? for Gary King about development...

[Troy LaMont]

What's involved in making a game widescreen? I'm familiar with the process for DVDs. Is it similiar and why aren't any major game publishers doing it?
Troy
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No touchy, No touchy (Kuzco)

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I'm not an expert, keep that in mind.
They have to redo the screen so that it displays a wider image and then they need to tell the icons on screen (like a speedometer) to be their normal size as widescreen, which is why they appear crunched in 4:3 view. The way they do it is probably through mathematics. I dunno.

 

[Gary King]

On the Xbox, not much more is involved than simply setting the resolution to a widescreen resolution, and adjusting your viewport transform so that you don't get distortion (which is really simple).
I can't imagine much more is involved than that on other consoles (assuming the hardware supports widescreen output); however, on consoles with stricter requirements on video memory, the additional framebuffer size might things more difficult for developers, depending on how they want to use the hardware.

 

[Troy LaMont]

Gary,
Thanks for the info, greatly appreciated. I guess the debate on whether or not game developers will implement this in their games is moot (look at the Pan & Scam debacle).
I guess those of us with widescreen TVs will have to hope and cross our fingers on that issue.

however, on consoles with stricter requirements on video memory, the additional framebuffer size might things more difficult for developers, depending on how they want to use the hardware.

I wonder if the PS2 would be subject to this? I have only heard of a handful of games in WS format for this console and I've heard that some developers complain of the lack of more memory...hmmm.
Another question: Are you aware of any games/developers that are planning games in WS for sure?
Also, do you develop games or strictly console involved?
Troy
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No touchy, No touchy (Kuzco)
[Edited last by Troy LaMont on August 21, 2001 at 03:01 PM]

 

[Dean Cooper]

Check out: http://www.gorillax.com/xboxgames/games.asp
has a list of all of the confirmed games that will support widescreen for the Xbox. There is more than whats on there, but its pretty up to date.
Dean

 

[Gary King]

Also, do you develop games or strictly console involved?

I'm in the real-time graphics business (which includes consoles). I'm not a game developer.

 

[Troy LaMont]

Dean,
Thanks for the info!

Gary,
I can tell based on your responses to some of the Xbox questions that you're somewhat 'excited' about seeing it's potential come to life and thrust ahead.
Question: Are other people in your field and/or similiar fields as equally excited about Xbox's potential?
Just curious. I wouldn't know the first place to look to even gather information on that front.
Troy
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No touchy, No touchy (Kuzco)

 

[Gary King]

Well, real-time graphics is a very hardware-dependent field, so newer and more powerful hardware generates quite a bit of excitement. And Xbox is very new and very powerful... and it fixes all the annoying things in DirectX, which is really nice, too.

 

[Troy LaMont]

So that .. would.... be a .... yes?!

Thanks.
My problem now is finding a component video switcher for my; DVD, PS2, XBOX AND HDTV! Sheesh, problems never end.
Troy
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No touchy, No touchy (Kuzco)