One of the more interesting comments made in another thread is that NCSoft needs to spend time working on updating the COH graphics engine to add features and take advantage of new hardware capabilities.
It occurs that there are several weaknesses in the CoH engine that newer games might use to leapfrog CoH. Some of these have been *ahem* Cryptically hinted at as receiving updates in the future. However, there is lots of room for improvement.
The big, glaring hole that has been 'too difficult' to address for a long, long time and that the devs have been tentatively hinting about might be addressed some time in the near future are the game engine capabilities required for Power Customization. This requires not only significant grunt-work on part of NCSoft staff to re-create power effects from source artwork and the like, but would also require significant code change to the graphics rendering engine and game UI to allow for all the varieties of customization.
For the sake of this post, we'll assume that even if NCSoft is not actively working on this right now, they know about how much time and effort it will take and have it 'scheduled'.
From the CoH Forums
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Not sure where, but there is an interview that Psi did a few months ago where he stated that something that everyone thought was impossible to do, was being done.
ReplyDeleteThe big guess everyone on the forums have for this is Power Customization... or Side-Switching... one or the other. Time will tell, I guess.
I just hope that if they do upgrade the engine, they don't go overboard so much that you have to have a new system just to run the damn thing.
At some point people will have to upgrade. You can't make a great innovative game with old outdated hardware. IE anything over 10 years old.
ReplyDelete5 years ago you couldn't build a high-end gaming PC for under $4000. This about the time Coh came about...give or take few months. Now today a high-end gaming PC can be built for under $1500. That is a huge cut in price.
Now let's say NCsoft updates the graphic's engine in CoH for the following specs
1.Optimized for multi-core CPU's
2.Optimized for PhysX or ragdoll FX
3.Multi-point lighting "meaning if your toon stands next to another using his/her powers. The light FX now reflect off your toon and sounding environments.
4. Objects now have different weights. By this I mean that currently a car/papers/trash and such in CoH all have identical weights and are easily moved about. An upgraded version would/should have actual weights involved. Papers/leaves and such fly about when powers are activated. BUT when a toon summons a car or heavy metal objects, the objects now reflect real world weight....or close to it.
Ok now we are at what it would take to run such a engine overhaul. We'll go by today's hardware and prices
1. Dual/Tri/Quad core CPU's can be had for $35-$1200 and it wouldn't matter which you bought. A Dual Core CPU would just as effectively run the game as a Quad Core
2. Video Card. ATI Or Nvidia ....doesn't matter. All of today Video Cards support PhysX processing. These range from $40-$600. A Nvidia 8600GT will handle the game just fine and as we know, the more RAM on a Video Card the better. Onboard graphics are the worst and shouldn't be used for gaming for a number of reasons and the main reason being it is simply limited and CAN NOT be upgraded. Now motherboards that do offer decent onboard graphic are pricey and you will end up paying for it.
3. Motherboards can be had for around $80-$200 a discrete graphic set-up is preferred "no onboard graphics"
4. PSU or power supply $35-$700
5. RAM, DDR2 RAM is cheat as dirt. $40-$60 can get you 4Gb.
$40 CPU AMD Dual Core Athlon
$85 Motherboard
$80 PSU 450-500watt
$65 Video Card 8600 GTS 512Mb
$45 RAM 2Gb-4Gb
$40 Computer Case
Total cost $355....honestly that is dirt cheap.
NCsoft can't continue to try and stay competitive while catering to out of date PC's, it simply isn't good business for them in the long run.
Maybe not, but still... in today's economy $355 is still nothing to sneeze at for the average consumer. I think you underestimate how many clients the company has that run the current game on "out of date" hardware.
ReplyDeleteAnd here we run into the Crysis problem... sure it looks pretty and is state of the art... but what's that matter if no one can use it.
Yes, I think some upgrades are needed, but it would be foolish of NCsoft not to consider the long time player base it has. Just because they can do something, doesn't mean they should. If you look back over the MMO landscape, just how many games have been radically updated that much and survived?
I think, big picture, they need to make engine changes... but not at the expense of losing subscribers.
I'm not talking "state of the art" graphics. I'm talking better optimized code for the game. In today's program/computer market things are getting more memory intensive and mutli-coded for Multi-core CPU's
ReplyDeleteIf NCsoft were to upgrade the CoH graphics with the Crytek engine or the UT3 "Unreal Tournament 3" Engine it doesn't mean a single core PC with a low end Video Crad wouldn't run it. It means it run it at the same settings as now.
Todays lowend cards are the 8400GT from Nvidia and the 4850 from ATI. This should be the current standards for a low end PC. Mainly becuase these cards can handle the new Shader technology that older generation cards simply can not.
Either way innovation has to move forward. Old tech is a stepping stone to newer cheaper hardware for all.
City of Heroes specs
Minimum System Requirements:
Microsoft® Windows® 2000/XP
Intel® Pentium® III 800 Mhz or AMD Athlon™ 800 Mhz
256 MB RAM
CD-ROM Drive
4 GB Available HDD Space
NVIDIA® GeForce 2 Series, ATI® Radeon® 7500 or Intel® i810G Series Video Card
16-bit Sound Card
56k modem
DirectX® 9.0c
These specs are just plain sad. None for this hardware has been in production for over 5 years!
Recommended System Requirements:
Microsoft® Windows® 2000/XP
Intel® Pentium® 4 2.0 GHz or AMD® Athlon™ XP 2000+
1 GB RAM
16X CD-ROM Drive
4 GB Available HDD Space
NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6200
16-bit Sound Card
Broadband Internet Connection
DirectX® 9.0c
A smidgen better, but still seriously out dated. Even if the rest of the PC stays the same, the minimum Video Card requirements should start with and 8400GT or the Laptop equivalent. If only for the simple fact is that they have the new "3 years old" shader technology. I keep referring to it as new tech becuase people think an Nvidia 6200GT is relevant. Sadly companies such as DELL and HP make it this way. Crap hardware for more money.