Q & A with Bethesda..The Real Deal

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 8:09 pm

It could possibly be photoshopped already

MrSmileyFaceDude · Post by **MrSmileyFaceDude** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 8:39 pm

Sovy Kurosei wrote:It looks like an older build of Morrowind. I was looking through some of the screenshots, one where you are being taken around in Vivec in one of those canoes. Actually, why not PM one of the devs about it?

It's an early promotional shot for Morrowind. I think it was rendered in 3DS Max with art that had been completed by that point. This shot and a few others were released at least 2 years before the game shipped. Oh, and before you ask -- the GameInformer cover of Oblivion is using in-game art rendered in 3D Studio Max, but all of the other screenshots in the magazine are actual in-game screenshots

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 8:44 pm

Well that clears things up. There weren't that kind of cloaked dudes in MW, am I right or am I right, eh? The floating rock shouldn't be in that town (which I think belongs to the city of Vivec, eh?)... Not that I've ever seen that town before in the first place.

Sovy Kurosei · Post by **Sovy Kurosei** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 10:20 pm

The giant floating rock is the Ministry of Truth. Or possibly nicknamed Minitruth. And it hovers close to the Temple in Vivec.

the GameInformer cover of Oblivion is using in-game art rendered in 3D Studio Max, but all of the other screenshots in the magazine are actual in-game screenshots

Why didn't Pete say that in the first place? The 'in-game art' line furrowed some eye brows and gnarled a few teeth because we didn't know if it was a genuine in-game models being posted up or not.

Well, thanks for clearing that up. *thumbs up*

MrSmileyFaceDude · Post by **MrSmileyFaceDude** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 10:26 pm

Well, it IS in-game art. It's the exact same models & textures, etc. that appear in the game. Actually, I think the game looks better than as seen on the cover, because of the pixel shaders you see in-game but not in Max.

Sovy Kurosei · Post by **Sovy Kurosei** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 10:32 pm

Yeah, but the way that Pete put it, it felt like he was trying to get away by semantics incase he got called on for it. Well, at least that is how the pessimist in me felt like.

What kind of computers are you guys using to play the game, by the way?

MrSmileyFaceDude · Post by **MrSmileyFaceDude** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 12:15 am

Don't take this as system requirements, because those haven't been established yet (the game's still quite a ways off!), but my current work machine is a 3.0GHz Pentium IV with 1GB RAM and a 256MB Radeon 9800 Pro. No comment as to game performance -- it ain't done yet

Franz Schubert · Post by **Franz Schubert** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 6:26 am

It had better play like a dream on that box...

xbow · Post by **xbow** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 7:16 am

Hmmm it might take three years to see Fallout3 by that time processor speeds might be up in the 7GHz - 9GHz range if past jumps in speed continue as they have. I heard that processor speeds double every two years or so.

Sovy Kurosei · Post by **Sovy Kurosei** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 8:43 am

xbow wrote:Hmmm it might take three years to see Fallout3 by that time processor speeds might be up in the 7GHz - 9GHz range if past jumps in speed continue as they have. I heard that processor speeds double every two years or so.

7 GHz is a maybe. Right now they are down to 65 nm chips, which are planning on being released on the PS3 and XBN. You can only make a chip so small before you either 1. start stacking processors (could, no, WILL pose heating issues) or 2. make the chips larger in size.

I estimate within 2-3 years (more likely 5-7 before the effects are noticable), unless there is a revolution in computers, that Moore's law will break down to the whim of physics. Instead of speeds doubling every 18 months, it will be 20, then 24, then 36, and just spiral off into an infinite amount of time to double processing speeds.

Of course, there is always the hope that we can get some kind of advancement in quantum computing. However, between the end of conventional processors and the feasible, commercialization of quantum computing (if it is possible to commercialize quantum computers to the masses, I don't know) we will enter into an era known as the tweak, where engines and software will begin to face squeezing out every extra polygon, every frame in an engine. Tweaking games to run faster, better on the same components. You'd be surprised how bloated some software is. Like Windows XP.

Good news is, once we enter such an era we will only need to replace our computer once every 3-4 years, whenever it starts to burn out.

And then there are GPUs, which have been making quite a few advancements since yesteryear with ATi's 9800, and Nvidia's equivelent. Because GPU's are much less confined to the restrictions of CPUs, the size (and according to Alienware, the number) of the GPUs will increase to accomodate more pipelines and transmitters.

fallout ranger · Post by **fallout ranger** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 8:47 am

Sovy Kurosei wrote:You can only make a chip so small before you either 1. start stacking processors (could, no, WILL pose heating issues)

Think they'd ever mess with liquid cooling?

Sovy Kurosei · Post by **Sovy Kurosei** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 9:33 am

Fallout Ranger;

I think it will be an eventuality that computers will be using some form of liquid cooling. Well, at least any rig that boasts that it is a top-of-the-line gaming box at one time or another, not Grandma's Celeron that makes ENIAC look like it can dish out some serious kick ass processing power.

If I recall, Intel's Prescott chip (Pentium 4) has problems with heat. I mean, Hell, right now they are using liquid cooling to keep CPU temperatures low. But that is for avid overclockers, but it does let us glimpse into the World Of Tomorrow(TM).

Who here remembers when fans were first put over heat sinks in processors back in the good ol' days, eh? Heheheh.

Mr. Teatime · Post by **Mr. Teatime** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 11:37 am

I think there's also quantum computing which is increasingly becoming relevant.

xbow · Post by **xbow** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 1:14 pm

You'd be surprised how bloated some software is. Like Windows XP

.

No I wouldn't, it has always amazed me just how bloated computer programs have become. As an example once upon a time I had an ATARI 1040 ST and I purchased a game called Dungeon Master. The total game size was about 300K!, it was a Fantasy RPG game with a pseudo 3D first person perspective . The eight Dungeon levels were filled with hidden loot dead, ends, traps, beasts lurking around every corner and it was a totally imersive game. Also it ran fast on an 8Mhz machine,never locked up, and drew its game data from the only data storage devise on the machine a 320kb 3.5 in disk drive. It also had for the time an impressive variety of Dungeon sounds and the 320 x 200 16 color graphics would look grotesque today but they were great for the time. The guys that wrote the game did so on bare metal meaning of course that it was coded in Motorola 6800 Assembler. Those guys wrote some tight code. The same thing could be said for the hombres at Microprose who made Silent Service 2 a game that weighed a mere 270k but was a completely satisfactory submarine combat simulation, no it was no Janes 688I hunter killer but it kicked ass. The Leather Goddesses of Phobos a text game was interesting in that you could input strings in english and also chain together multiple actions and even spell words wrong and it would parse the string and more often than not output a good response. I would love to see someone put some real AI into a modern RPG. But who has time to do that anymore. Today its all about Graphics graphics and more graphics.

Instead of using the increased speed and performance to make more capable programs programs we now see bloated garbage filled dirty programs that run only because fast processors hide the shoddy nature of the coding and design. Sure some try to make lightweight programs that don't have allot of useless overhead but that is not the norm. OOP me! to tears! processor speed and big disk drives have made mediocrity the norm. Its not the fault of the programmers writing the software its the fault of the suits. One thing I would like to know when I buy a game is if the developer outsourced a big chunk of the coding.

1986

1987

1992

Sovy Kurosei · Post by **Sovy Kurosei** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 6:06 am

Whoa, speaking 1337 and being able to read in binary is geekish, but programming in an assembly language is pretty hardcore, in my books.

xbow · Post by **xbow** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 10:38 am

wowa 1337, I dont know fucking around with numbers is one thing..

1337 / 2 = 668 + 1
668 / 2 = 334 + 0
334 / 2 = 167 + 0
167 /2 = 83 + 1
83 / 2 = 41 + 1
41 / 2 = 20 + 1
20 / 2 = 10 + 0
10 / 2 = 5 + 0
5 / 2 = 2 + 1
2 / 2 = 1 + 0

1337 dec = 10100111001 bin

1337 / 16 = 83 + 9
83 / 16 = 5 + 3
5/ 16 = 0 + 5

1337 dec = 539 hex

but you guys speaking 1337 is insane I think ASM might be right up your alley Sovy.

PiP · Post by **PiP** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 11:57 pm

xbow wrote:Hmmm it might take three years to see Fallout3 by that time processor speeds might be up in the 7GHz - 9GHz range if past jumps in speed continue as they have. I heard that processor speeds double every two years or so.

Fallout 3: jump to lightspeed? hey Mr Smiley, how bout dat?

MrSmileyFaceDude · Post by **MrSmileyFaceDude** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 12:21 am

PiP wrote:
xbow wrote:Hmmm it might take three years to see Fallout3 by that time processor speeds might be up in the 7GHz - 9GHz range if past jumps in speed continue as they have. I heard that processor speeds double every two years or so.
Fallout 3: jump to lightspeed? hey Mr Smiley, how bout dat?

Or better yet -- Fallout 3: They've Gone Plaid!

PiP · Post by **PiP** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 12:53 am

omg I pwn so much roxorz

Sovy Kurosei · Post by **Sovy Kurosei** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 1:16 am

What? No follow up Fallout 3: Hyper Speed? Fallout 4: Ludricous Speed? Or when you put up a boxset of the Fallout collection for sale, that is the nickname you'll be giving to the first two Fallouts?

Hardy har har!