"Battlefield 4’s multiplayer head honcho Aleksander Grondal has revealed that developing the military shooter for PlayStation 4 didn’t prove much of a difference in comparison to working on the PlayStation 3."
“For us, it’s not that much of a difference really. We have a scalable engine – it was already ‘next-gen ready,’ if you will, when we shipped Battlefield 3,” said Grondal."
It means that the transition goes automatic ? And not manual ? Is this why i 60 fps on 1080p is not possible ?
No. They mean that they can work on all the versions at the same time but still get the most out of each platform. The only way for BF3/BF4 to be on PS3/360 is because they could scale it down from PC. 24 players, 30FPS and not even real 720p. That is where the the scalable engine comment comes from.
^no...they have plenty of 'power'...what is obvious now though, at least through most of the release window, is that tapping the power needed to get 1080p/60hz out of what seems like most games so far...takes so much time in optimization and everything...that its not a realistic goal...THAT is what sucks...both consoles are fine power wise...
the PC market, and the way it works, completely skews multiplatform development efficiency...NO PC game is completely optimized, but listed requirements for what type of PC hardware you need for a specific game completely screws up what 'we' see as acceptable hardware...then specs for a new console show up and everyone sits around acting like they have any real idea how powerful it is, good or bad...
PC stuff is so cheap and available anymore that any particular dev can nail down crazy high resolutions and framerates almost without trying...but console hardware is much more specific...it takes a lot of clever programming and time to get everything optimized...BUT...the hardware is set, so you only need to do it once...this is exactly why a lot of launch games fall well below what future releases run like...but whatever, i'm still disappointed that next gen doesn't start with the standards we were pretty much promised in 2006...
Multi-plat developers use middleware(the "engine" they talk about here) that transfers the same work to different platforms (plus some tweeks of course)
So the result can only be as good as how good the middleware was made, think of it as a "google translator" for different languages.
That is why PS3 multi-plats suffered at first because of the middle ware they use. Even now if a developer don't update their middle ware you will see the same bad results as early PS3 ports. "The Cell" was a completely different language and even the middleware makers didn't really know how to speak it at first.
But PS4 is a different case now. It's the easiest language to speak. But to the developers that uses these middlewares, the easiest way to explain would be that they are just putting the stuff they write into a "translator" sorta speak so the process would be the same.
All it means is they scale the engine to the capabilities of the console. It's project management speak, if you don't know anything about business or development, you won't understand the statement. It doesn't mean they're the same console, it means the project management aspects are the same, you take your engine and scale to a console.
It is misleading and it isn't. It just needs more context. He is saying there is nothing different about working on BF4 for PS4 because the engine can scale across all sorts of different hardware.
then you'd see that Dice has invested a lot into the PS3 and how their render technology is based on jobs, deferred renderer, etc.
I am not surprised Dice is continuing that road. Like I said before, developers who understood the PS3 in the past will have an easier live with new gen consoles.
Also, transition from a previous Sony API to a new one is probably easier for them then using DirectX code base.
And yet, because of that, I'd have expected more from BF4...I hope it will materialize eventually. Dice is absolutely pushing the envelope on PS3. I'd have expected the same on PS4.
Me neither. But DICE has really smart engine developers who were one of the few studios who didn't whine about the intricacies of the ps3 but capitalized on them.
all i know is the gamescom ps4 video for BF4 with only 16 players...looked pretty bad...and honestly not a whole hell of a lot better than the PS3 version of Bf3...just nice and smooth...that was the only difference i could really see...
however...i played over 50 hours of the ps3 bf3 beta back in 2011...which released just a month before the full game...and the difference in fidelity between the beta and finished product was literally night and day...there were entire layers of renderer missing from the beta version...
so i very much do trust Dice with this stuff...only this time i'm in a very different position...I finally have a PC 'ready' for it, just waiting to see on these upcoming AMD gpu deals (certain cards ship with a full game code)...and since bf4 is really the only 'next gen' title i'm interested in for the time being...its pretty realistic i'll be waiting for a Ps4 well in to 2014...
Check this really interesting 'lecture' from Mark Cerny. He explains how eventhough ps4 is more powerful it's easy to develop for just as much as the PS1 was... Really interesting to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watc...
Glad Killzone us at 60fps. Once again, 1st parties getting the most out of the console...obviously easier since they are fully dedicated to one platform.
Well the reason is because DICE is a third party developer.. (therefore they are just trying to get there game to run on both platforms) Nex gen consoles are basically like coding for PC's now, so the engine just dumbs down the PC version.
So while a 1st party developer will more then likely push the system -because there, the game will only be on PS4 - so when they put a nice trick to get a better shadier or more texture they don't have to worry about that won't run on the Xboxone.
So BF4 on PS4 will just be the Xboxone version, it won't be better on PS4 like AC4 because the developer has done a deal with Microsoft, which get's them DLC first and ensures the Xboxone is the lead version.
Why because you don't like to hear someone tell the truth so you can keep believing you're buying something innovative? Yeah whatever makes you sleep at night.
So basically they said they are used to developing for different platforms at the same time. Talk about taking things out of context. Some of these headlines are appalling, they can put a spin on anything to get more clicks.
That's kinda odd... Wouldn't have expected a statement like that
“We do parallel development for all platforms, so, for us, [moving on to PS4] is not really that big of a change."
We have our answer.
screw him, not getting Battlefield 4 anyway. Waiting for next gen Mirrror's Edge !