If developers weren't focused 99% on consoles instead of computers and actually cared about pushing PC hardware instead of just making games up to the spec of the PS3 and the 360, which are now well behind what PCs can do (not that you'd tell, looking at most PC games from the past few years)...
That is, a DirectX 11 benchmark was released. And wow, does it look absolutely stunning... I wish games looked like this, or things like this were actually coming soon! Awesome stuff...
Video of it running here. Watch both videos, it's just amazing stuff!
http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/50957/...r-Released
Such are the perils of a wide-open environment. Nobody's going to focus on PCs anymore because the hardcore PC market is dwindling, and few people have machines with enough muscle to run games that would look this good.
Which is not to diminish how impressive this looks. It is, quite simply, amazing.
Of course, the next round of consoles will utterly leave it in the dust. =D
Consoles always pass PCs... for a few months, usually. Then PCs pass them again, and stay ahead for the rest of the generation. :)
But anyway, DX11 cards just came out recently and are quite expensive, so not many people have a system that could do that, no... and without DX11 you don't get some of the effects there that make that look so awesome. My card's a DX10 card (GeForce 8800 GTS), so it'd look good, but not quite that amazing... and tech demos often push past what contemporary games can do. But still, it sure would be nice if there were PC games coming up even thinking of using some of that power. That video shows what the next generation of PC games should look like, if anyone's going to make them. I have lots of doubts of course.
I think they should release a "line of PC's" built specifically for the purpose of gaming to compete with consoles, I am not talking about the mail order PC's like alienware.
Something more in line with the 1980's home gaming computers (HGC) like the Comodore 64, Something that keeps PC gaming down is that it is unfriendly to casual gamers who are unwilling to give the time and money to chase around for the latest hardware just to run these damn things , They need a line of specially made gaming computers in my opinion.
Pfft. Seven years from now, handhelds will have graphics like that. Don't you guys worry.
I doubt it, handhelds of today don't equal major console graphics from seven years ago, you know, much less surpass those of today... maybe if there are revolutions in battery technology it'd be possible, but we'll see. Generally though handhelds advance well behind consoles, of course, so I think that's unlikely. :)
Quote:I think they should release a "line of PC's" built specifically for the purpose of gaming to compete with consoles, I am not talking about the mail order PC's like alienware.
Something more in line with the 1980's home gaming computers (HGC) like the Comodore 64, Something that keeps PC gaming down is that it is unfriendly to casual gamers who are unwilling to give the time and money to chase around for the latest hardware just to run these damn things , They need a line of specially made gaming computers in my opinion.
No way, that goes against everything PCs are supposed to be... :)
... Okay, that's part of why consoles are more successful. But still, the point is, the PC's advantage is its ubiquity of course, but beyond that it is also that it is constantly improving. You can't attach that to static life cycles like with consoles without ruining the PC's greatest advantage, and something that also absolutely helped it against older more static computer systems like the Amiga and C64.
Quote:handhelds of today don't equal major console graphics from seven years ago, you know
Sure they do.
The GBA was a more-powerful SNES, ten years after the fact. The DS easily runs N64 games, released 8 years after. The PSP and PS2 are almost equal, graphically, and that was with a mere five-year gap. Games I've seen on the iPhone are easily the equal of the last generation in terms of visuals.
With digital distribution almost certain to be standard among the next generation of handhelds, there will be greater focus on maximizing computation since battery power will no longer have to be wasted on moving parts.
A theoretical major handheld device released three years from now will certainly be able to display graphics that are at least on par with the 360 and PS3. It's not an issue of computation, but rather devising a portable display that can exceed VGA resolution without drastically impacting battery life.
I looks like I need to download the DirectX11 SDK and get cracken! Im forced to wonder what new audio enhancements DirectX11 has since it handles joystick support, 2d, 3d, and audio as well. I know 9c had some pretty cool things you could do with room acoustics.
On the plus side, my computer is STILL fully capable of playing the latest games because they aren't currently pushing the hardware as far as it'll go.
Yeah, it is perhaps a little odd for me to be complaining that my computer (which is now over 2 1/2 years old) can still run everything at pretty high settings, something I don't think any computer we have had before was able to do that long after we got it, but still, because of how it is one of many signs of how the PC gaming industry has fallen so far, I think it's a valid complaint.
Yeah, I can honestly say I have no motivation at all to get the PC version of Modern Warfare 2. With MW1, there was a number of reasons to go that way, but that's simply not the case here. It's not worth the headache of being a PC game if there's none of the perks.