Epic Games knows its way around Cell maze

  • Posted January 25th, 2008 at 18:41 EDT by
  • 6,304 views
  • 23 Comments

The guys over at Epic games have displayed acts of greatness in the video game industry. No individual can deny that. With their recent release of Unreal Tournament III onto the PlayStation 3 console, gamers were given the opportunity to witness what the Unreal 3 engine is capable of producing. Those early demonstrations have been given through other titles, none as user-oriented as UT3. Unreal allows its userbase to create mods for the game itself. A first for console gaming. With recent rumblings from Rockstar about the difficulty and setbacks that the PS3 can cause to developers, it makes us wonder how Epic is able to leap these hurdles with what seems like little to no effort.

Jeff Morris, producer for Unreal Tournament III, sat down with Gamepro for an interview to further explain how they tackled the infamous PS3 hardware. Jeff mentions first off that the PS3 is all about memory optimization and technological optimization hurdles. Once those are passed over, it should be smooth sailing from that point forward.



When questioned about how they went about optimizing these aspects for the game , Jeff had this to say, “…the texture for a vehicle includes many different texture maps, each with their own unique detail. One of those is the "diffuse texture," which is basically a checkerboard. There is also a "specular texture," which includes the way light catches on the object, such as crinkles on a bottle. You overlay the specular over the diffuser. We say, "I bet we could combine the diffuse and the specular textures into one texture," which can [halve the memory requirements]. We look at them and put them side by side and there is almost no difference; you just can't tell in game play. Our optimization philosophy is "optimization at no visual degradation." We can also do things like reduce the polygon count of an object to one-tenth, and you can't tell the difference.”

What can be gathered from this response is that the PS3 is closer to a PC’s setup which could allow for bigger and better things in the future. With the mod system that UT3 provides its community, you can only assume that other developers will have the same architecture to work with in terms of offering up the same possibilities overall.

A big issue with gamers has always been the one surrounding Sony’s many SPE’s. However, Jeff Morris seems to feel as though the SPEs give developers an extra advantage over what they have to work with on other platforms. He mentioned how it allows them to put many tasks on a similar parallel in order for things to work together in a more cohesive fashion.

With many developers crying like a kid who dropped his ice cream cone over the difficulty regarding the PS3, it’s amazing to see a team with such a strong grasp. It’s obvious that with the right discipline and enough dedication, it’s been made apparent that great things can come from the hardware itself. Hopefully other developers follow in Epic’s footsteps and start churning up the performance and feel of their products.

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  1. XSpike_SpiegelC | XSpike_SpiegelC

    • 6:45pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 1

    nice

     

  2. monkeykilla

    • 6:52pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 2

    yeah its going to be nice to see some awesome shizzz come out of this machine after most developers grasp the knowledge.

  3. hmahmood | hmahmood

    • 7:11pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 3

    good

  4. falky64

    • 7:49pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 4

    If only Rockstar GTA IV was exclusive to PS3 we might just have an awesome game but like anything that comes out on the Xbox 360 the games look worse on the PS3 because developers dont understand how it works!!!!!!

  5. wocyob

    • 7:57pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 5

    i like that line with the ice cream cone...classic

    but yea about the other dev...they need to stop being lil brats and get with the program


  6. wwe | mrdx

    • 8:07pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 6

    great games come from ps3 ok games come from 360.the ps3 is a complecated console but the games come out awesome why is it that all of sonys games are great in every way and 3rd party games come out ok with the exception of epic they really have patiance

  7. MrFenwick | SirFenwick

    • 8:17pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 7

    I blame Science.

  8. Monroy16

    • 8:19pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 8

    sweet

     

  9. ladellb

    • 8:22pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 9

    The good thing about UTIII is that it "proves" developers can make great games on the PS3 right now. They don't have to unlock 90+% of it's power. This game looks fantastic. There will always be a learning curve with new tech, so it would be nice stop all the complaining about developement difficulties. If it's your career, learn the freakn hardware, and do your job.

  10. BD_BLACKAZZ | BD_BLACKK

    • 9:00pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 10

    well maybe after 2008 all the 3rd party devs will develop exclusively PS3 so we can see the power of the PS3

  11. IONIXX | IONIXX

    • 9:10pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 11

    yes, other evelopers need to stop being such wusses,

  12. gingo | gingo

    • 9:43pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 12

    psn id: gingo... its great to hear devleopers like Epic and Infinity Ward say how easy the ps3 architecture is to use and it makes you sad at the laziness of devleopers like rockstar, EA and ubisoft

  13. Lp47PS3 | Lp47

    • 10:21pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 13

    Jeff Morris is pretty much implying. We will soon see an announcement at GDC for Gears of War 2 on PS3. If Epic likes the PS3 so much. Why dont they bring Gears 2 to PS3 so they can maximize profits and reach out to a bigger market. Im going to take a guess Gears 2 for PS3 November 5th 2008.

  14. x_terna | x-terna

    • 11:21pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 14

    so wat he's trying to say is u can be able to bake the diffuse, and specular(bump, and etc.) to form one texture for memory saving?wow, pretty smart havent thought about that. kool.

     

    we will see alot more games now, using this technique, and BAM! opens up more easy routes for the ps3 developers

  15. reccodog | reccodog

    • 11:49pm GMT - January 25th, 2008
    • 15

    Most devs ARE such Babys. They need to take some time to figure things out. They can't expect easy and cheap hardware(xbox 360) to work with. They need to work with bigger and brighter harware(PS3)!

  16. InfernoReaper | GrimDarkling

    • 12:34am GMT - January 26th, 2008
    • 16

    It was a big point with Epic to understand the PS3 architecture because there are many games utilizing the Unreal engine.

  17. PS3-The Ultimate Machine

    • 3:01am GMT - January 26th, 2008
    • 17

    Well,at least THEY know that new hardware could work better with new developing techniques,and this is a game that is partially all eye-candy.

  18. leeman99 | Bedsidelee

    • 7:29am GMT - January 26th, 2008
    • 18

    Well the ps3 is now starting show it's superiority over the other consoles visually and graphically, yet the developers are no where near utilising the raw power yet, it going to take years i think to see this console show it's true potential, but obviously it's great to see epic on the right track, and looking around other sites theres less negative propaganda about ps3 from game journalistsits it just seems now to be coming from xbots who are getting so afraid of ps3 taking over arn’t they pathetic, come on sony.

  19. Muzikguy | Muzikguy

    • 9:08am GMT - January 26th, 2008
    • 19

    " We can also do things like reduce the polygon count of an object to one-tenth, and you can't tell the difference.” I don't like that part

  20. Uncool | Admodistrator

    • 11:27am GMT - January 26th, 2008
    • 20

    Well duh they are epic, its amazing how they are able to make their games have that much range in compatibility for high and low end PC's. And utilizing the PS3 is going to be no different for them.

  21. Deldwen | Deldwen1

    • 11:34am GMT - January 26th, 2008
    • 21

    gamers b**** to much

  22. D3v1lwqer23 | Deldwen1

    • 1:22pm GMT - January 26th, 2008
    • 22

    Epic and Infinity Ward Rule!!!

  23. nastanley

    • 3:30pm GMT - January 26th, 2008
    • 23

    Infact i hope that what you guys are saying comes to reality. Most developpers going multi platform prefer the 360 version because the 360 is easier to work with.THQ gave a silly complain earlier about not being able to use the UE3 on the ps3. I mean they should learn from Epic, the creators of this engine. I am really worried because most developpers seem to lean towards 360 than the ps3.KONAMI and SQUARE-ENIX won't be enough to make things move for sony, more and more developers have to come together and make us really appretiate the true power of the ps3.Well the ps2 also had a difficult start, but i must admit that the ps2's start was better off, than this one.I hope with time we will come to see more exclusive titles that truely utilise the console, without a clear cut difference between the power of the two consoles i think people will go in for a cheaper 360 which can play the same games as the ps3.

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