Using 3D accelerated graphics lets you do things like lighting to make the character look like it's actually in the environment, not just a sprite superimposed on another sprite - that looks like a bad photoshop job. It also makes it easier to animate the character walking at 30 frames a second, you don't have to draw each one, just do some interpolation of positions. Plus, 3D is at least fundamentally resolution-independent, which is great for PC games and the new consoles (which support HD and SDTV).
3D graphics are limited, but the limitations on 2D graphics are pretty bad too.
Actually, with our next-generation development costs increasing rapidly, I don't think we'll get a reasonable return on our investment with the blackjack.
"SLI is probably one of the most important innovations that we have brought in the last several years." 3dfx had a very similar, albeit not identical, system ages ago.
"Nvidia 1.0 was building 3-D graphics. Creating the consumer 3-D market." No, that was 3dfx again.
Of course, Nvidia bought the remains of 3dfx so perhaps they're counting that.
Revisionist history aside, the full interview here (not the watered down blog post), is really interesting, and exactly the sort of thing that should be on slashdot.
Why ask American analysts about the Xbox in Japan when you could ask some actual Japanese people? They have games journalists over there, how about getting their opinions?
500 nanometer photon (roughly the middle of the visible range) = 6*10^14 Hz = 3.96*10^-19 J (c = f * lambda, E = h * f)
60 Watts = 60 Joules/second = 1.5*10^20 photons per second from a 60 Watt lightbulb.
30000000^2 = 9*10^14
1.5*10^20/9*10^14 = 170000 photons returned per second from a 60 Watt beam, at least according to the back of this envelope.
I just thought I'd put your number into some context. A 60 Watt searchlight pointing at the moon will get a lot of photons back - of course, you can't tell which are yours.
Publishers will look at the numbers and say "100,000 people bought episode one, but only 40,000 bought episode two, three and four - if we had packaged all of those together and charged four times as much we would have twice the revenue!"
They're (probably) wrong, but you know they'll think that way.
You hire one of those scuzzy link farmer guys to ensure that any real Google results using your name are drowned out by a torrent of linkspam sites and newsposts advertising 0EM s0ftwar3.
Yeah, I'd heard that the game plays a lot of tricks. I finally got around to getting it a couple of weeks ago - I went through the intro and was about 1 minute into the game and then I wasn't totally surprised when the screen froze. I was a bit more confused when nothing I did could make anything happen. Then downright spooked when I turned the gamecube off and the image was still there.
Super Monkey Ball - inspired the much lauded Katamari Damacy in obvious ways. - marble madness Donkey Konga - an EXACT clone of Taiko Drum Master. And there were all the bemani games. Nintendogs, - Dogz Kirby DS, Yoshi Touch and Go... - aren't these two very similar? I've only played Kirby Goldeneye 007 - Quake! Honestly, it was cool but nothing new. Metroid Prime - Again, not new (apart from in terms of pacing)
I'd add WarioWare (and WW:Twisted) and Alien Vs Predator (vision modes, ceiling walking, pouncing).
Plenty of new ideas out there, but it's hard to tell what's new and what you just missed first time round...
It's a live CD, so they can't assume that the distro has net access. Even when it is available (and linux compatible, not all ISPs are), configuring it to have net access just to play about with a pretty accelerated desktop is a hassle. Much better to put everything on the CD if you possibly can.
Microsoft shouldn't be in the home console business because they're competing against themselves - Windows is a major gaming platform.
If they'd focused on improving Windows by e.g. adding features from Xbox Live, making a standard install-and-play process which is as simple as putting a disc in an Xbox, and insisting that their OEM partners like Dell et al bundle gamepads with a standard layout with their PCs (so developers can count on having dual analogs available if they want to make a PC game that uses them) then the PC could be the best gaming system out there*. Instead they produced a "me too" console.
A similar argument could apply to Windows Mobile PDAs vs handheld consoles... but do people buy PDAs for games? I didn't think so.
*I guess it arguably is anyway, but I still own a gaming PC plus consoles for the genres that PC developers ignore. I wouldn't need to if MS had done a better job with Windows gaming.
Yeah, but my IP address is a NAT with 3 computers on it (desktop, big laptop, small laptop). I dual-boot, so that's 6 operating systems. I mostly use Firefox, but I sometimes use IE or Konqueror, so that's 12 different browser installs, none of which share cookies, all of which are just one unique user. And I delete my cookies or reinstall an OS now and again.
Oh, and I have another Firefox+Konqueror at work, which I sometimes browse through via X-forwarding or nx (or physically being there, obviously)... so IP addresses and cookies both fail.
Good thing too, I don't think it's in my interest to be tracked.
Slashdot Mirror
Using 3D accelerated graphics lets you do things like lighting to make the character look like it's actually in the environment, not just a sprite superimposed on another sprite - that looks like a bad photoshop job. It also makes it easier to animate the character walking at 30 frames a second, you don't have to draw each one, just do some interpolation of positions. Plus, 3D is at least fundamentally resolution-independent, which is great for PC games and the new consoles (which support HD and SDTV).
3D graphics are limited, but the limitations on 2D graphics are pretty bad too.
Actually, with our next-generation development costs increasing rapidly, I don't think we'll get a reasonable return on our investment with the blackjack.
"When's the last time you heard anybody recognized in a game for writing the story?"
Clive Barker's Undying. Hideo Kojima is also well respected for the Metal Gear series which he created and writes.
It's rare but it's not unheard of.
NV1 was a failure, it came and went without a market. The Voodoo was a success.
From the full interview:
"SLI is probably one of the most important innovations that we have brought in the last several years."
3dfx had a very similar, albeit not identical, system ages ago.
"Nvidia 1.0 was building 3-D graphics. Creating the consumer 3-D market."
No, that was 3dfx again.
Of course, Nvidia bought the remains of 3dfx so perhaps they're counting that.
Revisionist history aside, the full interview here (not the watered down blog post), is really interesting, and exactly the sort of thing that should be on slashdot.
Why ask American analysts about the Xbox in Japan when you could ask some actual Japanese people? They have games journalists over there, how about getting their opinions?
500 nanometer photon (roughly the middle of the visible range) = 6*10^14 Hz = 3.96*10^-19 J
(c = f * lambda, E = h * f)
60 Watts = 60 Joules/second = 1.5*10^20 photons per second from a 60 Watt lightbulb.
30000000^2 = 9*10^14
1.5*10^20/9*10^14 = 170000 photons returned per second from a 60 Watt beam, at least according to the back of this envelope.
I just thought I'd put your number into some context. A 60 Watt searchlight pointing at the moon will get a lot of photons back - of course, you can't tell which are yours.
Publishers will look at the numbers and say "100,000 people bought episode one, but only 40,000 bought episode two, three and four - if we had packaged all of those together and charged four times as much we would have twice the revenue!"
They're (probably) wrong, but you know they'll think that way.
You hire one of those scuzzy link farmer guys to ensure that any real Google results using your name are drowned out by a torrent of linkspam sites and newsposts advertising 0EM s0ftwar3.
Online play is a pretty big deal - at least for those who want to pay for Xbox Live.
Obligatory: the dreamcast had online street fighter 2 ages ago... though it was Japan only, and used modems.
Why on Earth would MS be developing games for the DS if it intended to come out with a competing device?
MechAssualt DS - based on the Xbox games
Diddy Kong Racing DS (a port from the N64, via MS-owned Rare)
Yeah, I'd heard that the game plays a lot of tricks. I finally got around to getting it a couple of weeks ago - I went through the intro and was about 1 minute into the game and then I wasn't totally surprised when the screen froze. I was a bit more confused when nothing I did could make anything happen. Then downright spooked when I turned the gamecube off and the image was still there.
:)
It turns out my VGA adaptor broke.
link
Not me. I'm with these guys.
I think Epic disagrees, since they changed it from 6-spread in unreal tournament to 3-spread in UT2003.
"you're not shocking anyone."
Says Mr Dildo.
Cheers.
Which college? I suddenly feel like broadening my education...
(Unless it was this one.)
Super Monkey Ball - inspired the much lauded Katamari Damacy in obvious ways. - marble madness
Donkey Konga - an EXACT clone of Taiko Drum Master. And there were all the bemani games.
Nintendogs, - Dogz
Kirby DS, Yoshi Touch and Go... - aren't these two very similar? I've only played Kirby
Goldeneye 007 - Quake! Honestly, it was cool but nothing new.
Metroid Prime - Again, not new (apart from in terms of pacing)
I'd add WarioWare (and WW:Twisted) and Alien Vs Predator (vision modes, ceiling walking, pouncing).
Plenty of new ideas out there, but it's hard to tell what's new and what you just missed first time round...
It's a live CD, so they can't assume that the distro has net access.
Even when it is available (and linux compatible, not all ISPs are), configuring it to have net access just to play about with a pretty accelerated desktop is a hassle. Much better to put everything on the CD if you possibly can.
Microsoft shouldn't be in the home console business because they're competing against themselves - Windows is a major gaming platform.
If they'd focused on improving Windows by e.g. adding features from Xbox Live, making a standard install-and-play process which is as simple as putting a disc in an Xbox, and insisting that their OEM partners like Dell et al bundle gamepads with a standard layout with their PCs (so developers can count on having dual analogs available if they want to make a PC game that uses them) then the PC could be the best gaming system out there*. Instead they produced a "me too" console.
A similar argument could apply to Windows Mobile PDAs vs handheld consoles... but do people buy PDAs for games? I didn't think so.
*I guess it arguably is anyway, but I still own a gaming PC plus consoles for the genres that PC developers ignore. I wouldn't need to if MS had done a better job with Windows gaming.
Yeah, but my IP address is a NAT with 3 computers on it (desktop, big laptop, small laptop). I dual-boot, so that's 6 operating systems. I mostly use Firefox, but I sometimes use IE or Konqueror, so that's 12 different browser installs, none of which share cookies, all of which are just one unique user. And I delete my cookies or reinstall an OS now and again.
Oh, and I have another Firefox+Konqueror at work, which I sometimes browse through via X-forwarding or nx (or physically being there, obviously)... so IP addresses and cookies both fail.
Good thing too, I don't think it's in my interest to be tracked.
I'm amazed at the amount of useless trivia I know.
Hooray for the internet!
And what would a bunch of archaeologists know about dinosaurs?
Don't piss them off, they're huge!
Why would Sigourney fight Ford Prefect?