Comment by smoldesu | Hacker News Reader

Comment by smoldesu | Hacker News Reader

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Meh, I think this console generation is actually going to be pretty boring in that respect. Simply put, the concept of "optimization" doesn't really exist in a traditional sense for these consoles anymore. Both Sony and Microsoft have PC versions of their games (and exclusives), they just target the PS5 or Xbox Series X and edit some ini files before shipping it out. It's not like the PS3, where we have some incredibly esoteric/powerful GPU that took decades to learn, or the N64 where there was an all-new graphics paradigm to learn. Now more than ever, your console is just a less-robust PC: even the Nintendo Switch uses relatively standardized hardware.

I think the real thing to be looking out for is how developers utilize the crazy overhead they have. The Touryst leverages newer consoles to perform 6k/8k supersampled antialiasing without dropping a frame. Minecraft with shaders is finally just... viable. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised of Sony introduced some emulation layer to play PC games (a-la Proton) if their competition with Microsoft really starts heating up. Really, the hardware is the least interesting part of this console generation. Building a robust software experience on them, however, is where things get interesting (at least to me).

A common complaint, but look at how titles like Horizon, Death Stranding, or Red Dead 2 play on PC vs on PS4 launch hardware that is now almost eight years old. Would you be playing those titles at 1080p on a GTX 700-series, a GPU that came out the same year and retailed new for nearly the cost of a PS4?

If anything, I think these kinds of comparisons underscore that even in a world where consoles are using mostly PC-originated components and architectures, there are still massive wins to be had when a developer can put their effort into targeting a single hardware platform (or a small number of them, eg pro and non-pro) rather than chasing a million interop issues across the infinity of permutations of in-the-wild PC hardware.

Not that many games are releasing simultaneously on PC and PS5. Id argue that the concept of optimisation still largely exists for the current gen consoles even if they are using mainly off the shelf parts a desktop does not exist that is largely the same; mainly due to the large pool of shared memory that the CPU/GPU use and the ability to target that specific instruction set and hardware which helps too.

Both Sony and Microsoft introduced a lot of new innovations. I'm not sure what you're whining about.

We finally have high performance SSD's which revolutionizes streaming. we have advanced shaders that should allow extreme levels of geometric detail, custom audio engines and more.

Last gen felt like a compromise with machines using outdated hardware, this gen is state of the art with tons of potential

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