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.

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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.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 3, 2013 7:25 AM

    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.

    • reply
      April 3, 2013 7:36 AM

      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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      April 3, 2013 7:46 AM

      "It just makes it a lot smother and it also means we can build on our particular strength." Why are they suffocating people with the PS4? Seriously I was actually thinking that for the last five minutes.

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        April 3, 2013 9:38 AM

        Five minutes you spent trying to figure out that typo? wjw....
        .......
        ......

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        April 3, 2013 9:50 AM

        They meant "smoother" hope this helps.

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          April 3, 2013 9:57 AM

          He's still an infant. Certain parts of his brain have yet to develop.

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      April 3, 2013 7:48 AM

      Wonder if having both systems on x86 might drive the cost of desktop chips down due to scale? Or, it'll be higher total demand and chip prices will go up. Where's Pachter when you need him so we'd know it ends up being the opposite of whatever he says.

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      April 3, 2013 7:54 AM

      worlds best pc? dont make me fucking laugh. can you install skype on it? can you download torrents to it? can you run photoshop on it? can it use mouse and keyboard for every game?

      No on all accounts?

      ITS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING A PC

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        April 3, 2013 8:06 AM

        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...

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        April 3, 2013 10:22 AM

        Because, of course, context is irrelevant when your precious platform of choice has been disparaged.

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      April 3, 2013 8:08 AM

      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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        April 3, 2013 8:35 AM

        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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          April 3, 2013 9:26 AM

          The xbox 360 was NOT ahead of the PC when it was released. Not sure what you're thinking of.

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            April 3, 2013 9:44 AM

            It had a lot of tech in it that wouldn't be replicated till about 6 months later (particularly on the shader front), and a better version of DX9 than ever appeared on the PC (the rest of the improvements showed up in 10 a year later).

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            April 3, 2013 10:18 AM

            The GPU was using a unified architecture that was ahead of anything in the PC space and the CPU was competitive as well. Maybe it wasn't ahead but it was certainly at par with the high end gaming rigs of the time.

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              April 8, 2013 2:51 PM

              It also had things like tesselation and some other features that didn't hit until the next gen.

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          April 3, 2013 10:55 AM

          the ps4 and the next xbox, will be well behind current pcs in terms of raw performance, and they are still more than 6 months out

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      April 3, 2013 9:28 AM

      fantastic. a whole new generation of nerds debating pc vs. console.

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      April 3, 2013 9:30 AM

      Hyperbole or not, the move to x86 was the thing that got me the most excited about PS4 announcement.

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      April 3, 2013 10:00 AM

      So I guess this means they will be forcing PS4 players to use shitty mouse code.

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      April 3, 2013 10:09 AM

      isn't a closed-spec PC a good thing? why do nerds have to make hay over everything?

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        April 3, 2013 10:24 AM

        It's a mixed bag. No driver hassles is a great thing, but closed platforms can end up being annoying in all sorts of ways.

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        April 3, 2013 10:29 AM

        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.

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        April 3, 2013 11:01 AM

        Because they already own apple products they don't want everything to be closed.

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        April 3, 2013 1:49 PM

        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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      April 3, 2013 10:58 AM

      It's like the worlds best PC. Without a mouse. Enjoy that aim auto assist! So in other words... Not like the worlds best PC.

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        April 3, 2013 11:14 AM

        The best fps wouldn't use either. Mice are artificial as hell

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