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Sony Unlocks PlayStation 4's Previously Reserved Seventh CPU Core For Devs (hothardware.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the check-it-out dept.

MojoKid writes: Toward the beginning of the year, it was revealed that Microsoft was going to "unlock" the seventh core on the Xbox One's processor, enabling developers to eke just a bit more performance out of the console and offer more flexibility at resource utilization. It appears that Microsoft's move would inevitably be followed by Sony, as reports are now coming in that this will be made available on the PlayStation 4 as well. This subtle change was highlighted in the latest changelog for the FMOD sound engine which is labeled as a "LowLevel API." While the unlocked core could take on FMOD duties if developers want it to, it's now not going to be tied to any single purpose. Developers could make use of this core, for example, to boost AI performance, or any other process that has a heavy computation requirement. It could also be used to simply help ease overall system load.

2 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Devs continue to develop for these gimped thing by tlhIngan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So apparently there was some sort of software/firmware that restricted the hardware preventing it from utilizing everything available? Why develop for this shit in the first place?

    I don't know, maybe the billions of dollars in revenue that comes along with developing AAA titles for consoles?

    Exactly. The "PC Master Race" seems to forget that piracy has really killed games on PC, at least the AAA titles. Indies are huge on PC (as they are on mobile), so that's all left.

    Most AAA gave development money is headed towards consoles where the DRM keeps piracy low (under 10% typically) and there's a good chance to make back the money. So consoles get the first release to make back the development money, then after everyone's made their money, they port it to PC with the hopes the PC port pays for the porting effort. To help with this, they reduce the price (out of necessity since the game has been out 6 months to a year already).

    The few PC games that get same time releases generally are online games where the server can enforce DRM (your Call of Duty or Battlefield games). Very rarely do you get something like a Fallout 4 where there's a PC release at the same time as console with no online component.

    Heck, while there are a few stubbornly PC only developers, many former PC only developers branched out to consoles - Activision-Blizzard,and Valve being notable ones.

    It's called follow the money. Otherwise why else would developers subject themselves to content approvals and all sorts of other things when they can release on PC for free.

  2. Re: Summary is so broken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Reserving cores means the worst case system load and the best case system load are equal. A huge amount of work has gone into making this the case. If your game runs without lag, it ALWAYS runs without lag. That's why resource reservation is used in general on real-time systems. Your question is better phrased as "why do real-time systems have different design philosophies than non-real-time systems" although when phrased that way it kind of answers itself.