Yes the zombies self shadow. Everything in the scene casts shadows on itself and other objects. Nothing is faked. The hardware can handle it. The chip in iPad2 is obviously much improved. Mobile devices are about 5-6 years behind PC counterparts. Personally I got away from PC's because of the race for faster video cards between Nvidia and ATI/AMD. As an engine developer it was just crazy trying to keep up with all the new features and new versions of DirectX every year. With iPhone there were standard capabilities across iPhone and iPod devices. However it seems like it's going to be the same deal, every new year brings better chips and new capabilities. At least my experience with PC GPU's means that I am 6 years ahead and know how to use all the techniques It won't be as bad, but people who don't upgrade will miss out on some great games.
You can't show me "Reason", because there isn't any "Reason" to show. I have won on the "Dedicated handheld gaming front", And what does Nintendo's IPs have to do with this?, this is about Hardware. Also, it takes 6-7 Years before a New console comes out, So Consoles have the same Hardware for 6-7 years. Tell me that iDevices can't grow past that hardware during that time (Consoles have a 10-20x Increase in 6-7 years, and yet the iPad 2 had a 9x Increase just in ONE year). Crysis is a PC game and is made to run on Advanced hardware. but Regardless, iDevices will soon Be able to run Crysis at Medium/High settings. Plus, Compare Crysis 2 on the Xbox 360 with Crysis 1 at Max settings on PC. Huge difference isn't there?. And if Current "Handhelds and Consoles" have Less RAM and can do Adequate Textures, imagine what developers could do with MORE RAM on the iDevices.
Higher resolution textures than the screen can display with an unnecessary hit to FPS? Sounds like a cool idea . Perhaps you don't know what defunct means? I was simply pointing out that Nintendo has a strong following and isn't going away any time soon. As for the hardware, a quad core GPU and CPU in PS Vita? Yeah man, that's totally outdated. You're really not getting this new hardware is better than old hardware are you? YES, iDevices will probably close the gap - maybe even surpass console hardware before the next gen of consoles is released. BUT! Then the next gen of consoles will be released and suddenly they are more powerful than whatever Apple is offering again. iDevices aren't going to pass other hardware one day and remain on top forever, especially if you're comparing iDevices (highly mobile) and home consoles. At some point they're going to be held back by their portability and reliance on a battery. Also, don't forget this whole thing started over a disagreement about current hardware. This wasn't my point though. I'm sure you can agree that Crysis 2 for 360/PS3 looks better than Crysis 1 on all low settings at 800*600 (even if the environments are a bit uninspired) and that the original Crysis at min is more impressive than Shadowgun (not taking a shot at Madfinger here).
The iPad 2 Already Trumps PSVita RAM wise, so by the time the iPad 3 comes out (Which is Most likely going to be sometime in March, which is mere months after PSVita comes out) It's going to Destroy what the PSVita can offer. Your also Not paying attention AT ALL, Yes the Next-Gen Consoles will surpass iDevices. But the Next-Gen Consoles will take 6-7 years before getting a 10-20x Upgrade, iPad 2 got a 9x Graphics Capabilities upgrade in just ONE Year. Crysis 1 at Low settings Looks abysmal, Shadowgun Easily surpasses that, And I've just compared the 2.
The 9x increase is just PR talk (it was "up to 9x"), OpenGL benchmarks show a 3-6x FPS increase from iPad which I think is a more reliable/useful figure for game performance. Yeah it's still impressive but if you think they're going to increase the performance by 9x (or even 3-6x) every year you're mad. Not all hardware revisions have been so big. Seriously, look: 7 years @ 9x increase a year 9 * 9 * 9 * 9 * 9 * 9 * 9 = 4 782 969 I can't imagine Sony and Microsoft deciding to use hardware that's only 20x more powerful than it's previous console when there is apparently hardware that is almost 5 million times better available. Anyway, I'm going to end my side of this argument with this: It's stupid to spend too much time arguing about future hardware as we have nothing more than educated (perhaps yours aren't) guesses to go on. All I wanted to point out from the start is that iPad2 is not going to get any 360/PS3 quality graphics in game, nor is it going to be able to outperform NGP/Vita just because it might have a tiny bit more RAM. Sure, future revisions of iPad may be able but it wont last forever. Whatever, that is not what this is about.
It's not just "PR Talk", Many people (Including Epic Games) Agrees that 9x the graphics Power is true. Even IF it is 6x, Thats ALOT, for just one year. Also, I'm done with this Arguement. Clearly my attempts to Open your eyes aren't going through in the slightest. Have a nice day, Good sir.
"If you’ve followed NVIDIA, you know the relentless velocity of innovation that we’ve brought to the PC space with our GeForce processors. Prepare for that same intensity to play out in the mobile space." http://blogs.nvidia.com/2011/02/tegra-roadmap-revealed-next-chip-worlds-first-quadcore-mobile-processor/
What a frustrating scale. ---- I feel like I should apologise to the OP for derailing his/her topic. P: Sorry dude(tte), hopefully you haven't written this off and moved on.
I disagree. The NGP hardware is leaps and bounds above current gen iOS devices (including the iPad 2). According to Carmack , the NGP would be a generation ahead of any iDevice even with comparable specs, which the iPad 2 doesn't even have. Since multicore SGX 543 chips have nearly linear scaling, in terms of raw GPU power the NGP doubles the iPad 2, and that's not even accounting for OS and API overheads and the resolution difference. If a dev really wanted to get the most out of both systems, the iPad 2 would probably perform only around 30%-35% as well as the NGP. Now if Apple sticks with their current trend of updating the GPU architecture of their iOS devices every 2 years (iPhone and iPhone 3g have the MBX lite, 3gs and 4 have SGX 535), that means that a performance parity might be reached in 3 years (with the SGX 6 series) and will surpass the NGP in 5. For a device with a lifespan of ~6-7 years, that's pretty darn good longevity, especially at half the price of an iPad. You're also forgetting that devs will be more motivated to get more out the NGP than the iPad because there is simply be more money at stake much higher budgets with the NGP. Amount of RAM is only part of the story. Consider this: the 256mb of RAM in the iPod touch 4g performs far better than than the 256 mb in the in the iPod touch 4g. Why? Because iPod touch 3g is hamstrung by having only half the bus width for RAM than the 4g. RAM speed and bus width are also important factors. Nobody knows how much RAM the NGP has (well, except SONY), so I don't know why you're assuming that the iPad 2 has more. Let's put things in perspective: The iPad 2's PowerVR SGX543MP2 delivers a theoretical ~30 million triangles per second. The Xbox 360 delivers a theoretical 500 million. Nvidia GTX 580: 2,000 million triangles per second. Of course, triangles per second does not provide the whole picture, but it does provide a sense of how powerful each GPU is. The iPad 2 is very far behind current consoles in terms of graphical performance. There has been very little information released about the 6 series so I'm not sure where you're getting the 100x figure from. Needless to say, a 100x boost would put the 6 series at around the performance of a high end PC graphics card. There's no way a embedded GPU with a tdp of 1-2 watts will match a desktop card with a 400+ watt tdp, so I think that your number might just be a little off. If you really want to know about technical details and performance of graphics/computer hardware, hit up the Beyond3d forums.
iPad 2 has the Same GPU the PSVita has, Only with Dual cores instead of 4. That problem could easily be Fixed when the iPad 3 launches. Which will, Most Likely, at the Very least, Have the Cores upped to 4 and have an enhanced A5 Processor (Perhaps even an A6 Processor). You also must barely know anything about PSVita since the RAM is shown in the Specs, Sony also recently Cut the Internal Memory, and Cut the RAM down to 256MB (Which pales in Comparison to the iPad 2's 512MB). Shadowgun Looks as good as an Xbox 360 game (Or, at least, close to), so I find it odd that an Indie Dev could put out Graphics looking THAT good with such a Difference in Polygon Capabilities...Hell, my Mistake, It doesn't even take Full advantage of iPad 2's Hardware. Also, It's a miracle isn't it?, an 100x Increase in Graphics Capabilities and yet it would only draw 1 Milliwat of Power. Thats the Magic that "Imagination Technologies" is able of pulling. ...Oh, and the PowerVR 6 series GPUs is estimated to hit in 2012. Look at the Magic thats coming to iOS Devices .
Even if IOS games got to look as good as 360 or Ps3 there is still one HUGE problem for me... controls... also forza 3 i haven't seen any graphics like that.
You hit the nail on the head. The same CPU/GPU variant by Imagination from the iPad 2 will be in the Vita, with 2 added cores....while losing half of the iPad 2 ram. I agree that Apple will include the exact chip Vita uses next year in iPad 3. Apple will want to fend off impending Kal-El chips by Nvidia, prevalent in Android tablets by next year. When people claim the iPad 2 is below the PS2, that's a preposterous statement. John Carmack was quoted last year, stating the iPad and iPhone 4, sat above the original XBox and Wii...yet, below the 360/PS3. The iPad 2 brings it closer to current consoles, yet still not there. Where this gets interesting, is whether the iPad will receive the quad core treatment next year or in 2013. Whenever it does, it will probably gain additional ram. This hypothetical gain would bring it above the vita, spec wise and could continually grow annually/bi annually. The vita would be equal, even outdated by iOS within one - two years. And handhelds marry 5-6 yr refresh cycles. This thread wasn't about iOS vs. Vita though. It's about Unreal on iOS. Gameloft could do better. If they cleaned up their textures in March of Heroes, the game could look a lot better. I'm surprised NO (third person/action games) developers have gone the Resident Evil remake route on iOS: dynamic lighting/shadows, using pre-rendered backgrounds. Beautiful games could be made that way, for sure.
You people are forgetting that whatever OS the Vita is running will use alot less power than iOS and iOS uses more power with each update. (Comparrison: On 4.1 my iPod usually had 120 mb of free ram, on 4.3 it's only at 80 - 90!). Yes, iOS uses more than 150 mb of ram. Even if apple does Update their hardware dramatically soon, developers will still support old(er) hardware, or else their sales number will be alot lower. And to those thinking iOS Devices will soon be able to run Crysis 2 quality graphics anytime soon, there's still a big difference between this: and this: (Yes, this is a screenshot from the PC version of crysis 2, but it's on the lowest settings, so it should count.)
Re Hey guys, We are two weeks out from announcing a very awesome and innovative action horror game using unreal engine. I really think you guys will be blown away.. but until than let me shed some light on the subject of unreal on the iPhone. As art lead on this project I'm dealing with the capabilities of the engine and technology of the iOS devices on a daily basis. First let me say, the engine can do ALOT more graphically than what has been seen on the devices. What is really holding developers back is scaling down the games to work on older devices like the 3G and 4G. If everyone owned a iPad2 and iPhone5 instead of the older devices, you would be seeing more graphically compelling games using the tech. Infinity blade was beautiful yes.. But it's environments were incredibly small and with 2 characters on screen. In doing this the developers were able to crank up polygon counts on characters as well as have displacement mapping and normal mapping on many environment assets. This is just not practical when developing for many genres, such as a fps with epic fire fights ect. Does that mean games have to look like crap? Absolutely not. Quite the opposite. But until these newer more powerfull devices come out, developers are going to be limited in what they hope to accomplish. But as the technology gap closes, in the next few years, developers will be able to produce some really great stuff.. That in my opinion will rival even the newer portable systems.
