Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> nemesis <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> > In any case, PC gaming is cramped by the success of consoles:  what does it
> > matter to have all that power when it's used basically to run console game ports
> > with resolutions going higher than your monitor supports and frame rates higher
> > than your eyes support...
>
>   With more RAM you can have higher-resolution textures, shadow maps and
> so on.

at least as far as producers provide them. ;)

> Also most game engines support all kinds of graphical effects which
> require both RAM and computing prowess and can be turned on and off. With
> the console, with its limited RAM and somewhat aging display hardware, they
> tune the game settings so that it will work at a good framerate on the
> console, while on the PC they leave it up to the player to tune the settings
> to the max if he wants and his PC can handle it. And it's not only about
> textures and visuals: Also the sheer amount of objects to render can be
> limited on the console due to lack of RAM and the aging display hardware.
>
>   The difference can sometimes be pretty striking when comparing side by
> side: Textures, view distances, shadows, visual effects can all be
> significantly better on a top-of-the-line PC compared to the Xbox 360.

yep, but a top-of-the-line PC is also significantly expensive, plus games only
run on Windows.

More than that, my early comparison between Shadow of the Colossus for PS2 and
Assassin's Creed as a current gen tech should illustrate what I expect from
nextgen:  more, better everything, not simply better framerate, higher res
textures or more depth of field showing exactly same geometry.

SotC was topnotch on the PS2, but compared to AC it looks barren and empty, with
far less detailed world, far less detailed character and AC brings not just more
world visible at all at once, but much more detailed and populated with a
stunning number of characters themselves far more detailed than main character
in SotC.  Plus much better texturing, lighting, effects etc.

That's nextgen, not just better tech settings or slightly clear textures...
we're still to see that, even on PC.  I suspect only when Crytek and Epic reveal
their nextgen engines running on latest GPUs...

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