The Secret Developers: what next-gen hardware balance means for gaming

[wraggster]

Have you ever wondered what developers really think about the latest gaming news and controversies? In this new series of Digital Foundry articles, it's game creators themselves who take centre-stage, offering a fresh, unique perspective on the issues of the day, free to write what they want about the subjects that they are passionate about, with a rock-solid assurance from us that their anonymity will be protected. In short, freshly served, informed opinion direct from the people creating the software we care about, with zero involvement from marketing or PR.In this first piece, a seasoned multi-platform developer offers up his view on hardware balance - not just in terms of the current Xbox One/PlayStation 4 bunfight, but more importantly on how the technological make-up of both consoles will define the games we play over the next few years. If you're a game-maker that would like to contribute to the Secret Developers series, please feel free to contact us through [email protected] and be assured that any discussions will be dealt with in the strictest confidence.With just weeks to go before the arrival of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, there seems to be a particular type of mania surrounding the technical capabilities of these two very similar machines. The raw specs reveal numbers seemingly light years apart, which clearly favour one console platform over the other, but it seems to me that at a more global level, people can't quite see the wood for the trees. Spec differences are relevant of course, but of far larger importance is the core design - the balance of the hardware - and how that defines, and limits, the "next-gen" games we will be playing over the next eight to ten years.At this point I should probably introduce myself. I'm a games developer who has worked over the years across a variety of game genres and consoles, shipping over 35 million units in total on a range of games, including some major triple-A titles I'm sure you've played. I've worked on PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, PS Vita, Nintendo DS, iPhone, Wii U, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. I'm currently working on a major next-gen title.Over my time in the industry I've seen a wide variety of game engines, development approaches, console reveals and behind-the-scenes briefings from the console providers - all of which gives me a particular perspective on the current state of next-gen and how game development has adapted to suit the consoles that are delivered to us by the platform holders.I was spurred into writing this article after reading a couple of recent quotes that caught my attention:"For designing a good, well-balanced console you really need to be considering all the aspects of software and hardware. It's really about combining the two to achieve a good balance in terms of performance... The goal of a 'balanced' system is by definition not to be consistently bottlenecked on any one area. In general with a balanced system there should rarely be a single bottleneck over the course of any given frame." - Microsoft technical fellow Andrew Goossen (http://beta.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-the-complete-xbox-one-interview)Dismissed by many as a PR explanation for technical deficiencies when compared to PlayStation 4, the reality is that balance is of crucial importance - indeed, when you are developing a game, getting to a solid frame-rate is the ultimate goal. It doesn't matter how pretty your game looks, or how many players you have on screen, if the frame-rate continually drops, it knocks the player out of the experience and back to the real world, ultimately driving them away from your game if it persists.Maintaining this solid frame-rate drives a lot of the design and technical decisions made during the early phases of a game project. Sometimes features are cut not because they cannot be done, but because they cannot be done within the desired frame-rate.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-the-secret-developers-what-hardware-balance-actually-means-for-game-creators