PS4, Xbox One and PC. Porting question

[Mark Coleman]

This generation of consoles, more than any other, has narrowed the gap architecturally wise between the 'next-gen' consoles and the PC. Basically in every comment thread on any multi-platform game you will get a PC gamer highlighting the fact that the Xbox One and PS4 are basically PC's. You'll get comments along the lines of 'it's a PC but with a weak CPU' and 'disappointing that the next gen consoles are not as good as current gen mid range PC's'.

These are all a fair comments, but I think the critics have missed a point or two.

1. If they are so much like PCs why are the devs having such a hard time adding games to the next gen library? Sure we don't want shovelware, but where is flood of indie dev titles?

2. Why the dearth of games? Most if not all software houses are familiar with the x86 instruction set. Most are familiar with OpenGL (or its Sony derivative) and DirectX. So why the long delay releasing titles? Why the shoddy release schedule? Surely both consoles could have a huge library of 'enhanced' PC titles available for purchase at budget prices.

3. Why are they struggling with making games 1080p/60fps? Are they over-reaching or just inept. I mean, most software houses should know what these consoles can put out based purely on the equivalent PC spec. Why are they all pretending they are 'just getting used to this gen'?

I would expect software houses to be completely aux-fait with this gen more than any before it. I don't think we are going to see a massive improvement in performance or gameplay/graphics as this gen matures. In fact, I can see this gen getting stale way before the consoles end of life.

 

[sataricon]

Most of the bad ports comes form Japan.
Dark souls 1 had a shitty port.
Dark souls 2 had a better port but could have been way better.

Now comes Final fantasy 13 and one of the worst ports that i've ever seen on PC.
Fact is most of the final fantasy games that had been ported to PC had been terrible.

Now at least in the case of dark souls they actually did alot of good things in the second game but squire is one of the worst offenders still and they seem that they just don't give a shit about PC.

Worst thing is that there are who defend squire over this in hopes that they will do better the next 6th or 7th time.

Very bad ports means that they just don't care....it's a quick cash grab.

 

[BraveSirRobin]

1. If they are so much like PCs why are the devs having such a hard time adding games to the next gen library? Sure we don't want shovelware, but where is flood of indie dev titles?

Okay, one of the major things to understand is that in terms of portability the base hardware of the machine is almost irrelevant. Sure it has some effect on the final settings you can push out of a game but in terms of actually coding the thing the hardware doesn't matter outside of final optimization.

The real problem with porting between consoles and PC (and even between Windows/Mac/Linux) is that each operating system has it's a unique set of low level libraries that each game has to interact with. These are what the game uses to interact with the hardware NOT direct x86 instructions (it would be INSANITY to attempt to code any game in pure x86 instructions let alone a AAA game). This basically makes having the same hardware instruction set meaningless because whatever language you use will interact with the OS and the OS will interact with the hardware. These libraries are NOT the same and this is where the problems start. This is also the reason that if you took 2 identical computers one with Mac one with Windows you couldn't run each game on both.

Beyond just the OS interaction you also have whatever engine the game is running on. Certain engines, like Unity, are coded by default to work on multiple systems; however there are a large number of engines that are not. If you're using one that isn't it is a large amount of work on the developers part to get it to work. The fact is it's every bit as complex now to get a big game running on all systems as it was last gen.

As to the flood of indie titles, it's still to early to really weigh in on that but thus far the PS4 and Wii U both have a large number in development or on the system. As for the Xbox One I wouldn't go near that as an indie with a 100 foot pole.

2. Why the dearth of games? Most if not all software houses are familiar with the x86 instruction set. Most are familiar with OpenGL (or its Sony derivative) and DirectX. So why the long delay releasing titles? Why the shoddy release schedule?

As stated above being familiar with the x86 set is irrelevant, and thinking that knowing OpenGL and DirectX is enough to just pop out a game in no time is like a second grader saying "I know how to add why can't I just do Calculus."

A big problem right now with fast development is that games are HUGE. It may not seem like it but these games take teams of possibly hundreds of people multiple years to complete. Even if they started development 12 months before these consoles were announced we're just now getting to the point where they could have been in development 2.5 years. It is entirely unsurprising for a dev cycle to take that long if any sort of changes were made during the cycle.

This "long delay" is actually just standard development, it usually isn't noticeable because for each game that starts today one started two years ago that's coming out now. This isn't the case at the start of a console cycle so it appears long.

Surely both consoles could have a huge library of 'enhanced' PC titles available for purchase at budget prices.

They actually have been doing this. What to you think all those "enhanced edition" games are coming out for? They know they have a lack of games so they took in house titles and updated them for easy cash.

3. Why are they struggling with making games 1080p/60fps? Are they over-reaching or just inept. I mean, most software houses should know what these consoles can put out based purely on the equivalent PC spec. Why are they all pretending they are 'just getting used to this gen'?

This is a combination of the rushed dev cycles to get these games to market, the fact that most of these games are coming out on 4 or 5 different platforms, and the fact that these new consoles really aren't powerful enough to pull that level of graphics at that resolution and framerate. It's also much easier to say we're 'just getting used to it' than say 'it can't handle it' when you're a dev.

I would expect software houses to be completely aux-fait with this gen more than any before it. I don't think we are going to see a massive improvement in performance or gameplay/graphics as this gen matures. In fact, I can see this gen getting stale way before the consoles end of life.

Honestly I don't know why you would expect a massive improvement in graphics at this point. We've hit a pretty huge point in diminishing returns as far as polygon count and the more detailed the textures you use the more tradeoffs you have to take in other areas.

I'd actually prefer to see a drop in graphic quality, a switch to more stylized than realistic, and shift that extra power in to generating larger play environments.

 

[Megabyte]

1. If they are so much like PCs why are the devs having such a hard time adding games to the next gen library? Sure we don't want shovelware, but where is flood of indie dev titles?

Licensing comes to mind pretty quick. On a PC, anyone can write anything they want and then sell it, give it away or whatever. They may need to pass inspection to get on certain major gaming stores, but even if they are NOT on those stores, they are available at that point on the platform. Consoles, on the other hand are a lot more closed. You can not put a game on a console with out the console maker's consent. This means if they think it wont work out for their platform, any game can be denied. It also means that there may be games that they need to actively go find and entice the devs to bring it to their platform.

2. Why the dearth of games? Most if not all software houses are familiar with the x86 instruction set. Most are familiar with OpenGL (or its Sony derivative) and DirectX. So why the long delay releasing titles? Why the shoddy release schedule? Surely both consoles could have a huge library of 'enhanced' PC titles available for purchase at budget prices.

This was answered better then I can already.

3. Why are they struggling with making games 1080p/60fps? Are they over-reaching or just inept. I mean, most software houses should know what these consoles can put out based purely on the equivalent PC spec. Why are they all pretending they are 'just getting used to this gen'?

I imagine some are due to the answers given already here... but others... well we do have some lazy devs. I mean for god's sake, how else do you explain the pure memory use of IDTech5?