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"Pop-up? On the PS2?"

I bought craxy taxi for the PS2 yesterday and I am very disapointed with myself. This is not because the game is bad which it certainly isn't. I am disapointed because I have subcontiously joined the ranks of those who say that graphics do not matter. I used to be against this arguement but I now forgive crazy taxi for its terrible pop-up in favour of admiring its gameplay and addictiveness. Has this happened to anyone else? How can I possibly forgive pop-up in this day and age?

adrian wrote:

The DC renders on what can been
> seen on the screen while the PS2 renders everything, even what you
> cant see.


Not so! It just depends how it is programmed... u can do it either way on either console.

Ideally the best 3d engine does this:

1. Works out what is infront of you
2.Generates the things infront of you
3.Generates things behind these that are not hidden by walls etc

This optomises the polygon rate, and can be very effective. The only problem is if you walk out from behind a wall... u have now changed from seeing 1 poly to seeing millions... so there need me more techniques!

Sonic

Mmmm, I think you are both a little confused, the PS2 and the DC render whatever they are told to render by the program. The way of hiding things which are not in view is done by a nifty little piece of the hardware called the Z buffer. This is what stops things appearing through objects which shouldn't be seen or should be hidden behind other things, but the two console can still only do what they are told to do, if it is told to render something it will, and then if it is told to use the Z buffer to hide the object if something else is in front of it, it will.

There is not a fundamental difference in the way the two machines work this, just that the PS2 is far more powerful and can cope with more objects being hidden/appering on screen.

That can't be right, otherwise the DC will be constantly loading. I know that it loads things like speech and other stuff only when needed, but that's it.

SonicRav wrote:


No it is not! The reason is that the PS2
> processes images in completely different ways which means a
> different 3d engine. Now, this would take ages to do properly, so
> the developers ssimply copies as much as they could without
> optimising it...

The DC renders on what can been seen on the screen while the PS2 renders everything, even what you cant see.

Most annoying spectrum game of all time: Renegade

Not only was it the second game on a particular tape I had, which meant it took me ages to find the right place to load it from, but also you only got one life. That was it. If you died, you had to reload the game. What's more, it was absurdly difficult.

Thirty seconds play from a game that took 10+ mins to load. Fabulous.

I actually still play on my Spectrum. I have some great games.

Goatboy wrote:

"we waited 9mins"

I think that's why I played Ghostbusters a lot. Not that it didn't take long to load, because it did, but while it loaded, you could play Space Invaders.

Loadinvaders, I think it was called. I know other games had it as well, but I'm not sure which.

Ghostbusters was a great game though... A remake of that, with more levels, and more stuff to buy... that would be great.

Like Skool Daze. That was remade into a freeware game not that long ago. I thought it wouldn't be that good, but it was just as fun as the original.

Grix Thraves wrote:
> They are REALLY early on in Mario Kart though... as you can see from
> lack of sky, land, racers, and just about everything else.
> :0)

Still, I'm glad it's coming. It's going to take a while
> though.



Indded... but mario cart oin the snes in 2 player mode was great... imagine 4 player mode! And it's so much better than the 64 version

Sonic

You think PS2 suffers from popups?

Pah, go back to the Spectrum, load up Out-Run and Enduro-Racer and delight at trees that appear in front of you and roads that decide where they want to be just as you reach them.

You kids these days, it's all "instant loading" "Pop-up free" and "gigabyte" this and that.

Count yourselves lucky, in my day, we waited 9mins for Combat School to load on the Speccie.

Bah...where's my slippers?

They are REALLY early on in Mario Kart though... as you can see from lack of sky, land, racers, and just about everything else. :0)

Still, I'm glad it's coming. It's going to take a while though.