case, then I'm not upset about it. It will be nice to use the same card for a few years, and actually makes picking up another 4850 look more and more like a viable option.

 

[Insomniator]

The graphic quality of Crysis is quite nice obviously. Keeping those graphics but adding a great amount of physics and sort of real life like things would really help immerse the player in the game. Take a look around your room, see how much crap there is? Being able to enter a room in a video game with 100's of seemingly pointless objects could really improve the gaming experience.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Insomniator
The graphic quality of Crysis is quite nice obviously. Keeping those graphics but adding a great amount of physics and sort of real life like things would really help immerse the player in the game. Take a look around your room, see how much crap there is? Being able to enter a room in a video game with 100's of seemingly pointless objects could really improve the gaming experience.

Great, and with my OCD I would be compelled to attempt to pick up or analyse every one of those hundreds of objects in each friggen room for fear that I might overlook some vital item that I needed to pickup that was hidden underneath it, or in it, or is the item itself...:laugh: