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[Kleegamefan]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/05/20/news_6126181.html

Good interview, IMO

GS: The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will both have extremely powerful multicore processors capable of doing a lot of physics calculations. Is that going to make it difficult for developers to port console games over to the PC?

MR: The PlayStation 3 Cell architecture is very similar to the hardware design of the Ageia chip, so the PC will be able to get superaccelerated also. The Ageia NovodeX API, when they bring it over to the PlayStation 3, will be very fast, very powerful--similar to the Ageia [chip]. But the cool thing about that is if someone's lead moneymaking platform is the PlayStation 3, they're going physics up the wazoo because they have so much power. That makes it a very economical choice for PC users than to just pop a [physics] chip into the PC and then have the full physics effects that will be available on the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360.

 

[Kleegamefan]

Also this:

MR: It's a very normal development platform, something we can get our hands around. We already know Open GL; we've been doing Open GL since Unreal 1. We already know Nvidia graphics. PowerPC? Well, we've won Macintosh game of the year going back I don't know how many years.

We had the dev kit for probably just under two months, and look what we were able to produce. We were able to get Unreal Engine 3 up and running very quickly on it, and we were able to get a great demo going. Part of the reason why we were able to get the demo running isn't just our familiarity with the PlayStation 3 development environment, but also the fact that all of the content in Unreal Engine 3 is 100 percent compatible between the PC and the PlayStation 3. When we run an Nvidia-based Open GL shader on PC, and we go to run the same thing on PlayStation 3, we know it's going to be exactly the same, look exactly the same. There's no surprises, and that's great. It's a fantastic environment for people using our technology.

This bodes well for PS3 developers using UE3.0, of which there will probably be many...

 

[lexi]

MR: It's a very normal development platform, something we can get our hands around. We already know Open GL; we've been doing Open GL since Unreal 1. We already know Nvidia graphics. PowerPC? Well, we've won Macintosh game of the year going back I don't know how many years.

<3 <3 <3 Don't forget Linux, Mark!

EA, Ubisoft, THQ; BOW BEFORE THE MASTERS OF PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT.

 

[midnightguy]

very good read, Klee, thanks.

I found this interesting

GS: How has it been programming for the Cell processor? Have you tapped into the extra processing cores yet?

MR: We haven't really delved into the Cell all that deeply yet. All we've done is mostly take advantage of just the normal PowerPC core and the RSX graphics, so we really look forward to getting home and tackling all kinds of cool stuff on the Cell. Ultimately, Cell is like a super-MMX processor, and as you know, Unreal was Intel's poster child for MMX many years ago. We're going to be able to do a lot of cool stuff on it. Especially great physics--the NovodeX guys are going to get their API put on it.

so basicly, they've used just the PPE / PowerPC core plus the RSX GPU. they basicly ignored the APUs...I mean SPEs. this sounds familar, because in the early days of PS2, many developers (IIRC) just used the MIPs core of the Emotion Engine and the Graphics Synthesizer. they didn't bother using the Vector Units of the Emotion Engine until later in PS2's life.

 

[Striek]

very good read, Klee, thanks.

I found this interesting



so basicly, they've used just the PPE / PowerPC core plus the RSX GPU. they basicly ignored the APUs...I mean SPEs. this sounds familar, because in the early days of PS2, many developers (IIRC) just used the MIPs core of the Emotion Engine and the Graphics Synthesizer. they didn't bother using the Vector Units of the Emotion Engine until later in PS2's life.

That pretty much matches up with what DeanoC said about Heavenly Sword. PS3 should be a beast later in its life (too bad PC will have overtaken it then ).

 

[gofreak]

They also said they were going to go back now to tackle the rest of Cell

But that would make sense for a company selling their engine for use by others. You'd want it to be able to boast as close to 100% effectiveness as possible.

Anyway, this all sounds good.

 

[Izzy]

MR: The PlayStation 3 Cell architecture is very similar to the hardware design of the Ageia chip, so the PC will be able to get superaccelerated also. The Ageia NovodeX API, when they bring it over to the PlayStation 3, will be very fast, very powerful--similar to the Ageia [chip]. But the cool thing about that is if someone's lead moneymaking platform is the PlayStation 3, they're going physics up the wazoo because they have so much power. That makes it a very economical choice for PC users than to just pop a [physics] chip into the PC and then have the full physics effects that will be available on the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360.

Indeed.

 

[Izzy]

On PS3 development:

Mark Rein: [Interrupting] Are we talking next-gen consoles? Did you see the first-ever demo for the PlayStation 3? Oh, yeah that was UT 2007 on Unreal Engine 3!

The next five years are going to be incredible, so much better than the last five years in terms of what people are going to be able to do.

GS: That was a great demo you had at the Sony press conference. Can you tell us what it's like developing on the PlayStation 3?

MR: It's a very normal development platform, something we can get our hands around. We already know Open GL; we've been doing Open GL since Unreal 1. We already know Nvidia graphics. PowerPC? Well, we've won Macintosh game of the year going back I don't know how many years.

We had the dev kit for probably just under two months, and look what we were able to produce. We were able to get Unreal Engine 3 up and running very quickly on it, and we were able to get a great demo going. Part of the reason why we were able to get the demo running isn't just our familiarity with the PlayStation 3 development environment, but also the fact that all of the content in Unreal Engine 3 is 100 percent compatible between the PC and the PlayStation 3. When we run an Nvidia-based Open GL shader on PC, and we go to run the same thing on PlayStation 3, we know it's going to be exactly the same, look exactly the same. There's no surprises, and that's great. It's a fantastic environment for people using our technology.

GS: How has it been programming for the Cell processor? Have you tapped into the extra processing cores yet?

MR: We haven't really delved into the Cell all that deeply yet. All we've done is mostly take advantage of just the normal PowerPC core and the RSX graphics, so we really look forward to getting home and tackling all kinds of cool stuff on the Cell. Ultimately, Cell is like a super-MMX processor, and as you know, Unreal was Intel's poster child for MMX many years ago. We're going to be able to do a lot of cool stuff on it. Especially great physics--the NovodeX guys are going to get their API put on it.

 

[dark10x]

That pretty much matches up with what DeanoC said about Heavenly Sword. PS3 should be a beast later in its life (too bad PC will have overtaken it then ).

Thankfully, if this gen is anything to go by, the games will still be quite beautiful late in its life. The PC of today is quite a bit more advanced than a PlayStation 2, but developers are still creating quite a bit of very attractive looking PS2 software. Games such as God of War, MGS3, Ace Combat 5, GT4, and plenty of others are plenty beautiful to behold. This isn't like the PSX generation where the games became ugly to the point that it was often difficult to deal with the pathetic 3D capabilities.

 

[Elios83]

Having the Unreal Engine running as shown in the conference on the PPE and RSX (not even the final version) without using SPEs which are the key of PS3 power is impressive indeed.
I really can't wait to see the first real gams from top developers.I really hope there will be something for TGS.