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Rockin Robbins · 08-09-07, 06:50 AM

Sometimes the addition of hardware we don't even think about greatly increased demand on the hardware. My brother just bought a 22" LCD. Great! But the native 1600 x idon'tknowwhat (it's a wide-screen monitor) doubles the pixels, doubling the workload on his graphics card. Guess what happened to his frame rates?

Similarly, we are perilously close to two games that are unplayable on the majority of computers in the marketplace. Adding interactivity always results in greater demand on the machine running the program. This reduces the market for these games and makes those with marginal machines very unhappy with game performance. I bought my copy of SH4 from such a player, who blamed not his machine but the game.

SH3 could have greater interactivity because it was lighter in the graphics category. Some, including myself, would say that was a very good trade and I enjoyed the immersion factor resulting from that. Add the advanced graphics from SH4 to SH3 and I fear you have reduced a very high percentage of happy players' computers to expensive paperweights. They would become unhappy players instantly.

SH4 has the shiny new graphics, which also increase the immersion factor. Just load up leovampire's Living Breathing Ocean and try not to spend inordinate time on deck just enjoying the way your sub interacts with a truly lifelike ocean. Reality nazis *raises hand sheepishly* find themselves activating the external camera just to experience the ocean in its real magnificence. But if you add the interactive gauges and controls, plus crew interactivity to SH4 and again I'll bet my bippy that the game comes to a screeching, impotent halt.

With the present state of reasonably affordable hardware, these two approaches to immersion are mutually exclusive. Sure, there are probably 30 of us here at Subsim that have computers hefty enough to run the UberSim, (and I'm likely not one of them although I purposely built my machine to play SH3) but our cash isn't enough to support publication of the game.

It's all a compromise to produce the greatest number of players who can afford the game and can successfully run the software to a performance level that they will enjoy the game. We get no free lunch.

Wait five years. If enough copies of SH3 and 4 have sold to make another sim possible the amazing stuff will wait that long.

08-09-07, 06:50 AM	#24
Rockin Robbins Navy Seal Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: DeLand, FL Posts: 8,900 Downloads: 135 Uploads: 52	SH3 and SH4 Sometimes the addition of hardware we don't even think about greatly increased demand on the hardware. My brother just bought a 22" LCD. Great! But the native 1600 x idon'tknowwhat (it's a wide-screen monitor) doubles the pixels, doubling the workload on his graphics card. Guess what happened to his frame rates? Similarly, we are perilously close to two games that are unplayable on the majority of computers in the marketplace. Adding interactivity always results in greater demand on the machine running the program. This reduces the market for these games and makes those with marginal machines very unhappy with game performance. I bought my copy of SH4 from such a player, who blamed not his machine but the game. SH3 could have greater interactivity because it was lighter in the graphics category. Some, including myself, would say that was a very good trade and I enjoyed the immersion factor resulting from that. Add the advanced graphics from SH4 to SH3 and I fear you have reduced a very high percentage of happy players' computers to expensive paperweights. They would become unhappy players instantly. SH4 has the shiny new graphics, which also increase the immersion factor. Just load up leovampire's Living Breathing Ocean and try not to spend inordinate time on deck just enjoying the way your sub interacts with a truly lifelike ocean. Reality nazis raises hand sheepishly find themselves activating the external camera just to experience the ocean in its real magnificence. But if you add the interactive gauges and controls, plus crew interactivity to SH4 and again I'll bet my bippy that the game comes to a screeching, impotent halt. With the present state of reasonably affordable hardware, these two approaches to immersion are mutually exclusive. Sure, there are probably 30 of us here at Subsim that have computers hefty enough to run the UberSim, (and I'm likely not one of them although I purposely built my machine to play SH3) but our cash isn't enough to support publication of the game. It's all a compromise to produce the greatest number of players who can afford the game and can successfully run the software to a performance level that they will enjoy the game. We get no free lunch. Wait five years. If enough copies of SH3 and 4 have sold to make another sim possible the amazing stuff will wait that long. __________________ Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks, Slightly Subnuclear Mk 14 & Cutie, Slightly Subnuclear Deck Gun, EZPlot 2.0, TMOPlot, TMOKeys, SH4CMS Last edited by Rockin Robbins; 08-10-07 at 12:45 PM.