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Thursday 2 September 2004

Hardware Treadmill [Shedir]

Don't know what made this pop into my head. While playing City of Heroes I noticed that you didn't really seem to get any better unless you rattled into the stuff from much much earlier.
A level 20 character could paste a level 5 enemy, but does roughly the same amount of damage (as a percentage) against an equal level mob all the way through the game. Until I chucked it. Anwyays....
Is hardware on the same treadmill?
A constant fight to keep 30/60 FPS in the latest games by having to customise your character (in this case your physical PC), get it the smartest kit and tweaking what it has to maximise performance.
But when all's said and done you're really just fighting to keep your head above water and stay roughly current.
Sure the newer stuff looks superb, but compared to the effort and expense involved is it a proportionate reward?
Need to ask you guys, since I'm determined to get the longest I reasonably can out of my bits n bobs!
Turn your new PC onto stuff from 12/48 months ago, max res, max colour depth, AA on etc.. It'll probably fly along, slap doom III on it and your doing OK but not stunning.
Unless you've invested *heavily*.
Maybe it's a shit analogy, but it's a slow day here :)

2 comments:

  1. Don't really buy that argument really. It's only Doom 3 and maybe Farcry that's dragging framerates to knees. You could get by fine if you didn't insist on being able to play every new PC game. The vast bulk of them would run fine on an average PC from two years ago.

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  2. Shit analogy. In an mmorpg your having the same experience, you're fighting a mob that looks the same. Doom 3 does not look like a game you played on last generation hardware. You're getting an improved experience for your dosh.

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