tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155908228127841862.post1715019449988989661..comments2023-06-28T10:04:44.463-06:00Comments on The Perils of Parallel: Twilight of the GPU?Greg Pfisterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12651996181651540140noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155908228127841862.post-45092010760436151532010-07-03T03:53:30.743-06:002010-07-03T03:53:30.743-06:00Yes, and it makes a great a Blu-ray player, too!
...Yes, and it makes a great a Blu-ray player, too!<br /><br />Oh, one thing I didn't mention about that, though, is that of course you'll want an HDTV if you're going to use a PS3. Living in Japan it just didn't come to mind, because almost nobody has a standard definition TV any more. (The only place you can even buy a new SD TV here in Japan would be as part of your cellphone or iPod or something like that.)<br /><br />For me it was a no-brainer, since I'm a big movie buff and have had an HD projector for more than half a decade now. The games were sort of a nice bonus, as I hadn't been much of a gamer for, well, decades, but they sucked me back in. The recent generation of games, in particular some of the Sony exclusives such as the Uncharted series, have incredible production values, and are dragging in a lot of the art of cinema now. (One example is the rise of motion capture, especially when done at the same time as voice acting, though that must frustrate a number of graphics researchers who've been trying to develop algorithms for natural body movement over the past few decades.) And then the geek side really dragged me in: following the progress and comments from game development studios is quite fascinating. It's also fun to see the developers' geek factor influence the games. On comment that particularly stuck in my mind was in the commentary videos that came with Uncharted: they said that they really wanted a lot of water throughout the game because they'd just developed some code that allowed them to make water look really, really nice for the first time when doing real-time rendering.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155908228127841862.post-38272135604785511942010-07-01T12:01:50.493-06:002010-07-01T12:01:50.493-06:00Curt,
Thanks for the knowledgeable comment -- her...Curt,<br /><br />Thanks for the knowledgeable comment -- here and the others you made recently.<br /><br />PS3 - yeah, that's a better solution, I agree, and cheaper. If I believably promise myself to get a lower-end laptop next time. Stupid Vaio, which I bought for the Nvidia card (and low weight) now won't even run the new SL client that correctly detects the GPU, uses it, and overheats in about 3 minutes. :-(Greg Pfisterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12651996181651540140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155908228127841862.post-11747504479053774342010-07-01T04:46:26.509-06:002010-07-01T04:46:26.509-06:00Anonymous: you're probably just looking at net...Anonymous: you're probably just looking at network latency. Keep in mind that there's also lag introduced due to rendering time and even your display, if you're not using a CRT. Eurogamer.net's Digital Foundry section has had several good articles on this; start with <a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/playstation-move-controller-lag-analysis-blog-entry" rel="nofollow">this one</a> and follow the links for more information.<br /><br />The advantage that Onlive has here is that they can use high-end GPUs and so on that most gamers, except for those with rather expensive tricked-out PCs, don't have. (Keep in mind that the 7th generation console technology is pretty old and slow these days--they should be able to render a frame several times faster than a console fairly easily.)<br /><br />That said, the problem they're attacking is far from trivial even in theory, much less in practice.<br /><br />And Greg, sheesh, just get a PS3 or something if you want to play Fallout 3. You'll spend less than a sixth of what you would on a well-configured computer, and avoid the configuration hassles. (That said, Fallout 3 has still wedged my PS3 a dozen times in my last 60 hours or so of gameplay.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155908228127841862.post-70863383856362055422010-03-10T19:13:49.844-07:002010-03-10T19:13:49.844-07:00Source - know what, I forget! I remember finding i...Source - know what, I forget! I remember finding it generally floating around the web. Some examples, searching just now: <br /><br />http://bit.ly/9qWd6a - A paper on effects of local lag on virtual environments. It says 0-150ms is OK, above that is bad.<br /><br />http://bit.ly/9tWX3T - which is about measured lag in a QuakeIII Arena tournament, specifically calling out 150 ms. But it's from 2001, so maybe things have gotten more competitive since then.<br /><br />http://bit.ly/c4gPwY - this one cites other research that agrees with you, putting the threshold for visual feedback down at 67 ms.; but their own work on haptic feedback indicates it's OK up to 200ms.<br /><br />So, maybe "it depends." I think if they manage 150ms., they'll be OK. I don't think truly serious twitch gamers, with reflexes far better than mine are now, will ever use it, anyway. That still leaves lots of gamers.Greg Pfisterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12651996181651540140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155908228127841862.post-32262035295206718502010-03-10T18:14:50.732-07:002010-03-10T18:14:50.732-07:00Hi, I enjoyed reading your post. Can you tell me w...Hi, I enjoyed reading your post. Can you tell me where you got that golden number of 150ms from? From playing Quake, Unreal Tournament, and Quake Live I can tell that playing with more than 60ms isn't much fun anymore. At least not if you want to win. I guess for single player games like Mass Effect this number can be higher. But for competitive play with other humans the delay cannot be small enough.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155908228127841862.post-49375347011327526942009-09-08T11:05:58.730-06:002009-09-08T11:05:58.730-06:00Rex,
Oops - thanks for the catch. Yes, 256MB.
Th...Rex,<br /><br />Oops - thanks for the catch. Yes, 256MB.<br /><br />There may indeed be new game genres. Hard to rely on that, though.<br /><br />GregGreg Pfisterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12651996181651540140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155908228127841862.post-90504216316078540782009-09-08T00:26:25.183-06:002009-09-08T00:26:25.183-06:00"..a good Nvidia or ATI GPU with 256KB or mor..."..a good Nvidia or ATI GPU with 256KB or more memory.."<br /><br />I think you meant 256MB.<br /><br />But yes, Onlive definitely has the opportunity to grow the games market. While the FPS genre is more popular now, there's no reason why new game genres cannot be created that rely less on low latency, thus making them more synergistic with Onlive.Rex Guohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15338990598816261237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155908228127841862.post-36154072541813593192009-04-03T17:35:00.000-06:002009-04-03T17:35:00.000-06:00This is an interesting possibility, but as always,...This is an interesting possibility, but as always, there are too many variables to predict anything with certainty.<BR/><BR/>If it works, it could be a strong competitor for gaming laptops.<BR/><BR/>The cost argument is harder to make against gaming consoles, as they are fairly cheap. But, some of the features like fast game delivery do sound compelling.Igor Ostrovskyhttp://igoro.com/noreply@blogger.com