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Japanese Devs Talk 360 Development

Posted by Zonk on from the friends-in-far-off-places dept.

Japanese developers have had the chance to work with the Xbox 360, and as Gamespot reports, there are mixed feelings over there. From the article: "...but even with Microsoft's development tools and strong technical support (another aspect for which the developers had kind words), there are still a number of issues game makers face. Many developers consider the system's graphic capabilities 'double-edged.' The Xbox 360 can handle much better looking graphics than previous consoles, but it also requires a lot more effort in development."

5 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. To be fair... by samdu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm no fan of Microsoft, but to be fair, the complaint about the 360 having better graphics but being more difficult to develop for is going to apply to ALL of the next-gen consoles.

    1. Re:To be fair... by FadedTimes · · Score: 5, Informative

      I've read that the Nintendo Revolution dev kit is very similar to thre previous generations, so the learning curve for existing developers won't be as much. The revolution is just basically a more advanced gamecube when it comes to processor and graphics. from Ninendo's Press release
      Freedom of design: A dynamic development architecture equally accommodates both big-budget, high-profile game "masterpieces" as well as indie games conceived by individual developers equipped with only a big idea.

    2. Re:To be fair... by AscendantOat · · Score: 3, Informative

      What'll make cross-platform work hard is they're difficult in different ways.

      The 360 has three PPU cores, so without multithreading you can only use a fraction of the available power. With the PS3 you instead have to do low-level SPE unit programming, and any code that can't be adapted has to run on the single PPU.

      Those are the big CPU difficulties, but thethe PPU's used in both systems have weak/nonexistant branching predictors, which lowers production costs. Poor branching performance doesn't hurt streaming media (they're excellent for graphics), but 360 and PS3 won't be much better at AI than current systems.

      Hardly any information out about Revolution's CPU, but it's the last chance for easy development or truly next-gen AI. Keep in mind though, that Nintendo's the most budget-concious of the three.

  2. Programming Complexity by HRbnjR · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Increasing programming complexity is becoming an issue developers must tackle regardless of platform. With the move to dual core chips, software is going to have to move to be pervasively multithreaded in the future. I know it took me some time to learn how to program (and think/design) in a threaded fashion - and to quit making stupid synchornization mistakes, race conditions, etc. If anything, as a programmer I welcome these new requirements, as it helps me differentiate myself from less skilled programmers. Like everyone else, these game developers are going to have to learn to cope.

  3. Re:And so it begins. by briankoenig · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, and we all know that multi-disc games are doomed to failure, and that the developer and producer will fail as well, like what happened with Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX; Arc the Lad Collection; Legend of Dragoon; Gran Turismo 2; Star Ocean Till the End of Time; I could go on but you get the point.

    Pressing a second disc is incredibly cheap compared to the rest of the development process.