Alan Wake (4 cores optimized)

[tuanming]

Nice! Gfx there for a psychological action thriller, and yes these are in-game screenshots.

Alan Wake Screenshots

[runawayprisoner]

Still not Crysis IMO. Worse yet, Crysis is still not IT. We seem to be hitting a wall with game visuals... thanks to limitations from current hardware.

[refraction]

Originally Posted by runawayprisoner

Still not Crysis IMO. Worse yet, Crysis is still not IT. We seem to be hitting a wall with game visuals... thanks to limitations from current hardware.

yeh, crysis WAS going to be "IT", from what they promised us, the realism was outstanding. But what we got as a final product was fairly samey to many other new games with nice graphics, very toned down from what we were shown in the previews.

[Thanakil]

Those screens are very old. They go back to when? 2005-2006? (I remember the game being shown in 2005, and I think at least some of those screens go back to back then (I can confirm at least half of them going back to 2006).

Some things I'd like to say tho :
1) The point of the game ain't the gfx, they're not looking to make a "ZOMG GFX" game (otherwise they wouldn't be porting it to the 360 too), the point is really the story, the ambience, and possibly the lightning.

The videos were they were showing the world changing as time passed were goddamn gorgeous.

2) Saying that it's 4-cores optimized is like saying that Crysis is 4-cores optimized or that the Unreal-Engine is 4-cores optimized.

It will uses the 4-cores (possibly) but it won't be really "optimized" for it. It's not taking full advantages of it and is more of a "we may as well tap into that power since it's there, but we're not exactly refining that power into a beautiful gem and make it SHINE".

3) The game seems to focus on the atmosphere and the story. The atmosphere seems to revolve around light/shadows and stuff like that. Which is probably why one of the first thing we saw baaaaaack then were videos showing the world changing as time went on and ect. And damn it was beautiful.
I don't know if they modified it a lot, but what I do know is that they've been keeping it on the down low since then.
(Edit : In fact they did say that they modified several things, which should be a given since some of the textures (mainly the ground) weren't looking too good, or too generic. But they don't want to unveil it until they're close to release... Which either means they simply want to take their time (like they did with Max Payne before) or the game is god-awful ugly and they want to keep it a secret )

So who know what the game looks like now, in 2008... Maybe it didn't change very much, that's entirely possible. And I kinda wish it was the case, I would rather have them increase the gfx lightly from back then (which would qualify as "medium/average" for today standards, with the exception of the lightning being great) and focus on adding more and more to the story/game.

[Mr. Duck Sauce]

i would get this if silent hill 5 becomes crappy since i haven't played it yet but from what i have read on the development side of it, its going to be bad. At least there would be more than 1 thriller game, so its only 2, but at least its more than 1.

Here's hoping good will come of it.

[Ramadear]

Crysis doesn't even seem to use dual core. It always uses around 30% of my cpu power. So thats like 1 core and 5% on another..5% is probably windows working :x. Supposedly Alan Wake really is quad core optimized. I don't remember the words exactly but each core was for a specific function. Physics, particles etc. If I can find the quote I'll post it. But one of the devs might talk about it in the video where they had the game on demonstration.

[tuanming]

First of all, we're talking about Alan Wake not Crysis... Secondly, who told you that Crysis was quad core optimized? or do u meant "multi-core"?... Thirdly, you got proof that this game doesn't take advantage of 4 cores? I guess you missed the part where the developers/designers talks about how they will make uses of multi-core technology.

[Thanakil]

Originally Posted by tuanming

First of all, we're talking about Alan Wake not Crysis... Secondly, who told you that Crysis was quad core optimized? or do u meant "multi-core"?... Thirdly, you got proof that this game doesn't take advantage of 4 cores? I guess you missed the part where the developers/designers talks about how they will make uses of multi-core technology.

Make uses? Yes.
Will it uses fully the potential of 4-cores? No.
Come on, it's a multiplatform game, don't kid yourself on how well they'll use it.
Second, you seem to have missed the part where I said :
"It will uses the 4-cores (possibly) but it won't be really "optimized" for it. It's not taking full advantages of it and is more of a "we may as well tap into that power since it's there, but we're not exactly refining that power into a beautiful gem and make it SHINE".
You can remove the possibly since it's confirmed (I didn't bother enough to go back and confirm it even tho I thought they did) but the rest is still true.

And Alan Wake is not Crysis? NO WAI .

There's a difference between fully exploiting the power of 4-cores (and optimizing it) and simply using the 4-cores to do more stuff.
Alan Wake fits in the second category, which I never denied. I wasn't saying "nooo it's impossible they won't use the 4-cores!". Simply stating that it's not like Alan Wake will uses it like it never was before.

You really think they'd focus THAT much on 4-cores? They're obviously working in a "we'll take advantage of multi-cores" way (which can be seen even more by the start of the video) and thinking "we may as well add the physics to the additional cores too".
Which has been done and seen before.

Focusing on 4-cores to truly bring out the max potential of it, to the detriment of older stuff, would be shooting themselves in the foot. And it's obviously not what they're doing.

I'm not sure how I have to put it to make it clear ("we may as well tap into that power since it's there, but we're not exactly refining that power into a beautiful gem and make it SHINE" should have been clear).. Yes the game uses 4-cores. Not it's not doing something amazing that couldn't be done before. They're not doing some amazing optimization for Quad-Cores specifically is my point. Not that they're not using them.
They're obviously using them.
(and they're using it well, I love a game making good uses of physics, but they're not doing something that warrant some big emphasis like this)

[tuanming]

First and foremost, name a pc game that take advantage of 4 cores. Defines "amazing optimization" on a quad core for pc game.

Yes the game uses 4-cores. Not it's not doing something amazing that couldn't be done before. They're not doing some amazing optimization for Quad-Cores specifically is my point. Not that they're not using them.

That's not a point, more like an opinion. The point is they're finally start taking advantage of multi core technology, in this case it's Quad core!

You should be glad that they're starting doing it, and this game would be first game ever that make uses of 4 cores! I don't care about your point, because you're not helping in any way beside trying to say quad core need to be amazing optimized...

I think you should stop trolling, go troll somewhere else pal. If you don't like multi-core stuff then you shouldn't be here in the first place. Period.

[Thanakil]

You act as if I didn't like multi-cores while I did say I was happy to see them doing good stuff with physics.

And I'm the one trolling? You're the one who wasn't happy with people disagreeing with you in the OTHER thread about the Nehalem and who came here with Alan Wake to try and show "LOOK! PEOPLE ARE USING QUAD-CORES!".

I'm just telling you that going with "4-cores optimized" in the thread name is jumping the gun a little. Using 4 cores doesn't mean it's optimized.

And really, saying that "I don't like multi-cores" and that I'm trolling is just showing you don't know what to say. I already said I'm looking forward to the game, that I like the uses of physics and all.

Just because I'm disagreeing with you doesn't mean you should act like this. I never said I wasn't glad they were doing this, at all. I pretty clearly said that I WAS.

[tuanming]

The way you put it sounds to me like you disrespecting the concepts and the technology itself.

They're not doing some amazing optimization for Quad-Cores specifically

Does something really has to be "AMAZINGLY OPTIMIZED" inorder for it to be labeled as quad core optimized? You sound like as if you could do a better job than the those people..I'd love to see you try!

[Phil]

ok gents..........were are definetly hitting a wall.........with human rendering......we probably have decades to go befo0re its recreated humans

[Thanakil]

Originally Posted by tuanming

You sound like as if you could do a better job than the those people..I'd love to see you try!

Oh right, I hate that argument =/. "You can't do as much so don't complain and take what you get".

Originally Posted by tuanming

Does something really has to be "AMAZINGLY OPTIMIZED" inorder for it to be labeled as quad core optimized?

If it's not optimized, it shouldn't be labeled as such. It's making it look like something it's not really.
It's making uses of the additional core, which is nice. At least they're using them.
But saying that it's "optimized" for them is implying something more than that... Which isn't necessarily true.
I don't think they're taking the extra steps necessary for that, that's all. It's making it look better (optimization-wise) than it may really be.

[Phil]

But anyway, Alan wake is going to hit the wall inj sales. i rather play a game then look at graphics

[Thanakil]

Well Alan Wake seems a great game anyway. They're focusing on bringing on stuff to improve the atmosphere, which is great. The game doesn't seem to lack from tools to create a good atmosphere.

[Phil]

Yes an atmosphere.......but wheres the action?

[Thanakil]

Originally Posted by Phil

Yes an atmosphere.......but wheres the action?

You need action for a game to be awesome? You can't just have a awesome story, keeping you scotched to your seat because you want to see what's gonna happen next?

It's a psychological thriller, after all.

I wouldn't worry too much about the action tho. It's coming from the guys who made Max Payne... So the parts where action will happen should still be nice.
I know they talked about "people" or "creatures" or whatever, who appears after dark. While there may not be huge actions part, there should still be some.

But action won't be the selling point of the game, they're focusing on other stuff to make it interesting and good. Right now it feels kinda like a novel/movie, but a REALLY GOOD one. Where you can take part actively in it, and see what happens from the front seat.
It seems like it'll feel like a book, in the way that : You are in the middle of the story, not just watching it from a screen, but actually seeing the story unfold at your pace and focusing on you.
But at the same time, you'll have the visual and the atmosphere that comes with it, like you'd see from a movie perspective.

[Phil]

Thanakil: POKEMON had action. And it sold big. A story has to be of movie quality to capture most gamers attention to insure big gains.

[mudlord]

If it's not optimized, it shouldn't be labeled as such. It's making it look like something it's not really.
It's making uses of the additional core, which is nice. At least they're using them.
But saying that it's "optimized" for them is implying something more than that... Which isn't necessarily true.
I don't think they're taking the extra steps necessary for that, that's all. It's making it look better (optimization-wise) than it may really be.

Exactly. Alan Wake is not a quad core optimized game. It only makes use of quad cores. If it was optimized, it would really make use of them to best effect, as in the devs are trying to wring as much processing power as they can out of the chip. Which should be one of the main goals of optimization: which is to exploit as much of the target hardware as possible to do things. For instance, Quake 3 is optimized as hell, so is Doom 3. These games have quite low sys reqs, yet technically, they are extremely scalable and have well written engines. Doom 3 even has a procedural lighting generation system. Not to mention, No$GBA. Martin optimized the code so much that even old Pentium 166's can run the GBA emulation fine.

So optimization is really, making the best out of what you got. And Alan Wake certainly doesn't look that optimized to me.

[Thanakil]

Originally Posted by Phil

Thanakil: POKEMON had action. And it sold big. A story has to be of movie quality to capture most gamers attention to insure big gains.

Yeah, a game with action is easy to sell.
I'm not arguing that action can sell, I'm just saying you don't NEED action to have something good, or to sell well.
Alan Wake "action" seems to be more in a "the environment/shadow is against" me.
It doesn't seem like they want to make the hero a badass guy who can easily own his enemies (like Max Payne and bullet-time) but it still seems like the game will have action. Just no the gun-blazing kind of action we're used to see from Remedy.

From what I know, something strange happen (like his girlfriend is kidnapped/disappeared/left all of a sudden without notice somewhere in the mountains/far village) and Alan starts searching for her, feeling that it's not like her to leave like this without telling anyone, only to go out in a lost village in the middle of nowhere.
Then strange things start to happen. Not "resident evil zombies" strange but (AFAIK) more of a "subtle" thing. Most likely less subtle at night tho.
Hence a psychological thriller, who focus more on screwing with your head, but in a "OMYGOD THATSAWESOME" way.

(But what do I know, there MAY be gun-blazing action... I did see a gun in the screenshots, I simply don't get that "BOOM HEADSHOT *****ER feeling from the game. More of a slow-paced but still interesting thing.)