Wednesday 19th May 2004 MS chief reveals Xbox 2 development secrets [Computer Buyer] 11:31 On the morning after Microsoft's exclusive E3 drinks reception in Hollywood, where the likes of Allard, Peter Moore, Shane Kim and the European Xbox team mixed with a handful of sweaty hacks, the Xbox creator was in an open mood when we spoke with him. He discussed the current state of play for the Xbox business and beyond, offering insights into next-gen software development and how it will change the way we experience videogames. When asked if, aside from the XNA demonstrations we've already seen, he had been privy to next-gen demonstrations, he said: 'There's some stuff that's just knocked my socks off. 'The thing we're looking at in the next generation is just an unbelievable amount of raw computing power - the architecture will be much more specialised,' he added. 'Right now you have your audio chip and your graphics chip and your CPU, and you're constantly trying to figure out the balances. In the next generation we're gonna have so much silicon, so much raw computing horsepower - developers are going to be able to use this in interesting and exciting ways.' He went on to describe some of the demos being created behind the scenes: 'I've seen demos of terrain and worlds, with no textures in them whatsoever and no geometry - it's just a program that's creating a scene for you,' Allard said. Going on to describe the time- and money-saving techniques facilitated by next-generation tools and hardware, however, he explained his notion of 'procedural synthesis': 'Art is the highest cost component of game development, and so much of the art is really repetitive and really intensive, and then doesn't come out to be very realistic. You know, bricks in a wall - very repeated textures. 'Let's go write the brick program and run the brick program to make a room full of bricks, lose the art expense and gain a more realistic looking room, because now we can focus on having the bricks there in a really realistic way. I get really excited about that kind of stuff.' And while a mundane example, it's easy to understand Allard's enthusiasm, since Microsoft, with its XNA software development platform, already looks to have established itself as the developer-friendly option in the next generation, as Sony continues to flap over its Cell-based plans. 'There's a lot of new techniques,' Allard continued. 'Like what shaders have done for 3D, there are a lot of new next-generation techniques for procedural synthesis that's really going to change how game construction is done, but also what the environment looks like so it feels a lot less "cookie cutter" [i.e. repetitive].' Rather the like the 'Library' level in Halo, we'd imagine, where it was very easy to become disorientated by the repeated environmental features. What all this means is that Xbox next-gen should in theory make it relatively easy and relatively cheap for developers to create varied and compelling in-game worlds and environments; which in theory should make it an attractive proposition for developers; which in theory should mean more varied and compelling games for Xbox. Theory is a wonderful thing of course, but on the evidence of what we've seen from XNA so far (bear in mind Microsoft is claiming the updated 'Crash' demo from E3 was the result of just six weeks' work), we're not prepared to bet against Microsoft putting this into successful practice just yet... Johnny Minkley Bron
Hier ms is echt goed bezig itt tot sony met zijn onprogrammeerbare cell zooi. Met xna wordt games maken echt een eitje. Dan komen er pas echt mooie games!!
Maar als die cell zooi goed geprogrammeerd kan worden, zou het best wel is hele mooie beelden kunnen opleveren. Maar dit is toegankelijker dus meer games.
dat is het probleem. Die cell zooi is niet zo goed programeerbaar als XNA. Ms heeft het perfect voor elkaar.
Hmm Ben benieuwd hoe de Xbox2 eruit komt te zien.. Hopelijk een iets kleiner model dan deze Xbox Beetje stijl Zilver achtig die mooi samen met je breedbeeld jvc op zo'n tv tafeltje staat
Klinkt erg interessant, maar ik betwijfel of het goed gaat uitpakken ten opzichte van de concurrentie.. Ik heb het stiekem namelijk wel kunnen waarderen dat de Xbox de mooiste graphs levert En daar komt bij dat de Xbox nu het de console is met de beste hardware veel excl krijgt, die alleen op Xbox en PC kunnen draaien.. (kotor, doom3, half life 2).. Dusja, ik hoop dat MS die troef niet weggooit..
XNA ziet er wel veelbelovend uit zo vind ik, als het waar is zou het de developers een hoop tijd schelen......
Ja, en het is op die manier goedkoper om mooie games te maken. Ontwikkelaars kunnen zich daarmee ook echt storten op het mooi maken van de graphics en de levels ipv die stomme codes steeds aan te passen. Van mij mag de xbox 2 morgen in de winkels liggen...
Je merkt wel dat je hier op een xbox website zit. Mensen die de cell processor afzeiken want deze zou haast niet te programmeren zijn. Hmm volgens mij is de cell chip nog niet eens helemaal klaar en zijn er nog geen dev kits dus hoe kun je ooit weten dat dat moeilijk te programmeren gaat worden. Ik vind dat zowel sony als ms altijd hoog van de toren blazen. Al begint de xbox next al wel concretere vormen aan te nemen. Ik heb in beide consoles wel vertrouwen.
