“Last but not least, after we were told that there was no ability to fly aircrafts in the game due to the DVD drive's inability to stream the environment fast enough in full 720p resolution.”
Mattt wrote:
Brianthe wrote:Eh, it was standard on the Xbox and very, very, very few developers actually took advantage of it. Of those that did, it was mostly just to help decrease load times, not to allow for more gameplay options.
CliffyB has stated several times that the memory amount means more to him as a developer than a HD. Looking at Gears of War at the TGS, I would tend to agree.
Auz wrote:You've said that before. However, this points to a different issue, and one which may hit the PS3 even harder. The new consoles support more complex graphics, which mean increased data. The extra memory over the original Xbox may initially be more useful, but that's going to reduce as developers start using the capabilities of the machines - and Violition is already finding that they can't stream the data off the DVD fast enough to provide flying.
It may even be worse with Bluray on the PS3 or when the 360 gets its HD-DVD as they may not be as fast as current DVD drives.
Brianthe wrote:Well, that may point to a problem with Volition's abilities and not the machines. Besides, it usually takes at least a year for developers to really get inside the machines and figure out the tricks to do all kinds of good stuff that everyone thinks is impossible to do in the beginning.
It happened with the N64. It happened with the original Playstation, as well.
Auz wrote:True, to a degree. But in counterpoint, if the machines didn't have some insurmountable limitations, they wouldn't have made the PS2, N64 or any of the updated consoles. And I'd be typing this on a 1Mhz 6502-powered Oric-1.
Mattt wrote:Yeah, developers didn't take advantage of the Xbox hd and look at the results. PC games are always superior unless the game is originally made for Xbox and poorly ported to the PC.
I'll be sticking with my PC to play SC4, GTA whatever, etc.
It is true, though, that consoles always have power waiting to be found. Look at God of War for the PS2. It is pretty good for a PS2 game.
Mattt wrote:(graphically)
Woot!
I love this comment, “Relax 360 fans - PS2 didn't had a HD (mandatory) and yet a wonder known as San Andreas worked flawlessly.”
Actually, GTA's graphics were so unbelieveably bad and behind the times that it is perfect evidence of just how inferior the PS2 was.
Hard drives really do need to be standard, IMO.