Next Gen Tech

While gaming journalists often pounce on GDC as a source for the latest gaming news, the conference is really intended for developers to mingle, see the latest work from their peers, and make business deals. The latest engine tech is also usually on display at GDC and this year is no exception. Demos from Crytek, DICE, Epic and more astounded atendees and those at home with incredible graphical fidelity. This year has already seen the current gen consoles pushed further than many thought possible. Can we still do even more?

 

The Year the 360 Maxes Out

Already this year we have seen the best implementation of the Unreal 3 Engine yet in Bulletstorm, and the first major use of deffered rendering on a 360 game in Dead Space 2. Both these games push tech forward with brilliant lighting, sharp textures, fluid animation, and more buzzwords than you can possibly name, much less understand. As the year moves forward the 360 will see the latest from Valve (Portal 2), Epic (Gears of War 3), Bethesda (Skyrim), id (Rage), Crytek (Crysis 2) and DICE (Battlefield 3).

 

Epic

Portal 2 is powered by the latest version of Valve's Source engine, while Gears 3 puts Unreal 3 to the test. But Unreal had some new tricks up its sleave at this year's GDC.

 

 

This image was released alongside several others (as well as a leaked video you can find on youtube) displaying what the Unreal engine will look like next generation. Featuring a ton of cool tech, the engine was shown running in real time off three Geforce 580's. For those not in the know, those are the most powerful PC desktop graphics cards on the market, and the most that run side by side in a normal computer is two. So we're looking at something that is two or three years away at least, but compared to Gears 3, it is tantilizing to see what the folks at Epic have planned for our future.

 

Bethesda

 

The company behind the Elder Scrolls series and Fallout 3 hasn't used a proprietary engine in over a decade. Since Morrowind, the company has licensed the Gambryo engine for its games. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) Gamebryo went bankrupt earlier this year. The reason is most likely related to the fact that Bethesda decided to use their own engine for their latest Elder Scrolls title, Skyrim. Featuring vastly improved lighting, draw distances, weather effects, and more, Bethesda is pushing the 360 to its limits with tech that has been in the works for nearly half a decade. While the individual models may not be as impressive as those seen in other new engines this year, the fact that a game that looks this good also allows you to travel anywhere simply astounds. I know I can't wait to see if Bethesda can actually iron out the majority of Skyrim's bugs before shipping the game.

 

Crytek

 

If any company has defined bleeding edge graphics this decade it is Crytek. Starting with Far Cry in 2004, and then Crysis in 2007, the company has time and again made some of the best looking games on the market. It's latest engine, Cryengine 3, takes all the beauty of its 2007 tech and ports it to consoles. The result is one of the best looking console games we've seen thus far, and a promise of a PC version that will look even better. While the Unreal and Frostbye tech on display at GDC put Cryengine 3 to shame, it is still going to be one of the best looking games on this generation of consoles.

 

ID

Id is a company known for its engines. Tech head John Carmack is an industry legend and his latest efforts use some unique ideas that you won't find anywhere else. It's latest game, Rage, uses idtech 5 and it looks pretty grand.

 

 

But Carmack didn't stop there. He claims that Doom 4, also to be released on this generation of consoles, will look 3 times better than Rage. Suffice to say that even if graphics top out in general for 360 this year, we can still look forward to Doom 4 pushing the limits even further.

 

DICE

And we of course end at the stunning Frostbyte 2 engine. The tech behind Battlefield 3 is easily the best looking engine seen running on current PC hardware. No, it probably won't look nearly as good on consoles, but that real time render was made using only a single Geforce 580. As far as good looking games released this year go, for those with a high end PC, Battlefield 3 will probably be graphics champion.

 

PS3

The PS3 is an interesting beast from a hardware front. It's graphics card is much weaker than that of the 360, but its mighty cell processor is four or five times more powerful if used correctly. The problem is simple. Developers, and most engines they use, are designed to make use of the graphics card for most of the heavy lifting. But on PS3, the Cell is designed to be used a co-graphics card. Of the Cell's seven processors, one is is the main CPU. The other six are called SPU's and are designed to do unique specific tasks. One of the six is used by the operating system, while the other five are available for developers to use. Sony exclusives like God of War 3, Uncharted and Killzone use these processors extensively. The recently released Killzone 3 does a massive amount of its graphics work on the SPU's. For example, while in Unreal 3 anti-aliasing (the removal of jagged edges on straight lines in a game) is almost impossible, Sony developed a form of AA that uses the SPU's of the cell, removing a huge amount of weight from the GPU, and freeing up GPU RAM for other important tasks. Because of developer's unfamiliarity with Sony's hardware, we are still seeing major graphical advancements from Sony's first parties. While the 360 will be tapped out by all but the very best engine designers by the end of the year, Sony's teams still have a year or two left of tinkering before they max out the PS3. Sony Santa Monica, the team behind the God of War series, will likely push its tech further in its secretive follow up to God of War 3. Uncharted 3 is already looking better than the second entry, and Team Ico is still pounding away at the incredible looking The Last Guardian.

 

Conclusion

This year we are going to see most third parties max out graphically on current gen consoles. The latest tech shown by engine companies at GDC this year focused on PC development, with no promises made by Epic, DICE, or Crytek that their latest wares would work perfectly on 360 and PS3. While Sony's first parties can probably eek out a year or two more of improvement from the PS3, we are nearing the point where we will need a new generation of hardware to take full advantage of the latest engines from the world's top developers.