Chaos

We may be on the cusp of a new sea change in gaming, but unlike all the others I’m not sure this one is a positive change. With the launch of Doom 3 two weeks ago and Half Life 2 (supposedly) going gold in roughly a week it looks as though we’re entering a new era of “Optimized” Gaming where hardware and software manufacturers work hand-in-glove to ensure titles are absolutely optimized for their own technology.

At first glance, that sounds like a great idea, and I used to be a proponent of it. I’ve often wondered what would’ve happened if 3dfx had cut a deal with Blizzard prior to the launch of Diablo II to bundle the game with Voodoo5 cards (More broken left mouse buttons?? -Ed). For those of you who don’t know, Diablo II was much better visually when played on a 3dfx card using Glide as compared to a TNT2, GeForce, or Radeon of the day. Visuals were smoother, FSAA looked great, and the card could be adjusted for internal 32-bit rendering. Even though D2 was a 16-bit game, the internal 32-bit render still produced smoother dithering, which made a subtle difference.


Source: Sudhian

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The_Neon_Cowboy

Quote:

At the moment, there’s no question—Doom 3 runs best on an NVIDIA

That’s a bit inaccurate while the OpenGL is being improved. Neither the situation nor Ati’s response is hardly frantic. This statement makes it sound like ATI is running scared trying to hurry a re write its driver from the ground up. That is not so, while ATI is striving to improve it OpenGL performance it being done on a per release basis with some improvement with each new release.

Also this makes doom 3 sounds like a wonderful and important game and which it is not. While the IQ was great the game play has left much to be desired.

Good article, nice find Chaos, The writer tends to exadurate which I find quite entertaining

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ericdrum

My biggest problem with these "parterships" is that even if the end result is small and both nVidia and ATI run well, people think some type of big conspiracy is involved. But the truth is that no publisher would agree to a game running well on one brand of card and not the other. That would be exposed by the community and it would absolutely kill game sales. In fact with D3, this has happened to a small effect and I'm already seeing rumblings of it with Half-Life. IMHO, these people are really over-reacting. I have seen D3 on different systems with different cards and it can still run great and look great. It runs great on my system and I'm running an ATI. When it comes down to it, the publishers want those games to sell for as long as possible. They aren't going stand for the game stinking on one brand of card.

Now to address Diablo, well that changes things a bit. I never played that game so I can't comment specifically on it. But tweaking it to look better run slightly better is an interesting topic. I can't comment on how I, as a end user would feel though. What seems huge to one, may not seem like a difference to others. Because some people are discerning and can notice the small stuff, doesn't mean everyone can. And that is where I think D3 is at personally. I think there may be some areas where it excels on an nVidia card, but in the end, the general public is not going to even notice. But they will complain. That's for sure.

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No_Style

Those lines alone summed up the entire article. Just read the last paragraphs after: "Its All About the Money" and you'll understand why we all lose.

You know what would really make this interesting? If Doom 3, the game, was only optimized for nVidia.. BUT, (This is a big/iffy "but") the engine was not. If that's the case, which I hope/doubt, then there's somewhat of an even playing field for future Doom 3 Engine based games

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dpagan

well i think he made a lot of sence, games should be optimized for all hardware regardless of brand if one GFX is faster than the other it should be left to that certain hardwares architecture as the main reason as to way it's faster to begin with and or hardware company's optimizing performance thru there drivers, when i buy a GFX regardless of brand (i always switch between ATI and NVIDiA, who ever has the best bang for the buck) i'm a fan of both ati and nvidia but really i'm a comsumer first and i expect hardware to run great on any game, $400.00 is a lot of money to spend, i also wish they would quit the 6 month crap of trying to outperform each others hardware and focus on optimizing (thru drivers) the ones that are already out, this would mean even more bang for the buck for us comsumers

MSX

Well, then first you have to have card's maufactuers to conform to something. Like you know Nvidia. I single them out because their the only company who uses their own codepath.

This should have never been done. It adds to dev time. NV cards can run full dx9 spec, just a bit slower than other cards on the market. With this series of cards the nV codepath should have been cut right out of this lineup. I seriosuly hope their next generation cards conform with DX10 spec. Or here surpass it. I don't mind if there's a NV codepath if it actually increases eye candy. But as is the case, no.

I think the only ATI optomised games was raven sheild right?

phongtruong12

what happened to the good ole days when we could just play games without worrying about what games favor this company and that? you have to pledge your loyalty to one company, so you can play a game at its maximum capabilities. kind of reminds you of politics today doesnt it? ATI vs Nvidia and Democrats vs Republicans... if this keeps up, gamers will be restricted to certain games and the community will be split in two.

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Just one more step towards the consolitation of pcs.

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amdking

I can see the point of this post and it scares me too, its just like the different paths that Intel and AMD are taking with their "different ways" at solving the same problem...in the end certain programs work and are more optimized for P4 while AMD is great at legacy code support and speed(plain ol FPU calculations)... Intel is relying on these new hyperthreading techniques and SSE implimintations getting better. Just different setups getting better for different sorts of programs, while another setup is different and better for an entire other world of programs.
On another note...the thing that I dislike most about these new games, is they are SO hard on the current hardware that I mean look at doom III most of the game was indoors and played at VERY close quarter areas. You dont see all the beauitiful landscapes and visual freedoms that you do in some games, because of hardware limitation and I fear that a lot of these newer all graphically INSANE engines are gonna be the same way. Doom III had cool visual effects here and there but the environment just got boring ...the hell level was awesome tho...but the rest was just ugh....are there ever gonna be new monsters or anything?? or new surfaces?? lol - it just felt limited to me in that sense. the shadowing was amazing and I give that a definate visual breakthrough.
Some engines that have really impressed me with mixed features have been Max Payne 2 and the Older BloodRayne. - Both took amazing advantage of the hardware features at hand, Max Payne 2 had AMAZING physics and sweet environments graphically...BloodRayne has had one of the most EFFECIENT engines Ive seen to date, its folder being several gigs in size and it took under 3 seconds to load each map....the bump mapping rivals that of many pixel shaded environments done today and the physics engine was just awesome. Cant wait till the 2nd one....looks awesome thus far.
I just felt like I was playing the E3 version of DoomIII all over again with the final release of it...heck I thought the E3 version was much cooler(the cutscene was awesome of the dude in the bathroom) the bodies stayed there and didnt fry or whatever...you could shoot them and drag them around to ur hearts delight.
In the final release, I found myself having to go into the console and change all these settings via command line that NORMALLY in other games I would have never had to adjust, would already be detected...the auto detect in doomIII sucked, supposedly set it to 640x480 for everyone...I was like ugh...what?!?! no...
The Sound engine detection really was worthless...couldnt do ANYTHNIG to pick a 4 speaker setup even tho I had one. So, Im not even sure the sound engine was that great.
The cache and memory settings need tweaked...grr whats that???
I dont know it just seemed REALLY unfinished and I guess...the fact that you have to do all that command line stuff to get it to work "nicely" with a certain system/card is what pertains to this thread...its just like ugh...come on?!?! what tweak do I gotta change next =( sort of thing.
Anyways, sorry for my rant against DoomIII I loved the game, but also at the same time was kinda dissapointing =/ I hope HL2 and EQ2 will shine more light on showing more flexibility with complex graphics engines. Or maybe Im just asking too much at this point in time =/

dpagan

I don't know but sometimes i think some game engines are made to push hardware on purpose just to make you upgrade i know it sounds like a conspiracy theory but some of these game graphicaly shouldn't be as demanding, gamers are the ones who like pushing there systems to the max but most of our motivation in doing this is based on the games we play or want to play makes sense in developing a software that pushes you system so in return you purchase more hardware it's a win win situation for the software developer and hardware manufacture it's just not as good for us, can dx9 and opengl 2.0 satisfy us for awsome looking games for a few years i believe so, i believe with all the effects both now have we can, but it won't be convenient for the hardware people cause they won't sell as much hardware if there isn't a need for it, i was getting in the habit of upgrading as frequently as posible, now i have a different mindset the hardware i buy will have to last for at least 2-3 years before an upgrade, i just don't think a game should be your deciding factor games now adays are so hyped that's basically all they are is hype, it's sad when you upgrade and the game just sucks, or it's even worst when you are told it's coming out this month and you upgrade just to be pushed back another year, who benefited? the hardware manufacture, there's something going on i can bet on it

amdking

I support, what ur saying at the same time I dont. If nothing ever forced you to upgrade...how would our hardware keep getting better? what would be the drive to make any better hardware? - nothing, everything would stay the same and technology would not advance. I am also happy to see that the SOFTWARE is FINALLY Beginning to catch up to the hardware... it used to be for MANY years that the hardware was so far ahead of software...I think its good they are finally evening out and are playing hand in hand.

dpagan

I agree, advancing is good but why bring dx10, 11 or 12 now when dx9 isn't being fully used, let's use what we have now to it's fullest when we hit a barrier let's move on to the next best thing, this should be done for the sake of advancing technology not for sales and profit only

amdking

yeah I can see what ur saying about DX

CDsDontBurn

well, even if software is a factor in somebody's upgrade, hardware failure can also cause a person to upgrade their system. Say for example you have a socket 423 p4 and your board dies. If you want to stay w/intel, you gotta get a socket 478 or LGA775 board and a processor for that board. Now if you want to keep your socket 423 p4, then you gotta go out and find a 423 board, which there aren't too many out anymore. Also, that 423 board most likely had ram-bus memory, so then, you also gotta get DDR memory. So now cuz of that old board, you gotta get completely new stuff. Then while your doing your shopping, you'll be like "hell, i may as well get a new vid. card, h-drive(s), and optical drive(s)."

So by the time you finish your computer shopping, you now have a totally new system. All because your board died. Really, all you needed was just a board, ram, and CPU, but you decided to go all out and get everything else as well.

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No_Style

Because it's man's need to push its limits, despite if the limits are being met by everyone or not. It's like, why make cars faster and faster? Nobody will ever drive them that fast..

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The_Neon_Cowboy

[color=lime]$$$$ <------[/color]Thats what it's all about... welcome to planet earth

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dpagan

i'm outa here then, be back in the next eclipse

The_Neon_Cowboy

it true and holds us so far back as a civilization, .... all in the name of $$$

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dpagan

it's a pitty all just to come up with some new feature so they can stick it to us for more money

amdking

money makes the world go round =P ... sad but true =(
at least there is a push for better hardware and software otherwise we be stuck in stone ages.