GTA IV bundled with graphical problems
Category: Industry, Posted: 04/17/2008 at 01:08PM CDT by Demetri Kouvalis, Features Editor
With the new installment of the Grand Theft Auto series, Rockstar Games is bumping up the graphical prowess of GTAIV in order create a one of a kind, realistic perspective in a huge sandbox environment. With such a large persistent world is it surprising that GTAIV is suffering from graphical difficulties?
According to multiple previews, GTAIV contains grainy framerate issues, buildings and cars that popup out of nowhere, and long-distance fade outs.
So when you are being chased by the cops and you need a getaway car, hopefully you won't have to run into the trouble of waiting for a street car to pop up in your view to hijack. Also when you are driving fast in your car through a busy, traffic filled downtown street the framerate tends to dip a bit.
The reasons why these graphical hiccups pop up is because the game features many more textures than in any GTA game. The game's upgrades however are able to add more personality to all of the civilians faces, newer car models with more realistic destructible car parts, and the shadows and lightings bouncing of the buildings are definitely something to marvel about.
So do you believe these graphical problems will be overseen by players as small annoyances in a potentially amazing all-around experience?
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I love it when someone mentions something about multiple sources, then doesn't provide even one of them. Every preview I've read myself has indicated mostly the opposite, that the game runs quite well and only suffers noticeable slowdown in the most insane of mulitplayer mayhem. So, if you possibly wouldn't mind directing me to one of these "multiple previews" that say otherwise, I'd be much obliged. Not trying to be snarky, I'm truly curious about them.
Also, what massively-scaled open-ended non-linear exploration game made in the past 10 years DOESN'T have these issues on some level, and doesn't need a hypothetical super-computer for its time to pull it off? Go ahead, find it. I'll wait.
So, uh, yeah, ultimately, I don't think there's a big deal, here. If these were glaring issues, they'd be covered more, and not immediately dismissed as soon as they're mentioned. The worst fault I've personally read in regards to the graphics is that the DOF filtering used in multi is a little overpowering, and can come across smeary, but that the singleplayer game is-- mostly-- flawless. I'm sure there's minor graphical issues, but again, find me the game of this sort that DOESN'T have those issues.
^^ What he said. But less expansive. If it doesn't affect the gameplay drastically, then a few graphics problems here are nothing to worry about. But i would have thought that a high profile company(and tehy are) like Rockstar could have spotted these alleged problems in testing
how come the ps3 has like 7 or however many cell proccessors it cant run this? i have no idea about technological stuff im just asking
(by it cant run this i meant have perfect fps)
Exactly, rtanger. From what I've seen in the vids, it looks great. I can deal with minor frame rate issues, and minor pop up when dealing with a game that pushes the limits of a console so far. This makes it sound like the bully problems, and I so doubt that is the case.
Actually, you make me curious about another aspect of this article. There's no mention of which consoles these (un)cited previews are referring to. If there's a healthy mix of both PS3 and 360 previews involved, we can't know, since we don't even know what previews are being referred to!!!
TO answer your question in some form, ChristIllusion, the SPUs of the PS3 processor are not exactly aimed at improving the rendering capabilities of the console. They improve and streamline number-crunching operations, and can be coded to stream loading data to the HDD without overstressing the CPU, but their effects on rendering capabilities are minimal, and, taken altogether, not terribly much more potent than the 360's dual core.
Also, since there's no mention of what console these issues are relevant to (if they're even that big of a deal, this article is unclear on....just about everything) , there's the chance that the PS3 version may or may not be better about it than the 360. It could also potentially be a bigger offender, as utilizing the console's architecture appropriately and efficiently has been a struggle in PS3 game development. Games that hum along on 360 have been prone to various nasty bugs, crashes, and hitches on PS3, not as pronounced (or even there at all) on 360. See- Assassin's Creed, Orange Box, etc.
So, who knows? Right now, this article almost comes across as some sort of journalistic flame-bait, and lacks sufficient detail in any respect to know much of anything.
Addendum--
"Actually, you make me curious "
"you" was referring to ChristIllusion, I took too long to type my too-long comment.
check 1up's preview.
What difference does it make we're all getting it anyway!
pfhh big city, many textures.... nope wont make up for a on constant framerate.... great graphics can be done with low specs unreal 3 and newly mass effect for pc shows that yes i know there are no huge cities in them but from what ive seen of GTA IV the graphics arnt close to unreal3 so....
"how come the ps3 has like 7 or however many cell proccessors it cant run this? i have no idea about technological stuff im just asking"
It can do great things, but it takes a lot of effort for programmers who cut their teeth on PC architecture. The 360 is very much in line with a multi-core PC with a fancy graphics card, whereas the PS3 is an entirely different animal. The ramp-up time is greater, and that means one of 2 things: either the games aren't up to par with the competition, or they get delayed. Some developers have it all down to a science, though. Criterion developed Burnout Paradise for the PS3, with the 360 as the second platform. That's a nearly flawless 60 fps game on both consoles.
As if poor framerate is anything new to the GTA series.