id On RAGE "Cluster!@#$" and Lead Platforms [Oct 07, 2011, 8:33 pm ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
Kotaku asks the musical question "Why Was The PC Launch of Rage Such A "Cluster!@#$"?," getting answers from id on the topic, who express frustration with problems that were largely caused by driver issues. Along the way they also address how the game being designed for consoles holds back the PC edition. "You can choose to design a game around the specs of a high-end PC and make console versions that fail to hit the design point, or design around the specs of the consoles and have a high-end PC provide incremental quality improvements," John Carmack tells them. "We chose the latter." He also bluntly addresses why this makes sense for id (emphasis Kotaku's):
"We do not see the PC as the leading platform for games," Carmack added. "That statement will enrage some people, but it is hard to characterize it otherwise; both console versions will have larger audiences than the PC version. A high end PC is nearly 10 times as powerful as a console, and we could unquestionably provide a better experience if we chose that as our design point and we were able to expend the same amount of resources on it. Nowadays most of the quality of a game comes from the development effort put into it, not the technology it runs on. A game built with a tenth the resources on a platform 10 times as powerful would be an inferior product in almost all cases."
I would normally let all of these negative comments about a new release not bother me but as a life long PC gamer I am just fed up with the impatient group we have become.
Do we expect PC developers to test their product on every conceivable hardware configuration available?
How many are there? 50 different models? Made on 100 different manufactured cards? Sitting on how many MBs?
Doesn't sound very reasonable to me. I like to have a quality product for my money. I am not however, unreasonable to the fact that you cannot test every possible variance.
Do we want game developers to abandon the PC? I don't. But hell, when they hear the kinds of comments that are made on boards like this I really can't blame them.
Code an entire game based off of just two possible platforms with the PS3 and the 360? Sounds like heaven just to avoid the hate, and yes some here are spouting pure hate, towards something they put much time and effort into.
One week is not too much to ask. I would be patient with a car if it had problems off the lot and I spend a little more on vehicles.
OpenGL. Its been an issue with PC gaming from the word 3dfx and GLQuake. Nvidia didn't handle it well back then, turned it around, and now excels at it. ATI seems to be much more DX friendly. You need to pick and choose your battles friends.
id to blame? Sure somewhat. Drivers? Sure somewhat. Freedom with hardware choices we love? Sure somewhat. Unreasonable to hate? Sure. Will they get it sorted? Track record says yes.
Do we expect PC developers to test their product on every conceivable hardware configuration available?
How many are there? 50 different models? Made on 100 different manufactured cards? Sitting on how many MBs?
Doesn't sound very reasonable to me. I like to have a quality product for my money. I am not however, unreasonable to the fact that you cannot test every possible variance.
Do we want game developers to abandon the PC? I don't. But hell, when they hear the kinds of comments that are made on boards like this I really can't blame them.
Code an entire game based off of just two possible platforms with the PS3 and the 360? Sounds like heaven just to avoid the hate, and yes some here are spouting pure hate, towards something they put much time and effort into.
One week is not too much to ask. I would be patient with a car if it had problems off the lot and I spend a little more on vehicles.
OpenGL. Its been an issue with PC gaming from the word 3dfx and GLQuake. Nvidia didn't handle it well back then, turned it around, and now excels at it. ATI seems to be much more DX friendly. You need to pick and choose your battles friends.
id to blame? Sure somewhat. Drivers? Sure somewhat. Freedom with hardware choices we love? Sure somewhat. Unreasonable to hate? Sure. Will they get it sorted? Track record says yes.
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