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[Dacvak]

IGN has had a lot of exclusive lead-up content/previews the past two days. I bet it's them.

That's my guess, especially with that new video just posted. I'd love to do a QuickLook-style video, but unfortunately can't unless I get specific permission. =/

 

[NullPointer]

Also i should clarify jic: the Mega Textures thing never meant that the textures are gonna be MINDBLOWING in terms of quality. Of course if you put your face 1 milimiter away from them they're gonna look blurry. Mega texture technology is basically clip mapping for textures. Its just one big ass texture instead of tiny ones, and it kinda just means that the game will run and look great on lower-end system since it requires much, much less specs. So its basically another thing to add to the constant framerate they are trying to achieve.

This was already used in Enemy Territory though, but they expanded it for RAGE (and supposedly Doom 4) and now textures can measure up to 128000×128000 pixels.

And to extend that a bit, isn't the promise of megatextures an end to the same repeated images again and again? Artists can now apply as much unique detail as they want and the mega-texture or virtualized texture tech manages optimizing their storage and streaming?

That's how I've understood it so far, but I only understand maybe 50-60% of whatever Carmack says.

 

[DarkChild]

Also i should clarify jic: the Mega Textures thing never meant that the textures are gonna be MINDBLOWING in terms of quality. Of course if you put your face 1 milimiter away from them they're gonna look blurry. Mega texture technology is basically clip mapping for textures. Its just one big ass texture instead of tiny ones, and it kinda just means that the game will run and look great on lower-end system since it requires much, much less specs, yet it'll look high-end. So its basically another thing to add to the constant framerate and flow they are trying to achieve.

This was already used in Enemy Territory though, but they expanded it for RAGE (and supposedly Doom 4) and now textures can measure up to 128000×128000 pixels.

But the tech could go a long way since you CAN have textures as sharp as you wan't without any performance issues. Problem with RAGE and this gen are:
1) PS3 doesn't support textures higher res than 4x4k
2) No body has half terabyte of disk space

Next gen it could really be the thing.

@above
Yes, you are right. You can add layers and layers on top of already consisting mega texture without any performance impact. You can have as good textures(sharp) as you want if you have enough space and you aren't stuck by 4x4k standards of 05' GPUs.

 

[Salsa]

And to extend that a bit, isn't the promise of megatextures an end to the same repeated images again and again? Artists can now apply as much unique detail as they want and the mega-texture or virtualized texture tech manages optimizing their storage and streaming?

That's how I've understood it so far, but I only understand maybe 50-60% of whatever Carmack says.

Yup, because as the player moves different sections of the megatexture are loaded in the memory. This is what causes the side effects of texture pop in when you turn around quickly (if youre were going console version + no install, think it'll still happen a tiny bit), but the benefits are much greater. I personally think its gonna affect more on the aesthetics side than on the tech itself, since it comes as a great tool for artists.

But the tech could go a long way since you CAN have textures as sharp as you wan't without any performance issues. Problem with RAGE and this gen are:
1) PS3 doesn't support textures higher res than 4x4k
2) No body has half terabyte of disk space

Next gen it could really be the thing.

@above
Yes, you are right. You can add layers and layers on top of already consisting mega texture without any performance impact. You can have as good textures(sharp) as you want if you have enough space and you aren't stuck by 4x4k standards of 05' GPUs.

They are clearly going for the best performance possible all around, wich certainly means that the PC crowd takes a hit on what the game COULD look like.

What they keep responding in regards to this is that the new technology allows for seamless presentation on this regard, so it would still basically look as good as any PC game looks nowadays, but by different means.

 

[Grayman]

Isn't Megatexture tech limited in use of real time unified lighting? I think I heard that somewhere and it makes the tech seem useless long term if true.

Also i should clarify jic: the Mega Textures thing never meant that the textures are gonna be MINDBLOWING in terms of quality. Of course if you put your face 1 milimiter away from them they're gonna look blurry. Mega texture technology is basically clip mapping for textures. Its just one big ass texture instead of tiny ones, and it kinda just means that the game will run and look great on lower-end system since it requires much, much less specs, yet it'll look high-end. So its basically another thing to add to the constant framerate and flow they are trying to achieve.

This was already used in Enemy Territory though, but they expanded it for RAGE (and supposedly Doom 4) and now textures can measure up to 128000×128000 pixels.

Brink also uses virtual texturing. I think that might be part of the reason that it has no SDK (aside from Splash Damage having no money for it)

 

[Salsa]

Isn't Megatexture tech limited in use of real time unified lighting? I think I heard that somewhere and it makes the tech seem useless long term if true.

Not that i know of..

 

[Wallach]

So I got to lookin' at the bonus things that come with the pre-order - one of them is armor? I wasn't aware this game even gave you the ability to equip armor.

 

[WHOAguitarninja]

Isn't Megatexture tech limited in use of real time unified lighting? I think I heard that somewhere and it makes the tech seem useless long term if true.
Brink also uses virtual texturing. I think that might be part of the reason that it has no SDK (aside from Splash Damage having no money for it)

No. Megatexture is just a way to lump all your textures into one big giant texture. It's completely independent from lighting unless you bake your lights into a lightmap, (in which case it's actually very very good for that).

 

[DarkChild]

Isn't Megatexture tech limited in use of real time unified lighting? I think I heard that somewhere and it makes the tech seem useless long term if true.
Brink also uses virtual texturing. I think that might be part of the reason that it has no SDK (aside from Splash Damage having no money for it)

No, you can use dynamic lighting with MT. You gave answer in your second part of post, Brink is deferred lighting game.

 

[Salsa]

Also it should be noted that Brink uses the same technology as Enemy Territory, not the updated one from RAGE

 

[Ether_Snake]

To get the game running at 60FPS, the lighting is pretty much baked in the mega texture, which makes it easier to render, fewer draw calls, simpler shaders, etc. On current consoles, don't expect 60FPS + dynamic lighting. Not gonna happen.

 

[EvilDick34]

Why the hell are reviews not up until the day it comes out? The fuck. Is bethesda/id afraid of the reviews?

 

[Derrick01]

Why the hell are reviews not up until the day it comes out? The fuck. Is bethesda/id afraid of the reviews?

It's standard practice for just about every AAA game nowadays. I guess they're all worried about bad reviews enough to make reviews pointless.

 

[LQX]

I hope I made the right choice buying this for 360.

 

[papersleeves]

I hope I made the right choice buying this for 360.

Look at the videos from IGN. It looks fantastic. I have a beast of a pc, but I'm still going to purchase the 360 version. 60fps and beautiful graphics. I am shamelessly adding this title to my 360 collection.

 

[Grayman]

Thank you all for setting me straight. I must have misinterpreted carmack saying we have to use lightmaps because of performance as we have to use lightmaps fullstop.

I never noticed Brink had deferred lighting because nothing makes it really stand out and being multiplayer I play with a lot of the settings off. Even with everything on Brink looks borderline like r_forceambient 2 in quake 4 to me because of the mostly white background and lack of any darkness between lights.

 

[NullPointer]

PLEASE tell me we can start the Steam pre-download on this sucker some time very soon.

Pretty please?

 

[Effect]

What will determine the fate of the MP is how well the driving is. If it's good I don't see why it couldn't be popular and have some life to it. It's good to see something different then team deathmatch. So many others are doing it. It doesn't need to be done just because. This actually sounds interesting and worth trying out.

Still happy that this game has a focus on single player instead multiplayer. I do wonder if they will be adding more to the game after launch if it does well or if they feel there is enough content already in the game with this sewer system that was talked about. This focus is what has sold me on the game in the end after a LOT of back and forth in recent days and hours instead of Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3. I'm not tired of FPS as I figured but just the whole multiplayer as the primary and sometimes sole focus.

 

[JohngPR]

Does anyone have any clue how the PS3 and 360 version compare to each other?

 

[CoilShot]

Look at the videos from IGN. It looks fantastic. I have a beast of a pc, but I'm still going to purchase the 360 version. 60fps and beautiful graphics. I am shamelessly adding this title to my 360 collection.

So every version is 60 fps?

 

[Dacvak]

Does anyone have any clue how the PS3 and 360 version compare to each other?

When I played them at PAX, there wasn't any noticeable difference between the two to me. Both look insanely awesome.

 

[luka]

If you don't understand how Megatextures actually work, you should probably avoid using the words "mega" and "texture" in the same sentence, especially when used as a negative. Save yourself some embarrassment.

CURSES CARMACKKKKKKKK!!!

you promised MEGA textures

Yeah, like this.

Is anyone even going to play Rage's MP? Driving? Fuck that.

I so am. There hasn't been a great vehicle combat game since interstate 76!

 

[darkressurection]

When I played them at PAX, there wasn't any noticeable difference between the two to me. Both look insanely awesome.

Yeah, I played the PS3 version at PAX and it ran fine and from a distance they were totally indistinguishable.

 

[Wallach]

I so am. There hasn't been a great vehicle combat game since interstate 76!

This dude knows what's up.

 

[pakkit]

I for one, am excited for the multiplayer options. Co-op when well constructed is always welcomed, and the scenarios they've drawn up and the ways they've tied it into the story are appreciated.

Vehicular combat, on the other hand, is a subgenre that has been vastly overlooked this generation (especially on 360). FPS multiplayer almost always gets overlooked by me since those markets are monopolized by Halo and COD.

 

[Alex Connolly]

I think the vehicular multiplayer will be a damn breath of fresh air, personally. The physics look great and the combat punchy. There's more than enough traditional shooty-shoot out there...this looks to be all sorts of awesome.

 

[Salsa]

I think the vehicular multiplayer will be a damn breath of fresh air, personally. The physics look great and the combat punchy. There's more than enough traditional shooty-shoot out there...this looks to be all sorts of awesome.

Same here.

Only bad part about is that itll be non-existent to me considering there are probably no dedicated servers and even if there are, there will be none with playable ping for me D:

oh well. I'll give it a shot either way, hope you can at least get bots and play with friends or something.

 

[commissar]

Can't wait for this to come out

Hopefully my pc will run it nicely

 

[subversus]

This dude knows what's up.

but Twisted Metal

Spoiler

never played it, but I heard it's good

 

[Grayman]

but Twisted Metal

Spoiler

never played it, but I heard it's good

The good twisted metal game are about the same age as i76 anyways. I only got to play i76 once but liked it.

What I remember of i76 was cars with guns. Twisted Metal is more like 2d tank control deathmatch with car skins. I think the new TM is changing all of the control side though.

 

[darkressurection]

The good twisted metal game are about the same age as i76 anyways. I only got to play i76 once but liked it.

What I remember of i76 was cars with guns. Twisted Metal is more like 2d tank control deathmatch with car skins. I think the new TM is changing all of the control side though.

Off Topic: The new TM was one of my biggest surprises at PAX, it is super fun.

On Topic: Yeah I think the MP could be interesting hopefully the vehicle controls feel good.

 

[Dead Man]

Don't think I can run it, and don't want to play it on a console, so I'll be waiting for my new rig. Hope its great.

 

[Salsa]

Don't think I can run it

You'd be surprised, apparently.

 

[Mrbob]

Don't think I can run it, and don't want to play it on a console, so I'll be waiting for my new rig. Hope its great.

If the Steam page is reliable the recommended isn't even that high:

Recommended:
OS: Win XP SP3, Vista, Win 7
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad or Equivalent AMD
Memory: 4GB
Hard Disk Space: 25GB
Video Card: GeForce 9800 GTX, Radeon HD 5550

Minimum is really low too:

Minimum:
OS: Win XP SP3, Vista, Win 7
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo or Equivalent AMD
Memory: 2GB
Hard Disk Space: 25GB
Video Card: GeForce 8800, Radeon HD 4200

 

[Dead Man]

You'd be surprised, apparently.

Really? http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/ tells me I am out of luck, but only on my video card. Laptop unfortunately, so I can't really upgrade it. I have a 9600M GT 2gb card.

 

[Alex Connolly]

You'd be surprised, apparently.

I'm just thankful it'll be a game a lot of people can run. The specs are pretty mild, when all is said and done.

 

[NBtoaster]

Really? http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/ tells me I am out of luck, but only on my video card. Laptop unfortunately, so I can't really upgrade it. I have a 9600M GT 2gb card.

A 9600m is waaaay better than the minimum GPU! Don't trust that site.

edit: or at least it's several times better than a 4200 but not a 8800. Some weird ATI skew with this game.

 

[Sn4ke_911]

Yeah, will definitely play this.

 

[Dead Man]

A 9600m is waaaay better than the minimum GPU! Don't trust that site.

edit: or at least it's several times better than a 4200 but not a 8800. Some weird ATI skew with this game.

Really? Sweet!

 

[garath]

New footage from IGN.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1T4PN1kjr0

Wow. That looks fantastic. I was wondering how the throwing blade would be balanced. That thing looks ridiculously powerful. Very very exciting.

It's pretty terrible that the review embargo is up on the day of release. I really wish publishers would take a chance on a good game and put them up. Enough hype could generate more pre-orders or at least sway some people on the fence into buying earlier. The longer people wait to buy the more options there are for sales, used games, etc.

 

[Effect]

Is the lack of hype and OMG reaction to this game something to worry about?

 

[DieH@rd]

I cant wait to play the PC version [and the possible upcoming HD texture pack].

 

[DaBuddaDa]

Is the lack of hype and OMG reaction to this game something to worry about?

What would you be worried about?

 

[Foliorum Viridum]

I cant wait to play the PC version [and the possible upcoming HD texture pack].

What is the word on the texture pack? I know people sad it'd be like 75gb but I don't give a fuck.

If there is any chance of it coming I will wait to play it that way.

 

[DaBuddaDa]

What is the word on the texture pack?

The word is maybe sometime in the future maybe they will possibly maybe release a high res texture pack for the PC, maybe, whenever, sometime later, possibly, hem, haw.

 

[Foliorum Viridum]

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Oh well, playing vanilla and hope it gets released sometime in the far future, I guess. What a shame.

 

[ced]

Looks great.

 

[JohngPR]

When I played them at PAX, there wasn't any noticeable difference between the two to me. Both look insanely awesome.

Thanks. I'm undecided over which one to get if I do end up getting the game.

 

[I NEED SCISSORS]

Had to cancel my pre-order because I had no idea Dark Souls came out on the same day. Someone at either company dun goofed with the release calendar (though it's not like either was a major threat to the other I guess).

You hear that, Carmack? After all those years, you were foiled by being one week too late!

 

[Metal-Geo]

Is the lack of hype and OMG reaction to this game something to worry about?

This game was announced +5 years ago. Give me a rest. I spread my OMG reactions throughout those years.