Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

By Ravi Sinha

With the state of the multi-platform market these days, gamers aren’t starved for variety. Be it the horror-adventure Resident Evil 5 or Namco-Bandai’s upcoming Tekken 6, it’s now become a question of which developers will release their titles for the Xbox 360 and PS3 together. However, another trend has emerged with the advent of numerous multi-platform AAA titles. This is the tendency of a developer to take one platform as a standard and build it’s project from the bottom up to take full advantage of it.

It became a debate with Final Fantasy XIII in terms of release priorities, storage issues, whether the Xbox 360 version will be downgraded and so on. id Software’s upcoming first person shooter/action driving title Rage presents an interesting twist on the debate. It seems that was destined from it’s inception to shine on the PS3.

No, I’m not basing it on id Software’s Todd Hollenshead stating that, “The game, ultimately, when it’s done on our servers, will be huge. I don’t know, 100GB?” and then going on to state that it will span several DVDs on PC and 360. I’m not even talking about which platform the game can and cannot run on. This is simply an analysis on how of the two platforms, Rage will derive it’s maximum potential from the Playstation 3.

John Carmack said at QuakeCon 2007 that id Tech 5 (the new engine running Rage) will be OpenGL and Direct X9 based (doesn’t require DX10 and hence Vista to run). This was done to facilitate development on multiple platforms, reducing the need for specific code on each platform. He also stated that id Tech 5 is cross-platform and ably renders the same models no matter what the platform. Obviously, this means Rage will work just as well on the PS3 as the 360, right?

Many are familiar with id Software’s OpenGL favoritism- the API (Application Programming Interface) has figured in the company’s most prominent titles since it’s inclusion in Quake III: Arena. id Tech 5 is different from predecessors in that it’s not using the “standard” OpenGL. The same goes for the PS3: It’s Cell processor relies on a variation of the standard OpenGL library called OpenGL | ES (OpenGL for Embedded Systems) 1.2. id Tech 5 utilized a single threaded OpenGL implementation when the Rage demo was displayed at WWDC 2007 – this same implementation exists within the PS3. OpenGL | ES uses a single, efficient method to accomplish each function rather than 2-3 ways as observed by standard OpenGL.

Bottomline? Rage is at it’s most powerful when taking advantage of multiple processors because this allows it to efficiently segregate it’s requirements into different CPUs. This is best achieved through it’s support for OpenGL | ES.

There’s also the question of the removal of Immediate Mode rendering in both OpenGL | ES for the PS3 and OpenGL in id Tech 5. Microsoft’s Direct X focused more on Retained Mode rendering, which unfortunately is not fit for use in video games. What’s the difference? Think of it this way: Immediate Mode renders all graphical objects regardless of any actual changes made. For example, whether the objects are on-display or not, Immediate Mode is working hard to render them. Retained Mode, on the other hand, updates the library’s internal list of objects. Only graphical objects that change from frame-to-frame have to be transferred from the application to the library. This means that it only renders what it needs to render. i.e. what’s on display. This further increases efficiency and prevents the waste of precious processing power. The problem with Microsoft’s Direct X API is that it’s Retained Mode rendering was not designed for games. Though Retained Mode was eventually discontinued, some programmers attest to the lack of documentation in Immediate Mode rendering for Direct X.

It’s interesting to note how several factors dictating the PS3 being hard to program for are the same factors that benefit Rage the most. Hopefully, Rage will live up to it’s massive pedigree and hype, marking a fun new experience for gamers and a fresh start for id Software.