Trying to understand the Technology in consoles

wannabedamned · 11 Feb 2009 at 19:57

AWPC said:
As others have said its mainly about the coding.

Also consider that PC's are running operating systems in the background and even though some of it gets unloaded before the game launches its still a massive overhead.

Pretty much the point I was about to make, Console OS's are minuscule in comparison.

titchard · 11 Feb 2009 at 20:15

wannabedamned said:
Pretty much the point I was about to make, Console OS's are minuscule in comparison.

Plus a PC has to be a bit of a jack of all trades, regarding what the hardware is geared for - a consoles hardware is games, games and more games and is engineered totally toward that end.

Rich

Inazuma · 11 Feb 2009 at 20:23

Jamesdavid3 said:
I cant understand how the Xbox 360's/PS3 hardware can still run HiDef/High Quality smooth games which the console came out over 3 years ago and PC hardware still cant handle it

My example is that the hardware which is inside the Xbox360 is over 3 years old now and it can run GTA4 for example perfectly, smooth and with excellent detail. But the highest demand Graphic cards and processors at the moment cant handle them for the PC in the same game and its 3 years later, you would think it wouldnt be a problem now!

Ermmmm except that my 2-3 yr old 8800GTX can run GTA4 with better frame rate, resolution and better detail than the 360 or PS3 :confused:

Keeping in mind those consoles run the game at only 1280x720p

p0ss3s3d · 11 Feb 2009 at 20:36

Nanoman said:
Like Crysis?

Also a lot of games arent even at 720p. COD4 would easily be playable on a 7800 PC at 640.

Quite true, most Console games are upscaled to 720p and rendered around SD,(including the shambolic haze

), plus many games are 30fps in the console world, although not all.

So if we think ~4 times the amount of pixels on an average pc screen, the graphics card in a PC is working ~twice as hard as it's console counterpart i.e double framerates.

Comparing KZ2 to a Good Crysis Config, KZ2 has style and an fantastic art design and colur palette but Crysis is miles ahead in level of detail, physics, shadows, HDR.

Oh BTW crysis is TWO years OLD!!!

(Only just playable on VH now TBH)

Can't wait for some newer engines at the end of the year, someone will do somthing special (FINGERS CROSSED) hopefully showcase the ??GTX3XX and HD58XX??

Phatjayunoi · 11 Feb 2009 at 20:45

One important factor is down to the actual game developer itself, particulary those that have extensive experience developing for consoles.

Because of the set hardware nature of the consoles, certain developers can have the time to optimise their games and learn more things about them in order to bring out the best that they can.

A developer like Team Ico is a good example especially when you look at Shadow of the Colossus for the PS2. Artstyle plays an important role too.

Whilst the PC platform is always ahead in technology, like others have already mentioned, there is a far huge range of different hardware configurations and so that adds to the difficulty in order to optimise games for.

cheets64 · 11 Feb 2009 at 20:59

Because consoles rulez lulz

Nate Silvers · 11 Feb 2009 at 23:56

I remember HL2 running great on my crappy PC but ran like a bag of **** on the xbox. It's all about coding. Look at emulators, they need to be coded so much to get optimised. The Dolphin Emu which runs Gamecube games has REALLY kicked off now it can play my Smash Bros Melee at 55fps compared to 10fps when they first started coding it.

Blame Ports.

vincent1989 · 12 Feb 2009 at 00:13

Nanoman said:
Like Crysis?

i see you've a competent grasp of the meaning of the word 'most' then

and crysis works superb and looks superb, i just wish people would stop expecting to run it maxed out at a massive resolution with a million AA/AF on there uber computer.

it's stunning at low settings, let alone med and above

Phatjayunoi · 12 Feb 2009 at 00:19

Nate Silvers said:
I remember HL2 running great on my crappy PC but ran like a bag of **** on the xbox. It's all about coding. Look at emulators, they need to be coded so much to get optimised. The Dolphin Emu which runs Gamecube games has REALLY kicked off now it can play my Smash Bros Melee at 55fps compared to 10fps when they first started coding it.

Blame Ports.

Do remember that the Half Life 2 port for the consoles, and even ports of id Software games like Doom 3 and Quake IV were outsourced to third party developers, hence the slightly reasonable jobs of them.

If Valve and id Software put the time and their own resources themselves to make those games on the consoles, maybe it could turn out for the better. But seeing as they are primarily PC platform developers, their games will never be optimised well for the consoles.

This itself is the example I was talking about before. It is mainly down to game developers and their experiences of developing for either platform. Seeing as Valve and id Software could really give a crap, it makes them moot point. (Fat dude at Valve is such a PC enthusiast himself.)

Look at Epic Games and their decent jobs of Gear of War or Unreal Tournament III for the 360/PS3 respectively. As they were developed specifically for the current generation consoles first, they knew how to bring out the best in them.

Lee2k4 · 12 Feb 2009 at 01:22

Also consoled dont have to dedicate resources to running an operating system as well. Well they do have an OS but nothing like windows, just one optimized for gaming.

Kreeeee · 12 Feb 2009 at 01:41

Lee2k4 said:
Also consoled dont have to dedicate resources to running an operating system as well. Well they do have an OS but nothing like windows, just one optimized for gaming.

It's common misconception that the OS takes up a lot of resources when gaming, especially on multi cored PC's.

Joebob · 12 Feb 2009 at 07:51

Jamesdavid3 said:
I cant understand how the Xbox 360's/PS3 hardware can still run HiDef/High Quality smooth games which the console came out over 3 years ago and PC hardware still cant handle it

My example is that the hardware which is inside the Xbox360 is over 3 years old now and it can run GTA4 for example perfectly, smooth and with excellent detail. But the highest demand Graphic cards and processors at the moment cant handle them for the PC in the same game and its 3 years later, you would think it wouldnt be a problem now!

What makes consoles have that better power overall? is it because all there Parts are made to perfectly work together? and what kind of Graphics card must they be using to make the gameplay smooth all the time?! Do they fit consoles with technology which isnt out for PC's yet?

GTAIV is a very bad example and tbh I don't think there are really any good examples which accurately show the power of consoles compaired to PC.

Take Half Life 2 for example. Been out for 4+ years on PC and will run on even low spec machines upon release, but when they ported it to PS3 (taking into account that it's a supercomputer

) it ran like a dog.

I think it's always down to developers and how well they port it tbh. There's numerous examples of good and bad when porting in either direction.