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Localizing High-End Games for Low-End Machines
CowboyRobot writes "Intel engineer Dean Macri has an article at ACM Queue listing the challenges in designing PC games that will run on very different processors.
PCs vary widely in their performance, and if game developers design only for the high-end, they limit their market.
The article lists specific tips on how to guarantee that even old slow machine can run new games, such as 'the number of triangles used to create the trunks and branches could vary based on the available processor and graphics hardware performance', 'replace the clothing on characters in a game with actual geometry that separates the clothes from the underlying character model', and for simulating ocean waves, having low-end systems rely on basic sine waves while higher-end machines use more sophisticated methods."
'replace the clothing on characters in a game with actual geometry that separates the clothes from the underlying character model'
.. come to think of it, I might be playing the next Tomb Raider on my Pentium 133. Half a frame a sec is fine if it gives me half a chance to ogle Lara's buttcrack.
This actually sound like a pretty good idea. Hey, I got one too. Perhaps they could just leave out the clothes completely on low end machines?
PCs vary widely in their performance
This is why I come to slashdot, the deep technological information you can't get anywhere else.
Like the X-Box?
The original is the greatest game. I like all the old games the best, where you just point and shoot, all the high end games have no point.
Now my brand-new computer will have a usable life of more than 3 weeks, think of all the money I'll save, and thus spend on new games!
Has anybody seen the minimum system req's for Duke Nukem Forever?
and for simulating ocean waves, having low-end systems rely on basic sine waves while higher-end machines use more sophisticated methods.
It looks better if you just use a cosine...
Yes it requires Gnu/Hurd stable 1.0 when it comes it out.
http://saveie6.com/
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
and you get:
Quake 2 with nekid Stroggs galore.
Wolfenstein with a nude Adolph Hitler
GTA 2 with realistic squeeky vinyl bucket seat sounds.
Silent Hill's "playdead" of the month.
Warcraft 3 expansion - Frozen Cajones
and Frodo still says "I am naked before the wheel of fire" in LotR, but he's grinning.
Who is John Cabal?
A time machine, to take you to 2110 when it comes out.
We'll all be laughing at that statement in 2638.
Unfortunately most people get linux for free ... and then expect the world to cater to their minority preference of alternative environments.
So most people are in the minority? What?
...then she must be a genius.
I've been dying to compile and play Tux Racer on my SE/30 for awhile now. As soon as I get done with that, I'm going to compile Celestia so I can explore the solar system at sub-sub-sublight speed.
Constitutionally Correct
how many serious gamers who own both ACTUALLY spend more hours per week playing 1970s/1980s games than post 1990 ones over long periods
This, of course, assumes that the enjoyment of a game can be measured by number of hours played. If this were the case, Everquesties must live in a state of constant orgasm.