Larian Studios Forums General Chat Plays great on nvidia...etc...

Of the latest batch of games I've seen on the PC these days you will see little intro movies with the nvidia logo and the self explanatory tag line 'Plays great on Nvidia'!

When you buy an expensive graphics card I want it to last a long time until that new game I'm playing is choppier than Jackie Chan in a balsawood factory on the lowest settings and there's no choice but to upgrade...and that should only be after about 2-3 years, if not more!

So now with this hand-in-hand delveloper/card manufacturer affair going on it says to me that nvidia are trying to push the sales of their newest ultra card by prompting the devs to up the graphics quality in their games. Or, is it just another placement advertising and has no real effect on the game quality?

The conspiracy theorist in me says its does have an effect on the devs, their games might be less low-end compatible in order to slowly push the g card needs of the user up on a sliding scale...

Or it could just be the devs want to make a great looking game, and hope people will be prompted by the ads to upgrade to see the game at full quality...

Ya know what, I can't decide which it might be...probably both... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

What do people think?

I just guess it's a kind of advertisement. So why not ? Larian has it, too ( <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> ) and I guess they just needed the money.

To me, it's a kind of advertisement, especially since I cannot look into the code and therefore can't say whether it has *really* been optimized for NVidia (or AT, on the other side). <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Plowking >

I hear and understand what you are saying, and I do love the older graphics games, but you know that it is only a matter of time before graphics improve on computers.
Can you imagine if a new game, say like DD2, was published today with graphics that looked like that of the Win 3.1 era; it would be a slight disappointment to me?

Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

I hear ya...all for improvement, just thinking though that I only just upgraded my computer a few months ago and will soon need to again. But then I didn't really go top of the range with my upgrade.

I like games that can still look good on lowerend machines and still play well. I still have to play doom 3 at low settings after my upgrade. Runs well enough, I'm well above the min specs, but might need to get another g card yet again.

Oh the monetary pain of it all... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Heh I seem to remeber a Game called "The srcret of the Silver Blades" part of a trilogy in the forgotten realms, for some strange reason the only thing I remember is the Violent Green and Fuchsia colors with the first attempt at 2.5D Graphics <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> oh and the fact that it was an awesome Game, at least it was on my ... wait for it .... 486 DX with 16Mb ram AND a 64 Mb HD not too mention the trusty sounblaster 16 and the extra 4 Mb of Vid memory on a <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ouch.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" /> S3 card <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Just today I thought Why do they allow this ? Why don't they allow this on the PC ?

What I mean is that I was looking at the graphics of the GBA. The new Star Wars Ep.III game will appear ONLY on consoles, and no PC, as far as I know.

Well, what I actually saw was a picture of a screen of that game on a GBA.

What I actually thought was : Why don't they complain about that graphics ?

Back in the times of great Shareware games like Commander Keen the greaphics were just like what's now GBA graphics and still it was much fun !

Now, they still produce games with graphuics like this - but only on consoles. I can only guess they assume that this wouldn't sell because of the graphics.

But still - no one has tried - because of that sick "primnciple" - to actually produce a game that was so much fun the people wouldn't care about graphics.

Thinking in a rather bitter tone, I'd say it's the Publischers again, which do not allowe people from leaving the path of principles they've made.

I believe that if a game just contained enough fun, the people wouldn't care about the graphics.

The sad thing is, that gaming mags would complain and write "the game is a lot of fun BUT DON'T BUY IT THE GRAPHICS ARE HOPELESSY OUTDATED !!!!!!!!!"

So, no-one even tries.

Alrik.

Mea >

(chuckle)

That reminds me of a game a friend of mine had for his commodore
on an 8" floppy disk. It was call "Dragon....something???"


Alrik >

Space Invaders! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Alrik >

Arcanum <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />!

Übereil

Dragons&Dungeons?
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Some of the games I have on the GBA are better and more fun than some of the top PC games...

Fire Emblem
Metroid Fusion
Mario Kart
FF tactics


When you can't have brilliant graphics, you have to make it a good game.

[color:"orange"] When you can't have brilliant graphics, you have to make it a good game.[/color]

That is certainly true for handheld consoles, and is the reason for the success of the market leader in that field.

TV-consoles are slightly different, unfortunately. They are much more technology driven, as are the PC-games. Actually I have the feeling some are twisting background stories or plot-lines in order to be able to show off the technological achievement. The last 20% in graphics are expensive to develop and program, but they do not really add to the gaming experience (fun) as such.

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder ( <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />), and I would agree that the media tend to over-value the technology - I fear because it is something they can 'judge' at first glance, whereas the gaming fun takes time to experience - time they often don't have, or take, in their testing - and of course, it is subjective to the individual player.

I wish they would stress more the fun factor, and the quality - that's one of the big digfferences between PC- and console games. As a console game publisher you cannot afford to publish a bug infested game, because there is no, and cannot be, such thing as a patch - you would have to re-issue the game completely. Same is true for re-balancing in the game or add-ons. You must publish a 'complete' product - from the customer, user, player perspective, I prefer that.

But Console game creators mainly only have to consider a pretty specific grouping of hardware.
Whereas PC game creators have a potluck of hardware and OS version issues they have to consider when designing a game.
I'm not letting the PC game creators off the hook.
The habit of today, the issue too early and patch later mentality, as previously said above by Glance, is common practice.
But in their defense, they do have a lot more hurdles they have to overcome than those who create for Consoles.

Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Conceded - the multitude of hardware and the lack of standardization is a huge hurdle for the developers. And without question it is preventing developers to produce complete products in big quantities a significant portion of the market can use 'install and play' - one would think that the industry would have a commercial interest in doing something about it.

But then such approach does not sell the next processor or graphic card within a year - upon which we're back to the original 'conspiracy' presumption. A game console (any) has a targeted market life span of 3 to 5 years - a Gamer's PC lasts how long as 'state of the art' for games?

Glance, I would almost quote EVERYTHING you said, because I agree with most of it.

(And by the way, I'm thinking a lot in capitel letters lately. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> Has nothing to do with DEATH, though. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> )

I wouldn't mind console games if I didn't have to worry about so many buttons
to push all of the time in the correct combinations simultaneously! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

Before I get to button 2...I'm dead. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />

Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

With a bit of luck the new Xbox 360 will be backwards compatible (not been announced yet if that is so)...

Finally consoles (like the PS2) could become more like upgraded PC's so you can still play the old games.

Couldn't agree more.
Same thing with those pc games and flash games of today. When I see in instructions that I have to use 10 keys or so, I remove it right away again.

like:
left and right arrow key to move
up arrow key to jump
down arrow key to duck
a to puch
z to kick
c for uppercut
b for high kick
t for footsweep
up arrow key + z for flying kick
e to block
r for special move
1 to use sword
2 to use pistol
3 to use machinegun
4 to use bazooka
d to check your inventory
f to grab item
m for map
q to quit
p for pauze
... and on and on.
The list is sometimes endless.

By the time you studied all that you're allready bored with the game. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />

And that's why I love NWN yopu can do it with the keyboard you can do it with the mouse you can make your own hotkeys you even have a radial menu if you cant be bothered learning the hotkeys.
Oh yes I meant playing the game of NWN <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

I've had great difficulties with the "swinging" fighting style in Gothic I , that's why I always used the bow. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

If a game has more than 4 shortcuts (roghly estimated); I'm dead. I just can't kep so many shortcuts in my head !

Well, I'm halfway used to the FPS-like line of keys (weapons ranging from 1 to 9 or 0 ), but that's it.


I the middle of a game I don't want to have to remember which key is which ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

I'm the same, the more keys to press in a tense moment the more likely you'll completely forget which key it was you needed to press, you hover over the keyboard in a state of panic, and inevitably, hit the wrong one...then you die! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />