id Explains Why RAGE Looks So Damn Good On Consoles

RipTen had a chance to speak with id’s creative director Tim Willits recently, and he answered our questions about how they got RAGE to look so damn good on consoles.

[CrzyFooL]

Barbara Streisand. I mean... John Carmack.

[Gray-Fox-Type0]

RAGE looks stunning.

[StanLee]

Yes, it does. It seems like the world of Rage is a large open area which is even more impressive.

[rdgneoz3]

@StanLee It does look amazing, can't wait for it to come out. Though I've heard its more Borderlands style open, with different sections connected to each other and not able to explore from 1 side to the other without loading screens.

[Why o why]

Carmack...ledge

[lil Titan]

the short answer is that he takes the time to figure out the stuff that so many developers complain about and fix them! no cutting corners

[hikayu]

cutting corner is so 2010 . john carmack's games are round , no corner to cut . f*ckin perfection or nada .

[RedDragan]

Still looks far better on the PC. I wish the Devs would just speak the truth that consoles are not up for the job of doing graphics.

[nickjkl]

i like when people talk about pc

as if its a console

as in it has ONE set of specs that generalize the whole platform

they talk as if that gtx 590 is in every pc

and forget that no everyone has a gpu that can run dx11

and that not all gpus are even used to just play games

[AAACE5]

@nickjkl... Have a heart man! PC gamers have felt left out the past few years because no one cared about it much!

Now PC games are being talked about in the same sentence with consoles, so they have to promote it! Otherwise it's back to the World of Warcraft and Starcraft stereotype!

[a08andan]

@hikayu

Technically a circle features an near infinite number of corners :) They are just invisible to the human eye :P

[RedDragan]

Lol... DX10 is far superior to anything the PS3 and 360 can do. And those cards cost as little as £30.

Consoles have yet to see a game that beats GRID and DiRT 2 in graphics.

But don't worry, you'll get those graphics in the next generation.

;-)

[meetajhu]

John Carmack made Doom run on SNES@50fps or 50hz what else i can say. He is the king of PC and consoles game engines.He created OpenGl and the most advanced network game engine.

[Peaceful_Jelly]

Carmack didn't create OpenGL, from where are you getting that info? OpenGL is the rival API to DirectX and it was created by Khronos Group. Carmack was the number 1 supporter of the API but as of late he switched to DirectX.

edit: And talking about the video, the guy says that the game looks that good thanks to "Mega Textures/Virtual texturing". http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Mega Texture uses low memory and resource but it takes lots of space from the disc. This is the reason of why Carmack has been saying that the PS3 version will look better (due to blu-ray massive space) but now they made the Xbox version into 2 discs to accommodate the missing ones and now the game should look more or less the same on both consoles. With the free additional resource they can make the game run at higher frame-rate and in 720p (unlike COD, that sacrifices resolution for frame-rate). WIN!

[BeastlyRig]

They are even optimizing it for intel sandy bridge laptops! to run at 30fps though.

[bozebo]

@BeastlyRig

30fps is unbarable with a mouse though. I am guessing by sandy bridge laptops you mean the gpu that is integrated in sandy bridge cpus.

Though anybody expecing to game properly will have a dedicated video chip in there. So 30fps on the weakling embedded gpu makes 60fps no problem at all for most dedicated graphics chips :O

A cheap 5650 chip is about 4x to 5x more powerful and it will run a game like mass effect or portal 2 at 60fps with fairly high settings. So imagine what kind of crazy high performance RAGE can pull out of something like that.

I think they have picked up on the possibility of casual PC gaming, loads of people own laptops with weak gpus that won't run new games. Scaling an engine to support those weaker chips could be great, especially considering that the bare minimum graphics hardware nowadays is only just behind console performance.

[OpenGL]

Obviously you never played Doom on the SNES because it most certainly does not run at 50fps. It's more like 20fps(at best), and runs worse than the Atari Jaguar despite its considerably lower resolution and less detailed sprites. It was still a pretty big achievement though considering how weak the SNES really was when Doom came out.

[pipipi]

agree

[Big_Dom]

No he didn't. True, the SNES was not made to handle 3d texture mapped environments, and it was a massive acheivement to even run Doom on the system, but the FX chip 2 still couldn't render Doom at 50 fps. Nowhere near it. It was more like 12-15 fps max and at a cost of a boxed off screen and no roof and floor textures, with sprites only having a front on view. I don't know where you got 50fps from.

[chidori666]

you sound like the biggest fanboy of this tool.

[MrSpace]

:)

http://gobarbra.com/hit/new...

[sobekflakmonkey]

such a great song.

[showtimefolks]

i can't wait to get my copy hopefully it will deliver on all aspects.

the budget for this game must be a lot too 5-6 years od development that includes the building of the engine to handle all that pressure

i would love for bethesda to do a Fallout game using this engine. and I mean bethesda not this other studio that did new vegas

obsidan have very smart ideas for their games yet very very poor ways to execute those ideas in their games

[Voxelman]

apparently it's had a pretty small team working on it for most of the time (30-50 in the early years) and only since the Bethesda deal have they upped it to 70 so I wouldn't be surprised if it actually cost less than big games like Assassin's creed Brotherhood which had 300+ people working for just over a year etc.

[hiredhelp]

Cant wait for october november december. Serious amount good games for pc and consoles. I need more money. (

[showtimefolks]

for fall 2011 lol if we want to enjoy all the great games that are coming out

[xPhearR3dx]

RAAAAAAAAAAAAGE. This game is going to kick ass!

[LOGICWINS]

Only shooter I'm getting this year :D

[LocO_o]

So you wont be playing

Gears of War 3
Uncharted 3
Call of Duty MW 3
Resistance 3
Deus Ex Human Revolution
Dead Island
Saint Row the third
Battlefield 3
MGS Snake eater 3D
Twisted Metal
Aliens: Colonial Marines

If thats the case then what will you be playing?

Edit: Shooter games are a subgenre of action game,[1] which often test the player's speed and reaction time.[2] Because shooters make up the majority of action games,[1] it is a fairly wide subgenre. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapon. Usually this weapon is a gun, or some other long-range weapon".[1] A common resource found in many shooter games is ammunition.[2] Most commonly, the purpose of a shooter game is to shoot opponents and proceed through missions without the player character dying.

[LOGICWINS]

@Loco- More than half the games u listed aren't shooters, but rather games with shooting elements.

By your logic MK9, Infamous 2, and Yakuza 4 are shooters because they have shooting elements in them.

One of Stryker's moves enables me to shoot his gun..does that make MK a shooter?

Cole's primary means of offense is shooting electric based powers out of his hands..does this make Infamous 2 a shooter?

Also, I wasn't aware Max Payne 3 and GR: Future Soldier were coming out this year. Btw, I will be PLAYING most of the games u listed...just nt buying them this year. Re-read my comment.

[xPhearR3dx]

Ummm LocO_o These games don't come out until 2012, he said 2011. Still don't agree with him.

Mass Effect 3, Resident Evil Revelations, Ghost Recon Future Solider.

And these games have a TBA for 2011. Star Wars The Old Republic, I am Alive, and Max Payne 3.

[Foxgod]

Well, ME3 wont be out this year, and it ain no shooter, same goes for old republic, i am alive, and most of the other games in your list.

[Da One]

ME3 not a shooter......that's not what bioware thinks

[ATiElite]

by LOCO_o's silly logic Minecraft would be a shooter.

Uncharted = Action/Adventure
Dead Island = survival Horror melee
Saints Row the third = action
MGS Snake Eater = action espionage
the rest are shooters but I'm kinda on the fence about Deus Ex:HR

[bozebo]

"ME3 wont be out this year, and it ain no shooter"

What do you spend 90% of the time doing? (in 1 & 2)

Shooting.

[awi5951]

@bozebo

My mass effect guy is a biotic my powers do most of the damage a little pistol isnt a good weapon in masseffect 2. I blast people with force waves and i usually bring one other biotic in my party to juggle guys in the air so i can knock them off edges.

[theonlylolking]

Graphics look worse than MW3 and MW2.

Rage: http://www.gamersyde.com/po...

http://i1095.photobucket.co...

iD is trash now and they should disappear. Carmack used to be good but lost his greatness. 60fps does not mean anything if the game looks like trash.

They are worse than crytek and there gloating on the graphics. BF3 on PS3 looks better. Dont say "its because it is is 30fps". Well it is also doing fully destructible environments.

MW3: http://www.modernwarfare247...

It looks slightly better than RAGE but still. Carmack and iD has lost the greatness and have been beat by IW, DICE, Naughty Dog, Bungie, Bethesda, etc...

The praising of Id must stop because they have fallen lower than the abyss. FTW for Bethesda, Bungie, Insomniac games, Naughty Dog, DICE, IW, Respawn Entertainment, Bioware, thatgamecompany, sony santa monica studios and many more!

[LOGICWINS]

LOL, ur name fits u. Bubs. Funniest N4G comment I've read all week.

[ATiElite]

you do realize all the CODMW3 video and screens have been set pieces and or cut scenes. I haven't seen any real live game play yet.

that picture you showed is a cut scene.

[jdktech2010]

your on drugs if you truly think that....that's not MW hate but it's the truth. RAGE looks amazing on consoles

[AO1JMM]

You are in fact a crackhead if you believe that rant you spit out.

[Apocwhen]

What's funny about this is the COD engine is running on a modified Quake 3 engine.

Guess who originally created the Quake 3 engine? ;)

[bozebo]

"it is also doing fully destructible environments."

And what, exactly, does that mean for graphics? Nothing at all, it's entirely cpu & memory - physics...

[likedamaster]

Guess who created the engine MW is running on? Yup, that would be Carmack.

[ViserysTargaryen]

The fanboy disagrees just gotta stop. Yes Carmack is brilliant and Id created the shooter genre but we're talking about Rage here, and this guy does have a point. One of the main gripe of Rage and it's "mega textures" is the quality of the said textures. They tend to be low res and blurry. On the console this isn't as much of an issue since all console textures tend to be lower resolution, but on the PC there are fears that blurry mega-textures might stand out too much in 1080p.

[Voxelman]

oo lets cherry pick

http://gnews.com/wp-content...

http://www.gamersyde.com/po...

OMG MW3 looks like ass

[Matronedea]

The details in RAGE are astounding, it's definitely going to be worth picking up :)

[MrSpace]

Is their any PS3 footage been release yet, if anyone can link me ?

[firemassacre]

yea, its gonna look amazing on ps3,and pc ofcourse. john ftw

[kingdoms]

LOL sure if say so. Graphical great games on PC and consoles always yields a better ps3 version over the 360 version :P

Try harder

[LOGICWINS]

I haven't seen any PS3 footage..but I honestly don't care. Carmack doesn't dissapoint.

[nightmarex121]

Yeah i think only press seen footage but here screens maybe
http://blog.us.playstation....

[bozebo]

Looks amazing. Apart from some of the textures being too low res. But the engine probably adapts the texture resolution which it streams from the hdd to keep the frame rate at 60.

If theres anything I can predict about the ps3 - 360 differences, it's that the shader quality on the ps3 will be several times better because Carmack will actually make use of the spus properly, which no current multi plat game has actually done yet. BF3 probably does too though, judging by what I've seen.

[jaredhart]

Will be awesome. NERDS!!

[NanoSoldier]

Can't wait to play this game. I've been waiting a long time for this to come out. This game and Gears 3 will set a new graphic standard on consoles.

[BaSeBaLlKiD721]

an Unreal engine game setting a graphic standard?

lol.

[NanoSoldier]

I guess you haven't played the Gears 3 Beta.

[qwertyz]

check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

doesn't look bad for an unreal engine game now does it ?

[BaSeBaLlKiD721]

I did play Gears 3 beta along with my copy of Gears 3 preordered.

Nowhere did I say that Gears 3 wasn't good, I was saying that there are other games that set the standards higher than Gears 3.

[ASTAROTH]

TO QWERTZ...

it indeed looks amazing but this IS NOT the only game pushing graphics this fall. Im not even waste my time mentioning because obviously you only have eyes for it and the games I may mention (even multiplatform ones) may look like crap in your eyes. So to me Gears 3 looks amazing too.

One funny thing is that 360 only owners do love they pink guns in their exclusives... PINK GUNS FOR THE WIN!!! LOL

[RevXM]

You should have played the original unreal.
Im sure it were way over the standard back then.
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Gears 3 looks really great it is without doubdt up there with the best on consoles.

[Der_Kommandant]

I'll find it out in 2 months

[firemassacre]

this game will set the console limit for multiplats, i cannot wait for this.

EDIT: below wow, you seem the need to defend gears and rage alot.

edit 2: looks like you are

[NanoSoldier]

for multiplats? you mean for every game. you're such a bad troll.

Well, no, I'm just allergic to Bullshit.

[Hazmat13]

i like this game because it reminds me of pripyat.

[shayol33t]

yay STALKER fans

[Hazmat13]

nope. never played STALKER i just want to go there in real life.

[shayol33t]

Heck, works for me :P

[xtremegamerage]

He is pissed, that's the reason for the closed eyes when talking, dead giveaway.

[vickysud]

are they any video gameplay show on PS3 ? anyone pls share the link

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

John Carmack would kick Chuck Norris's @$$

[waltyftm]

No.

[Barajas_201]

that could be consider heresy........

be careful out there buddy..........

just kid.............

or am i?!!!!

[Father Murder X]

Not trying to be a smart ass. But what is so special about this game? The graphics don't look that great and I would say slightly above average. I think there are alot of id/pc worshippers on here. I thought for a second that it was another Fallout or Borderlands 2. Not saying that it will be a bad game or a good game but come on guys don't act like these graphics are the best ever. I can name 5 games that look better that have been out for a year.

[palaeomerus]

Your judgement of visual features really sucks.

[godsinhisheaven]

lol i agree...

[bozebo]

apart from the texture resolution and some parts that could do with a few more polys when looked at close up - rage totally dominates console graphics.

[MysticStrummer]

Once again, just like with Crysis 2, I have to ask this question... Why is it that when two versions of a multiplat are compared, things like texture resolution and a few missing polys are used to declare total hardware dominance, but when comparing a multiplat to an exclusive things like that are overlooked and the multiplat is declared to be visually superior when the exclusive doesn't have those same problems? I've seen Rage and it looks very nice, but nothing I've seen of it looks better than the best looking console games I've seen this generation. Graphics aren't everything, and some of the best looking games I've seen were games that really didn't interest me enough to buy, so believe me when I say I'm no graphics whore. I'm just fascinated when people say a game like Crysis 2 or Rage is the best looking thing on consoles. They both look very nice, but come on now.

[cobra4]

what games do you think look better? (honest question, not an attack)

[Black102WingS]

Any game john carmack is involved with will automatically be awesome no questions about it except the art directions some may not like.

[jdktech2010]

So I just realized that starting with Gears 3, there's a new game coming out that I really want and will get at release every 1-2 weeks until Thanksgiving.....thanks video game industry....

I'd actually like to publicly thank Bioware for moving ME3 to Spring....it's actually beneficial for that game to be delayed

[MARKUS_MAX1MUS]

Dont get the hype about graphics, im waiting til I sit down and play it to see if it grasps my attention.

[Black102WingS]

@MARKUS_MAX1MUS,
Youtube

[MARKUS_MAX1MUS]

I dont care what one 10 min long video says about a game, il decide when im sitting down infront of it actually playing it myself instead of watching some scripted demo.

Hands on Experience > all other forms of judgement

[Hifist1]

It does look good but gameplay, content and variety is the key.

[MoreRPG]

Bethesda should give the Fallout franchise to ID

[damnyouretall]

id has never been a shitty developer. why do people think theyre full of it when they make a statement like that. their tech has never diapointed me. i have 20/20 vision and the graphics look awesome. graphics on consoles have been maxed with a few tweaks here and there. im confident these guys know how to max a engine for 5 year old consoles. they even got the most out of smartphone graphics with a rage port. these mofos know whats up, so dont pretend you know more than them.

[The EDGE]

cant wait for this and bf3

[MasterCornholio]

Why do people keep bashing the PS3 version of this game? Isnt carmack a tech wiz and didnt he say himself that you could get more out of the PS3 than the 360?

http://www.gamepro.com/arti...

"Though Carmack expresses a "preference" for the Xbox 360 's CPU design, he admits that the PS3 "will have a bit more peak power."

So by looking at Carmacks comment the PS3 version of rage will be the best one out of the 2 consoles. Regardless PC will be the place to play this game if you have the hardware to handle it.

[BeOneWithTheGun]

I would like to play devil's advocate for a second...We have heard that line before from developers. Most multi-plats do look a little better on the 360.

The only reason I care is I don't know what system to buy it for. I'm not gameflying this one I am purchasing it so I need to know for certain whether to get it for my ps3 or my 360.

[zero_cool]

Saying the cell processor is a bit more powerful then the xenon processor is a understatement it's significantly more powerful then the xenon processor...

http://www.blachford.info/c...

http://www.alphaworks.ibm.c...

http://charbax.com/2006/05/...

http://www.yostuffs.com/200...

http://arstechnica.com/old/...

http://arstechnica.com/old/...

I just want clarify the correct information on both cpus & nothing else thank you!

[MasterCornholio]

And with hardcore evidence to boot. Bubbles for you my man

[abczby]

He's a god.

[ndl1531]

ok ive seen the game in motion and it looks really good at 60fps . dang now imagine what they can do with that engine running at 30fps ? wow

[RegorL]

Trying...

Would it start look like a sci-fi movie, and not concept art?
Would it add destruction and indirect killing with debris?
Would it add multiplayer in the "towns"/dungeons?

Yea, go for it!

[Ace_Man_6]

because they're so damn good!

[Deinsleaf]

I still have no idea why BF3 is being compared to Modern Warfare 3. I believe they should compare BF3 to Rage graphics-wise.

[zerocrossing]

The game looks fantastic but graphics aren't a selling point to me, If it plays as well as it looks Im sold.

[Mustang300C2012]

agreed.

[TBONEJF]

cause iD MAKES THIS GAME AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL DOOM. just so damn excited can't wait till this comes out

[Truth]

I personally can't wait for this game. I've gotten hyped, lost interest, got hyped and lost interest a bunch of times, but after learning about the nuts and bolts and what it's all about this will most definitely be a day one purchase for me.

[xer0]

Day 1 buy!
Pre-order is in :D