Xbox2 graphics...ack
Combaticon
Xbox 2 At GDC
By: César A. Berardini - "Cesar"
Mar. 9th, 2004 07:22 pm
There have been tons of rumors about Xbox 2 in the last couple of
months. Some call it Xbox Next and others say it won't have a hard
drive. There are so many other stories and rumors, sometimes it's hard
to decide what to dismiss and what to pay close attention to.
Some have pointed to this month's Game Developers Conference as the
place where Microsoft will unveil the Xbox 2 specifications. Even
ex-Xbox team member Kevin Bachus, now an Infinium Labs executive, said
in an interview, "I know that Microsoft will announce Xbox 2 at GDC."
To throw more fuel to the fire Microsoft Japan's Asako Miyata told
Bloomberg that Robbie Bach will be on stage to talk about Xbox 2 and
officially announce the hardware specs.
Today we point towards information that seems to confirm that there
won't be any announcement regarding final hardware specifications at
the Game Developers Conference and, contrary to what others say, this
is not a consequence of a "waiting-for-Sony" game. Microsoft is not
waiting for what Sony does or does not announce. More than likely, it
is as simply that the hardware specs are not yet finalized because
some parts are still in development. This time Microsoft isn't using
broadly off-the-shelf parts, instead most of the Xbox 2 components are
proprietary, which means they are not available in the market. So the
development process will take time and we still have a year to go. But
the big question is:
Is there going to be any Xbox 2 stuff at GDC?
Well, it has been said that an image is worth a thousand words...you
can start coming up with some now:
http://media.teamxbox.com/dailyposts/xboxatgdc.jpg
Image courtesy of Game Developers Magazine. All Rights Reserved
This image is an ad in the pages of the last issue of Game Developers
magazine and it shows a film noir-like girl inviting you to meet at
main and unexpected. Then you have the following quote:
"Are you ready to do things you've never done before? What's coming up
will take you places you never believed possible. Come hear about the
software for the next generation of gaming and you'll never look back"
Pay close attention to mention of "software for the next generation,"
as that's the key to what you can expect to be unveiled at the Game
Developers Conference.
What we can confirm to you, and we have this ad to back us up, is that
there will be Xbox 2 related info at the Game Developers Conference,
but it will most likely be showcased as "next-generation"
demonstrations. What Microsoft plans to showcase during the expo days
are technical demos. But this time there won't be mousetraps loaded
with ping-pong balls…
The next generation of graphics is all about realistic characters,
brought to life by complex vertex shaders, state of the art lighting
and shadowed models. Characters with realistic skin, hair and eyebrows
interacting in life-like environments filled with realistic water,
fire and wind. You have seen some tidbits in the Half Life 2 demo and
the nVIDIA's Dawm GeForce FX demos, but this stuff promises to go far
beyond that.
Jaws will drop to the floor and your ears will get tired of hearing
terms such as "High Dynamic Range," "Unified Shader Model," "Virtual
Video Memory," "Unlimited Resources" and "shader this," "shader that."
It's big and it will take time to dig it.
Don't panic. TeamXbox will be there.
FIG | Cali.
Mar. 10th, 2004 03:01 pm
"I will say this, one of the 3 consoles can render character models in
the 6 digit range with environments in the 8 digit range.-Translation,
lets say Halo 3 comes out for the Xbox 2. How many polygons am I
talking as far as the character models go? First, remember that x =
any number from 1-9. Now, lets substitute x for say, 5. Now, try
imagining a game with character models with 500,000 polygons(or
five-hundred thousand polygons). How many for the environments?-Try
50,000,000 polygons or (fifty-million polygons). Factor in all the new
shaders introduced due to the exponential leap in hardware and you
have games that start to look more like movies than games. I've seen
screenshots. Wait until you see the screenshots of the demos all over
the web before you believe me."