- Feb 8, 2011
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I'm sick of all the B.S. about PC gaming dying and consoles taking over the world. Just to set the record straight and help bolster PC gaming I'd like to list advances we can expect in the foreseeable future that will require powerful PCs to lead the way. Please feel free to add to the list.
1) Real Time Ray Tracing- I'll start off with this just to get the ball rolling. Photo realistic real time ray traced video games (i.e.- indistinguishable from reality) are still decades away, but we can expect a lot games to incorporate ray tracing to a lesser extent in the near future.
Probably the first really big advance in ray tracing will be the next generation ID Tech 6 gaming engine that will require some serious PC grunt. We're talking perfectly smooth curves here and endless geometric detail that makes tessellation look like a bad gimmick. Add on top of that geometry the endless variation in textures/2D images made possible by ID's megatexture technology and the only limitations are those of the artist's imagination.
2) Physics and AI- The new 8 core bulldozer and sandy bridge processors coming out will be perfect for physics and AI. These kinds of programs are difficult to optimize for games and 8 cores is a good minimum because of the innate symmetry of the equations. The next generation consoles might get by with quads thanks to their not having to run operating systems and the games being optimized for them, but PCs can lead the way again with 8 core processors that allow programmers to play more with the technology. That will mean a new generation of basic physics routines added to virtually every game made as fast as programmers can develop them. The same is likely to occur with gpu based physics as consoles adopt modern programmable graphics cards and PCs can once again lead the charge.
1) Real Time Ray Tracing- I'll start off with this just to get the ball rolling. Photo realistic real time ray traced video games (i.e.- indistinguishable from reality) are still decades away, but we can expect a lot games to incorporate ray tracing to a lesser extent in the near future.
Probably the first really big advance in ray tracing will be the next generation ID Tech 6 gaming engine that will require some serious PC grunt. We're talking perfectly smooth curves here and endless geometric detail that makes tessellation look like a bad gimmick. Add on top of that geometry the endless variation in textures/2D images made possible by ID's megatexture technology and the only limitations are those of the artist's imagination.
2) Physics and AI- The new 8 core bulldozer and sandy bridge processors coming out will be perfect for physics and AI. These kinds of programs are difficult to optimize for games and 8 cores is a good minimum because of the innate symmetry of the equations. The next generation consoles might get by with quads thanks to their not having to run operating systems and the games being optimized for them, but PCs can lead the way again with 8 core processors that allow programmers to play more with the technology. That will mean a new generation of basic physics routines added to virtually every game made as fast as programmers can develop them. The same is likely to occur with gpu based physics as consoles adopt modern programmable graphics cards and PCs can once again lead the charge.
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