Cynthetiq

Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,58832,00.html

02:00 AM May. 15, 2003 PT

LOS ANGELES -- Minutes after the doors to the Electronic Entertainment Expo video-game tradeshow opened at 10 a.m. Tuesday, spectators were four- and five-deep in front of screens playing the trailer for the upcoming ultraviolent action game Doom III.

They were lining up to see game graphics verging on Pixar Animation Studios' animation quality, if not yet cinematically realistic.

Phantom skulls emerge from a Satanic shrine and travel around a Martian base, taking possession of soldiers' bodies. Creepy alien crawlers skitter about on the floor, walls and ceilings. A lone Marine who hasn't been possessed moves down a hall and is mottled with alternating light and shadow, reminiscent of a famous scene with Sigourney Weaver from the end of Alien.


"I think it's going to be awesome," said Chris Campbell, a tester for the Japanese game developer Square Enix, as he watched the Doom III trailer.

With Doom III and other highly anticipated, graphically complex games like Half-Life 2 and The Sims 2 due to hit stores over the next year, PC hardware makers are licking their chops.

That's because to enjoy the full richness of these games, many consumers likely will have to shell out $80 to $500 for a new video card. Many may also have to install more RAM. And with some of the new games putting a lot of pressure on older CPUs, some gamers simply will decide it's time to go out and buy a whole new PC.

Campbell said his current PC can handle the new title, and he believes people whose rigs aren't up to snuff will run out for more gear once the lush new games hit the street.

"They're going to buy the equipment they need to play the games they want," Campbell said.

The connection between hardware sales and games that push the technology envelope certainly isn't lost on hardware makers.

And to make sure this point wasn't lost on anyone at E3, the trailer for the forthcoming Half-Life 2 was shown not at the booth of the publisher, Vivendi Universal Games, but at the area set aside for graphics hardware maker ATI Technologies.

After all, the last version of Half-Life sold more than 8 million copies (including add-ons and expansion packs). And with gamers frothing at the mouth for the next version, and willing to spend some bucks to upgrade their hardware accordingly, ATI is seeing a lot of gold in this new alien shoot'em-up (as is developer Valve).

Folks from both ATI and rival graphics hardware maker Nvidia -- not to mention game developers themselves -- are unapologetic about the fact that new games with eye-popping, almost photorealistic graphics may push some gamers to trash their old rigs and head to the stores for a new PC.

After all, they point out, those graphics are the result of new technological developments in both hardware and software. Key among those is Microsoft's release of DirectX 9, which allows enhanced shading effects and layering of textures and has changed the language of game development from the old world of pixels, texture-mapping and polygons.

"In our industry, hardware trends lead software trends," said ATI spokesman Chris Evenden. He said the graphics hardware industry is a $2.5 billion business growing at an estimated 20 percent to 25 percent a year, compared with 5 to 10 percent growth for the PC industry overall. ATI has annual sales of about $1.2 billion.

Evenden said game developers -- who are constantly trying to balance between pushing the envelope technologically and shipping games that a wide number of people can actually play -- have decided it's safe to develop for the new, advanced graphics cards and software standards.

ATI alone has shipped 1 million DirectX 9-compatible cards and expects to sell at least another million by Christmas, when both Doom III and Half-Life 2 are expected to be out, Evenden said.

The company offers a line of cards, ranging in price from $130 to $500, which will allow the new games to be experienced in their full glory. The high-end model has 256 MB of RAM. Nvidia's line begins at $80 and also tops out at $500.


Game designer Greg Coomer of Valve, which is developing Half-Life 2, said "it's a tough process" to decide the hardware specs for their games. He added that the game is designed to work with a 700-MHz CPU -- poky by today's cutting-edge standards -- and a low-end video card, but the more powerful the machine, the prettier the pictures and the smoother the action.

"You'll have lower visual fidelity with a lower-end machine, but it won't affect the game play," Coomer said.

Across the hall at Nvidia's booth, the hardware maker's E3 minions showed off a range of games that highlight the shading and smooth-flowing action permitted by the new graphics technologies. Those included a new Star Wars game, Knights of the Old Republic from LucasArts. They also demonstrated a version of Electronic Arts' Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf running in full 3-D splendor on a laptop, previously a graphically challenged machine that could do little better than solitaire.

Nvidia also showed off some demo graphics scenes running on high-end machines with the latest pricey chip sets and graphics boards. One scene depicted a demonic Vulcan, the Roman god of the forge, aflame with incredibly realistic fire effects, forging weapons in a cathedral-like structure with stained-glass windows.

Doug Lowenstein, president of the Interactive Digital Software Association, a video-game industry trade group, noted that technological innovation is driving up costs and development cycles in the industry by making game development more complex.

But Keith Galocy, an Nvidia development-relations manager, said game makers are flocking to embrace the new graphics technologies not only because they can make better games, but because new programming languages, including a graphics-oriented version of C, have made development easier.

"Pixar is a moving target, but we're at the level they were at five years ago," Galocy said, adding that he believes mainstream graphics technology is rapidly closing the gap with the latest computer-generated animation produced by Pixar.

Asked whether these new games will mean a bonanza Christmas for Nvidia, Galocy smiled slyly, nodded, and said, "It's going to be a great Christmas for PC gamers."
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OH MY FREAKIN' GOD!!!!!!!!!! I cannot believe how beautiful some of these things are. I am very looking forward to the new eye candy coming up.

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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

juanvaldes

blah blah blah, new games coming out over the next year buy new hardware....yadda yadda yadda...

What is the game two pics up from the bottom?

SecretMethod70

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

AT

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE


I'm definitely liking what I see I wonder what the top of the line graphics card will be when it comes out?

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

Cynthetiq

Rise of Nations and World of Warcraft...

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Tip

Tron 2.0

autology

now if only i knew how long my 9700 pro would be able to run the newest games at 60 fps+