Gaming GTA Chinatown Wars graphics

[pasc]

btw. OrR ? You are German too ^^ ?

 

[Crazy-S]

btw. OrR ? You are German too ^^ ?

 

[VmprHntrD]

Look talk about VV and R* all you want. R* will make their own engine, that's for certain. VV if anything have proven they know how to do some depth loaded and detailed crazy shit on the DS which Tony Hawks, Spidermans, and other things have shown both when they rush and take their time. R* has no DS experience to work from, but they do have GBA and learned how to tweak the crap out of that system to make a 3D world from the top view on a non-3D system. DS has a GBA core and a hell of a lot more, they'll do just fine with all the added and ram and horsepower considering what was accomplished making such a fine topdown copy of GTA3's Liberty City.

 

[Fraesh]

i hope its goin to be 3D, if you look at transformers you can see awesome sandbox games are possible!!

 

[RebelX]

I just hope to God it's 3D. It will be a big factor of whether I get it or not... The 2D style graphics were still a blast but considering by many games, 3D graphics are still achievable. Just look at games like Transformers, NFS Pro Street, Brothers in Arms... But getting all that music and voice stuff on there is gonna be hard.

 

[GeekyGuy]

... But getting all that music and voice stuff on there is gonna be hard.

Yeah, that's certainly something I'm curious about. Even if they compress the shit out of the audio, it still takes up so much room, especially if they attempt to give us radio stations and whatnot to choose from. Plus, if it's a text scroll, rather than voice work, that will definitely change the dynamic. But I'm not sure how they'll squeeze all that stuff in there otherwise.

I think this is probably one of their biggest challenges -- not graphics. They probably will spend most of their hair pulling on budgeting everything into a DS card. Even if they used the biggest card available, it's GTA we're talkin' about here. That's why I think we shouldn't expect anything other than an abbreviated GTA experience. The trick is how to get that right. How can it still offer the essence while cutting back on tons of shit.

 

[RebelX]

... But getting all that music and voice stuff on there is gonna be hard.

Yeah, that's certainly something I'm curious about. Even if they compress the shit out of the audio, it still takes up so much room, especially if they attempt to give us radio stations and whatnot to choose from. Plus, if it's a text scroll, rather than voice work, that will definitely change the dynamic. But I'm not sure how they'll squeeze all that stuff in there otherwise.

I think this is probably one of their biggest challenges -- not graphics. They probably will spend most of their hair pulling on budgeting everything into a DS card. Even if they used the biggest card available, it's GTA we're talkin' about here. That's why I think we shouldn't expect anything other than an abbreviated GTA experience. The trick is how to get that right. How can it still offer the essence while cutting back on tons of shit.

Yeah, I agree with you 100%. But I just hope they don't take too many radio stations out; I will be outraged if they take out the talk radio station they put in it, it's my favorite one and the only one I listen to

 

[VmprHntrD]

The best way to save your space will be very small audio tracks, compressed, and with minimal vocals. GTA Advance had like 10 tracks to the game, 2 of them used voices but it wasn't more than a line or two looped within a track. One of them just say 'Let me show you how it's done' over and over again around a beat, and the other I can't remember. I imagine a great compromise would be to go that way with it again, or use normal known tracks but just the music score w/out the verbals as it'll save a ton of room.

 

[fischju]

They could always go the expansion-route and have a slot-2 for ram or DLC (or something else)

 

[matrix121391]

Sorry to sound like a complete n00b here, but what's the difference between bit and byte?

 

[fischju]

Sorry to sound like a complete n00b here, but what's the difference between bit and byte?

Multiplication by 8

 

[gosp]

Sorry to sound like a complete n00b here, but what's the difference between bit and byte?

Multiplication by 8

A bit is a single 1 or 0 in computer's memory.
A byte is a block of 8 bits.
additionally A word is 2 bytes (the original size of an FSB)
A DWord is 4 bytes (Just in case you get into... registry hacking, etc...)

 

[GeekyGuy]

They could always go the expansion-route and have a slot-2 for ram or DLC (or something else)

If anyone could get away with it, Rockstar probably could. But I don't see it happening. My guess is, quite a few GTA fans don't even own a DS yet, and will likely be buying one just for this game. That said, Rockstar probably wants to make the game as accessible as possible in those terms. Making it a requirement to have a slot-2 card in addition to a slot-1 card (which would also likely jack the price up toward the price of a console game, and at that point, why bother?) just doesn't seem like good marketing. And if there's one thing, other than game making that Rockstar excels in, it's marketing their games. They're probably more masters of that art than the art of making games.

 

[OrR]

I heard there was a Cinatown Wars presentation of some sort for press people at GC... Guess there wasn't anything to see, though, or details would have been leaked by now, right? Or have I missed anything?

I don't think an expansion pack is realistic. It's simply too expensive. What is the biggest supported DS cart size, like 512 MByte? That should be plenty for 4-6 radio stations as the audio quality can be reduced quite a lot on the DS. I don't think an audio track for missions etc. will be included as that would really take too much space. Well, it depends a lot on how long and involved the game is...

 

[GeekyGuy]

I heard there was a Cinatown Wars presentation of some sort for press people at GC... Guess there wasn't anything to see, though, or details would have been leaked by now, right? Or have I missed anything?

Hmm...hadn't heard anything about that. It was mentioned (by the new Nintendo chick everyone already loves to hate) that it might make an appearance at PAX. I'd be watching out for that. Other than that, the only confirmed source that will show something is Nintendo Power, but that's not until next month's issue.

 

[Raestloz]

And it's 30 already! When do Nintendo power usually come out? 15?

 

[TwinBlades]

For some reason I have a bad feeling about the gameplany and graphics even tho I rather play if the graphic sucks. Dont usually game companys give out screenshots or some in depth info about the game before/in production? I have a feeling they havent started making the game yet or maybe going to do a crappy job on it (Make the game quickly in a rush) :S hope that dosnt happen I mean this game will hit the DS fans.

 

[GeekyGuy]

Well, one odd thing I did notice in this last issue of Nintendo Power was that they have its release date listed as "TBA." Ordinarily, I wouldn't think anything of it, but they have other games such as Avalon Code with at least a place-holder of Q1/09. If NP has "the exclusive" on the game, shouldn't they have an idea of its release, which the official Rockstar site still lists as Holiday 2008. Could be nothing, or it could be we are in for quite a delay. Perhaps the game isn't actually as far along as we were led to believe.

Either way, the next issue should be out about the 20th of next month. I got my most recent issue on the same day the Chinatown scan was put up on the Web, and I believe it was around the 20th of this month.

 

[Raestloz]

Some games have TBA as their release date, and they turn out pretty good, you don't have to worry, I'm rather curious about the screenshots, will they really release them in the next Nintendo Power? I sure hope some good members will scan them and tell us here

 

[CurleyAU]

Yeah, I cant wait for screenies and eventually an in-game trailer.. It will be good hopefully