• Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Ringten

Member
Nov 15, 2017
6,195
As a developer I'll tell you why I absolutely hate the idea of Lockhart.

When you go into the next generation of any console, it is always a premium buy-in. Some are ready day one to pay whatever price for next gen, whether that's $399 or $599.

Let's talk about $599. The PS3 did not launch at $599. It launched at $499, with a SKU that was the same base hardware but lesser hard drive space, no extra media slots, and a few other extras that didn't make the cut. Growth of the PS3 didn't start happening until a new $499 SKU was introduced that had more limited backwards compatibility and features.

Think about that for a minute: why would sales growth occur at $499 when the system launched at $499 to begin with? Because the new $499 system wasn't marketed as an "inferior" step down from the $599 version. It was the new PS3 SKU going forward. And because of that, people perceived the price at $499. Then we had the $399 PS3, and so on.

Microsoft wants it all, day one. They want the premium super hardware buyers. They want the soccer moms. They want the kids who only get one big gift per year. They want the busy traveler that can only game in the cloud. They want the subscription junkie that only plays through Game Pass. They think they can get there with two SKUs: one super premium console that's maybe $499 and one lesser console for $399. The market won't see the $399 console because again, the next gen buy-in at launch is ALWAYS PREMIUM. The perception will be the high end SKU is the true next gen console, and it won't be until that one declines in price that you'll see a bigger audience coming into the Xbox ecosystem.

The ramifications for a lesser SKU are huge, just like the Xbox Core/Arcade. You're already seeing that now with Xbox One X/S- some recent games like the Outer Worlds look worse on XB1X than PS4 Pro because they're upscaled ports of XB1S. You will see a LOT of that if there are two SKUs on the market, guaranteed. The premium Xbox will be a worse console because of the existence of Lockhart. Meanwhile, the PS5 has nothing other than itself to scale for, and that's huge.

But wait you say, Apple does this with the iPhone Pro and the standard colorful iPhones! You cannot bring the phone market into the console one. The comparison makes no sense. Eventually, at some point, you will need a new phone. You need it to basically live in this day and age. Sony and MS already have an uphill battle marketing and selling next gen because of the PS4 Pro and XB1X. It will be more difficult showing off amazing looking games because we're already playing amazing looking games. They have to get there with features, with quality of life features, with things that will cause this next gen to be a much slower start than I think this gen was. When your main selling point is less features at a lower price with Lockhart, you have a severe problem.

I hope they don't do this. This feels like marketing and executives meddling in the video game space. It feels aimless and stupid.

Well said ! agree with a lot of your points, if not all.
I would argue however the overall technology market and people's mentality has changed a lot, since the ps3 days (more than 10 years ago). But like you said, next gen is a premium buy in, and people that get it day-one are ready for that. People that do not care too much are happy with their current-gen for a few more years: easy as that.
 

-Le Monde-

Avenger
Dec 8, 2017
12,613
I really have some flashbacks on how PS neo was received on the old place.
I wish people were more open minded to something new in the industry because right now we just don't know how it will turn out.
What improvements does not having a disc drive get us? They can leave it in and still sell it at the same price, that's how very little impact it has on bom.

I can understand a lower spec system that's more accessible. Heck, it would've been very enticing to trade in the one x for a lockheart.
 
Feb 10, 2018
17,534
I wonder if Microsoft's strategy is-
  1. Get off of the Xbox One's architecture as quickly as possible (basically a fresh start, no baggage)
  2. Undercut Sony on the "next gen" console price with Lockheart (even if it's inferior to the PS5)
  3. Go for the super high end (more expensive than the PS5) for Anaconda to calm the "best next gen experience on Xbox" crown
  4. Associate it all with the Xbox brand so no matter if you get the low end Lockheart console you're still in "the next gen"
A pretty genius strategy.
 

TuMekeNZ

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,278
Auckland, New Zealand
This seems like a stupid move when they already have the 1X and they say all their games will be playable across the systems. Confusing the uninformed consumer with way to many options is never a good thing.
 

Deleted member 30005

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 2, 2017
305
Hopefully next time you guys stop arguing against insiders like Tom Warren who would have probably the best access to inner Microsoft plans than any insider outside of probably thurrott.

So Basiclly everbody was wrong and Tom was right. Ouch. Makes you think about all other info that's been provided.

Tom Warren's message was multifaceted. He might be correct on the two model approach. That would be disappointing news but hardly surprising, as the possibility of whether Lockheart was cancelled or not has been discussed for almost five months.

Warren made other points. He said people (on forums and social media) were calling the next-gen Xbox weak in comparison to PS5 based on early developer kits. Yet nobody was. He suggested Microsoft were blanking third-party partners to "surprise" Sony, which is most unlikely given that some high profile developers have been briefed on Microsoft's intentions, and have received dev kits from them, and therefore Sony is likely in possession of the same information. If developers and journalists have come by this information, then it's likely Sony has too. A more plausible scenario, as Jason and others said, is simply that Microsoft are slightly behind in the process.
 

gofreak

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,736
If lockhart is aiming for 1440p for 4k anaconda content , a 1440p game on ps5/scarlett should be doable at 1080p with out to many comprises.

It only becomes problematic if you're doing 1440p, or whatever, on Anaconda/PS5 because you have a fixed, non-scaleable expenditure of GPU power on something else. The things we were talking about there - the gpu physics sim, the high-fixed-cost graphics technique, whatever. Those are the things that wouldn't scale back so easily.

The extent to which those types of things are within the ambition of devs, or how many devs - I have no idea. But I think it would be ideal to give devs the flexibility to spend power, and gpu power, as they wish rather than to say 'you must use the excess of power in Ananconda in these ways which will scale', and kind of dictate the acceptable level of fixed costs based on the Lockhart spec. It might make not a bit of difference for some games and devs, but for others it might. I'm guessing the 'some' Kotaku refers to falls into one of those camps more than the other (or maybe they're worried about the CPU downclock in Lockhart, or both. Or maybe they're not worried about 'scope', but simply worried about the QA overhead, and the ramifications of taking shortcuts to get around that, as we've already seen with Pro and X, as pointed out by others).
 
Last edited:

Deleted member 20297

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
6,943
The ramifications for a lesser SKU are huge, just like the Xbox Core/Arcade. You're already seeing that now with Xbox One X/S- some recent games like the Outer Worlds look worse on XB1X than PS4 Pro because they're upscaled ports of XB1S. You will see a LOT of that if there are two SKUs on the market, guaranteed. The premium Xbox will be a worse console because of the existence of Lockhart. Meanwhile, the PS5 has nothing other than itself to scale for, and that's huge.
Outer Worlds was patched appropriately and using this as an example is as bad as it can be to make assumptions of what could or would be. You could have a point if this was a mass phenomenon but it is not.
 

kostacurtas

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,065
As a developer I'll tell you why I absolutely hate the idea of Lockhart.

When you go into the next generation of any console, it is always a premium buy-in. Some are ready day one to pay whatever price for next gen, whether that's $399 or $599.

Let's talk about $599. The PS3 did not launch at $599. It launched at $499, with a SKU that was the same base hardware but lesser hard drive space, no extra media slots, and a few other extras that didn't make the cut. Growth of the PS3 didn't start happening until a new $499 SKU was introduced that had more limited backwards compatibility and features.

Think about that for a minute: why would sales growth occur at $499 when the system launched at $499 to begin with? Because the new $499 system wasn't marketed as an "inferior" step down from the $599 version. It was the new PS3 SKU going forward. And because of that, people perceived the price at $499. Then we had the $399 PS3, and so on.

Microsoft wants it all, day one. They want the premium super hardware buyers. They want the soccer moms. They want the kids who only get one big gift per year. They want the busy traveler that can only game in the cloud. They want the subscription junkie that only plays through Game Pass. They think they can get there with two SKUs: one super premium console that's maybe $499 and one lesser console for $399. The market won't see the $399 console because again, the next gen buy-in at launch is ALWAYS PREMIUM. The perception will be the high end SKU is the true next gen console, and it won't be until that one declines in price that you'll see a bigger audience coming into the Xbox ecosystem.

The ramifications for a lesser SKU are huge, just like the Xbox Core/Arcade. You're already seeing that now with Xbox One X/S- some recent games like the Outer Worlds look worse on XB1X than PS4 Pro because they're upscaled ports of XB1S. You will see a LOT of that if there are two SKUs on the market, guaranteed. The premium Xbox will be a worse console because of the existence of Lockhart. Meanwhile, the PS5 has nothing other than itself to scale for, and that's huge.

But wait you say, Apple does this with the iPhone Pro and the standard colorful iPhones! You cannot bring the phone market into the console one. The comparison makes no sense. Eventually, at some point, you will need a new phone. You need it to basically live in this day and age. Sony and MS already have an uphill battle marketing and selling next gen because of the PS4 Pro and XB1X. It will be more difficult showing off amazing looking games because we're already playing amazing looking games. They have to get there with features, with quality of life features, with things that will cause this next gen to be a much slower start than I think this gen was. When your main selling point is less features at a lower price with Lockhart, you have a severe problem.

I hope they don't do this. This feels like marketing and executives meddling in the video game space. It feels aimless and stupid.
Thank you for the feedback.

I would love to hear from more developers.
 

Playboi Carti

Member
Jan 1, 2018
1,267
Portugal
You just described the XB1.
So like the Xbox One and PS4 then? :p

That did not stop there from being great games on both platforms.
Except the XB1 had the same amount of RAM, the exact same CPU (slightly overclocked) and the same type of storage, so no, it's not the same thing. Also releasing a console and a lower specced version of that console at the same time is not the same thing as one company releasing a console and the competition releasing a slightly less powerful console.
 

bcatwilly

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,483
As a developer I'll tell you why I absolutely hate the idea of Lockhart.

When you go into the next generation of any console, it is always a premium buy-in. Some are ready day one to pay whatever price for next gen, whether that's $399 or $599.

Let's talk about $599. The PS3 did not launch at $599. It launched at $499, with a SKU that was the same base hardware but lesser hard drive space, no extra media slots, and a few other extras that didn't make the cut. Growth of the PS3 didn't start happening until a new $499 SKU was introduced that had more limited backwards compatibility and features.

Think about that for a minute: why would sales growth occur at $499 when the system launched at $499 to begin with? Because the new $499 system wasn't marketed as an "inferior" step down from the $599 version. It was the new PS3 SKU going forward. And because of that, people perceived the price at $499. Then we had the $399 PS3, and so on.

Microsoft wants it all, day one. They want the premium super hardware buyers. They want the soccer moms. They want the kids who only get one big gift per year. They want the busy traveler that can only game in the cloud. They want the subscription junkie that only plays through Game Pass. They think they can get there with two SKUs: one super premium console that's maybe $499 and one lesser console for $399. The market won't see the $399 console because again, the next gen buy-in at launch is ALWAYS PREMIUM. The perception will be the high end SKU is the true next gen console, and it won't be until that one declines in price that you'll see a bigger audience coming into the Xbox ecosystem.

The ramifications for a lesser SKU are huge, just like the Xbox Core/Arcade. You're already seeing that now with Xbox One X/S- some recent games like the Outer Worlds look worse on XB1X than PS4 Pro because they're upscaled ports of XB1S. You will see a LOT of that if there are two SKUs on the market, guaranteed. The premium Xbox will be a worse console because of the existence of Lockhart. Meanwhile, the PS5 has nothing other than itself to scale for, and that's huge.

But wait you say, Apple does this with the iPhone Pro and the standard colorful iPhones! You cannot bring the phone market into the console one. The comparison makes no sense. Eventually, at some point, you will need a new phone. You need it to basically live in this day and age. Sony and MS already have an uphill battle marketing and selling next gen because of the PS4 Pro and XB1X. It will be more difficult showing off amazing looking games because we're already playing amazing looking games. They have to get there with features, with quality of life features, with things that will cause this next gen to be a much slower start than I think this gen was. When your main selling point is less features at a lower price with Lockhart, you have a severe problem.

I hope they don't do this. This feels like marketing and executives meddling in the video game space. It feels aimless and stupid.

It is always nice to get developer perspective on things, but ultimately content is king and games being available on as many places as possible is what game developers can thrive on when competition is strong for attention in any given ecosystem if you aren't a first party developer. We are all definitely heading into a different gaming world with subscription services, streaming and even mobile gaming being a much bigger deal than at the launch of the current generation.
 

Metal Slugger

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,424
St. Cloud, MN
User banned (3 days): System wars. History of trolling.
it's ok if MS has shitty hardware, they have a solid lineup of console exclusives that will bring people in, it's not like the main selling point of the Xbox brand is better hardware

o wait
 

Deleted member 20297

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
6,943
What improvements does not having a disc drive get us? They can leave it in and still sell it at the same price, that's how very little impact it has on bom.

I can understand a lower spec system that's more accessible. Heck, it would've been very enticing to trade in the one x for a lockheart.
Actually, I'm torn on the disc drive myself. I guess it wouldn't matter to me but I can see people caring for it.
Anyway, that was hardly my point though.
 

BlueManifest

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,331
Just going by the numbers of the gpu and nothing else

Microsoft current gen
Xbox one 1.3 Tflops
XbX 6 Tflops

Microsoft next gen
lockhart 4 Tflops
Scarlet 10+ Tflops

so we are only looking at a 2.7 Tflop increase Base line from this gen
With the optional pro model around 4 Tflops stronger than last gens pro model

I'm not impressed

If the weaker model didn't exist then I would be impressed
 

Firmus_Anguis

Member
Oct 30, 2017
6,120
Simply removing the disc doesn't magically cut $200 off the price. "cater to" ffs you make it sound like game scalability isn't a thing that's been a part of pc's forever.
So developers being equally concerned isn't a problem then?
There will be concessions made to the highend versions of games to make games run on the Lockhart. The difference is too fucking vast; 4 to 11-12 tflops is 3 times as much! You'd be taking the ONE advantage to consoles away; dedicated hardware. These aren't PC's. Ironically, this will limit PC games as well. Developers don't like the Lockhart... Some have voiced their concerns on this very thread. I hope they up the specs of the Lockhart, if not, it'll be 2013 all over again, they'll face a lot of backlash.
 

amstradcpc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,768
We are all definitely heading into a different gaming world with subscription services, streaming and even mobile gaming being a much bigger deal than at the launch of the current generation.
Thats what some are pushing, not where we are, as the sales on the other hand show. MS is again falling against the same stone as with XB1 and the only digital thing.
 
Feb 10, 2018
17,534
It only becomes problematic if you're doing 1440p, or whatever, on Anaconda/PS5 because you have a fixed, non-scaleable expenditure of GPU power on something else. The things we were talking about there - the gpu physics sim, the high-fixed-cost graphics technique, whatever. Those are the things that wouldn't scale back so easily.

The extent to which those types of things are within the ambition of devs, or how many devs - I have no idea. But I think it would be ideal to give devs the flexibility to spend power, and gpu power, as they wish rather than to say 'you must use the excess of power in Ananconda in these ways which will scale', and kind of dictate the acceptable level of fixed costs based on the Lockhart spec. It might make not a bit of difference for some games and devs, but for others it might. I'm guessing the 'some' Kotaku refers to falls into one of those camps more than the other (or maybe they're worried about the CPU downclock in Lockhart, or both).
The thing is there has not been a game with the type of gpu resource split you are talking about. Regardless of what other gpu task you are talking about the jump from 1080p to 1440p would still take considerable gpu resources , those pixels are still being rendered.
 

Heidern

Member
Oct 30, 2017
644
Connecticut
Do any video games utilize GPU compute? I thought GPU compute was tied to significant number crunching and wasn't ever tapped into for gaming applications.

Happy to see where its been used before.
I mean on PS4 launch the game Resogun, used GPU compute. How Resogun uses the PS4's architecture to create 'chaos'

To create effects like lightning as well as track and animate the "tens of thousands" of particles in the Super Stardust successor, Housemarque offloads the calculations to the PS4's graphical processing unit (GPU). That allows the central processing unit (CPU) to focus on other tasks.

Now imagine a game engine on next gen that was counting on 20% of the GPU power to do GPU compute to simulate more advanced enemies, better building destruction, etc. Great, Scarlett had the power to easily accommodate their demands.

Now, we look at Lockhart. Maybe they have 20% of the GPU power left, after rendering the same graphics at a lower resolution. Well, 20% GPU power of a lower spec part doesn't give them enough "juice" to simulate as many enemies, and the destruction can't be as detailed. Either they simplify the enemies and destruction, or they design levels that can only use the lesser amount of power. Now extend that to whatever additional feature you want (not graphics).

Now as the generation goes further, developers can extract more power from the hardware, but there will always be a hard limit between what's available to do the "other" non-rendering on the screen at some resolution graphics part and the part the happens under the hood that controls what we see on the screen.

This is why this is not good news to me.
 

score01

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,701
I guess this is their next gen console that will be powering xcloud going forward?

Makes sense if they aren't planning on 4K streaming but want next gen games to be available. Jury is still out as to whether this will lower the baselines enough to impact next gen game development though...

Could this be the 'surprise' they're hiding?
 

DukeBlueBall

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,059
Seattle, WA
cE4W0Oh.jpg
 

AmFreak

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,506
It was just an example, the point is if developers are forced to designed for both it's going to lower the average graphical fidelity for games across ALL consoles this generation.

To answer your questions though..
1. Developers that want the best possible graphics because it's easier to market than resolution.
2. I'm not sure a game running at 1080p 30 theoretically built with anaconda in mind would be able run at all on lockhart, even at 720p.
Graphics are scaleable nobody is forced to decrease the gfx fidelity of the Anaconda version.
Most of the power increase/decrease is in the amount of pixels anyway.
It's no coincidence that the difference in TFLOPS is ~ the difference in resolution between 1440P->4K.
1. "Super next gen graphics" and 1080p when 4K is the standard is kinda contradicting. Do we have a game with "super next gen graphics" running @ 540p on PS4?
2. It should because that is the same difference as 4K->1440p.
 

Deleted member 20297

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
6,943
The thing is there has not been a game with the type of gpu resource split you are talking about. Regardless of what other gpu task you are talking about the jump from 1080p to 1440p would still take considerable gpu resources , those pixels are still being rendered.
To my best knowledge, the biggest reason for tanking performance on PC is resolution which in turn means if you lower resolution, that's the easiest way to get performance back on the GPU. I don't know why everything has to be painted in the darkest color, it's disgusting.
 

TheGhost

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,137
Long Island
Hopefully developers ignore it completely.
Why would they do something silly like that? Do devs on PC not try to get their games on as many PC's as possible?
Per the article, they're not allowed to. If you want to release a game for the next xbox, that means supporting the game on both Lockhart and Anaconda. It's not ala-carte.
Sounds normal honestly, it's just offering different graphical settings. Something theyalresdy do on PC
Can't ignore something that will end up getting positive press. It will be the new gamepass machine.
 

DrDeckard

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,109
UK
Its really interesting when people make comments about holding back next gen etc, and all that jazz. When in reality a lot of potato PC's play games.
I'm genuinely in the camp of these ported down versions being the ones that will be cut, not the next gen versions.

Also, at 4TF performance...if true....I see this thing being cheap as anything. like 249.99 with gamepass.
 

Deleted member 45460

User requested account closure
Banned
Jun 27, 2018
1,492
Tech comparison for exclusive games next gen is going to be a bloodbath..
wut? they'll still have a console equal in power to ps5 based on reports.
it's ok if MS has shitty hardware, they have a solid lineup of console exclusives that will bring people in, it's not like the main selling point of the Xbox brand is better hardware

o wait
Jesus christ man, this is 100% awful console warring. Also this is a 2nd sku with less gpu for lower resolutions but similar cpu/ram/ssd so not "shitty"
 

BlueManifest

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,331
It's the same reason why Destiny 2 and similar games can't hit 60fps on the One X. They're CPU constrained. I feel like a robot keep saying this over and over, but CPU and SSD are the big leaps for the next-gen.
Do you know if Sony is going to pull anything like this next gen or will they only have 1 system?
 

amstradcpc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,768
If it's only targeting 1080p then that won't be much of an issue. Depending on the price, I'd definitely consider getting one as a second console.
And what happens if Sony mandates 1440p 30fps?. where do this take the same games with Lockhart at 1080p 60fps or Anaconda at 4K 60 fps. Both of them would be 4 times less powerful to render the same game!.
 

JustP_Gaming

Member
Jan 5, 2018
363
Hmm I hope this doesn't happen at launch. I want Xbox to not be the brand that holds back multiplatform games this time.
Developers now have access to tools that allow them to develop for the top tier box and with a push of a button on the Dev kit scale it down to work with all other versions of Xbox, but Im sure most of you know this by now.
 

pswii60

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,673
The Milky Way
As long as the CPU is the same and both has the same equivalent RAM for their target resolutions then there is no reason why Lockhart would be holding back Anaconda or any next gen games for that matter. Games would simply be built for Anaconda/PS5 and then have reduced resolution and/or graphical effects for Lockhart.
 

EvilBoris

Prophet of Truth - HDTVtest
Verified
Oct 29, 2017
16,684
Except the XB1 had the same amount of RAM, the exact same CPU (slightly overclocked) and the same type of storage, so no, it's not the same thing. Also releasing a console and a lower specced version of that console at the same time is not the same thing as one company releasing a console and the competition releasing a slightly less powerful console.

The PS4 has a GPU advantage that allowed it to run at higher resolutions....

Thats's the situation here, they are allegedly producing a machine not designed to run at 4K or maybe 60fps.
So you can remove the overhead required specifically to enable those. Beyond this the specs can remain the same and any games can be budgeted the same for physics, AI, memory useage.
 
Jan 10, 2018
7,207
Tokyo
It's funny how people are afraid this model could exist; for one, diminishing returns is a real thing and while it was already visible this generation, I expect it to be even more visible on the next generation. But more importantly, targeting different configurations is something that has been existing forever in PCs, and as long as that Lockhart thing is not a complete gimp (it won't), it won't be a significant factor holding off developers to output beautiful games on the premium consoles. Development costs however...
 

gofreak

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,736
The thing is there has not been a game with the type of gpu resource split you are talking about.

And certainly you won't, for multiplat games, with a baseline like this.

Looking to past trends to set the future is never ideal. New graphics techniques could emerge with relatively high fixed costs. Things on the tool side have been moving in a direction that would facilitate easier leveraging of the gpu for general processing tasks, for things feeding back into the game sim - developments like ECS in Unity could map to the GPU in future revs. In contexts like these, in a context like a 4TF box, something would give.

Now - again - I'm not going to predict this will be a huge problem. Or that GPU usage trends will definitely change this dramatically, or whatever. I don't know. But I do know, and my point is, that I'd prefer if devs had all these paths open to them rather than, more or less, the leveraging of a higher end console's gpu power being dictated ahead of time by a userbase split. I think anyone saying that 'for sure', this baseline will make no difference, I think it's hard to be so absolute about that.
 

Firmus_Anguis

Member
Oct 30, 2017
6,120
Wh would a console with a lesser gpu bring concessions to the head platform? Lockhart will see the concessions not scarlett.
Because they'll have to run on the Lockhart as well. You can't push the high-end versions, otherwise they'd be nearly impossible to port over. You think having 3 times the GPU power will only amount to resolution differences? Fuck no.

I made a thread asking Era members about this. The overwhelming majority don't seem to want a gimped generation.

Here's the thread in question.
 

Deleted member 20297

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
6,943
elenarie
How much, as a dev at a company making high profile games stressing the hardware of consoles, do you see the problem that because of Lockhart the Scarlett versions will look worse compared to the PS5 versions?
Thanks.
 

DukeBlueBall

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,059
Seattle, WA
Switch docked 768mhz, switch undocked 321mhz. That undocked resolution is 42% of the max, which is similar to the 4TF to 10TF gap.
Every switch games has to handle this transition in real time. I highly doubt that this is preventing switch games being looking their best...
 

-Le Monde-

Avenger
Dec 8, 2017
12,613
Actually, I'm torn on the disc drive myself. I guess it wouldn't matter to me but I can see people caring for it.
Anyway, that was hardly my point though.
Initially I didn't care for lockheart, but if they can achieve $299 while keeping the disc drive. It becomes hard to ignore for me. At minimum I trade my one x.

I hope they reconsider that part.
 
Feb 10, 2018
17,534
I mean on PS4 launch the game Resogun, used GPU compute. How Resogun uses the PS4's architecture to create 'chaos'



Now imagine a game engine on next gen that was counting on 20% of the GPU power to do GPU compute to simulate more advanced enemies, better building destruction, etc. Great, Scarlett had the power to easily accommodate their demands.

Now, we look at Lockhart. Maybe they have 20% of the GPU power left, after rendering the same graphics at a lower resolution. Well, 20% GPU power of a lower spec part doesn't give them enough "juice" to simulate as many enemies, and the destruction can't be as detailed. Either they simplify the enemies and destruction, or they design levels that can only use the lesser amount of power. Now extend that to whatever additional feature you want (not graphics).

Now as the generation goes further, developers can extract more power from the hardware, but there will always be a hard limit between what's available to do the "other" non-rendering on the screen at some resolution graphics part and the part the happens under the hood that controls what we see on the screen.

This is why this is not good news to me.

That what makes this argument so laughable you can only name 1 game on 1 platform, out of 1000s.

Despite resogun using gpu resources for other tasks, the majority of the GPU is still be used to render pixels, 720p, 540p, 480p etc would require less gpu resources, plus game development has advanced since 2013. I don't think devs will have the trouble people here are hyperbolicly suggesting they will.