Edit History

11 hours ago, alanjd93 said:

Fair enough... in hindsight Minecraft probably wasn't the best comparison on my part, and I will say once again, I am not a game developer by any means😅 Even if exaggerated, the example was a good one and you have a solid point.

 

Here's a counterpoint though...

 

Yes, a Boeing 737 is bigger than a Cesna, and would require a much bigger hangar. I understand the game has come a long way since the initial console release, but I would imagine so have the consoles themselves. So unless the differences between the PS5/Xbox X and the previous generation consoles are strictly aesthetic, the "hangars" HAVE gotten bigger. 

 

I won't pretend to know more than I do about game development, it's well out of my wheelhouse. I would also never want to downplay or minimize anyone's hard work on any game. I've played many that are absolute works of art and I'm sure a lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone in to making them. With that said, I just have a hard time believing that the only reason game developers have gone away from couch co-op is because it would be too difficult, or too taxing on the console. I think the more likely reason is why sell one game and console when you can sell two?

I wasn't disputing your main point, just arguing that the comparison doesn't allow for any conclusion about the feasability. Minecraft is a smaller game, the old 7days is a smaller game than the current alpha, so even though the platform did grow so did the game. It is easily imaginable that the games demands grew more than the platform.  I had to buy a new PC in the time of A17 to play the game. Or just compare the graphics of the old console game with the current alpha to get a small indication of its growth. The Boing 737 has become a 747 😉

I don't have any inside information, but Jugginator above is in QA and he has. And he says that RAM and CPU are the main problems porting the game to console. Now remember that in consoles the memory is shared between CPU and GPU, just like in many laptops. That means a sizable part of main memory is not available to the CPU.

Now adding a split screen mode would surely increase memory usage as the second player would need his state and the world data of the surrounding area in memory as well. So if they hardly can fit the game into consoles at the moment then how likely is it that they would add a major feature that eats more memory this late in development?

I am not saying your theory is necessarily wrong. I am only saying that the reasons they gave seem plausible to someone with knowledge of PC hardware.

3 hours ago, alanjd93 said:

Fair enough... in hindsight Minecraft probably wasn't the best comparison on my part, and I will say once again, I am not a game developer by any means😅 Even if exaggerated, the example was a good one and you have a solid point.

 

Here's a counterpoint though...

 

Yes, a Boeing 737 is bigger than a Cesna, and would require a much bigger hangar. I understand the game has come a long way since the initial console release, but I would imagine so have the consoles themselves. So unless the differences between the PS5/Xbox X and the previous generation consoles are strictly aesthetic, the "hangars" HAVE gotten bigger. 

 

I won't pretend to know more than I do about game development, it's well out of my wheelhouse. I would also never want to downplay or minimize anyone's hard work on any game. I've played many that are absolute works of art and I'm sure a lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone in to making them. With that said, I just have a hard time believing that the only reason game developers have gone away from couch co-op is because it would be too difficult, or too taxing on the console. I think the more likely reason is why sell one game and console when you can sell two?

I wasn't disputing your main point, just arguing that the logic didn't work that way. And to your counterpoint: The game grew more resource hungry as well, just compare the graphics of the old console game with the current alpha. So the Boing 737 has become a 747 😉

But to your main point: I don't have any inside information, but Jugginator above is in QA and he has. And he says that RAM and CPU are the main problems porting the game to console. Is that plausible? Well, remember that in consoles the memory is shared between CPU and GPU, just like in many laptops. That means a sizable part of main memory is not available to the CPU.

Now adding a split screen mode would surely increase memory usage as the second player would need his state and the world data of the surrounding area in memory as well. So if they hardly can fit the game into consoles at the moment then how likely is it that they would add a major feature that eats more memory this late in development?

I am not saying your theory is necessarily wrong. I am only saying that the reasons they gave could be correct.

3 hours ago, alanjd93 said:

Fair enough... in hindsight Minecraft probably wasn't the best comparison on my part, and I will say once again, I am not a game developer by any means😅 Even if exaggerated, the example was a good one and you have a solid point.

 

Here's a counterpoint though...

 

Yes, a Boeing 737 is bigger than a Cesna, and would require a much bigger hangar. I understand the game has come a long way since the initial console release, but I would imagine so have the consoles themselves. So unless the differences between the PS5/Xbox X and the previous generation consoles are strictly aesthetic, the "hangars" HAVE gotten bigger. 

 

I won't pretend to know more than I do about game development, it's well out of my wheelhouse. I would also never want to downplay or minimize anyone's hard work on any game. I've played many that are absolute works of art and I'm sure a lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone in to making them. With that said, I just have a hard time believing that the only reason game developers have gone away from couch co-op is because it would be too difficult, or too taxing on the console. I think the more likely reason is why sell one game and console when you can sell two?

I wasn't disputing your main point, just arguing that the logic didn't work that way. And to your counterpoint: The game grew more resource hungry as well, just compare the graphics of the old console game with the current alpha. So the Boing 737 has become a 747 😉

But to your main point: I don't have any inside information, but Jugginator above is in QA and he has. And he says that RAM and CPU are the main problems porting the game to console. Is that plausible? Well, remember that in consoles the memory is shared between CPU and GPU, just like in many laptops. That means a sizable part of main memory is not available to the CPU.

Now adding a split screen mode would surely increase memory usage as the second player would need his state and the world data of the surrounding area in memory as well. So if they hardly can fit the game into consoles at the moment then how likely is it that they would add a major feature that eats more memory this late in development?