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PSU.com Interview: Emergent Game Technologies

Posted October 11th, 2006 by
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(continued from previous page) ...to provide the game engine for the Wii, EVO:Phase One, or Infinium Labs Phantom?
We don’t currently support those platforms.

Part 2: Developing for the PS3

9. How are you utlizing the power of the PS3 to get the most for your games?
Most of the PS3’s power comes from the SPUs, but taking advantage of that power can be a tremendous challenge. It’s easy to get into a situation where the PPU is 100%% utilized while the SPUs are waiting for work to do. Avoiding this requires careful SPU task scheduling and optimal asynchronous data transfers. Floodgate provides this ability.

In addition, when Floodgate is used in conjunction with the Gamebryo for PS3 renderer, it can take advantage of a cool feature of the RSX to verify completion of graphics data transfers. That avoids having the Cell wait for such transfers to complete before issuing draw calls. Gamebryo for PS3 already does this automatically when it renders particle systems, but it can be used all kinds of of dynamic or procedural data, whether it’s geometry or textures.

Floodgate really breaks down the challenges involved with getting work done on the SPUs. The bonus for cross-platform developers is that when you use Floodgate, you see benefits on all multi-core platforms—not just on the PS3.

Our Metrics Element product makes it easy to gather and analyze any of the thousands of performance metrics that can be queried on the PS3.

10. What's your opinion on the PS3 being difficult to program for? Strengths, weaknesses?
If it were really easy to program for the PS3, developers wouldn’t be looking to us for better answers. Multicore development is tough work. And it always takes time for good development tools to emerge for a new platform—compiling, debugging, and performance analyzing tools are still evolving for the PS3, which adds to the challenge.

11. How would you descibe the RSX and its ability to work with the Cell?
I think Sony and nVidia did a great job with the architecture. There are quite a few details that can be tricky, and performance will suffer if you’re not careful—but when used as designed, the RSX is a great match for the Cell.

12. How long do you think it will take to truly tap into the PS3's power?
It will take a few years of developers finding innovative ways to squeeze more out of the PS3, just as it did with the PS2.

So thats the interview - we hope you enjoyed it. Just to add a bit more, TimeGate Studios has recently signed a deal with Emergent Game Technologies to use their game engine in an upcoming next gen MMO. It has yet to be confirmed it the title will appear on the PS3 or not but PS3Land.com will keep you updated as more information is available.

We would like to thank Ed and the rest of the team at Emergent Game Technologies for working with us on the interview.

Blaster Effect Movie (7.18 MB)
Depth of Field Movie (20.47 MB)
Post Processing Movie (8.58 MB)