9 replies to this topic

[Zinix]

The real reason to get excited about a PS4 is what Sony as a company does with the OS and system libraries as a platform, and what this enables 1st party studios to do, when they make PS4-only games. If PS4 has a real-time OS, with a libGCM style low level access to the GPU, then the PS4 1st party games will be years ahead of the PC simply because it opens up what is possible on the GPU. Note this won't happen right away on launch, but once developers tool up for the platform, this will be the case. As a PC guy who knows hardware to the metal, I spend most of my days in frustration knowing damn well what I could do with the hardware, but what I cannot do because Microsoft and IHVs wont provide low-level GPU access in PC APIs. One simple example, drawcalls on PC have easily 10x to 100x the overhead of a console with a libGCM style API....

I could continue here, but I'm not, by now you get the picture, launch titles will likely be DX11 ports, so perhaps not much better than what could be done on PC. However if Sony provides the real-time OS with libGCM v2 for GCN, one or two years out, 1st party devs and Sony's internal teams like the ICE team, will have had long enough to build up tech to really leverage the platform.

A fast GDDR5 will be the desired option for developers. All the interesting cases for good anti-aliasing require a large amount of bandwidth and RAM. A tiny 32MB chunk of ESRAM will not fit that need even for forward rendering at 1080p. I think some developers could hit 1080p@60fps with the rumored Orbis specs even with good AA. My personal project is targeting 1080p@60fps with great AA on a 560ti which is a little slower than the rumored Orbis specs. There is no way my engine would hit that target on the rumored 720 specs. Ultimately on Orbis I guess devs target 1080p/30fps (with some motion blur) and leverage the lower latency OS stack and scan out at 60fps (double scan frames) to provide a really great lower-latency experience. Maybe the same title on 720 would render at 720p/30fps, and maybe Microsoft is dedicating a few CPU hardware threads to the GPU driver stack to remove the latency problem (assuming this is a "Windows" OS under the covers).

http://timothylottes.blogspot.ca/2013/01/orbis-and-durango.html

[Hank Hill]

Can being the key word here.

Seriously, if Sony decides that the "uber amazing power house $700 console" is the way to go, they're going to find themselves out of business relatively fast.

[Blake]

599 US DOLLARS

[3Dude]

Sony leak from months ago: 1080p 60fps, no problem.

Which is cool with me. But man, people are going to be SOOOOOO pissed its 'only' 1080p. Expectations were just plain stupid for this gen.

Though it is a bit bizare hes splooging so much over libGCM. I mean its true, but like, its boons are nothing new for consoles....

As for ps4 though, I just cant get over bulldozer. WHY? did amd pay sony?

Edited by 3Dude, 27 January 2013 - 10:40 AM.

[Alph]

No one is going to buy this. It's going to be too expensive.

[Nollog]

old/10 ?

Hasn't this always been the case?
A closed system will always get more from their closed system.
However, by the time the ps4 is at retail, there'll be a new generation of PC graphic cards which will be 10 times better than the PS4's on paper.
I don't see why they're trying.

[PedanticGamer]

No one is going to buy this. It's going to be too expensive.

People said the same thing about the ps3 and the issue there was how hard it was to program for. I'm an avid pc gamer and would love if this happened, the more competition the better. However as it is I doubt a $700 console could compete for several years unless sony sold at a huge loss or porting to pc got even more lazy. If sony puts out a beast I will be sure to get it.

As for whether I think it will happen everything suggests otherwise, eg: crytek's Cevat Yerli stating next gen specs are disappointing.

Edited by PedanticGamer, 27 January 2013 - 02:32 PM.

[Alph]

People said the same thing about the ps3 and the issue there was how hard it was to program for. I'm an avid pc gamer and would love if this happened, the more competition the better. However as it is I doubt a $700 console could compete for several years unless sony sold at a huge loss or porting to pc got even more lazy. If sony puts out a beast I will be sure to get it.

As for whether I think it will happen everything suggests otherwise, eg: crytek's Cevat Yerli stating next gen specs are disappointing.

Well, I meant at launch.

[SoldMyWiiUAndLeftTheForums]

Price is gonna be wayyyyyy too steep c'mon Sony, your in s**t up to your eyeballs as it is!!!

[AndyG]

Quite a lot of people are still complaining about the pricing for the WiiU, sure isn't looking good for Sony fans.

I doubt that Sony would be able to suffer a huge loss on each console, oh Sony you have dug yourself quite a hole there.