Interesting Gabe Newell Interview

[bay]

I was browsing the dod forums and found this very interesting two part video interview with gabe newell. hate him or love him, it's a good look into what the future holds (at least with valve)

Text

 

[DeeSlanger]

Cool ,thanks

 

[Acanthus]

Is this the "multithread coding is hard, so no one should do it" video?

 

[stnicralisk]

That webpage lagged my computer when I tried to close it.

 

[jazzboy]

With regards to all of his complaining about xbox360/ps3:

Did game developers not have any say in what sort of processors should be used in the next-gen consoles? Thats what seems to be the case in my view.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: jazzboy
Did game developers not have any say in what sort of processors should be used in the next-gen consoles? Thats what seems to be the case in my view.

It's not the CPU itself, since most coding is C/C++ rather than assembly.

It's the switch from a single, powerful general-purpose CPU that fits current programming experience, to less powerful more specialized multiple CPUs that require mutli-CPU parallel coding that is new territory for the programmers.

This drives up costs, slows down productivity and introduces a lot more trial and error.

MS and Sony are basically cutting their own costs to make fast next-gen using cheaper mutli-core instead of the equivalent to P4/A64 dual-core, and shifting the costs to the developers.

 

[jazzboy]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: jazzboy
Did game developers not have any say in what sort of processors should be used in the next-gen consoles? Thats what seems to be the case in my view.

It's not the CPU itself, since most coding is C/C++ rather than assembly.

It's the switch from a single, powerful general-purpose CPU that fits current programming experience, to less powerful more specialized multiple CPUs that require mutli-CPU parallel coding that is new territory for the programmers.

This drives up costs, slows down productivity and introduces a lot more trial and error.

MS and Sony are basically cutting their own costs to make fast next-gen using cheaper mutli-core instead of the equivalent to P4/A64 dual-core, and shifting the costs to the developers.

Ok fair enough, but surely something simple like a 1.8ghz A64 X2 or a Pentium D 810 would have sufficed. Or would that still not have been cheap enough?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: jazzboy

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
MS and Sony are basically cutting their own costs to make fast next-gen using cheaper mutli-core instead of the equivalent to P4/A64 dual-core, and shifting the costs to the developers.

Ok fair enough, but surely something simple like a 1.8ghz A64 X2 or a Pentium D 810 would have sufficed. Or would that still not have been cheap enough?

I think they wanted a console processor that was both cheaper and (potentially!) faster, and that worked better with the integrated video hardware.

From the hype, the raw speed of the console cores is faster, if developers can figure out how to make full use of them. The potential speed is also good for marketing whether it is made use of or not.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Based on how buggy everything is that Valve release, they need to work on coding for Wintel before complaining about the next-gen consoles.