It’s no surprise that whenever high-profile PS3 releases hits store shelves, we hear talk of developers behind these particular titles who claim that they’ve done all they possibly could and have essentially maxed out the console. More and more often these days, however, that doesn’t appear to be the case, especially when it comes to Guerrilla Games.
Speaking with IndustryGamers, Guerrilla Games is pushing the notion that it really is difficult to max out the PS3, as there are always workarounds and more efficient programming techniques which can be utilized to free up major sums of space. Guerrilla Managing Director/Co-Founder Hermen Hulst had the following to say:
“At the end of every project, we say, ‘we’ve maxed it out.’ I made that mistake at the end of Killzone 2,” Hulst admitted to IndustryGamers. “We felt that we’d pushed it absolutely to the max. We now know from experience there’s always more mileage in the tech. You can always find new techniques.”
Hulst then discusses how custom tech is the way to go if you want a true AAA product. The ability to manipulate technology that the team themselves have created has phenomenal advantages, and Hulst doubts that the high quality titles that we’ve come to know and love on the PS3 might not be possible had it not been for the custom engines developed in-house.
“The guys that created LittleBigPlanet, I don’t think they would have been able to create a game that looks as great on someone else’s tech and that’s the same with us,”
“For example, in Killzone 2, we introduced anti-aliasing to get rid of the jagged edges. We’re using that, but an improved version that is much more efficient, so we actually leave space for more detail, bigger environments and more polygons. Compared to Killzone 2, Killzone 3’s polygon count is three times as high, so we’ve been able to find new space, probably averaging out to 40 percent.”
Apparently, the freed-up space made room for the addition of the new jetpacks and melee attacks. Hulst has also taken a stand regarding 3D, stating that it’s here to stay and compares the difference between HD and 3D to mono and stereo, though a good few consumers, including myself, find it to be somewhat gimmicky. Let’s not forget that the PS2 really showed its muscle with games like God of War II towards the end of its life cycle, which means we’ve probably only experienced a Mustang’s worth of power, out of what is probably a Bugatti engine.
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