Metro 2033 is a post-apocalyptic first-person-shooter, set in the underground community built in the ruins of a Russian municipal train system, based on the best-selling novel by Dmitry Glukhovsky.
*The whole game was ported to 360 in 19 working days. *The player spends more than half of the game under the ground. *Each AI character in the game has feelings: vision, hearing and hit reaction. The vision model is pretty much close to reality: NPCs have a 120 degrees visibility cone and see those in the centre of the cone more clearly, also illumination and speed of the target is taken into account. For instance, a moving object is seen more clearly in the darkness than standing one. Also a 'look closely' effect is implemented. There are different levels of alertness: light disturbance, light alert, alert, uber-alert, danger. *The majority of Metro 2033 runs at 40 to 50 frames per second.
A lot of cool tech info in the article as well, the PC version won't be held back which is usually the case when there's a console version. Definitely worth a read if your interested in the game...
The good thing is that they ported their engine early on to the 360 (when they could), and then kept improving the engine on the PC. More developers should do that.
It's a shame that they're currently not planning a PS3 version. I just can't believe they've made it for a old console; 360 and the dreadful PC; frame-rate issues (if users don't have the latest/best rig and gaming on it is like looking after a wife; yearly upgrades), incompatibility with several operating systems and custom game/program softwares. game crashes, bunch of issues.. etc.
Graphics-wise, the PC version of the 4A engine is far removed from the console versions. All too often we've seen PC games that are identical to the 360 equivalents, simply offering you the ability to run at higher resolutions with higher frame-rates.
Metro 2033 features superior volumetric fog, double the precision in the PhysX, 2048x2048 textures (up against 1024x1024 on console), better shadow-map definition and filtering, object blur in DX10, sub-surface scattering for superior skin shaders, parallax mapping on all surfaces and better geometric detail with less aggressive LODs.
* Orgasm*
Also:
there are many similarities in terms of technologies with Guerrilla Games' epic Killzone 2: pretty much the standard other developers have to aspire to in the console realm when it comes to first-person shooters. Guerrilla's engine is quite remarkable, geared completely to the specific hardware strengths of the Sony platform, but Shishkovtsov evaluates its performance from a different perspective.
"Their implementation seems to be badly optimised," he observes. "Otherwise why do they have pre-calculated light-mapping? Why do they light dynamic stuff differently to the rest of the world with light-probe similar stuff? From our experience you need at least 150 full-fledged light-sources per frame to have indoor environments look good and natural, and many more to highlight such things like eyes, etc. It seems they just missed that performance target."
Haha, Killzone 2 essentially maxed out the PS3 and they're calling its engine "badly optimized", 4A better really bring it :P
Can't wait to get this on PC, but the 360 footage looks great.
@Alphiehyr said:
"(if users don't have the latest/best rig and gaming on it is like looking after a wife; yearly upgrades), incompatibility with several operating systems and custom game/program softwares. game crashes, bunch of issues.. etc. "
Very rare, if nonexistent problems for most PC users. Problems, if any, are usually easy enough to remedy. Well worth the trade off for the benefits of the platform in my opinion.
" It's a shame that they're currently not planning a PS3 version. I just can't believe they've made it for a old console; 360 and the dreadful PC; frame-rate issues (if users don't have the latest/best rig and gaming on it is like looking after a wife; yearly upgrades), incompatibility with several operating systems and custom game/program softwares. game crashes, bunch of issues.. etc. "
You, sir, are a brilliant man, worthy of all the praise others will surely shower upon you for your brilliance in the field of video-game-analysis.
" It's a shame that they're currently not planning a PS3 version. I just can't believe they've made it for a old console; 360 and the dreadful PC; frame-rate issues (if users don't have the latest/best rig and gaming on it is like looking after a wife; yearly upgrades), incompatibility with several operating systems and custom game/program softwares. game crashes, bunch of issues.. etc. "
You, sir, are a brilliant man, worthy of all the praise others will surely shower upon you for your brilliance in the field of video-game-analysis. "
" It's a shame that they're currently not planning a PS3 version. I just can't believe they've made it for a old console; 360 and the dreadful PC; frame-rate issues (if users don't have the latest/best rig and gaming on it is like looking after a wife; yearly upgrades), incompatibility with several operating systems and custom game/program softwares. game crashes, bunch of issues.. etc. "
You, sir, are a brilliant man, worthy of all the praise others will surely shower upon you for your brilliance in the field of video-game-analysis. "
No need for sarcasm. "
Oh? Would you have preferred it if I told you that I thought you were an absolute dumb-ass?
I tend to feel that sarcasm helps take some of the edge off of such comments; I was just trying to be kind.
Or, if you're looking for a comment that is actually productive, check below.
" It's a shame that they're currently not planning a PS3 version. I just can't believe they've made it for a old console; 360 and the dreadful PC; frame-rate issues (if users don't have the latest/best rig and gaming on it is like looking after a wife; yearly upgrades), incompatibility with several operating systems and custom game/program softwares. game crashes, bunch of issues.. etc. "
You, sir, are a brilliant man, worthy of all the praise others will surely shower upon you for your brilliance in the field of video-game-analysis. "
What I'm more impressed with in this game is that it will be single player only. It takes a lot of balls this day and age for a developer to make a single player only FPS. Can't wait for this!
@jukezypoo said:
" @Alphiehyr said:
" @jukezypoo said:
" @Alphiehyr said:
" It's a shame that they're currently not planning a PS3 version. I just can't believe they've made it for a old console; 360 and the dreadful PC; frame-rate issues (if users don't have the latest/best rig and gaming on it is like looking after a wife; yearly upgrades), incompatibility with several operating systems and custom game/program softwares. game crashes, bunch of issues.. etc. "
You, sir, are a brilliant man, worthy of all the praise others will surely shower upon you for your brilliance in the field of video-game-analysis. "
No need for sarcasm. "
Oh? Would you have preferred it if I told you that I thought you were an absolute dumb-ass? I tend to feel that sarcasm helps take some of the edge off of such comments; I was just trying to be kind. Or, if you're looking for a comment that is actually productive, check below. "
" What I'm more impressed with in this game is that it will be single player only. It takes a lot of balls this day and age for a developer to make a single player only FPS. Can't wait for this!
I agree whole-heartedly. I'm so glad that they've committed to making the Single-Player affective and enjoyable, rather than attaching multi-player in a half-hearted attempt to justify the purchase price.
Looking forward to it. I'm not making any rash claims yet, but I am continuing my interest in the game. Not sure if I'll do anything crazy like pre-order, it just seems to risky with these sorts of games.
Isn't it a Russian made game?
EDIT: It is a Ukraine made game... that might as well be Russian. :P
Looking forward to it. I'm not making any rash claims yet, but I am continuing my interest in the game. Not sure if I'll do anything crazy like pre-order, it just seems to risky with these sorts of games.
" @Alphiehyr: I don't think they're doing a PS3 version because the game is based from Direct X. PS3 doesn't have direct X "
Yup. nVidia DX11 flagship title and all that. Though it sounds like, from the article the OP posted, THQ had a hand in it too... From the article:
"The PS3 is not that different... We use 'fibres' to 'emulate' a six-thread CPU, and then each task can spawn a SPURS (SPU) job and switch to another fibre. This is a kind of PPU off-loading, which is transparent to the system. The end result of this beautiful (apart from somewhat restricting) model is that we have perfectly linear scaling up to the hardware deficiency limits."
While the engine is described as a complete cross-platform development environment, there is to be no PlayStation 3 SKU of Metro 2033. The game will launch on PC and Xbox 360 only. However, the Sony console played a big part in the development work for the core tech.
"From the start we selected the most 'difficult' platform to run on. A lot of decisions were made explicitly knowing the limits and quirks we'll face in the future," explains Shishkovtsov.
"For me personally, the PS3 GPU (they like to call it RSX for some reason) was the safe choice because I was involved in the early design stages of NV40 and it's like a homeland: RSX is a direct derivative of that architecture. Reading Sony's docs it was like, 'Ha! They don't understand where those cycles are lost! They coded sub-optimal code-path in GCM for that thing!' All of that kind of stuff..."
The decision not to bring the title to PS3 came from THQ and the developer reckons it has made a positive difference to the game-making process, as limited resources are deployed on two platforms rather than three.
"THQ was reluctant to take a risk with a new engine from a new studio on what was still perceived to be a very difficult platform to program for - especially when there was no business need to do it," says Shishkovtsov.
"I think it was a wise decision to develop a PC and console version. It has allowed us to really focus on quality across the two platforms. One thing to note is that we never ran Metro 2033 on PS3, we only architected for it. The studio has a lot of console gamers but not that many console developers and Microsoft has put in a great effort to lower the entry barrier via its clearly superior tools, compilers and analysers.
"Overall, personally I think we both win. Our decision to architect for the 'more difficult' platform paid off almost immediately. The whole game was ported to 360 in 19 working days, although they weren't eight-hour days..."
" It's a shame that they're currently not planning a PS3 version. I just can't believe they've made it for a old console; 360 and the dreadful PC; frame-rate issues (if users don't have the latest/best rig and gaming on it is like looking after a wife; yearly upgrades), incompatibility with several operating systems and custom game/program softwares. game crashes, bunch of issues.. etc. "
You, sir, are a brilliant man, worthy of all the praise others will surely shower upon you for your brilliance in the field of video-game-analysis. "
No need for sarcasm. "
Oh? Would you have preferred it if I told you that I thought you were an absolute dumb-ass? I tend to feel that sarcasm helps take some of the edge off of such comments; I was just trying to be kind. Or, if you're looking for a comment that is actually productive, check below. "
I don't care you prefer, it's your choice. You don't have to be kind. Comments don't always have to be productive.
I really hope the engine is as efficient as they are saying it is. It may be the first good looking PC that that doesn't run on an absurdly unoptimized engine (Crysis and Stalker come to mind).
" @Alphiehyr: I don't think they're doing a PS3 version because the game is based from Direct X. PS3 doesn't have direct X "
Yup. nVidia DX11 flagship title and all that. Though it sounds like, from the article the OP posted, THQ had a hand in it too... From the article:
"The PS3 is not that different... We use 'fibres' to 'emulate' a six-thread CPU, and then each task can spawn a SPURS (SPU) job and switch to another fibre. This is a kind of PPU off-loading, which is transparent to the system. The end result of this beautiful (apart from somewhat restricting) model is that we have perfectly linear scaling up to the hardware deficiency limits."
While the engine is described as a complete cross-platform development environment, there is to be no PlayStation 3 SKU of Metro 2033. The game will launch on PC and Xbox 360 only. However, the Sony console played a big part in the development work for the core tech.
"From the start we selected the most 'difficult' platform to run on. A lot of decisions were made explicitly knowing the limits and quirks we'll face in the future," explains Shishkovtsov.
"For me personally, the PS3 GPU (they like to call it RSX for some reason) was the safe choice because I was involved in the early design stages of NV40 and it's like a homeland: RSX is a direct derivative of that architecture. Reading Sony's docs it was like, 'Ha! They don't understand where those cycles are lost! They coded sub-optimal code-path in GCM for that thing!' All of that kind of stuff..."
The decision not to bring the title to PS3 came from THQ and the developer reckons it has made a positive difference to the game-making process, as limited resources are deployed on two platforms rather than three.
"THQ was reluctant to take a risk with a new engine from a new studio on what was still perceived to be a very difficult platform to program for - especially when there was no business need to do it," says Shishkovtsov.
"I think it was a wise decision to develop a PC and console version. It has allowed us to really focus on quality across the two platforms. One thing to note is that we never ran Metro 2033 on PS3, we only architected for it. The studio has a lot of console gamers but not that many console developers and Microsoft has put in a great effort to lower the entry barrier via its clearly superior tools, compilers and analysers.
"Overall, personally I think we both win. Our decision to architect for the 'more difficult' platform paid off almost immediately. The whole game was ported to 360 in 19 working days, although they weren't eight-hour days..."
"
All I got out of the statement was that they didn't have enough resources for the third platform; PS3.
" I really hope the engine is as efficient as they are saying it is. It may be the first good looking PC that that doesn't run on an absurdly unoptimized engine (Crysis and Stalker come to mind). "
Yeah, me too. Graphics card is going to be a killer for me - still rockin' a 320mb 8800GTS. Good thing the 360 version is looking slick as well.
@Alphiehyr: Yeah, pretty much - THQ didn't want to chance it. Metro 2033 could theoretically run on the PS3 since 4A coded their engine around the cell, but THQ doesn't want them to spend any time making a PS3 version. I assume one of the reasons behind it is because it would take a good bit of work to go from DirectX to OpenGL.
I only heard about this game about 2 weeks ago and was very surprised that I had not seen it mentioned before anywhere because it looks like it could be a fantastic game. I'm really looking forward to this, hopefully it will get some good reviews too!
" @Alphiehyr: Yeah, pretty much - THQ didn't want to chance it. Metro 2033 could theoretically run on the PS3 since 4A coded their engine around the cell, but THQ doesn't want them to spend any time making a PS3 version. I assume one of the reasons behind it is because it would take a good bit of work to go from DirectX to OpenGL. "
Yeah I see this being the reason. Though I have high hopes for this game, I think it looks really good and I hope more people buy it. It is disappointing for it not coming to the ps3 but I see why the decision was made. I hope that They can later port the game or make it on everything for a sequel (BTW there is a Metro 2034 so it is not like they would make up stuff for a second one)
" It's a shame that they're currently not planning a PS3 version. I just can't believe they've made it for a old console; 360 and the dreadful PC; frame-rate issues (if users don't have the latest/best rig and gaming on it is like looking after a wife; yearly upgrades), incompatibility with several operating systems and custom game/program softwares. game crashes, bunch of issues.. etc. "
" It's a shame that they're currently not planning a PS3 version. I just can't believe they've made it for a old console; 360 and the dreadful PC; frame-rate issues (if users don't have the latest/best rig and gaming on it is like looking after a wife; yearly upgrades), incompatibility with several operating systems and custom game/program softwares. game crashes, bunch of issues.. etc. "
" *Each AI character in the game has [senses]: vision, hearing and hit reaction. The vision model is pretty much close to reality: NPCs have a 120 degrees visibility cone and see those in the centre of the cone more clearly, also illumination and speed of the target is taken into account. For instance, a moving object is seen more clearly in the darkness than standing one. Also a 'look closely' effect is implemented. There are different levels of alertness: light disturbance, light alert, alert, uber-alert, danger. "
Yep. It's from the creator of STALKER's engine, alright. All these features were supposed to be in Stalker, but didn't work out right in the first two games -- not sure how CoP's AI senses are handled, but they're different from earlier Stalkers. In fact the only things different about this list is that there are five levels of alertness instead of just two and that the vision cone has a center focus.
" It's a shame that they're currently not planning a PS3 version. I just can't believe they've made it for a old console; 360 and the dreadful PC; frame-rate issues (if users don't have the latest/best rig and gaming on it is like looking after a wife; yearly upgrades), incompatibility with several operating systems and custom game/program softwares. game crashes, bunch of issues.. etc. "
Pbbffttt....PS3. Yeah, that's too bad. It's another virtual Xbox 360 exclusive.
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