GTA V

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There's no such thing as a PC version anymore since XB1 and PS4 effectively are PCs.

The real question will be, what extra features will Rockstar give the PC version ?
 
Fr0dders said:
There's no such thing as a PC version anymore since XB1 and PS4 effectively are PCs.

The real question will be, what extra features will Rockstar give the PC version ?
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You saved me typing it out again - thanks :) Please re-quote yourself on each page ;)

PC version hopefully a bit more eye candy, maybe a bit more background stuff going on would be cool? I can't wait, just need to upgrade my gfx card as my 5850's don't have enough vram anymore!
 
CATS, WE HAVE CATS! This is just one of the many additions PC users get!

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the PC version should ideally have it all configurable, so you can turn stuff like that up to something far beyond the PS4 / XB1 if your rig can handle it.
 
One thing drives me insane on the console version... The car sounds. They are so loud over everything else when driving. The radio becomes drowned out by the sound, it always brings on a headache if I'm driving around and I end up turning down the sound.

I really, REALLY hope you can lower the car engine volume.
 
agnes said:
One thing drives me insane on the console version... The car sounds. They are so loud over everything else when driving. The radio becomes drowned out by the sound, it always brings on a headache if I'm driving around and I end up turning down the sound.

I really, REALLY hope you can lower the car engine volume.
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Never had that issue when I played it.
 
Fr0dders said:
There's no such thing as a PC version anymore since XB1 and PS4 effectively are PCs.
Click to expand...

This is only partly true. For example, my PC is probably more capable than an XB1 or PS4 as it stands right now.

Likewise, in another 12-24 months, PC's will have moved forwards and consoles will not, so even though they are technically similar to PC's we will once again see the hardware limitations of consoles holding back the true potential of PC games. Software developers will not have the time or inclination to make PC specific versions of titles for a 'minority' of gamers. It would not be good business acumen. It is a sad but true fact that the proliferation of consoles whilst bringing gaming to a wider audience has also lowered overall standards in the games that are made today because of hardware limitations.
 
but the point is they won't be porting anything anymore.

Porting implies taking a game written in one code and then changing it to another. This iis no longer necessary. Obviously it will have be different - but the extent of the differences will be up to the developer and how much dev time they are willing to give the PC version.
 
BuffetSlayer said:
This is only partly true. For example, my PC is probably more capable than an XB1 or PS4 as it stands right now.

Likewise, in another 12-24 months, PC's will have moved forwards and consoles will not, so even though they are technically similar to PC's we will once again see the hardware limitations of consoles holding back the true potential of PC games. Software developers will not have the time or inclination to make PC specific versions of titles for a 'minority' of gamers. It would not be good business acumen. It is a sad but true fact that the proliferation of consoles whilst bringing gaming to a wider audience has also lowered overall standards in the games that are made today because of hardware limitations.
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I believe that there is something different this time that needs to be considered. The fact that the architecture is much closer to PC's this time is very important.

What do we mean when we say "held back"?

In my view a few things:

1) Detail of textures and their need for enough graphics memory
2) the need for a solid multi-core CPU
3) their need for RAM
4) possibly physics processing


Now, undoubtedly, we can say that the specifications are already behind top flight PC's but the architecture is so similar now that the difference between current consoles and PC's is more akin to the difference in what a standard PC game must cope with with regard to lower specced PC vs high end.

the only important thing that concerns me, that cannot be sorted with higher specs, is how much effort they put into textures..these will only be made for the consoles in the main and PC users will need to wait for extra, higher quality, texture packs if they ever come.

other things such as number of objects on screen, quality of shadows, reflections, AA, because modern consoles have these, can all be switched off and on at the leisure of the developer and I the case of PC's the developer must simply put an additional few graphics options onto the options menu.

edit: there is one other key arena, of course: Direct X - games pushing the latest greatest version of this tech will be more scarce as they truly are features that take a lot of time for PC specific development. most games will be stuck with Direct X 11x for a long while.
 
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Fr0dders said:
but the point is they won't be porting anything anymore.

Porting implies taking a game written in one code and then changing it to another. This iis no longer necessary. Obviously it will have be different - but the extent of the differences will be up to the developer and how much dev time they are willing to give the PC version.
Click to expand...

ahh you've said it much more efficiently than me :p
 
Fr0dders said:
but the point is they won't be porting anything anymore.

Porting implies taking a game written in one code and then changing it to another. This iis no longer necessary. Obviously it will have be different - but the extent of the differences will be up to the developer and how much dev time they are willing to give the PC version.
Click to expand...

I agree it is definitely a step in the right direction for consoles.

However, the issue still remains that even though the coding will be similar, the abilities of the hardware will still hold back potential.

For example, as technology progresses, games have traditionally had a 'minimum spec' of hardware required to run them. PC's are infinitely upgradable to tackle this progress, but consoles are not. So in effect whatever the planned shelf life of PS4 and XB1 is, games released for the next 5+ years are going to be designed in such a way that the console hardware can cope. It goes far beyond simple texture packs, the entire game structure will be customised to suit the platform with the widest audience. So we will see lower res textures. We will see the way the textures are used limited by the memory and GPU capabilities of consoles. It wont just effect textures either. Elements such as caching, and various visual effects and a boat load of other things too. These kinds of things are fundamental to how a game is made and it cannot be simply tweaked for a PC version by just turning a few extra settings on particularly when in all probability the game developers won't even add the code for the increased capabilities of PC's. Right now, like with watchdogs, people are finding ways around it but the console tech has not long been released. In another few years the technical gap between the PC and console platform will be even greater and bridging that gap is going to be far more difficult and time consuming.

Games developers are there to make money and they are not going to put in additional time and effort for adding in code for the PC platform if they don't have to. History has shown us they are unlikely to bother because they often never bothered with ports either. They will just ship the same version as the consoles because it is cheaper and takes less time and the bottom line is bottom line. Profit. Plain and simple.

Another element to this is PR. These new shiny consoles are out of date already, but the likes of Sony and MS don't want their target audience to feel like they are being short changed. Therefore it is in their interests to motivate games developers to create games where the PC version will not massively outshine the console versions.

I think gaming being brought to a wider audience is great. But unfortunately the downside is technical limitations of consoles holding back game development. We have seen it time and time again over the years where developers want the dollar and the dollar comes from the millions of console gamers spending £40-£50 a go on a game. PC gamers have been neglected for some time now, but I have to say if I were running a business I would operate that business to make as much money as possible and a big part of that means looking after your number one customers. I hate it, I hate it with a passion because I just think how much further we could be with games if developers were programming for the best hardware available instead of out of date console tech. But I understand it, and I would do the same if the business was mine.
 
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