John Carmack, head programmer at id Software and the man behind many popular three-dimensional games, said in an interview that the PlayStation 3 game console is not as optimal as Microsoft’s Xbox 360, but admitted that Sony Corp. would retain its leading video game console market positions and software developers would be “forced” to program for the PS3.
“PlayStation 3 gives more theoretical power, but what is going to matter is delivering on the games. I do believe that Sony has made a less optimal decision than Microsoft from the perspective of a game developer,” said John Carmack in an interview with G4 television.
Even though Mr. Carmack admitted that the PlayStation 3 game console may have some advantages in terms of performance over the new Xbox 360, the primary development platform for him remains the console from Microsoft Corp., as announced in August, 2005. The creator of popular titles like Doom or Quake shares a wide-spread opinion that it will not be easy to program for the PlayStation 3.
“Microsoft chose to have symmetrical CPUs, have less of them, but you can program them in a same way. […] If you want anything to work on the Cell, you have to break it into small nuggets of work, you have to work different compilers, different chain of tools,”
Nevertheless, given that Sony commands the lion’s share of the game console market, Mr. Carmack believes that software developers will be willing to take advantage of the Cell processor – the chip developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba that powers the PS3 and incorporates one dual-threaded PowerPC core and eight so-called synergistic processing units (SPEs) intended for floating-point calculations.
The chief developer at id Software said that optimizing games for the Cell processor would “make the development twice as difficult as it should be” and indicated that Sony is banking on its dominant market positions and game developers who will put their efforts into programming for the Cell processor.
Mr. Carmack, however, did not criticize the price-point of the PlayStation 3 console, which will be as high as $599.
Comments currently: 12
Discussion started: 05/14/06 01:24:13 PM
Latest comment: 05/21/06 01:21:07 PM
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[1-9]
1.
i want to play a games
[Posted by: vickens kens | Date: 05/14/06 01:24:13 PM]
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2.
no commebts
[Posted by: vickens kens | Date: 05/14/06 01:24:23 PM]
3.
Fcuk you guys!
[Posted by: 31415 | Date: 05/14/06 08:06:18 PM]
4.
not optimal huh? is that why quake 4 plays so well on xbox360???
[Posted by: joey | Date: 05/14/06 08:25:00 PM]
5.
Yea, he just doesn't want to do the extra work for a better processor.
[Posted by: dave | Date: 05/14/06 09:51:05 PM]
6.
this shouldn't even be in the news since carmack is sold to Microsoft and this is pure propaganda, dig your archives you'll see the same kind of comments about ps2 and xbox.
[Posted by: Chris | Date: 05/15/06 05:03:58 AM]
7.
PS3 will have one core and 7 SPE's, but otherwise the info seems correct.
For the 499/599 prices you get a whole lot of performance and features, so Carmack's comments about the price is right.
[Posted by: Ry | Date: 05/16/06 01:01:16 AM]
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Only 6 SPEs available for gaming.
[Posted by: kazaalite@home.com | Date: 05/17/06 08:03:24 AM]
8.
So 360 it is
[Posted by: Comasagua | Date: 05/16/06 11:12:21 AM]
9.
That's why Carmack is only a cheapie programmer who can do 3D gaming toys only. The idea of spitting proccessing to "specific" (Not general proccessor with identail core!) sub-processors had been working in industrial and military hardware for years.
Sony was the 1st to bring this concept to consumer products with PS2's CPU Emotional Engine, which was actually a combination of DSP and a general MIPS CPU core.
Now Sony team up with Toshiba and IBM to spread this idea even further with the Cell Processor. In history, Sony and IBM were the companies that always drive the industry forward.
In constrast, M$ was always the old man to limited the evolution of computing. MS-DOS locked PC programs to 16bit until 1995, meanwhile WinXP kick PC users away from 64bit programmes until Vista!
Also look at Mr. Carmack, his old Quake2/3 can't run good on the best Matrox and ATI hardware either. And frankly speaking, he didn't have any experenice to write optimized 3D software engine other than Windows OGL + nVidia platform!
In fact if PS3 become hot selling, people will switch from PC gaming to PS3, where Carmark's company will become bankrupt. The reason behind Carmarks's claim is obvious!
[Posted by: Aurora | Date: 05/17/06 09:48:05 AM]
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^Unbelievable how idiotic and misinformed your post is Aurora.
'That's why Carmack is only a cheapie programmer who can do 3D gaming toys only.'
John Carmack is well known to be an ingenious and innovative game programmer. Cheapie indeed.
"The idea of spitting proccessing to "specific" (Not general proccessor with identail core!) sub-processors had been working in industrial and military hardware for years."
Who cares? This is the gaming industry not the military for goodness sakes. They are so completely different--screw apples to oranges, it's more like comparing apples to pasta.
I mean how can you even deny his comments? He said programming for the PS3 will be TWICE AS DIFFICULT and even sited specific examples. Developers work for a profit; it takes a great deal of time and resources to develop a game. Face it, the Cell processor is a MISTAKE!
"Sony was the 1st to bring this concept to consumer products with PS2's CPU Emotional Engine, which was actually a combination of DSP and a general MIPS CPU core."
Actually I believe it was the Sega Saturn which has this distinction (see the Development section here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Saturn) And why are you bringing up the PS2 anyway? Everyone knows that the Xbox had much more graphical power than the PS2 just like games on the PS looked better than games on the Saturn.
"Also look at Mr. Carmack, his old Quake2/3 can't run good on the best Matrox and ATI hardware either. And frankly speaking, he didn't have any experenice to write optimized 3D software engine other than Windows OGL + nVidia platform!"
The same John Carmack who was the brains behind the undeniably beautiful Doom 3? A game that runs well on even the loweliest of PCs; he even got it looking good on the Xbox.
I had a lowly Matrox G200 back in the day and it ran quake 3 splendidly.
"In fact if PS3 become hot selling, people will switch from PC gaming to PS3"
You obviously no nothing about PC gamers for you to write this complete pile of donkey $41t.
BTW, I don't own an Xbox, PS2, or, Xbox360; I'm mostly a PC gamer who had to miss the last generation (other commitments) who's stilll on the fence for this generation. It's expert comments like this from John Carmack which will help me make up my mind not the useless banter of fanboys.
Keivz
[Posted by: Keivz | Date: 05/21/06 01:21:07 PM]
[1-9]
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