Localizing High-End Games for Low-End Machines

zerodamage · Mar 14, 2004, 10:00 PM

"Intel engineer Dean Macri has an article at ACM Queue listing the challenges in designing PC games that will run on very different processors. PCs vary widely in their performance, and if game developers design only for the high-end, they limit their market. The article lists specific tips on how to guarantee that even old slow machine can run new games, such as 'the number of triangles used to create the trunks and branches could vary based on the available processor and graphics hardware performance', 'replace the clothing on characters in a game with actual geometry that separates the clothes from the underlying character model', and for simulating ocean waves, having low-end systems rely on basic sine waves while higher-end machines use more sophisticated methods."

Source: SlashDot

Rayder · Mar 15, 2004, 12:44 AM

This would be a very good thing IF the software companies would support it. My friend was FORCED to upgrade his BB ATI AIW Radeon 32DDR just so he could play some of the newer games. I myself am seeing that in many cases, my 8500 is the minimum allowed ATI card for many games now. Backward scalability, or lack thereof, may be the reason why PC game sales appear to be in a slump. Many people just don't have the funds to divert to a whole new PC every year to keep up and they end up getting a console for gaming. Leaving only the high-end niche market and die-hard computer geeks as the only ones able to even play the newest stuff. I'm sure many people would prefer to play a game on a PC, rather than console, but their rig can't sport the requirements.

Mar 14, 2004, 10:00 PM	#1
zerodamage DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,574 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Localizing High-End Games for Low-End Machines "Intel engineer Dean Macri has an article at ACM Queue listing the challenges in designing PC games that will run on very different processors. PCs vary widely in their performance, and if game developers design only for the high-end, they limit their market. The article lists specific tips on how to guarantee that even old slow machine can run new games, such as 'the number of triangles used to create the trunks and branches could vary based on the available processor and graphics hardware performance', 'replace the clothing on characters in a game with actual geometry that separates the clothes from the underlying character model', and for simulating ocean waves, having low-end systems rely on basic sine waves while higher-end machines use more sophisticated methods." Source: SlashDot

Mar 15, 2004, 12:44 AM	#2
Rayder Mostly lurking lately.... Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 2,043 Rep Power: 51	This would be a very good thing IF the software companies would support it. My friend was FORCED to upgrade his BB ATI AIW Radeon 32DDR just so he could play some of the newer games. I myself am seeing that in many cases, my 8500 is the minimum allowed ATI card for many games now. Backward scalability, or lack thereof, may be the reason why PC game sales appear to be in a slump. Many people just don't have the funds to divert to a whole new PC every year to keep up and they end up getting a console for gaming. Leaving only the high-end niche market and die-hard computer geeks as the only ones able to even play the newest stuff. I'm sure many people would prefer to play a game on a PC, rather than console, but their rig can't sport the requirements. __________________