Jabs at bad writers aside, I'm interested on how the WGA covering video games could change the industry.
Like most programmers, its rare that video game programmers see any residuals for games they worked on. I'm not saying this isn't fair, I get paid for the work I do, but if game writers, voice talent, and artists all start getting a piece of the action why not programmers?
An easy to discredit 'authority' of video game violence.
"Interesting point Mr Thompson, but isn't true that you have been found in a court of law to be a habitual liar? One who will say any crazy thing to try to push an agenda?"
I agree with you, I live in a big city and I expect that I'm being watched most of the time (unless it would actually help me (like when somebody hit my parked car), then I expect that nobody saw a thing;)).
But you better watch your Fourth Amendment rights very closely since there are a lot of cases now where they no longer apply.
I think part of the reason may be fear of losing a big part of their market to super-cheap laptops.
Most people use their laptops/destops to do mundane stuff: email, web-browsing, word-processing/spreadsheet stuff mostly. A $100-$200 laptop that could run firefox/openoffice, small enough to fit on your lap in coach-class of the airplane, and could run all day could really cut into their sales.
Sorry, I don't have time to keep answering you (turkey is done, now I have to work), but this is an example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.
I fall into the same trap when I watch football ("Why the hell doesn't he throw the ball to number #47? They shouldn't of punted.", etc.). I know enough about football sometimes I think I could do better, but there is a reason NFL coaches make big bucks and I'm stuck watching the game on TV.;)
Hope you enjoyed your turkey. I have three "undoable" tasks to finish before my next paycheck.
Since we're mostly talking about memory in this thread, lets look at some numbers. The PS3 has 256MB main memory (plus 256 for video). The XBox360 has 512MB total memory (you have to share this with the graphics, sound, etc.). The Wii has 64MB main memory (plus 24MB for video).
The PC can go higher but, even so, the min spec for HL2 is 256MB (shared with the OS), WoW requires 512MB, and Crysis, the top-of-the-line AAA title, requires 1GB.
Compare these numbers to a standard web server or, since Sony promised real time "Toy Story" graphics in the PS2, Pixar's render farm (which had something like 2 terabytes last time I checked).
Relax, I know how it works (I do this for a living). I can give you a dozen examples of games that have done it right and reasons why some games don't do it at all. I was just commenting on "Slashdot Experts".
By your posts, I'm guessing you're not a programmer (or at least not one with experience). All of the programmers I know don't give up on something because they find it hard. Learning to program is hard, getting a job in the game industry is hard, working 80-90 hours a week for months on end is hard. Programmers who give up when something is hard don't last.
That said, there is a big difference between something being possible and being practical. HL2 doesn't do load-waits because their core engine isn't set up for it. Other game engines are. Could Valve rewrite the engine to handle streaming data? Sure (in fact, I'm guessing the next Source engine will do this). But is it practical? I'm guessing no or they would have done it (Valve programmers don't give up because something is hard).
If we tried to release "Legacy of Kain: 2" with the same graphics and sounds, we would sell a few dozen copies. Users expect more than that.
I found the HL2 load screens annoying, but I don't recall a single review that even pointed them out. I do however recall seeing a couple reviews comment on the dated look of the graphics.
Thank you. I always find it funny/frustrating when people tell me how easy my job is.;)
BTW: Do you know that cancer is easy to cure? You just remove all the cancer cells and leave the healthy ones. Should take like two days (three if it is *really* bad)...
You are paying for a "matchmaking service". Yes, you can find those for free as well, but Microsoft has the advantage of "console lock-in", so you can't use XFire or something else.
Personally, I don't have a huge beef over it. $50 a year is a small price when you're buying 1-2 games every month (at $50-$65). But I also think there may be another monopoly lawsuit down the road for Microsoft when somebody at one of those other matchmaking services gets enough money to hire some good lawyers.
Why not? I've seen this sort of thing happen in real life.
The technology isn't there yet but, if you ignore them or do something else anti-social, they should ask you to leave. If you don't go, Trip will push you out the door and lock it behind you.
If you stab Trip in the face, Grace will scream and call the cops. If you kill her, well their you are, in a room with two dead bodies and nothing good on TV.
I any case, the game will end and you'll either be frustrated or (hopefully) feel ill because you just killed two people (virtual or not).
EA is funding Spore because they think it has a good chance of becoming the next "The Sims".
If Spore doesn't sell huge numbers, they *may* give the group another chance (good PR to have at least one "artistic" group), but they are not going to fund any group that doesn't benefit them.
The credits are not for you, they are for the people who worked on the project. A lot of those people made huge sacrifices so you could kill that final monster. You don't have to sit through them all.
Yeah, it's stupid as hell, but I felt a shiver when I first saw my name at the end of a game I worked on.
This is exactly the problem Trusted Computing wants to fix. By making non-DRM media a bigger hassle, you'll be happy to spend $30 on the DVD, another $15 to put it on your iPhone, $0.25 each time you use one of the soundtrack songs as your ringtone, etc.
Yes, but my point is that even with (random numbers here) three or thirty times the shaders, polygons, pixels, whatever I'm not sure if most people will notice. If they do notice, will they really care?
Now I'm not a neo-luddite, I love the potential power of the Cell and would love to get my hands on Intel's massive multi-core monsters that are coming soon, but improving graphic quality has hit the point of diminishing returns.
Slashdot Mirror
Jabs at bad writers aside, I'm interested on how the WGA covering video games could change the industry.
Like most programmers, its rare that video game programmers see any residuals for games they worked on. I'm not saying this isn't fair, I get paid for the work I do, but if game writers, voice talent, and artists all start getting a piece of the action why not programmers?
An easy to discredit 'authority' of video game violence.
"Interesting point Mr Thompson, but isn't true that you have been found in a court of law to be a habitual liar? One who will say any crazy thing to try to push an agenda?"
Yes, but it is still slander. I think that lawyers that knowingly lie in a court of law should not be allowed to practice.
About half the 3D games I've worked on had major fps problems the month before going gold.
Yes, the "Is this bugging you? I'm not touching you." defense. My brother used that one on me all the time. ;)
Anybody firing a weapon in the air over a populated area should speed time in jail (at the very least).
I agree with you, I live in a big city and I expect that I'm being watched most of the time (unless it would actually help me (like when somebody hit my parked car), then I expect that nobody saw a thing ;)).
But you better watch your Fourth Amendment rights very closely since there are a lot of cases now where they no longer apply.
I think part of the reason may be fear of losing a big part of their market to super-cheap laptops.
Most people use their laptops/destops to do mundane stuff: email, web-browsing, word-processing/spreadsheet stuff mostly. A $100-$200 laptop that could run firefox/openoffice, small enough to fit on your lap in coach-class of the airplane, and could run all day could really cut into their sales.
I was trying to make it simple. ;)
I think you're project somebody else onto me.
In any case, this has gotten *way* too personal and *way* too far off-topic (and, yes, I'm as much to blame as your are for that). :)
Peace.
Sorry, I don't have time to keep answering you (turkey is done, now I have to work), but this is an example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.
I fall into the same trap when I watch football ("Why the hell doesn't he throw the ball to number #47? They shouldn't of punted.", etc.). I know enough about football sometimes I think I could do better, but there is a reason NFL coaches make big bucks and I'm stuck watching the game on TV. ;)
Hope you enjoyed your turkey. I have three "undoable" tasks to finish before my next paycheck.
Since we're mostly talking about memory in this thread, lets look at some numbers. The PS3 has 256MB main memory (plus 256 for video). The XBox360 has 512MB total memory (you have to share this with the graphics, sound, etc.). The Wii has 64MB main memory (plus 24MB for video).
The PC can go higher but, even so, the min spec for HL2 is 256MB (shared with the OS), WoW requires 512MB, and Crysis, the top-of-the-line AAA title, requires 1GB.
Compare these numbers to a standard web server or, since Sony promised real time "Toy Story" graphics in the PS2, Pixar's render farm (which had something like 2 terabytes last time I checked).
Uncanny isn't it? ;)
Relax, I know how it works (I do this for a living). I can give you a dozen examples of games that have done it right and reasons why some games don't do it at all. I was just commenting on "Slashdot Experts".
By your posts, I'm guessing you're not a programmer (or at least not one with experience). All of the programmers I know don't give up on something because they find it hard. Learning to program is hard, getting a job in the game industry is hard, working 80-90 hours a week for months on end is hard. Programmers who give up when something is hard don't last.
That said, there is a big difference between something being possible and being practical. HL2 doesn't do load-waits because their core engine isn't set up for it. Other game engines are. Could Valve rewrite the engine to handle streaming data? Sure (in fact, I'm guessing the next Source engine will do this). But is it practical? I'm guessing no or they would have done it (Valve programmers don't give up because something is hard).
Here is a very understandable set of slides on how GoW came to be. And here is the audio to go with it.
I misspoke, it was 16MB for level data split into two 8MB chunks (so you can have two levels loaded at once). You can see the memory map on slide 38.
If we tried to release "Legacy of Kain: 2" with the same graphics and sounds, we would sell a few dozen copies. Users expect more than that.
I found the HL2 load screens annoying, but I don't recall a single review that even pointed them out. I do however recall seeing a couple reviews comment on the dated look of the graphics.
Thank you. I always find it funny/frustrating when people tell me how easy my job is. ;)
BTW: Do you know that cancer is easy to cure? You just remove all the cancer cells and leave the healthy ones. Should take like two days (three if it is *really* bad)...
You nailed it, but other games have worked around this issue (Dungeon Siege being one of the first).
It could be done, but it would require a major rewrite of Valve's "Source" engine to do it.
Sounds and graphics take far more resources than 'scripts'.
If GoW which had (if I recall) 4MB split into two 2MB chunks can handle it, other games can too.
You are paying for a "matchmaking service". Yes, you can find those for free as well, but Microsoft has the advantage of "console lock-in", so you can't use XFire or something else.
Personally, I don't have a huge beef over it. $50 a year is a small price when you're buying 1-2 games every month (at $50-$65). But I also think there may be another monopoly lawsuit down the road for Microsoft when somebody at one of those other matchmaking services gets enough money to hire some good lawyers.
Why not? I've seen this sort of thing happen in real life.
The technology isn't there yet but, if you ignore them or do something else anti-social, they should ask you to leave. If you don't go, Trip will push you out the door and lock it behind you.
If you stab Trip in the face, Grace will scream and call the cops. If you kill her, well their you are, in a room with two dead bodies and nothing good on TV.
I any case, the game will end and you'll either be frustrated or (hopefully) feel ill because you just killed two people (virtual or not).
EA is funding Spore because they think it has a good chance of becoming the next "The Sims".
If Spore doesn't sell huge numbers, they *may* give the group another chance (good PR to have at least one "artistic" group), but they are not going to fund any group that doesn't benefit them.
The credits are not for you, they are for the people who worked on the project. A lot of those people made huge sacrifices so you could kill that final monster. You don't have to sit through them all.
Yeah, it's stupid as hell, but I felt a shiver when I first saw my name at the end of a game I worked on.
This is exactly the problem Trusted Computing wants to fix. By making non-DRM media a bigger hassle, you'll be happy to spend $30 on the DVD, another $15 to put it on your iPhone, $0.25 each time you use one of the soundtrack songs as your ringtone, etc.
Yes, but my point is that even with (random numbers here) three or thirty times the shaders, polygons, pixels, whatever I'm not sure if most people will notice. If they do notice, will they really care?
Now I'm not a neo-luddite, I love the potential power of the Cell and would love to get my hands on Intel's massive multi-core monsters that are coming soon, but improving graphic quality has hit the point of diminishing returns.
Wait, a job who's great reward is being able to lord over middle-schoolers mostly attracts dumbasses? You're kidding!