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Post by AREA666 on Mar 24, 2007 0:47:28 GMT -5
I know if anybody is interested in playing the game they are going to want to know what kind of hardware they will need to have in order to play the game. Right now we do not have definate requirements, but we can speculate. First of course there is the fact that it will be on the Xbox 360. While it is hard to compare what kind of cpu or anything would be needed for a PC version since the hardware is so different for the Xbox we can atleast think of something for the videocard required. The Xbox 360 has a card that is about the speed of some of the current ATI cards out that fall under the x1000 series, although more towards the higher ends of that series like the x1800 or x1950. It also has some features that those cards do not have, but the next generation of ATI cards for the computers do. Recently there was a game conference in San Francisco where people could play S2 and I asked on the offical forums if the member there who got to play, since she works for Ascaron, knew what kind of laptop they used. While she was not allowed to say it herself she did give me a link to a site who did. The computers they used there are the Dell XPS M1710 which you can see the specs of here. At first it might seem imposing some of the specs but there is some good news. In the article they said the game is planed to use cards that support shader model 2.0 and above. This is basically a nice way of saying that so long as your videocard is above like a Geforce2, ATI Radeon 7000, or some integrated card that you will be supported, although who knows how well it will run or scale down. Some more good news is that in looking at the specs of the laptop I see that the videocard they likely used was a Geforce 7900 series. Now laptop parts are always slower then their desktop counterparts due to heat issues and needing to be able to run off of batteries. This means that the card equivalent for a desktop would be probably around a Geforce 7600 or a ATI Radeon x1600. In even further good news is that the laptop comes with Vista. Vista is not to good with games right now and people loose anywhere between 10-40% in their game performance as compared to XP. Now this will likely change by the time the game comes out, but even then it should only help to lower even more the needs of the game. We can also probably assume that the laptop was chosen because is is one of the most highend ones you can get right now, so this means that those with something lower will still be able to play, just with not as many things turned on. The article also mentions that the game should scale pretty well from using a single core CPU upto a quadcore. Currently one of the best games I have ever seen for scaling to different computers is Half Life 2, and if Ascaron can reproduce something similar then many people will probably find that their current setup, or maybe just a videocard upgrade, will be good to play the game. Of course though all of this is just speculation at this point. This is the link to the article I mentioned in case anybody is interested although there really is no new info in it. www.rpgamer.com/news/Q1-2007/031707b.html
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Post by Deonhower Colmyne on Mar 24, 2007 5:11:44 GMT -5
why can't they make this run on the PS3? :angry2: I'm not an Xbox fan
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Post by AREA666 on Mar 24, 2007 11:01:35 GMT -5
I am sure they could, but it probably has something to do with it being released later then the xbox 360. I cant remember what the original release date for S2 was supposed to be, but it probably would not have been not enough time to develop it for the PS3 at the time. For me personally I would much rather have the game on the PC then a console. I play consoles sometimes, but a game like this I think works much better on the PC. Like the Baldurs Gate games they make for the PS2/xbox; while they were fun, I would much rather have used a mouse to control. This time around though the people who play it in the xbox 360 atleast will be getting a better looking game.
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MrBadExample
Beta Wolf
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Post by MrBadExample on Apr 16, 2007 18:51:47 GMT -5
It would be nice if it ran well on my GeForce 7600, then I don't need to pay a fortune for another card (my 7600 was $140, I shudder to think what would happen if I needed a card in the $400-$600 range).
As for why they would develop for the 360, my guess is the money. Microsoft gives out tens of thousands to developers if they make sure it is xbox/windows only. I can't remember what BS name they give it, but it's basically a bribe.
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Post by AREA666 on Apr 16, 2007 19:36:50 GMT -5
They wont require any of the top end cards since they know if they did that not many people would be able to play it and since it is all about money it is only logical for them to make it run on a wide range of systems. A 7600 will not be enough to play with all things maxed out I would assume, but I also do not think it would be so slow as to be considered a minimum, probably more of the midrange mainstream type.
As for it being for the 360 I think it is more of the developers decision then a bribe. The 360 is very close to a pc in design, so to port it is very simple. Even though the PS3 could easily handle the game, and it is more powerful then the 360, it would also require a lot more to port it, and the installed user base is much smaller, so that from a money standpoint makes the most sense to me.
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MrBadExample
Beta Wolf
[M0n:31]
[M0:7]The voices in my head say I'm perfectly sane, and that's good enough for me.
Posts: 406
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Post by MrBadExample on Apr 16, 2007 19:40:27 GMT -5
Midrange works for me. As long as it plays smoothly, I'm fine. There are very few games these days that would bother me on the lower detail settings.
And the PS2/PS3 does work on an FAT-compatible system (meaning if you put a playstation disc in your PC, you will notice files and directories). The playstation line does indeed work on a similar design to a PC, just with different hardware in a stripped-down configuration (they know exacty what it will be used for, there's no need for PCI slots, etc).
So I think it would be fairly straightforward to port to another system. Most of the formatting for model files, audio files, etc. can be converted easily enough. You just have to ensure that the engine gets ported (and if they are smart, they have a standardized library that executes the same functionality and has the same code interface on each console, then you just take your kernel and compile it for each system)
Then again, most developers these days seem to be more concerned with getting something out on the market than with compatibility. After all, you can always patch it later.
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arkeyla
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Post by arkeyla on Jun 25, 2007 18:57:24 GMT -5
I wish that for PC they would make it Win98 compatible. I can't afford to upgrade to XP, and won't touch 2000 with a 100ft barge pole.
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Post by AREA666 on Jul 4, 2007 8:29:47 GMT -5
Well now that Vista is out you should be able to find XP for cheaper, although Microsoft will probably stop supporting XP in a couple years anyway just like they did for 98.
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