New Interview with Glenn Entis

[O.D.S]

Ive posted the PS3 section of the interview.
If you want to read the whole interview go here:
http://www.gamespy.com/articles/634/634928p1.html

GameSpy: So having 5 times that floating point technology on the PlayStation 3 must be a...

Entis: Well, I like PlayStation 3 very much. We work with each of the companies in different ways. They all have different type machines and different market propositions. I'm looking forward to all of them.

GameSpy: I hear you guys are the only company that has multiple PlayStation 3 dev kits.

Entis: We do have PlayStation 3 [kits]. I don't think I'm allowed to comment on any specifics. We clearly have PlayStation 3 dev equipment because we did a real-time PlayStation 3 demo at the Sony press conference. My team up in Vancouver has one. That was where that demo was developed in coordination with the Chicago-based Fight Night team. So we've had that for several months.

GameSpy: For several months? Can I ask when you got it?

Entis: I don't think I can give you specific dates.

GameSpy: Is PlayStation 3 more powerful than 360?

Entis: Well, I don't think any of us are really ready to say for sure. There's no final hardware specs on any of the systems [at the time of this interview].

Sony will have more processing power. There's no question about that. Then the arguments are about how easy it will be for people to get to and use it. The extra processing power will help. I think a lot of what we've been talking about in terms of dynamics is that physical simulations, fluid dynamics and to a certain extent AI. Some of the AI may actually end up using floating points, especially when you're using statistical AI and processing. Floating point is going to help all that.

The other place that I think floating points will help is less relevant to consumers. I think floating point will help with the process of building games. I think we'll see much more procedurally generated assets. So we'll see textures, noise patterns, and animation with some components that are procedurally generated. We'll see models procedurally generated in some cases, particularly when there are very large scale worlds with a lot of variety.

Every team is going to have a choice, "Do we actually build all that stuff one-by-one, or start abstracting out rules that can generate some part of those models on the fly?" All of that is going to start moving from how much raw data can we just take and play back as is?

Architecturally we're going to want to shift the problem of creating worlds from how much human labor and disk space we throw at it to how do we start condensing some of that and start moving on to the processors.

[Tredoslop]

Nice find.

[Raijin]

The whole floating point explanation indicates clearly that the PS3 is the most powerful!

[Forbiden]

Indeed, he is not really saying it in his words, but in between the lines, he is telling us PS3 is the better one. All the FLOP's that PS3 can produce(not cell, but the overall console) is what gives it the advantage in the next gen war.

[xbdestroya]

He's saying clearly that the Cell is the more impressive of the two processors, but he doesn't say anything about graphics; something I know will contribute greatly to which console is perceived to be the 'victor' in the end.

So let's not crown the winner just yet friends; no shame in waiting for something a little more definitive!

[Grandia]

Something strange is, didn't Microsoft downplay floating points at E3?
Yet EA isn't doing the same thing?

[Domination]

Something strange is, didn't Microsoft downplay floating points at E3?
Yet EA isn't doing the same thing?

I think the real question is what haven't Microsoft downplayed that wasn't considered an advantage to them?

[Z]

MS downplayes their shortcomings, which spelles everything. now when Sony announces their online plan, MS will have nothing left to brag about.

[Metal Sphere]

Ah, relax guys. This is just an interview and he mentioned something about the flop power of the PS3. We're far from having a working game in our hands, they don't have the complete dev kits so we really can't get defiitive developer comments as to which is "more powerful".

Not like it matters, since that's probably the last thing you'll be thinking about when you're enjoying the game itself.

[Z]

Not like [power] matters, since that's probably the last thing you'll be thinking about when you're enjoying the game itself.

oh yes it will. how do you feel when you are playing a cross platform title knowing that your version is the worst looking?

also, don't look at EA to show a consoles power. the best they can do is work on the lowest specs, then polish it a little for PS3. I am more interested in real designers and creators of the likes of Namco, Konami and SE.

[Lumine]

Three things I got from that interview:

1. I didn't know you could leverage floating point values when doing AI. I mean, you can obviously just change the data types (blah blah blah) but that doesn't really do anything, right? Or is there some architectural change so that you can adjust your AI to rely on FP more than current methods?

2. I think he did a very good job of not chosing a side, any choice from his position would be a bad one.

3. It is interesting to hear how those EA devils rationalize their slaughter of creativity

[xbdestroya]

Three things I got from that interview:

1. I didn't know you could leverage floating point values when doing AI. I mean, you can obviously just change the data types (blah blah blah) but that doesn't really do anything, right? Or is there some architectural change so that you can adjust your AI to rely on FP more than current methods?


Talk to Arnaud here in the forums, or read his interview on the main page:

Article (http://www.psinext.com/index.php?categoryid=3&m_articles_articleid=121)

[rpgamer_2k5]

Something strange is, didn't Microsoft downplay floating points at E3?
Yet EA isn't doing the same thing?

Multimedia which includes games, images, and other multimedia heavily depends on floating point. There is little reason to use fixed-point operations like the PS or N64. Also fixed-point integer operations are really even that important anymore even in the PC world. One can run various applications (word processor, etc) that depend on fixed-point operations efficiently on a 1Ghz CPU; greater power is actually needed to cover the high floating points various graphics or sound operations demand.