Fry
09-01-2006, 04:07 AM
Some news im not sure if its been posted but here it is anyway from an interview with Eric C. Ellis, Lead Online Gameplay Programmer from IGN. Its pretty long post but theres some interesting thing about tilt controller, online and programming for the PS3.
IGN: 40-player online is pretty ambitious for a game that has this much data being tossed about at once. What convinced you that you could upgrade from 32 to 40 without any problems and how will the game deal with a few poor connections amongst the solid ones?
Eric C. Ellis, Lead Online Gameplay Programmer: We set a target to run with 32 players at 60 frames per second and we hit that goal solidly for our E3 demo. After hitting that target, (which we were pretty proud of), and getting a lukewarm reaction to those numbers, we went back and decided that what would show off next-gen power better was a game with more stuff blowing up and more players.
So, we made the decision to run at 30 frames per second and add more players and a greater level of things that explode along with more environmental effects. To make sure we run well over the internet with that many players, we have all spent a lot of time running with artificially high latency and packet loss so that we make sure our systems are designed to handle them without looking bad.
IGN: Multiplayer allows you to play as both Chimera and human warriors. Are these differences simply skin swaps or will there be distinct advantages or disadvantages to choosing one side over another?
Mike J. Stout, Online Lead Designer: Both the hybrids and the humans will have distinct advantages and disadvantages. They require a different play style -- humans are more team-oriented and hybrids are more about going it alone. The humans have a speed advantage, as well as more advanced detection abilities. The hybrids have an ability called "Rage Mode" -- which they can use to do more damage (and gain a few other neat abilities) but doing so puts them at risk of taking extra damage.
IGN: The inclusion of the tilt feature is definitely one of the most intriguing new goodies. It has been mentioned that shaking the controller will free you of an enemy's grasp, but is this something that can be toggled? Will there be instances in the game where you HAVE to use the 6-axis tilt for specific reasons?
Peter Hastings, Gameplay Programmer: We have several more tricks up our sleeve where we intend on using the tilt-sensor to increase immersion and improve control (nothing we want to give away just yet, though!) We're also aware that some players are a lot more animated than others, and if it's someone's style to shake the controller around while they play, we don't want them accidentally triggering unwanted actions all the time. So, players will have the option to disable all tilt-sensing if they want.
IGN: The game's tech specs have been a frequent topic of discussion. So that said, what level of HD will it run in (720p, 1080i, 1080p), what's the final framerate, and what sort of audio codec have you decided to support?
Al Hastings, Chief Technology Officer: Our intention is to support all HD modes including 1080p. The framerate will be locked at 30 frames per second in both single-player and multiplayer. We use a number of different codecs internally including AC3 and ATRAC3 depending on what's best suited to each particular case. The highest quality output format our game supports is 7.1 uncompressed over HDMI.
IGN: Would it have been possible to create Resistance on anything but the PlayStation 3, like the PS2, Xbox 360 or PC, and if not, why? Have you had the idea for the game on the backburner and been saving it for capable hardware?
Ted Price, Founder & CEO: It would have been very, very difficult to create Resistance on any other platform. First, this game requires an incredible amount of processing power to support the large number of moving characters and objects in the levels. Every one of our characters has sophisticated AI and navigation routines running in the background. Plus, every object -- including characters -- has to access our physics and collision systems constantly. And, of course, I'm ignoring all the other processes that have to occur simultaneously to create immersive, believable environments. Second, the game requires more than 20 gigabytes of storage space, which means that the only viable storage medium for us is Blu-ray. We could not have fit this game on a DVD or a HD-DVD. So, yet another reason that the game could only have been created on the PlayStation 3.
http://media.ign.com/thumb/165/1654831/resistance-fall-of-man-20060831055651209_thumb.jpghttp://media.ign.com/th umb/165/1654812/resistance-fall-of-man-20060831054952517_thumb.jpghttp://media.ign.com/th umb/165/1654814/resistance-fall-of-man-20060831054954939_thumb.jpg
IGN: 40-player online is pretty ambitious for a game that has this much data being tossed about at once. What convinced you that you could upgrade from 32 to 40 without any problems and how will the game deal with a few poor connections amongst the solid ones?
Eric C. Ellis, Lead Online Gameplay Programmer: We set a target to run with 32 players at 60 frames per second and we hit that goal solidly for our E3 demo. After hitting that target, (which we were pretty proud of), and getting a lukewarm reaction to those numbers, we went back and decided that what would show off next-gen power better was a game with more stuff blowing up and more players.
So, we made the decision to run at 30 frames per second and add more players and a greater level of things that explode along with more environmental effects. To make sure we run well over the internet with that many players, we have all spent a lot of time running with artificially high latency and packet loss so that we make sure our systems are designed to handle them without looking bad.
IGN: Multiplayer allows you to play as both Chimera and human warriors. Are these differences simply skin swaps or will there be distinct advantages or disadvantages to choosing one side over another?
Mike J. Stout, Online Lead Designer: Both the hybrids and the humans will have distinct advantages and disadvantages. They require a different play style -- humans are more team-oriented and hybrids are more about going it alone. The humans have a speed advantage, as well as more advanced detection abilities. The hybrids have an ability called "Rage Mode" -- which they can use to do more damage (and gain a few other neat abilities) but doing so puts them at risk of taking extra damage.
IGN: The inclusion of the tilt feature is definitely one of the most intriguing new goodies. It has been mentioned that shaking the controller will free you of an enemy's grasp, but is this something that can be toggled? Will there be instances in the game where you HAVE to use the 6-axis tilt for specific reasons?
Peter Hastings, Gameplay Programmer: We have several more tricks up our sleeve where we intend on using the tilt-sensor to increase immersion and improve control (nothing we want to give away just yet, though!) We're also aware that some players are a lot more animated than others, and if it's someone's style to shake the controller around while they play, we don't want them accidentally triggering unwanted actions all the time. So, players will have the option to disable all tilt-sensing if they want.
IGN: The game's tech specs have been a frequent topic of discussion. So that said, what level of HD will it run in (720p, 1080i, 1080p), what's the final framerate, and what sort of audio codec have you decided to support?
Al Hastings, Chief Technology Officer: Our intention is to support all HD modes including 1080p. The framerate will be locked at 30 frames per second in both single-player and multiplayer. We use a number of different codecs internally including AC3 and ATRAC3 depending on what's best suited to each particular case. The highest quality output format our game supports is 7.1 uncompressed over HDMI.
IGN: Would it have been possible to create Resistance on anything but the PlayStation 3, like the PS2, Xbox 360 or PC, and if not, why? Have you had the idea for the game on the backburner and been saving it for capable hardware?
Ted Price, Founder & CEO: It would have been very, very difficult to create Resistance on any other platform. First, this game requires an incredible amount of processing power to support the large number of moving characters and objects in the levels. Every one of our characters has sophisticated AI and navigation routines running in the background. Plus, every object -- including characters -- has to access our physics and collision systems constantly. And, of course, I'm ignoring all the other processes that have to occur simultaneously to create immersive, believable environments. Second, the game requires more than 20 gigabytes of storage space, which means that the only viable storage medium for us is Blu-ray. We could not have fit this game on a DVD or a HD-DVD. So, yet another reason that the game could only have been created on the PlayStation 3.
http://media.ign.com/thumb/165/1654831/resistance-fall-of-man-20060831055651209_thumb.jpghttp://media.ign.com/th umb/165/1654812/resistance-fall-of-man-20060831054952517_thumb.jpghttp://media.ign.com/th umb/165/1654814/resistance-fall-of-man-20060831054954939_thumb.jpg