PC Gaming "Held Back" By Consoles

[Vanzagar]

Why wouldn't you just make it advanced to start with (high poly count, large textures ...etc), then scale it back when you need to... then you can also re-release it for the next gen consoles...

PC gaming is far more technologically advanced than its fixed hardware console competitors, but the current economic climate is preventing developers from taking advantage of it according to Crytek founder Cevat Yerli.

"PC is easily a generation ahead right now," Yerli told the UK publication Edge. "With 360 and PS3, we believe the quality of the games beyond Crysis 2 and other CryEngine developments will be pretty much limited to what their creative expressions is, what the content is. You won't be able to squeeze more juice from these rocks.

"I generally think it's still developers' mentality [that is to blame]," he continued. "A lot nowadays don't consider PC a big issue any more; their [sales] expectations are nowhere near what they are for the console versions. Until the PC market creates comparable revenues, companies are not going to spend enough on the PC SKU of a game."

We're sure the rampant piracy prevalent in the PC gaming community isn't helping the cause, either.

Crytek is currently developing Crysis for PlayStaion 3, Xbox 360, and PC. The German company also announced two new titles this year: an Xbox 360 exclusive codenamed Kingdoms, and WarFace, a free-to-play PC shooter.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...-consoles.aspx

[Madpistol]

Steam has proven time and time again that the PC as a platform is profitable. Of course, it's only profitable if you make a good game and sell it at the right price. Consoles have the luxury of fixed pricing schemes that all stores comply with. Steam is competing with brick and mortar companies. That's the difference. Piracy doesn't help the issue, but I don't think it hurts the market as much as some may think. Valve certainly doesn't seem to be worried about it.

Since Steam's decision to go live as a games provider through an account based service, the creative content that has hit the PC market has skyrocketed. If that's not evidence that the PC market is alive and well, then go buy a PS3 or RRoD box and enjoy half-assed content. PC isn't a platform; it's a creative benchmark that consoles try to copy.

[CaptnStubing]

[DansFace]

I'm kinda glad its being held back...

Less upgrading!

[Redeemed]

Originally Posted by CaptnStubing

This is totally how I picture you.

[ViN86]

Originally Posted by Vanzagar

Why wouldn't you just make it advanced to start with (high poly count, large textures ...etc), then scale it back when you need to... then you can also re-release it for the next gen consoles...



http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...-consoles.aspx

Because it's cheaper to make medium sized textures, put them on consoles, then port it to PC.

[Viral]

I don't think it has a lot to do with being cheaper to make medium res textures, but textures will always look slightly better at the size they were made to be than if they are downsampled.

[FearMeAll]

Originally Posted by Madpistol

Piracy doesn't help the issue, but I don't think it hurts the market as much as some may think. Valve certainly doesn't seem to be worried about it.

Piracy is still rampant on consoles considering every console ever created has been hacked and or mod chipped. Xbox360 piracy has been pretty big and now PS3 piracy is going to get huge (considering the PS3 will rip the games off the disc for you!!lolwtf) . The psp was hacked almost immediately and the DS was a joke and don't get me started on the Wii.

I wish there was a study done just on console piracy so that devs would stop using the pc as a scapegoat. I've given pc gaming a rest to save green but I can't wait to fire up my steam account later this year with whatever latest card is out. My last card was a gtx280 and I wanted to skip a couple gens and be blown away. I love not having to fret about reinstalling all my games. Steam's easier to get back to your old games than hunting for cracks and troubleshooting compatibility and all the games are cheaper than their console brethren. I walk into walmart and can't believe the prices I see on these console games. I've ALWAYS felt ripped off paying $60 for any game..I don't care what it is.

Albeit if you go on amazon and look hard enough you can find used console games dirt cheap..like 8 bucks. This is what I do. I got God of War 3 for 20 bucks lol and DID NOT feel ripped off when I fired up that beautiful game.

sorry for the rambling..

[CaptnStubing]

Originally Posted by Redeemed

This is totally how I picture you.

Only when someone steals my chocolate.

[ViN86]

Originally Posted by Viral

I don't think it has a lot to do with being cheaper to make medium res textures, but textures will always look slightly better at the size they were made to be than if they are downsampled.

Time = money

Why spend all the time and effort to make high resolution textures if you can get by with lower quality ones that take less time to make and use them on both platforms.

[Redeemed]

Originally Posted by CaptnStubing

Only when someone steals my chocolate.

[Sean_W]

Originally Posted by ViN86

Time = money

Why spend all the time and effort to make high resolution textures if you can get by with lower quality ones that take less time to make and use them on both platforms.

Consoles can do high res textures without a problem and this sort of thing was put to bed a decade ago with S3TC. If the PC gets low res textures it's down to developers just not generally spending the time to make them that way, not because the consoles hold the PC back.

Is there any reason why developers still use 512x512 textures on cards which have 256/512 vram, when a decade a go a 32Mb card could do 1024x1024 without too much of an issue?