Vogateer wrote:You hear several people here say that XGL and AIGLX don't really impress them, and doesn't have anything they want or need. Of course, most of the current uses of XGL aren't impressively useful, and what's more exciting is that these technologies will open up new possibilites.
I think the type of graphics that we're talkinga about when you say XGL or AIGLX is a little different from what Sony and Microsoft brags about having in their new consoles. The graphics XGL and AIGLX brings with them is really just traditional OpenGL technologies used in a new way to enable closer contact to the actual visuals of the X applications that a user sees. The stuff Sony and Microsoft talks about is raw horsepower, and new technologies that make things look more realistic and give the player a "more realistic experience".
The reason I put the quotes around that last phrase, is because I personally don't feel that a game is more realistic no matter how pretty the graphics are, done with today's, and the near future's, technologies.
XGL and AIGLX can be used to make for new ways for a user to interact with their computer, because the interfaces can be designed in new ways. The cube thing is mostly eye candy to most of us, but it can actually help people, who aren't computer litterate, to understand the concept of multiple desktops.
The fade effects that Compiz, and Beryl, offers are what I am personally the most interested in, because when I sit in my room in the middle of the night, with the lights off, and hack, if I have Konqueror open, which has a white background, if it suddenly disappears I sometimes get this funny feeling in my eyes, it's like if you look at a light bulb or the sun and then look down at the ground. You'll notice a sort of glare in your vision or something in that direction.
What the fade effect does for me, is that is makes it a lot more comfortable to look at KDE or GNOME, because colors and lights disappear smoothly, even if it's just a little over half a second the fade is in action, it makes it a lot easier on my eyes.
The thing I hate about Compiz is that it still, after months and months of community development, works so poorly with KDE, which makes it largely irrelavant to me, because of reasons that we have had endless discussions of in the past.
Better, or I might say newer, graphics on a console is meant to give the player(s) a more realistic experience, and help them immerse themselves in the world of the game they're playing, if it's like Zelda or Elder Scrolls and stuff like that with big big worlds.
This does work to a certain degree. If you take N64 graphics it will look kind of boxy at times, and there you certainly notice that it's a game you're playing, however, with the GameCube's (I don't have a PS2, and the Xbox doesn't have a game I find particularly interesting besides Spider-Man games) generation of graphics, if it's done properly, which games like Super Mario Sunshine and even a cell-shaded game like Zelda: The Wind Waker is, I can actually for brief moments forget where I am and just feel like I am looking at the character that I am controlling.
To me, the GameCube was a tipping point, or the point of no return, where games feel realistic in many situations, of you pour more graphics into it, it really does not do anything for me, this is of course my very personal feeling about graphics in games.
Vogateer wrote:If one thinks that better graphics are boring on a computer, then I'd imagine that better graphics on a video game console--especially a console that will more than likely put out the same type of games with the only noticable improvement being better graphics--would be downright sleep inducing. Certainly not worth $500 in my book, much less $600.
My sentiments exactly!
Personally, with the GameCube, I have all the graphics I want, games just don't seem more realistic to me if you keep janking the horsepower up, the only things it does is that it creates more heat, which makes my room hotter and more uncomfortable to play games in, and it also makes my electricity bill much worse than what it already is.
The ability to be able to actually point at an enemy, and hit a trigger like button, and then see him get a billed to his head, is a heck of a lot more realistic than anything any sort of graphics could ever do. Being able to actually swing the controller like a real sword is endlessly more realistic than anything graphics could ever do.
Another thing that, to me, is very negative about "better" graphics is that it makes games a lot more expensive to develop on the developer's part, and then that results in more expensive games for the consumers. And most importantly, super high costs in game production locks out the small game studios, it's just too expensive, and even for the medium sized ones, it's way too expensive to be able to "take risks" and actually try to do something new, instead of creating like a Madden 98725505560.
Vogateer wrote:Of course, I'm not a typical gamer. I haven't played and new video games in years. Occasionally I pull out the old NES for a quick round of Dr. Mario against my wife, but I don't want video games that are so complicated they become a damned lifestyle choice. The Wii sounds like it probably be more up my alley, since I miss the simplicity of those original NES games. I want to be able to sit down with a game, figure out how to play it in less than 10 minutes, and to be able to play around for 30 minutes or so at a time, and that's about all the time I'm willing to devote to it. The tennis game for the Wii with that new controller already looks like a lot of fun to me, and I always have enjoyed the games that Nintendo puts out. High priced graphics just don't impress me anymore. I hope that Nintendo does manage to produce original and interesting games with their new controller, then for the first time in about 10 years, I'll actually want to play video games again.
Nintendo has kind of defined their markets into several groups of a very large market that they're going for. These are:
Core gamers
Casual gamers
Lost gamers
Non gamers
Core gamers is someone like me who like big and sophisticated games (Zelda being a really good example).
Casual gamers are people who ocationally play games and in a lot of situations stick to simpler games.
Lost gamers are people who used to play games, for example people who played like NES, SNES, Sega Genesis etc. but stopped playing around N64 and PlayStation, either because they lost interest or because games simply got too complicated for what they liked.
Non gamers are people like my mother who has never played games and do not even consider it something relavant to her.
Before anything starts saying Nintendo is not gonna focus on the core gamers, let me tell you this, during their E3 press conference, Satoru Iwata (Nintendo's president) said these words: "Core gamers always represent our most important audience".
Right when the Wii comes out, you're mostly gonna see games that appeal to the hardcore gamers, such as Zelda and FPS games, but over the next 1½ - 2 years, you'll see a lot of new things, we saw that with the Nintendo DS, it took a little while for Nintendo to release some of these very unique and new games.
Snarkout wrote:There are plenty of games I want to play/finish, but having 2 kids under 4 kind of stole that part of my life from me.
Don't worry man, I started playing games when I was just about 3 years old, and back then it was NES and GameBoy (I didn't actually own a GameBoy until I was 4½, and at 8 or 9 years of age, the N64 was my first TV console), you should be able to play a game with your kids quite soon, at least my own personal experiences tell me so.
Just a thought, since games like Wii Sports for the Wii (duh) are incredibly simple to play, because you just need to wave your arm, it should be something that a 3 - 4 year old kid could understand and do, I'd give that a shot if you get a chance. Of course this largely depends on the kids, but of course, what do I know, 'ey? I don't have kids yet, I can just speak from my own personal experiences, as far as I can remember.
Patrick wrote:Snarkout wrote:There are plenty of games I want to play/finish, but having 2 kids under 4 kind of stole that part of my life from me.
I can definitely relate to that my friend
The family stealing ya' time and freedom, 'ey?
