Star Ocean developer's real-time graphics demo is out of this world

@Mr Hett
And in N7 armour...

@catbandit Coolest watch? Damn straight!
But he also has an obnoxious amount of brown and bloom.

@catbandit That's the same thing I thought!

@catbandit

Did he miss his flight? Is that what happened?

Cool watch, yes, but he was still late.

Nope. It's no where near the upgrade version of UE3 that Epic has been showing off since GDC.

For starters, as good as tri-Ace's new engine looks, there are a lot of technical issues and artifacts that are present, that simply are no where to be found any any demo shown off by Epic. Then the new UE is showing off really advanced stuff like image based reflections, subsurface scattering, and anti-aliased masked materials - none of which can be found in the tri-Ace engine. Then there is the issue of DX11 and Shader Model 5 support. Again, stuff found in the updated UE, and not found in tri-Ace's engine.

Second, the new UE runs at 1080p60 . . . that's 1080p HD, at 60 frames per second. tri-Ace's engine tops out at 720p30.

And finally, the hardware needed to run either engine. Epic's new UE is running on three (3) GeForce GTX 580s, meanwhile tri-Ace's engine is designed from the ground up to run on current-gen console hardware (Xbox 360 and PS3). One engine is clearly geared towards next-gen hardware, and the other clearly geared toward current-gen hardware.

Not to say there is nothing of value to come from the tri-Ace engine beyond the current gen of game hardware. tri-Ace uses some nice, new physically based lighting and rendering, which gives yield to the high graphic fidelity of the engine. There is no reason why similar techniques cannot be used with next-gen engines like the new UE, to yield some truly stunning effects as next-gen matures. For that matter, there is very little reason why tri-Ace could not continue to develop this new engine, well into next-gen, and produce something even more amazing themselves.

As it stands, this is a pretty amazing engine for current-gen hardware. It's really pushing the boundaries, especially when you consider that tri-Ace makes RPGs, and RPGs are traditionally graphically deficient when compared to other genres like shooters or action games. There is definitely a future here for this engine, and I hope to see games made with it soon.

For more info on tri-Ace's engine, go to their official website: http://research.tri-ace.com/detail_1.html

@Tachyonic Cargo

You also forget to mention that UE3 has been around for nearly 5 years and it's currently on its umpteenth version. This is a brand new engine that has been built from the ground up. There will be plenty of room for improvement in the coming months.

@Tachyonic Cargo You're just spouting off a bunch of technical jargon without actually knowing what it means. The engine doesn't have a framerate and resolution limitation, that's just what it was rendered at on the PS3/360. Also, IBL is already present in Cryengine 3. Anti-ailiasing masked materials is nothing new either, it's just super sampling anything that's alpha-tested, as in transparencies, and as for "physically based lighting and rendering", that means nothing at all. Literally. You're just trying to sound like you know what you're talking about.

@Tachyonic Cargo
Dude seriously? For all that crap you just spouted you forgot to mention that while the unreal engine is superior to this new engine and that the UE is built for next gen consoles while this one is built from the ground up for the current gen, is that next gen consoles are at best four to six years away. Sure you could have all that graphical beauty of the new UE that is licensed to so many other games but if the current gen consoles can't handle it then whats the point. Yeah, if you have the machine to run it its beautiful but what developer is going to develop the same game twice, one to run on the PC and one for consoles. On another note. you said that shooters look better than rpg's, which I would say is perspective. your shooter may have more polygons than an rpg, but whats the point if they're all grey. I personally prefer a better looking environment over a grittier one. You could show me all the textures the UE has and can do and I'll show you a FF13 cutsceen.

@Tachyonic Cargo

"Epic's new UE is running on three (3) GeForce GTX 580s, meanwhile tri-Ace's engine is designed from the ground up to run on current-gen console hardware (Xbox 360 and PS3)"

This should be the answer to your comment right here. Absolutely NOTHING that is being rendered using THREE top of the line video cards impresses me, because I will NEVER invest that much money into a gaming PC. You're talking about a video demonstration that is running on ~$500 card x3, which is ~$1500 just for the video cards, vs another video being run on a $200 console (or similar hardware?)

The UE3 update may look a little bit nicer, but to me, this video is far more impressive just due to the hardware it's running on.

So sick of the PC master race. I'm glad I'm not a part of it anymore. I just like good games.

My engine is bigger than your engine

@Levi Do you really think that Epic, which is made the current generation of consoles its focus, is really designing an engine which will require $1500 worth of graphics hardware to run? Of course not. They are building a very scalable engine, which will be nice for people who do have nice PCs, but they are obviously targeting future consoles, and have lots of optimization and feature cutting to do. These consoles will not cost $1500. Silly, straw man argument.

@AtomicPlayboy

And the graphics wont look as good as that tech demo.

If it scales then it means the quality scales as well. The tech demo was shown on ~$1500 worth of GPUs, it will not look like that when scaled to work with a $400 PC or $200 console.

@HybridPara
Yeah, that little part bothered me too.

@Cabal
oh

@Flatterlr; considering that Nintendo's last three consoles have all had virtually the same level of graphics, I'm going to assume this is not correct.

@Mouthsmasher True enough. But rumour is it's better than 360 and PS3 graphics. So it is possible, it is technically a generation ahead. I suppose none of us know for sure though, have to just wait and see!

@Mouthsmasher
Wow, I can't believe how moronic someone can be. If you think N64 graphics are on par with Wii graphics then you seriously need to get some medical help. Hell compare F-Zero X with F-Zero GX, and the Wii can do better than GX.

So either-
Go back to school.
Get a new TV.
Get medical help.

Thank you.

If your memory isn't working too then you should do well to remember a recent leak that the next Nintendo console will be more powerful than the Xbox 360 or PS3.
Also Nintendo said the only reason why they didn't support super graphics on the Wii was because nobody had a HDTV back then. That's changed.

@Zal
I would hope it looks better than the Xbox and PS3. I mean it only has a six years of technical advances on them.

@Tachyonic Cargo I kind of liked Star Ocean's mechanics. Where it failed for me was TOO MUCH WALKING. I don't want to spend an hour wandering through an empty field just to fill up time.

@Tachyonic Cargo
I don't think it's the graphics that make games have bad sales. I played Final Fantasy XIII and learned that lesson the hard way.

@The Only Girl and i absolutely loved XIII so in the end it's matter or personal taste. i will take XIII over Fallout. i got nothing on MassEffect though it's awesome and one of the games i playedthrough multiple times!

@Tachyonic Cargo
Well by your logic all your shooters are horrible games because they don't bridge the gap between the western world and Japan. Just as western rpg's don't sell well in Japan doesn't mean they're bad games. I personally love jrpgs. The reason jrpgs don't sell well over here is because the developers have to expand their view of what makes rpg games enjoyable, and they are; there is a generational gap between the older developers and the new guys. The Japanese know their market is dying, that's why they've been expanding to new offices in the west. I mean come on, what a ridiculous opinion that jrpgs would sell better if they looked better and the mechanics weren't bad. Just because you're not intelligent enough to expand your unevolved brain to something outside your comfort zone, that it must be horrible. I'm sure that NO ONE enjoys jrpgs, that's why Japan has an unofficial holiday every time a Dragon Quest game is released. Oh and you can't tell moron, that was sarcasm.

@trent2005

99% of public relying on public transport = anything handheld sells.
Throw in interactivity like DQ,PM and MH and dorra signs.

@Mmmmz

all engines including UE3 are shown off using 100% of the computers capability to render a purely scripted event. Despite how jaw dropping the UE3 Samirtan Demo looked, you wont get any game looking like that while you play it either.

@The Only Girl
Next Gen Trees here i come

@The Only Girl Nooo there's that sun thing and....and....people!!!!