Turok; GCN vs XBox

[Green]

I'll probably get the GC Turok next week.

[SpoDaddy]

I've been noticing that the IGNCube staff are much more critical of the games they review than the reviewers on IGNPS2 and IGNXbox. Just compare the scores, Mario Sunshine only got a 9.4. Look at the games on Xbox and PS2 that they ranked 9.4 or higher and tell me which ones are actually as good or better than Mario Sunshine?

[Mr_Furious]

Originally posted by kbuchanan


"Furious, is there a name for this effect of losing texture detail? Tell me more about it."

It's called mip mapping. Think of it as an LOD routine for textures. All current consoles have this capability and is relatively new. The first console to fully support this was the N64 and every home console since, I believe. The console that best handles it's texture routines is the GC by far.

[SpoDaddy]

I know the GC has 8 to 1 texture compression built into the hardware, which is very very useful

[Tracer]

I always saw that texture business in Xbox games as a kind of atmosphereic effect :/ Oh well. GameCube or Xbox.. 5.1 sound in an FPS is nice (Halo shows that 5.1 audio makes for a much more immersive experince IMO). Also, IGN says GCN's 60fps Turok dips in frames - how much and is it noticeable?

ºTracer

[Mr_Furious]

Originally posted by TracerBullet
IGN says GCN's 60fps Turok dips in frames - how much and is it noticeable?

It's noticeable enough for them to mention and happens frequently enough for them to recommend the Xbox version due to it's more constant 30.

Reports are conflicting due to what's being stated on the boards, though.

[Tracer]

Perhaps you could field a question I have - What is mipmapping, and why is it used? What advantages to picture quality and overall graphical flare does it give; are there disadvantages?

ºTracer

[Kbu Chan]

Originally posted by TracerBullet
I always saw that texture business in Xbox games as a kind of atmosphereic effect :/ Oh well. GameCube or Xbox.. 5.1 sound in an FPS is nice (Halo shows that 5.1 audio makes for a much more immersive experince IMO). Also, IGN says GCN's 60fps Turok dips in frames - how much and is it noticeable?

ºTracer

Seriously, I'm about 8-10 hrs into the game and after the first two levels, I haven't seen anything below 60fps. Its about as solid as you can get. Rarely you might see a stutter, but only for a fraction of a second, Most people won't even notice it. It certainly isn't anything that could be confused as slowdown.

[SearchManX]

Originally posted by kbuchanan


Seriously, I'm about 8-10 hrs into the game and after the first two levels, I haven't seen anything below 60fps. Its about as solid as you can get. Rarely you might see a stutter, but only for a fraction of a second, Most people won't even notice it. It certainly isn't anything that could be confused as slowdown.

I was quite surprised to see slowdown in Super Mario Sunshine, but I guess it really isn't surprising considering the insane amounts of water particle effects... it usually happens when I'm hovering around...

[JefmcC]

Originally posted by TracerBullet
Perhaps you could field a question I have - What is mipmapping, and why is it used? What advantages to picture quality and overall graphical flare does it give; are there disadvantages?

ºTracer

My understanding is that when you scale a texture "back", it at some point will degrade so much that it will look like it's moving or shimmering. Or by contrast, if you scale it up too much, you get blocks, or at best blocks with blurry corners.

By layering the amount of detail, and changing the texture as the graphics get closer, you should be able to avoid this. If you look at the ground in Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast, you can clearly see the "lines" where the textures change.

I'm not going to argue that the Xbox can or can't do this better than the GC. Seems that people in the know already stated that the Cube is more efficient at this. But I still think what we are seeing on Xbox in games like Rally Sport or any others, is not a limitation of the hardware, and a choice made by the developers.

If I'm wrong, please correct me.