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[Kleegamefan]

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/687/687911p1.html

Good read....

IGN: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) looks so much better than it did at X05. What developments have happened in the last four months to give it such polish and beauty?

Christian Allen: There are often many development constraints that are hard for early viewers to appreciate, particularly in the manner that this next generation version of GRAW was developed. For starters, a next-gen title requires much larger teams which means that different areas of development are pushing their specialty. Whether it is physics, AI, or graphics, we're modifying, fixing, optimizing and ultimately fine tuning each area to achieve the best possible result. For example, we were also developing the engine specifically to push next-gen hardware, so as engineering advancements were made the game took big jumps in terms of gameplay and visuals literally every day or two.

GRAW is in parallel development, meaning that whenever we make any changes it affects all maps and not individual missions. For example, the High Dynamic Range wasn't integrated until later on. It was then integrated across all maps in one version, followed by fine tuning. On the other hand, some games are developed map by map, so you will get final quality early on in the development cycle for a couple of maps but in later maps you won't normally see them playable or at a 100% final quality until much later.

 

[Blimblim]

When I was at Ubisoft a few weeks ago the developers told me that the framerate had been tripled in the last 3 weeks, just by landing some of the code that had been worked on on a different branch of their code base.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

When I was at Ubisoft a few weeks ago the developers told me that the framerate had been tripled in the last 3 weeks, just by landing some of the code that had been worked on on a different branch of their code base.

Triple, damn, 360 FTW

 

[Blimblim]

Triple, damn, 360 FTW

:|

 

[Uncle Dukey]

You can't play the regular singleplayer campaign in co-op? I was surprised to read that :/...

 

[SnakeXs]

You can't play the regular singleplayer campaign in co-op? I was surprised to read that :/...

Then you haven't been paying m uch attention to GRAW, haven't you?

 

[mrklaw]

When I was at Ubisoft a few weeks ago the developers told me that the framerate had been tripled in the last 3 weeks, just by landing some of the code that had been worked on on a different branch of their code base.

It was running at 10fps before?


sorry, thought I'd do it before a real troll did :/


Blim, is it looking good?

 

[Blimblim]

It was running at 10fps before?

Yup, and they still had a few optimisations to land to get the game to a locked 30 fps framerate.

Blim, is it looking good?

Yes. YES !
Most graphically impressive game on Xbox 360 to date, that's for sure. The HDR is incredible, maybe a tad overdone in the build I've seen, but still really impressive, especially in motion when the lighting is always shifting according to your position with the sun.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

:|

I had known about the frame rate issues, it just appears that they didn't have to scramble to recover the frames. Moreso like a simple switch.

 

[ScientificNinja]

Some beta code I've been playing came with an accompanying sheet saying the textures are running at 1/4 the final detail. I read this AFTER I'd already shat myself at the lighting while playing the offline mode. GRAW FTW.

 

[Kobold]

I've finished the single-player campaign. It's a tad short, and not all of the levels are as impressive. But the level BlimBlam is thinking of is definatly the most visually impressive. I'd even go as far as saying that some levels are plain ugly, but since this built is the one mentioned before, I'll reserve judgement on that till I play retail. Maybe those levels weren't completely finished as of yet.

Definatly a looker and awesome to play.

Also the co-op mode and other multiplayer levels are gorgeous too, but without the sweet shadow effects. Looks like a super-nice Ghost Recon 2 in co-op. Arguably looks better then the single-player in some instances.

And like I said before, if this is just scratching the surface, imagine the next version.

On the tripling of framerate, the same thing happened to Prey. They optimalized some code and pop, it's now (from what I heard) 60 FPS all the way, from a stuttering 30 before. This multi-core development is really, really sensitive to that kind of thing.

 

[PanopticBlue]

Blim or Kobold, how bad is the tearing in single player? I noticed it in some of the single player videos and I really hope they can clean it up. Tearing is my most hated feature of nextgen so far

 

[Yusaku]

I don't understand why they can't just fucking enable vsync and be done with it.

 

[Blimblim]

Blim or Kobold, how bad is the tearing in single player? I noticed it in some of the single player videos and I really hope they can clean it up. Tearing is my most hated feature of nextgen so far

There was some tearing in the build I've seen running, but they hoped to have it completely fixed for the final release.
As for just enabling vsync, I for one prefer tearing than just dropping a frame. But of course getting a smooth 30/60 fps is what's needed.

 

[Kobold]

I didnt notice any frame drops or tearing in this build I just finished. Except for a few crashes, lower texture quality, animation bugs etc. this build was very playable indeed.

 

[SnakeXs]

I didnt notice any frame drops or tearing in this build I just finished. Except for a few crashes, lower texture quality, animation bugs etc. this build was very playable indeed.

Speaking of which, how is the overall animation? Both in the player character, and your squad?

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

I didnt notice any frame drops or tearing in this build I just finished. Except for a few crashes, lower texture quality, animation bugs etc. this build was very playable indeed.

Exactly the same here. No tearing, the only concern I have for now is the SP texture quality, I hope it will be fixed before release.

 

[Kobold]

Speaking of which, how is the overall animation? Both in the player character, and your squad?

Well, my squad killed itself a couple of times (shooting against walls with rocket launcher, or friendly fire), and got generally in the way several times more (standing in an area where they just get wasted for no good reason), so I don't know, I'm not a fan of the squad elements since it's generally more a nuisance then a blessing. Plus when you are not ordering them around, they stand there idling like a bunch of morons listening to gangster rap. This could all be temporary with the build I have, I don't know. We'll see in the final version.

Animation is incredible. Ghost Recon 2's animations were good already, but this is better. The animations for when you are in cover are sweeet! Peeking over cover or leaning, etc.

 

[SnakeXs]

Well, my squad killed itself a couple of times (shooting against walls with rocket launcher, or freindly fire), and got generally in the way several times more (standing in an area where they just get wasted for no good reason), so I don't know, I'm not a fan of squad based shooters since it's generally more a nuisance then a blessing. Plus when you are not ordering them around, they stand there idling like a bunch of morons listening to gangster rap. This could all be temporary with the build I have, I don't know. We'll see in the final version.

Animation is incredible. Ghost Recon 2's animations were good already, but this is better. The animations for when you are in cover are sweeet! Peeking over cover or leaning, etc.

Many, many thanks.

Now gimme my goddamned demo on XBL, Ubi!