Op Ed

[Jul 17, 2010, 3:48 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Thanks Ant.

Hellmode - The Inconsequential Game Over- Dying for a Change. Thanks Digg.
When I had to restart after being so close to the end of Super Mario Bros., it killed the game for me. Today, realizing I never beat the game, I wonder why it bothered me so much. For some reason, I felt entitled to a save feature and a restart, but it makes me wonder why restarts even exist in video games in the first place. After all, there are rarely second chances in any other forms of entertainment–nor are there any in real life. Yet in video games, it seems, we take them for granted and get disgruntled when they aren’t there.

ExtremeTech - The State of Windows 7 Gaming. Thanks Digg.
On the software side, Windows 7 has smoothed over a lot of rough edges. In addition, Microsoft's DirectX 11 has brought some interesting effects to the table. The biggest improvement is probably tessellation, which produces smoother curved surfaces by deploying increasing numbers of polygons. It can make floors and walls look truly three-dimensional, even when close-up. Other DirectX 11 features include multithreading, which increases frame rates on multicore GPU-equipped cards; transparency anti-aliasing for smoother, layered surfaces; and improved post-processing, for effects like heat distortion and depth-of-field focusing that are applied after an image is rendered.

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22.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 19, 2010, 07:52

Shadowcat

We're working on a DX11 engine right now, so I've seen some of this tech in action and it's pretty impressive. Unlike Messiah's sub-division surfaces, DX11's tesselation is seamless. I bow to your greater experience. Thanks for the info

21.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 19, 2010, 07:50

Shadowcat

The Vista hatred came from all the people that were too stupid to figure out how to configure the UAC. As soon as I installed Vista, I went to the control panel and ticked one checkbox, ONE CHECKBOX! Then all the problems people were complaining about went away. Stupidity wins!

20.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 18, 2010, 17:21

Jerykk

DX11 is all well and good but until consoles get it, we aren't going to see many games using it.

19.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 18, 2010, 16:54

Kxmode

Ruffiana wrote on Jul 18, 2010, 13:49: We're working on a DX11 engine right now, so I've seen some of this tech in action and it's pretty impressive. Unlike Messiah's sub-division surfaces, DX11's tesselation is seamless. The "Stone Giant" demo is a good example of this in action, it's only when you turn on the wireframe and see the tesslation happening that you can notice it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbIQSZs9Zvs 1. Your name should be green if you work in the biz. 2. Can you provide me with the system specs that was used for that demo? I'm saving up for a system upgrade. I really want my next system to be truly nextgen with DX11 and a video card that supports it, ram, cpu, the works.

18.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 18, 2010, 15:37

ASeven

So, Ruffiana, you work at Fatshark then?

17.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 18, 2010, 13:52

Ruffiana

Ruffiana wrote on Jul 18, 2010, 13:49: We're working on a DX11 engine right now, so I've seen some of this tech in action and it's pretty impressive. Unlike Messiah's sub-division surfaces, DX11's tesselation is seamless. The "Stone Giant" demo is a good example of this in action, it's only when you turn on the wireframe and see the tesslation happening that you can notice it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbIQSZs9Zvs Small point of correction though, it doesn't make "make floors and walls look truly three-dimensional, even when close-up", it is actually creating and displacing geometry...unlike some of the current gen tricks that give the appearance of three dimensional surfaces. It's a small, but crucial step forward in real-time rendering tech. The programmers are raving about 'geometry shaders', but that's above my pay grade to understand.

16.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 18, 2010, 13:49

Ruffiana

We're working on a DX11 engine right now, so I've seen some of this tech in action and it's pretty impressive. Unlike Messiah's sub-division surfaces, DX11's tesselation is seamless. The "Stone Giant" demo is a good example of this in action, it's only when you turn on the wireframe and see the tesslation happening that you can notice it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbIQSZs9Zvs Small point of correction though, it doesn't make "make floors and walls look truly three-dimensional, even when close-up", it is actually creating and displacing geometry...unlike some of the current gen tricks that give the appearance of three dimensional surfaces. It's a small, but crucial step forward in real-time rendering tech.

15.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 18, 2010, 13:15

Steele Johnson

The Vista hatred came from all the people that were too stupid to figure out how to configure the UAC. As soon as I installed Vista, I went to the control panel and ticked one checkbox, ONE CHECKBOX! Then all the problems people were complaining about went away. Sometimes great marketing can't even win over mass stupidity.

14.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 18, 2010, 10:10

Ant

ASeven wrote on Jul 18, 2010, 10:00:
NERDRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE.

"Not enough rage." --WoW warrior.

I like and use W7 at work, but I am not ready to jump to it at home though. I still have lots of old softwares and hardwares for it. I will do a clean install of W7 later on when softwares support is not there in XP. XP Pro. SP3 does fine for me for now.




Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx and Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net ...

13.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 18, 2010, 10:00

ASeven

I jumped a short time ago from XP to W7, never tried Vista so I can't comment on why it was hated. All I know is that W7 sure is a whole lot better than XP. Never understood the Vista hatred either but since I didn't try it I can't say if it was something based on facts or based on NERDRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE.

12.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 18, 2010, 07:41

Ant

DG wrote on Jul 18, 2010, 05:43:
... One thing that does bug me about Vista and W7 both is audio.

What's wrong with it? The various volume controls for each programs? No EAX in Creative cards?




Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx and Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net ...

11.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 18, 2010, 05:43

I got W7 on the pre-order discount thing but haven't bothered to install it since Vista 64 still working great for me. I did run the W7 beta on the house machine and it seemed fine and everything, though that's now running Ubuntu, which I'd stick on my main machine if it wasn't for gaming. TBF I picked up Vista after SP1 so I guess I skipped the initial period where hardware support was sketchy. One thing that does bug me about Vista and W7 both is audio.

10.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 18, 2010, 02:49

StingingVelvet

Well one of the main reasons I loved Vista was stability, no more crashes or anything. I haven't seen a blue screen since XP and I switched to Vista pretty much on day one, so that's quite a number of years. Rock solid, Vista and Win7 both are, in my experience.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 18, 2010, 01:41

raVen

I was anti-vista because I had an evga nvidia card that would flake and crash every 3-4 hours or whenever the screensaver would enter sleep mode. Turned out it was a hardware problem and not Vista. I however vowed to not use it after switching back to xp relieved me of the problems. Vista was supposed to further isolate video card crashes and problems. It was one of the touted features of the core changes. I was not impressed. Today I run 7. I have since 7Beta worked on my machine without horrendous video problems. I still refuse to use Vista, but we use 7 at work now. so I'm beyond Vista. There is no real reason other than the experience left me with a terrible taste in my mouth. (Note: I switched shortly after that experience to ATi. I switch roughly 2-3 gens anyways)

Re: Op Ed

Jul 17, 2010, 23:13

StingingVelvet

Hoop wrote on Jul 17, 2010, 17:33: Gad, I purchased Vista 64 bit the first day it arrived, was ready for driver hell but within 2 weeks smooth & sorted. Never had a problem with it since. Love it. The most stable platform I have ever had. Have no reason to go to Win7. Games run great. As fast as Win7. The anti-Vista crusade always baffled me... a month or so after release, with UAC turned off, and it was pretty much the perfect OS for me.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 17, 2010, 21:41

Shadowcat

The biggest improvement is probably tessellation "Messiah" isn't impressed.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 17, 2010, 19:46

nutshell42

We desperately need an easy way for non-technical people to check if a game's gonna run on their PC. The Windows Experience Index was a good idea but Microsoft caved to Intel and the whole thing's useless. Not only would it, let's call it the SteamScore, help PC gaming directly (because your mom can see that Crysis might not run on her rig but Sims 3 will) but also indirectly because retailers would have an easier time to justify an additional 50-100 bucks to the customer (look, it costs 400 instead of 350 but your SteamScore goes from an Intel craptastic 45 to 230). And it would help with Nvidia's and ATI's idiotic rebranding exercises, although they'd just switch over to gaming the new system.

Re: Op Ed

Jul 17, 2010, 17:33

Hoop

Gad, I purchased Vista 64 bit the first day it arrived, was ready for driver hell but within 2 weeks smooth & sorted.
Never had a problem with it since.
Love it.
The most stable platform I have ever had.
Have no reason to go to Win7.

Games run great.
As fast as Win7.

This comment was edited on Jul 17, 2010, 17:43.




Um .. Behind you...

Re: Op Ed

Jul 17, 2010, 16:35

Ant

ASeven wrote on Jul 17, 2010, 16:25:
Ant wrote on Jul 17, 2010, 16:12:
ASeven wrote on Jul 17, 2010, 15:59:
Great article on PC gaming.
Which one? Or both?

Both, though the extremetech one is the one I enjoyed the most.

Ah, I like Hellmode article (even posted on my own site). I had flashbacks from old gaming days!




Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx and Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net ...

Re: Op Ed

Jul 17, 2010, 16:25

ASeven

Ant wrote on Jul 17, 2010, 16:12: ASeven wrote on Jul 17, 2010, 15:59: Great article on PC gaming. Which one? Or both? Both, though the extremetech one is the one I enjoyed the most.

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