Next gen consoles will be maxed out within an hour
Hitman: Absolution's Tore Blystad says his team's game engine is next-gen ready.
The Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 will be maxed out by developers within an hour, Hitman: Absolution game director Tore Blystad has told Sound and Vision magazine.
"Every time you get a new piece of hardware, within an hour you max it out as a developer; that's just how it is," he explained. "You keep pushing it right to the max, every time a new system comes out you have to make a bucket for who is getting what from the memory and performance. Is the audio getting a lot? The animation? The A.I.? They're fighting for resources and this fight is very healthy because it will make people optimize the different elements of the game.
"Of course, it's great to get more power, but it's very quickly going to be sucked up by any kind of part of development. That's always the problem, right?"
Blystad ads that it takes a long time for developers to get the most out of new hardware, but IO will be in good shape thanks to its next generation-ready game engine.
"Now people have come to the point where they can perfect the usage of the [current] hardware and there's a lot of new techniques in development and renderer features people can take advantage of. It takes a long time to optimize new technology for new hardware as well because there's so many new features that come along along the way. [Our engine] will serve as a very good platform for the next generation, because when we get more power you can throw a lot more flair at things [more easily than you can now].
"Our lives are going to be a little bit easier for a couple of years now."
Hitman: Absolution was released yesterday for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
Source: Sound & Vision Magazine
User Comments
BC_Animus
MrHEWBO@ munkee
Woffls
[edit] Okay I don't understand how he has phrased this. Obviously they're not maxing out console potential in an hour. They might be cranking everything up to make sure all the hardware is working is hard as it can, but that doesn't mean they're fully utilising it. Not even close.
This does support my theory of a new Hitman that doesn't suck being a bit closer than anticipated, though, and being on next gen platforms will hopefully mean a great release.
Also we are hearing more and more about cross-generation engines. I think a lot of games made for current gen that look amazing, like Metal Gear Solid GZ, Watch_Dogs, Star Wars 1313 will be made on engines that can run on both generations, including Wii U if they can be bothered.
[edit] Unless the engine they're referring to isn't the one that Hitman Absolution runs on. Isn't that Glacier 2? How long has that been around? I should stop typing now.
munkee
But, their gameplay design is playing catch-up with current-gen.. AMIRITE? :D