Epic Games VP explains why PS4 is like 'the world's best PC'
One of the biggest changes for the upcoming console generation is the switch to x86 architecture. What does Epic Games--developer of the near-ubiquitous Unreal Engine--have to say about it? Well, they're gushing as well.
One of the biggest changes for the upcoming console generation is the switch to x86 architecture. That means working on PS4 (and likely the next Xbox) will be very similar to working on a PC. Already, Far Cry 3's tech director has spoken out on how great a decision that is. But what does Epic Games--developer of the near-ubiquitous Unreal Engine--have to say about it? Well, they're gushing as well.
"It's really important for us because we know the PC, we know the evolution of the PC and we work closely with those vendors on those parts," Epic VP Mark Rein said. "There's nothing that we have to guess about--we know what the processors can do, we know what the CPUs can do and we're using those same parts on the actual development hardware that we use. It just makes it a lot smoother and it also means we can build on our particular strength."
Rein compares PS4 to "the world's best PC," thanks to its generous memory--a feature that's standard across-the-board. "Even Windows for most people is tied to about 2GB of addressable memory space. This really opens up beyond what most PCs can do, because most PCs are running a 32-bit versions of Windows," he told CVG. "Let's not forget [PS4] has 16 times the memory we had in PlayStation 3--that's not insignificant. Knowing that every machine has that...we can do crazy, ridiculous stuff with that."
Of course, Microsoft has yet to announce their next Xbox, but they're rumored to be making many moves similar to Sony in the coming generation. Rein said that he's "sure that Microsoft will be doing something along those lines." If the rumors are to be believed, the industry's universal move to x86 should make game development easier for everyone.
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Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Epic Games VP explains why PS4 is like 'the world's best PC'.
One of the biggest changes for the upcoming console generation is the switch to x86 architecture. What does Epic Games--developer of the near-ubiquitous Unreal Engine--have to say about it? Well, they're gushing as well.-
I'll give them that it has a lot of GDDR5, but the memory throughput on a Radeon 7970 is still twice as much as what the PS4 offers, and peak shader arithmetic on the Radeon 7970 is ~3.8 TFLOPS. Seems like the PS4 is just previous generation hardware dressed up with some cool flame stickers to hope it goes faster. It sucks that's it's only 8GB unified, you don't have to drop a lot of money to get a nice PC that sports 4x that in DDR3, plus the dedicated GDDR5 on your video card if you're in it to game (we all are).
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And with Windows 8 and further microcrap development, you can bet the PC rigs aren't what they used to be anymore either. I don't know about the rest of you but I been building gaming rigs for 25 years and with the ramp up of windows 8 and some other stuff microsoft is doing, I am done. I have many long time enthusiast builder friends that feel the same way. Windows 7 will be discontinued soon enough and I simply won't bite anymore.
I personally rather just buy a console at this point minus the headaches and get a macbook pro and be done with it. I know the PC elitists will flame now so let the firestorm begin...-
You probably said the same thing when switching MSDOS to Windows 3
Windows 8 is bad ass, get over a new GUI and start building PC's again! You are free!
Go relive your glory days
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Computer-Shopper-Magazines-from-May-Jun-Jul-Aug-2001-/330901140944?pt=Magazines&hash=item4d0b3eb5d0
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Umm, no? The comparison here on eurogamer http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-unreal-engine-4-ps4-vs-pc kind of proves that point already.
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It's a shame really that this is the case. If I remember right, the Xbox 360 was about 1.5 gen ahead of the current state of pc video cards and was about bleeding edge in DirectX functionality (9+ to 10). I don't expect the next Xbox to be a leap better than this. Maybe just better trade offs. I mean, how much more advance can a console be above the current top video card without costing more than the card and still not price itself out of the market? MS/Sony can only recoup so much from game sales.
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It should be awesome for PC gamers. The ports from console to PC won't be absolutely horrible like they were for years after the 360 and PS3 came out.
However, that doesn't matter right now. What matters is which platform is the most powerful! Even though such a comparison is apples to oranges when you factor in things like API overhead. -
It has the potential to be the absolute worst of things. Like when the company decides it is time to pull the plug on supporting the console with online service, then you are stuck with no way to play your games with your friends, even if only a select few, after the service goes offline. Worse, if the system isn't emulatable with currently existing computer technology, if your console breaks, you are completely screwed, need to buy a new one. How does that work out if the damn thing isn't made anymore?
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