Wouldn't take much. My guess is that PA is more popular for there battles with J. Thompson than for actually being witty or interesting in their comics. Hey maybe they should cut HIM a check for $10k.:)
I do agree that power is becoming quite an annoyance these days with the video cards. I would like to say that I believe that to move forward we need to take a step back. I am finding more and more games that are simply pleasing to the eye but lack the originality, functionality, and creativeness of older games. These video card makers focus too much on realism and tend to encourage game makers to focus on the like. Let's make cards that are functional, less power hungry, well-rounded (physics), and cooler.
So Graphics companies should stop focusing on realistic graphics. How about we just stop innovating all together? Am I the only person who finds this ludicrous?
If you have beef with current videogames, how about blaming the videogame developers?
Nintendo and Apple are the same company. They consistently build better products and consistently build a better business while the nasal voices of criticism for the sake of criticism keep trying to shout them down.
meanwhile their fanboys flock to slashdot and post tired comments.
Nope, I was at E3 and lucky enough to see Nintendo's showing. It was very demo-like and fluffy. I did play a couple games though. Some were cool like bombermanland but, other stuff was just weird.
Honestly I was waay more excited about the Revolution before E3. I bought into the hype and it's kinda wearing off. I think the folks who are going to buy the Wii just to 'stick it to the man' will probably be pretty disappointed.
1) The API is well known by developers, and has remained stable from version to version. This reduces the amount of R&D and training that need to be done for a game.
Uh most games nowadays use D3D.
2) Use of OpenGL allows for portable code. While you can't completely get away with writing the same code between a PC version and a Console version, much of the rendering engine at least has a chance of getting reused.
If you write a flexible enough rendering engine this wont matter so much.
3) Carmack says so.;-)
yeah, ok. good reason
4) New features actually go through a standards process, meaning that they get more documentation than just "whatever Microsoft feels like telling you".
Which also means it takes long YEARS for a new version to come out, how long have we been waiting on OpenGL 2.0? Some cool things have come out since and OpenGL is always playing catch now.
5) DirectX is a non-portable skill. It ties you to Windows and the X-Box(s). OpenGL "ties" you to the Gamecube, Windows, PS2, PS3, Linux, Macintosh, etc. Graphics Programming is a portable skill, I've never met a good graphics programmer who couldnt switch between the two on the fly. Honestly if you can only do graphics in 1 or the other that's pretty worthless.
I'm sorry the whole DX vs OGL war is really old and really lame, Neither are a "god-send". They are both tools, use the one that is best for the job.
That's adorable, that really is. You gave over 3x your total net worth than Bill Gates. Of course you sacraficed more, but here's the cold splash of water and you plummet back down to earth, Gates' 20 million went a whole hell of a lot farther than your $100.
I'll admit I don't watch that much G4 and don't know much about the shows that are aired but has G4TV ever tried to pick up a show like Red Vs Blue? Seems like if they aired episodes of that or something like that it'd do pretty well.
Just out of curiosity what do you do in the industry? I'm programmer and a game studio and have a dev kit sitting right on my desk, I've seen some pretty amazing things on it. I'm just wondering because I haven't met ONE developer who wasn't atleast somewhat amazed at the pwoer of the console. Hell looking past just the technical details, Xbox Live is a great service that has huuuuge potential.
Sure HD on a console doesnt beat the resolution on a PC, but what size is you're monitor? 19"? 21"? On avg, HDTVs are over 30". High resolution isn't everything you need screen real estate to appreciate it. 720p/1080i looks pretty damn good on a 37" TV.
As for games, i've already said nothing right now is worth getting too excited, but if you are basing the entire console off the games right now, that's pretty foolish. The potential on this console is huge.
Let's all end the hype now, the 360 is out and even though MS is still making excuses and promises, the games are not that spectacularly different. Don't expect things to be that much different with the PS3. HD textures are about it, that is what all the hubub is about. Give it a rest now. The three systems will be competitive and no different than the current offerings.
I would agree with you that the games aren't spectacularly different...NOW. There is a reason for that: Just about every single 360 launch title was originally targetted at an older console, then a few tweaks were added here and there for next gen (HD specifically). But to when the 2nd+ generation 360 games come out, you're going to notice a pretty big difference. I know from first hand experience that the 360 is an incredibly powerful machine that is a huuuuge leap from the original xbox. You will definately see some amazing things come out for it in the future.
I agree, but it's worth it to me to give up some pay for the amount of flexibility and the laid-back evironment I have now.
I do understand that the perception is taht everyone in this industry is overworked though, because you only hear about the extremely bad cases (EA). You can measure the amountof hours a person work but how do you measure the satisfcation some one has while on the job? All of my peers love their work and make a good wage doing what they love. What more can you ask for?
I'm not saying it's like pulling teeth to work in other fields, if you love it, then more power to you, but for me, the game industry just fits.
I did both man, Back at school I wrote medical visualization software for virtual reality systems. Sure it paid the bills, but it wasn't as satisfying and the work environment was much more uptight (Researching PHDs aren't the most fun group of people to work with).
Now, I work in the game industry and my hours are extemely flexible and the atmosphere is much more laidback. I find that the quality of work I am doing is much better now that I am happy. I make a very good wage (I'm not rich, but I never have to worry about money) and always seem to have the time to take vacations and such. So hey, I guess there's 2 sides to every coin.
Of course you wan't those things. who doesn't? But it's not like developers have these things sitting a box somewhere and won't let them out because they only want graphics. It takes resources to develop AI (this is not an easy subject to tackle btw), interactive environments (physics), and stories (especially when you have to hire writers).
One of the reasons graphics are focused on are is that it is something that is easily scalable. Not many games out there have gameplay that ABSOLUTELY rely on graphics. If someone doesnt have the latest graphics card so what they turn down some of the settings and still can play, things like AI and and physics affect the gameplay more directly and are not so scalable. This is one of the reasons a PPU isn't the magic cure for improved physics.
So, why choose BSCS over BSEE or BSCE? Because you don't feel like taking four or five calculus courses? Because you have no interest in working on hardware?
I don't know where you went to school but at my university (Purdue), CS majors prolly take the most math classes outside of math majors (in fact CS majors usually doubled as math majors). Every one of my friends who graduated with me (May 2005) who wanted jobs got jobs, most of us had are coices between 2-3 different companies (and no it wasn't general IT work or "computer work"). As for the less insane coursework comment, the CS/EE/CE coursework is equally difficult.
Sorry i just had to jump in and defend my degree:)
Slashdot Mirror
Wouldn't take much. My guess is that PA is more popular for there battles with J. Thompson than for actually being witty or interesting in their comics. Hey maybe they should cut HIM a check for $10k. :)
I do agree that power is becoming quite an annoyance these days with the video cards. I would like to say that I believe that to move forward we need to take a step back. I am finding more and more games that are simply pleasing to the eye but lack the originality, functionality, and creativeness of older games. These video card makers focus too much on realism and tend to encourage game makers to focus on the like. Let's make cards that are functional, less power hungry, well-rounded (physics), and cooler.
So Graphics companies should stop focusing on realistic graphics. How about we just stop innovating all together? Am I the only person who finds this ludicrous?
If you have beef with current videogames, how about blaming the videogame developers?
I agree, enough with the PS3 sucks articles unless it has some new info.
Nintendo and Apple are the same company. They consistently build better products and consistently build a better business while the nasal voices of criticism for the sake of criticism keep trying to shout them down.
meanwhile their fanboys flock to slashdot and post tired comments.
Nope, I was at E3 and lucky enough to see Nintendo's showing. It was very demo-like and fluffy. I did play a couple games though. Some were cool like bombermanland but, other stuff was just weird.
Honestly I was waay more excited about the Revolution before E3. I bought into the hype and it's kinda wearing off. I think the folks who are going to buy the Wii just to 'stick it to the man' will probably be pretty disappointed.
$250 ticket?! Think of the ticketmaster charges!
Anyone else tired of the "all new games suck" argument?
Really? Wait, let me pull out my list of things I give a shit about and see if annoying you is on there....Nope!
Awww, did the big bad controller scare you?
Seriously, I guess you've never tried playing them. So far all the arcade classics in XLA work great with the controller.
Idiots with money :)
*ducks*
Yup makes no difference if you learned GLSL, Cg, or HLSL you should have no problem using any.
In fact, intelligent design saves people from thinking...
Funny, I thought the same thing about ID.
That's a scary thought.
1) The API is well known by developers, and has remained stable from version to version. This reduces the amount of R&D and training that need to be done for a game.
;-)
Uh most games nowadays use D3D.
2) Use of OpenGL allows for portable code. While you can't completely get away with writing the same code between a PC version and a Console version, much of the rendering engine at least has a chance of getting reused.
If you write a flexible enough rendering engine this wont matter so much.
3) Carmack says so.
yeah, ok. good reason
4) New features actually go through a standards process, meaning that they get more documentation than just "whatever Microsoft feels like telling you".
Which also means it takes long YEARS for a new version to come out, how long have we been waiting on OpenGL 2.0? Some cool things have come out since and OpenGL is always playing catch now.
5) DirectX is a non-portable skill. It ties you to Windows and the X-Box(s). OpenGL "ties" you to the Gamecube, Windows, PS2, PS3, Linux, Macintosh, etc.
Graphics Programming is a portable skill, I've never met a good graphics programmer who couldnt switch between the two on the fly. Honestly if you can only do graphics in 1 or the other that's pretty worthless.
I'm sorry the whole DX vs OGL war is really old and really lame, Neither are a "god-send". They are both tools, use the one that is best for the job.
That's adorable, that really is. You gave over 3x your total net worth than Bill Gates. Of course you sacraficed more, but here's the cold splash of water and you plummet back down to earth, Gates' 20 million went a whole hell of a lot farther than your $100.
hahah I feel like i'm taking crazy pills
I'll admit I don't watch that much G4 and don't know much about the shows that are aired but has G4TV ever tried to pick up a show like Red Vs Blue? Seems like if they aired episodes of that or something like that it'd do pretty well.
Just out of curiosity what do you do in the industry? I'm programmer and a game studio and have a dev kit sitting right on my desk, I've seen some pretty amazing things on it. I'm just wondering because I haven't met ONE developer who wasn't atleast somewhat amazed at the pwoer of the console. Hell looking past just the technical details, Xbox Live is a great service that has huuuuge potential.
Sure HD on a console doesnt beat the resolution on a PC, but what size is you're monitor? 19"? 21"? On avg, HDTVs are over 30". High resolution isn't everything you need screen real estate to appreciate it. 720p/1080i looks pretty damn good on a 37" TV.
As for games, i've already said nothing right now is worth getting too excited, but if you are basing the entire console off the games right now, that's pretty foolish. The potential on this console is huge.
Let's all end the hype now, the 360 is out and even though MS is still making excuses and promises, the games are not that spectacularly different. Don't expect things to be that much different with the PS3. HD textures are about it, that is what all the hubub is about. Give it a rest now. The three systems will be competitive and no different than the current offerings.
I would agree with you that the games aren't spectacularly different...NOW. There is a reason for that: Just about every single 360 launch title was originally targetted at an older console, then a few tweaks were added here and there for next gen (HD specifically). But to when the 2nd+ generation 360 games come out, you're going to notice a pretty big difference. I know from first hand experience that the 360 is an incredibly powerful machine that is a huuuuge leap from the original xbox. You will definately see some amazing things come out for it in the future.
So are we cool to write and mass distribute rootkits as long as we make a patch available down the road? :)
it's not anti-science, it's pro-stupid.
I agree, but it's worth it to me to give up some pay for the amount of flexibility and the laid-back evironment I have now.
I do understand that the perception is taht everyone in this industry is overworked though, because you only hear about the extremely bad cases (EA). You can measure the amountof hours a person work but how do you measure the satisfcation some one has while on the job? All of my peers love their work and make a good wage doing what they love. What more can you ask for?
I'm not saying it's like pulling teeth to work in other fields, if you love it, then more power to you, but for me, the game industry just fits.
I did both man, Back at school I wrote medical visualization software for virtual reality systems. Sure it paid the bills, but it wasn't as satisfying and the work environment was much more uptight (Researching PHDs aren't the most fun group of people to work with).
Now, I work in the game industry and my hours are extemely flexible and the atmosphere is much more laidback. I find that the quality of work I am doing is much better now that I am happy. I make a very good wage (I'm not rich, but I never have to worry about money) and always seem to have the time to take vacations and such. So hey, I guess there's 2 sides to every coin.
Of course you wan't those things. who doesn't? But it's not like developers have these things sitting a box somewhere and won't let them out because they only want graphics. It takes resources to develop AI (this is not an easy subject to tackle btw), interactive environments (physics), and stories (especially when you have to hire writers).
One of the reasons graphics are focused on are is that it is something that is easily scalable. Not many games out there have gameplay that ABSOLUTELY rely on graphics. If someone doesnt have the latest graphics card so what they turn down some of the settings and still can play, things like AI and and physics affect the gameplay more directly and are not so scalable. This is one of the reasons a PPU isn't the magic cure for improved physics.
So, why choose BSCS over BSEE or BSCE? Because you don't feel like taking four or five calculus courses? Because you have no interest in working on hardware?
:)
I don't know where you went to school but at my university (Purdue), CS majors prolly take the most math classes outside of math majors (in fact CS majors usually doubled as math majors). Every one of my friends who graduated with me (May 2005) who wanted jobs got jobs, most of us had are coices between 2-3 different companies (and no it wasn't general IT work or "computer work"). As for the less insane coursework comment, the CS/EE/CE coursework is equally difficult.
Sorry i just had to jump in and defend my degree