Prey

[El Leone]

The X360/PS3 is going to always suffer when it comes to PC ports, espically when the X360 GFX card is completly different.

[Yoshimax]

Yeah look at Halo1 - When they converted that to PC you needed a (relatively speaking) beast to get it running decent.

[Matt]

The X360/PS3 is going to always suffer when it comes to PC ports, espically when the X360 GFX card is completly different.

I can see what you're saying but in this case I don't get it. The 360 has what I understand is the latest generation ATI graphics chip in it, so why will it suffer when the a very similar chip on a card inside a PC is much smoother? Instruction sets should be very much the same.

Likewise the PS3 has the latest nVidia chip in which is very close to the 7800 card (I remember the Unreal Engine guys ported the engine over in next to no time). It's not like the the PS2 which had significantly different achitecture.

At this stage in the 360's life I'd have thought PC's would be struggling to catch up. Even if the engine is a PC port the similarity in hardware should mean it's very close performance wise.

[anephric]

Exactry - I don't understand why the 360 (demo) version of this is dropping frames either, 30fps or no. It's a mystery to me. I can accept that 360 Quake 4 was rushed, hence its crappola framerate, but ffs you'd think they'd be on top of the engine/architecture by now.

[TheBlackLodge]

I did read something about it (Framerate/performance issues etc) being to do with the fact that the Doom 3 engine is Open GL orientated and thus more suited to Nvidia architecture than the Direct X based Ati stuff. That and the rush job was supposed to be behind the framerate issue in the 360 port of Quake 4. I can only assume it still applies. I recall the Tomb Raider demo being very poor framerate wise although when I played the final game it was fine, perhaps it'll be ironed out in the end ?

Edit -However I'm sure I recall reading that for the 360 version they gutted (For that read rewrote I'd imagine) the D3 engine of it's Open GL stuff and replaced it with DX code so the 360 version wouldn't suffer.........

Edit 2 -Which if not done properly might go some way to explaining things as well. Generally I wouldn't expect to see the D3 engine and the 360 enjoy a happy relationship if the original point is true. But then I do know **** all about coding GFX engines so all of the above could just be the products of a mind overworked and 'underbeered'.

[anephric]

Yeah, I read something about devcos struggling with the Doom III engine on 360, but I can't remember where now...

[sailor-fuku]

I had a look at the prey demo on me cronky PC - AMDxp 1.6ghz - 1 gig ram - ati 9800pro (128 meg) - and it ran really, really well at 1024x768 - AAx2 - medium settings - V-Sync locked.. And with recently having a play on the 360 demo - looks more or less exactly the same bar some texture resolutions here and there..my thoughts on the frame skipping on the 360 version might be down to actual ram as its loading in certain parts of the level - with most of us having a gig and over in our pc's, plus the ram on the gfx cards - compared to the 360 that apparently has just 512 meg for everything..do you think this could be a viable reason why..

[Yoshimax]

Carmack has been very praising of the 360's architecture - I wouldn't be surprised if he either "optimises" or rewrites the D3 engine to make it more suited (particularly if many companies are interested in using it) - Hopefully he'll do this an we'll see the box really sing

[El Leone]

The Doom3 Engine just isnt made for the X360

[capcom_suicide]

The Doom3 Engine just isnt made for the X360

Well I have to agree. The proof is Prey and Quake 4.

Both demos run light fire on my PC: (7800GT, 2GB RAM)

Both demos "Look" great on my 360, but the frame rate is just pants.

Stop making games on an engine that is not taking advantage of the 360!!

Look at multiplayer GRAW. To some it doesn't look all that special, but it is smooth as hell, and that is important to my immersion on FPS/TPS games. Juddering just ruins the sense of immersion. Ask anyone who suffered HL2 stuttering.

Then we have the load times.

Oblivion, Quake 4 and now Prey all have significantly longer loading times on 360 than PC.

The 360 has mega fast memory, and for a console 512MB is a lot of DDR! But ONLY if a dev uses it cleverly. Look at how the PS2 tiny memory was used more and more efficiently. The same will happen on 360, but I guess we are 6-12 months away.

No doubt a bunch of poor PC ports will fill the void. I bet F.E.A.R will be jerky as hell.

Things like this & the fact Far Cry STILL looks better on a 3 year old PC, are starting to boil my piss.

Luckily I have a PC to enjoy.

[Brats]

One big reason for the performance on the 360 is probably the fact that the main developers Human Head aren't programming the 360 version, it's being ported by Venom in the UK and is their first 360 game.

Human Head are very keen for the game to be released at the same time on both 360 and PC, which gives Venom very little time for optimisation. Plus the fact that the game is being written for the PC architecture and being ported by a different team, I think they've done a pretty good job.

[capcom_suicide]

One big reason for the performance on the 360 is probably the fact that the main developers Human Head aren't programming the 360 version, it's being ported by Venom in the UK and is their first 360 game.

Human Head are very keen for the game to be released at the same time on both 360 and PC, which gives Venom very little time for optimisation. Plus the fact that the game is being written for the PC architecture and being ported by a different team, I think they've done a pretty good job.

That's good info Brats, thanks.

I must say, the prey demo is very very good, and the frame rate issues are fairly minor. I guess I am just looking for an utopia that is a way off.

I think your comments add sensible balance to the debate.

Again, we are really only talking "Phase 1.5" of the 360's life.

I wonder how Rainbow 6 vegas will look? That is a real Phase 2 game, and the e3 video was so good I was convinced it was FMV!!

Prey on the 360 should not be too harshly critised for the stutters, but it is an annoyance.

[5r7]

wots reaaly odd tho, is that doom3 works great on the xbox and dosnt slow down

[TheBlackLodge]

wots reaaly odd tho, is that doom3 works great on the xbox and dosnt slow down

But they made some large cutbacks in terms of lighting and texture in order for that to happen.

[Yoshimax]

I say wait for Gears of War to show us how to make 360 really sing - That and some MS Studios titles like Forza2 will be the true demos of its potential power - And as I said before take a look at the PC version of Halo versus Xbox1 - consider the grunt you need in a PC to run it nice - that doesn't add up but it's the same thing in reverse.