Barely looks better than the XBox games. X-Box 1.5 indeed...
Seriously, I hope this isn't an indication of the graphical quality of XB360 games. I hope these are just really, really early renders from Team Ninja.
That's a bit of a misunderstanding. The engines for various 3D computer games, mostly FPS games, but some adventure games too, did in fact use the same original game's engine, but not all, not by a long shot. And no, I don't mean the ones that looked aweful. I mean the ones that actually looked just as good but used a unique engine, simply so they had control over it. Nintendo won't be using the new unreal engine for sure, though games will likely look just as good as it, or better.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
Quote:That's a bit of a misunderstanding. The engines for various 3D computer games, mostly FPS games, but some adventure games too, did in fact use the same original game's engine, but not all, not by a long shot. And no, I don't mean the ones that looked aweful. I mean the ones that actually looked just as good but used a unique engine, simply so they had control over it. Nintendo won't be using the new unreal engine for sure, though games will likely look just as good as it, or better.
I know, you can use an engine and make a very different game out of it... look at Anachronox made from the Quake II engine, for instance. But you can only do so much unless you completely redo the engine... engines are best at doing specific things. Like Prey is using the Doom III engine. The Doom III engine is best at doing encounters with small numbers of very highly detailed enemies. You could make it do crowds, but it's just not as good as that... like how Quake II struggled with outdoor areas and had size limitations.
Oh, and yes, you're right, lots of games don't use the big engines, but a lot do. The three Quake games have powered a LOT of games... there are some games that use new engines, but a significant number use already-existing engines. It's a lot easier.
Game engines... you know, the thing that powers games... and how often games use other games' engines... like with Heretic or Hexen on Doom, Hexen II or on Quake, Anachronox on Quake II, Star Trek Voyager Elite Force (& Star Trek Elite Force 2) on Quake III, Jedi Knight II or III on Quake III, etc, etc... (or for some upcoming games, Prey on Doom III, Duke Nukem Forever on Unreal Tournament, Quake IV on Doom III (I think), etc, etc... or the Build engine, which ran a long list of games from Redneck Rampage and Witchaven to Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior... you could expand this beyond FPSes, of course. For instance, the Infinity Engine runs Baldur's Gate I and II, Icewind Dale I and II, and Torment.
DJ seems to be saying that he thinks that games usually use original engines. I don't deny that, but definitely believe that lots of games use pre-existing engines. It's just so much quicker and easier to use a pre-existing engine, when compared to making something completely from scratch, that lots of developers take that path. Especially in genres like FPSes.
Oh, and it's really, really common for sequels to use improved versions of the engine created for the previous game.
Oh yeah... one last thing. DJ, you are absolutely right about one thing: I don't think we'll see Nintendo liscencing engines anytime soon.