Next Gen Consoles

Lami said:
Anyone interested in the new Steam box btw?
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Depends on the specs and pricing and how far they get with porting all the games from Direct3D to OpenGL which apparently by launch the whole Valve library will be available to purchase via the Steam Store.

If the games remain as cheap as they are present on Steam and the pricing and specs are very reasonable then I suspect a lot of people might be tempted, but it would require a lot of developers switching to OpenGL and I am not a game developer so don't know how much more difficult it is to program for compared to Direct3D.
 
jaygrim said:
How much is steam box? I've heard between £800 - £1000.
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They are playing with multiple specs at the moment and I believe they will be releasing different variants. They will apparently be priced £400-£1000 depending on what specs you want.
 
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The Steam Box thing is a strange one to me... You can already set up a PC to act like a console if you want to, by booting it straight into Steam "Big Picture" mode which has the presentation and features of a typical console dashboard.

What will it have to offer? I can't see it being a very popular move for Valve if they decide to offer exclusives to the platform which are unavailable on PC, and by choosing a Steam Box you miss out on the PS4/XB1 exclusives, which for me are the main reason to choose a console. What about Origin games like Battlefield too?

It doesn't sound like SteamOS is as restrictive as the OS on PS4/XB1, and their FAQ says you can install your own OS if you want or change the hardware... Or you can run SteamOS on a PC build of your own... So it sounds like the Steam Box will just be a PC with SteamOS partition...

Unless the mass-produced nature of consoles can offer massive reductions in the price of the hardware to the consumer, I don't really see a major selling point.


More info here:
http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamMachines/
http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS
 
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bsmaff said:
Depends on the specs and pricing and how far they get with porting all the games from Direct3D to OpenGL which apparently by launch the whole Valve library will be available to purchase via the Steam Store.

If the games remain as cheap as they are present on Steam and the pricing and specs are very reasonable then I suspect a lot of people might be tempted, but it would require a lot of developers switching to OpenGL and I am not a game developer so don't know how much more difficult it is to program for compared to Direct3D.
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There is new modern API coming up called Mantle, which isn't microsoft toy and likely to be available in linux as well. Battlefield 4 will release patch which will give option to switch from directx to mantle rendering option.

From reading reviews its likely to be more advanced than directx giving faster access to hardware and pretty similiar rendering technique to consoles (easier porting games to pc).

The major drawback - its available only for amd gpu's. But still its likely well see AAA titles with this rendering method on linux from day 1 in the future :) .
 
Quote from Mike Wang over at Visual Concepts: (NBA 2K)

"I love the PS4! I‘m a convert. I wasn’t a huge fan of the PS3 controller, but DualShock 4 is amazing, it feels perfect. I love the changes that Sony has done! The machine itself is ridiculous, it’s so powerful, so much easier to develop for. In the office it’s unanimous; we have a couple people who don’t play anything else now, they won’t touch Xbox One. We love the PS4, it’s a great system."

Link: http://www.worldsfactory.net/2013/11/05/visual-concepts-loves-ps4-powerful
 
airjoca said:
Quote from Mike Wang over at Visual Concepts: (NBA 2K)

"I love the PS4! I‘m a convert. I wasn’t a huge fan of the PS3 controller, but DualShock 4 is amazing, it feels perfect. I love the changes that Sony has done! The machine itself is ridiculous, it’s so powerful, so much easier to develop for. In the office it’s unanimous; we have a couple people who don’t play anything else now, they won’t touch Xbox One. We love the PS4, it’s a great system."

Link: http://www.worldsfactory.net/2013/11/05/visual-concepts-loves-ps4-powerful
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That's it. Sold.

:SMUG:
 
This is kind of embarassing...

Metro | Call Of Duty: Ghosts Mark Rubin interview – ‘there are things that we’re not allowed to talk about’

...

GC: So, just finally, I have to ask: why does the PlayStation 4 version look so much better than the Xbox One? Is the resolution really the only difference?

MR: [laughs] Yep, it’s the only difference. The TVs are different on some of them, but… they both have their different rendering engines but they’re as close as possible. It really comes down to resolution. Xbox is upscaled 720, it’s outputting at 1080p but it’s upscaled from 720. Whereas PlayStation 4 is native 1080p. So that’s really the only graphical difference. But it is enough. Some people here are saying they don’t really notice a difference…

GC: Was that the guy with the white stick?

MR: [laugh] But yeah, the PS4 looks really good.

GC: Is the PC version still better?

MR: There’s actually some features that we’ve added to the PC that are definitively not on any other generation. We worked with Nvidia a lot with this, but we have a different form of anti-aliasing that’s really new and advanced – that isn’t on current or next gen. We have a fur shader on the dog and on the wolves, they actually have a moving fur shader that works really well, for PC. And the third one, which I think is one of the coolest ones, is we’re using Nvidia’s APEX Turbulence tech to have smoke that actually wisps and waves and moves out of the way of objects.

GC: So is that something the new consoles can’t do or you just didn’t have time to implement it?

MR: No, it’s… well, you can do almost anything, almost. Tessellation can’t be done on current gen for the most part, because it’s a DirectX 11 feature, but we could still do it but you’d get a frame rate of 2. So that really becomes the reason we do everything: the reason the Xbox One is 720, the reason the PlayStation 4 is 1080 is we’re trying to make the game look as good as it possible can and making sure we maintain our 60 frames per second.

We maintain the latency and the speed and the things that people actually care about. Even if they won’t admit it, the thing that makes Call Of Duty popular is how it feels, because of those priorities.

GC: So the obvious assumption from all this is that the PlayStation 4 is definitely more powerful than the Xbox One, is that true?

MR: [acting very embarrassed] I can’t answer that.

GC: You can’t answer it on a technical level or because you’re being diplomatic?

MR: Can’t answer that.

GC: You can’t say whether you’re avoiding the question for diplomatic reasons?

MR: [embarrassed] I just can’t say anything…

[Even the attending PR guy is looking embarrassed by this point]

PR guy: It’s very hard for us to be…

GC: Are the console manufacturers leaning on you to avoid these sort of questions?

MR: [unsure - speaking to PR guy] I don’t know if that…

MR: [even more embarrassed to us] Yeah, there’s things that we… We sign NDAs with the first parties [i.e. Microsoft and Sony - GC] and there are things that we’re not allowed to talk about.

GC: So when John Carmack and Shinji Mikami say the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are almost identical, is that something you could agree with?

MR: Hmm… I would say that’s a bit inaccurate but I wouldn’t be able to tell you any detail of why that’s inaccurate.

GC: For diplomatic reasons?

MR: Yes.

GC: Okay, that’s fine. I think we can all read between those lines. But that’s absurd, how can they not except any journalist, any reasonable journalist, not to ask that question? It’s what everyone wants to know.

MR: [still feeling very awkward] The key thing is we try to focus people away from that sort of thing and try to focus them on the fact that the game is fun no matter what platform it’s on.

GC: Do you think with the next game you make there will there be such an obvious disparity between the two formats?

MR: Unknown… But over time… If you look at Call Of Duty 2 compared to COD 4 there’s a massive graphic difference, they look very different. So I think we’ll get better, yes.

GC: But will that same proportional gap always be there?

MR: Don’t know. Until we get there I honestly don’t know. To be not diplomatic or anything [laughs] we really don’t know. We’ve done as much as we can in the time we have to get where we’re at. Will they close the gap? Will they go off in the opposite direction? Who knows? But for this game it is what it is.

GC: Do you think everyone else will have these same problems? All these other cross-generational games that are out at launch?

MR: Well, I think they’ve already said they are haven’t they? Battlefield 4 is 720 on Xbox One and I think 900 on PS4? Titanfall has said they’re 720… So we’re not the first to say we’re 720 on the Xbox One.

GC: No, no. So they’re all obviously hitting the same wall.

MR: Yeah, so you’re reading that correctly in that it’s not specifically us doing something villainous. It’s a thing where all of us have to work at getting better at developing for both consoles. And that’s the fun part. I always use the analogy that the first game on a new console is always like an awkward first date, but once you know a lot more about each other it’s a lot better.
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source: http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo... talk about’&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13836854680717
 
airjoca said:
Quote from Mike Wang over at Visual Concepts: (NBA 2K)

"I love the PS4! I‘m a convert. I wasn’t a huge fan of the PS3 controller, but DualShock 4 is amazing, it feels perfect. I love the changes that Sony has done! The machine itself is ridiculous, it’s so powerful, so much easier to develop for. In the office it’s unanimous; we have a couple people who don’t play anything else now, they won’t touch Xbox One. We love the PS4, it’s a great system."

Link: http://www.worldsfactory.net/2013/11/05/visual-concepts-loves-ps4-powerful
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:SMUG:
 
Ouch,

I wonder what the NDA encompasses, because the fact we know about it surely makes it even worse for MS than dev's coming out and saying something along the lines of;

"For the first game on a new platform the PS4 was just a bit easier to program for which is why we have a difference in resolution. We expect over time to improve our development for the two platforms".
 
There's so much "my dad is harder than your dad" in this thread :CONF:

It shouldn't matter which console is more powerful, as long as you - the paying customer - are happy with your purchase. I've just pre-paid for my XBO this morning with Shopto. Can't wait to play BF4 and Fifa 14, irrespective of their output resolutions or "box performance figures". Like I said earlier, the social network I have revolves more around the Xbox, so for that reason I'm very happy already.

I will buy a PS4 because I've already got a PS3 and enjoy it too, but as of now my launch console will be the XBox.
 
Scutch said:
There's so much "my dad is harder than your dad" in this thread :CONF:

It shouldn't matter which console is more powerful, as long as you - the paying customer - are happy with your purchase. I've just pre-paid for my XBO this morning with Shopto. Can't wait to play BF4 and Fifa 14, irrespective of their output resolutions or "box performance figures". Like I said earlier, the social network I have revolves more around the Xbox, so for that reason I'm very happy already.

I will buy a PS4 because I've already got a PS3 and enjoy it too, but as of now my launch console will be the XBox.
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Well said that man.
 
Scutch said:
There's so much "my dad is harder than your dad" in this thread :CONF:

It shouldn't matter which console is more powerful, as long as you - the paying customer - are happy with your purchase. I've just pre-paid for my XBO this morning with Shopto. Can't wait to play BF4 and Fifa 14, irrespective of their output resolutions or "box performance figures". Like I said earlier, the social network I have revolves more around the Xbox, so for that reason I'm very happy already.

I will buy a PS4 because I've already got a PS3 and enjoy it too, but as of now my launch console will be the XBox.
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Ditto.

Will be getting both too, but only XO this year.
 
So it begins...

BYZEvKoCQAApLKa.jpg:large
 
I'm not a fan or player of COD games but I've always enjoyed Jeff Gertsmann's opinion. Looks like Sony have done a great job with the DS4:))

After playing a lot of Call of Duty: Ghosts with a lot of different gamepads, the PS4's new DualShock 4 came up as my favorite.
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ive used the DS4 and it was a big concern for me being used to the xbox pad and hating the DS3

I picked the DS4 up and instantly could play fifa without any problems. I cannot do that on the PS3

its a good controller and the sticks are much improved and with the hand positions now the stick locations don't pose a problem being next to each other

I wouldn't worry about it
 
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