All over the internet I am reading 3D hardware manufacturers are moving too fast (for game developers to keep up)... Raw speed of a Radeon 8500 or GeForce 3 card is stunning by any measure - but on use of its full features we are being royally screwed!!!
Guys and Gals once a year video card updates are not too fast, game graphic engine updates are way too slow!!!! Every game developer is just re-creating the wheel way too much and not expecting the game end-users to notice.
Why should we all pay the game industry 20 times for each major company to develop identical game graphic libraries? Not to mention the excessive lead time waits and that this flawed software development model will only make things far worse every year as 3D cards continue to advance!!!! The software development model is just plain wrong and inefficient for the future!!!
You are all using less than 30% of the power of your GeForce or Radeon cards!!!! See the Dinosaur Island Demo from www.crytek.com - that only uses 3 extra features on a GeForce 1 or 2 card and another 2 features I am assured on a GeForce 3 - but it simply blows you away. Its stunning!!!
This is a major problem in a mega industry - it is solvable, it just needs appropriate attention, consistent demand from the gaming community and co-ordination between game developers and hardware manufacturers.
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Really all we are asking for is a scalable, extensible game graphics engine - no more or less. The trouble to date is that Video graphics are all too hard coded and not spilt in to a high level algorithm library and a lower level performance/execution library that scales the games performance and characteristics to yours and any Hardware card. If you can build it for the top of the performance curve - you can certainly scale it for the bottom of the curve to, you just have to plan to do it this way.
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Coordination. The two major video card developers (Nvidia and ATI) should state their yearly intentions of new features to be added to their flagship cards and their expected performance levels. The game engine developers should also state their prioritised list of features to add to their graphics engines each year (e.g John Cormack wants realistic shadows but eschews improved enemy bot A.I.). Folks should then cross check these development plans all tie together well. Then industry could then organise their resources to get there much sooner.
Think about it - they have to do this anyway - eventually - I am just advocating getting it far better organised from the onset.
Carrying this idea forward a common forum or consortium should work collaboratively on how to solve (i.e. define the effective algorithms needed) remaining graphics problems for realistic real-time animation.
The bar on graphics is getting higher each year. GeForce added not just a hell of alot of raw speed, it brought fabulous features that have not nearly been exploited yet.
But the cats out of the bag now!!! Once folk have seen Dinosaur Island or Aquanox I predict the demand will be rampant for Game Developers to stop doing it solo (the old world business model) and to compete more effectively by strategically co-operating!!!
That's my thoughts - once you see what a GF or Radeon card can REALLY do - you'll demand this too!!!
Guys and Gals once a year video card updates are not too fast, game graphic engine updates are way too slow!!!! Every game developer is just re-creating the wheel way too much and not expecting the game end-users to notice.
Why should we all pay the game industry 20 times for each major company to develop identical game graphic libraries? Not to mention the excessive lead time waits and that this flawed software development model will only make things far worse every year as 3D cards continue to advance!!!! The software development model is just plain wrong and inefficient for the future!!!
You are all using less than 30% of the power of your GeForce or Radeon cards!!!! See the Dinosaur Island Demo from www.crytek.com - that only uses 3 extra features on a GeForce 1 or 2 card and another 2 features I am assured on a GeForce 3 - but it simply blows you away. Its stunning!!!
This is a major problem in a mega industry - it is solvable, it just needs appropriate attention, consistent demand from the gaming community and co-ordination between game developers and hardware manufacturers.
****
Really all we are asking for is a scalable, extensible game graphics engine - no more or less. The trouble to date is that Video graphics are all too hard coded and not spilt in to a high level algorithm library and a lower level performance/execution library that scales the games performance and characteristics to yours and any Hardware card. If you can build it for the top of the performance curve - you can certainly scale it for the bottom of the curve to, you just have to plan to do it this way.
***
Coordination. The two major video card developers (Nvidia and ATI) should state their yearly intentions of new features to be added to their flagship cards and their expected performance levels. The game engine developers should also state their prioritised list of features to add to their graphics engines each year (e.g John Cormack wants realistic shadows but eschews improved enemy bot A.I.). Folks should then cross check these development plans all tie together well. Then industry could then organise their resources to get there much sooner.
Think about it - they have to do this anyway - eventually - I am just advocating getting it far better organised from the onset.
Carrying this idea forward a common forum or consortium should work collaboratively on how to solve (i.e. define the effective algorithms needed) remaining graphics problems for realistic real-time animation.
The bar on graphics is getting higher each year. GeForce added not just a hell of alot of raw speed, it brought fabulous features that have not nearly been exploited yet.
But the cats out of the bag now!!! Once folk have seen Dinosaur Island or Aquanox I predict the demand will be rampant for Game Developers to stop doing it solo (the old world business model) and to compete more effectively by strategically co-operating!!!
That's my thoughts - once you see what a GF or Radeon card can REALLY do - you'll demand this too!!!