Don't confuse complex with inefficient.deftonesmx17 said:Let me make this very clear. The more complex the coding, the more powerful the processor needs to be to execute that code efficiently, no matter what type of code we are talking about.
Efficiently written, complex algorithms will run faster than poorly written simple algorithms on the same spec CPU.
If you have a game that needs to eliminate graphical resources to free up time to process the game mechanics then you have a set of severely unbalanced resources.
Write the game with the required resources and then, with whatever is left, you make it look nice. The only 2 reasons this would ever get reversed is...
1) Your game plays that badly that you have to blind people with eye candy and hope they don't notice.
2) You have so little skill in game mechanics that you rely on the eye candy to hide your inability.
The only way you would get away with either of these is if your QA department lack any kind of gaming competence. Although, as I suspect that Konami don't actually know what QA is, getting away with it would seem relatively easy there.
I noticed you also used HL2 and Fear as justification for high spec CPU's to run the AI and physics. If you lower the graphical detail right down, HL2 is perfectly playable, with identical AI to a 3.6GHz CPU and a 7800GTX video card. What really chews up the CPU is the physics calculations. Bouyancy, collisions, light refraction and reflection, shadowing etc... they're the killers, not the AI.
Good AI with a complimentary set of graphical content is perfectly doable on current hardware, finding the company with the skillset to do it is another matter altogether. I don't think Konami will be able to make use of the next gen console hardware simply because they can't make use of current gen PC technology and lets face it, the 2 aren't that far apart.
15 years ago, I was writing AI on the C64 that was similar in the way HL2 works, threat assessment, route blocking, containment of enemies etc... People assume that when a game slows down, it's the AI when really, it's the bloated graphics acting like a lead weight round the games neck.
As for the game cheating... you'd better believe games cheat. I have seen enough written and helped to write them... Not seen many as bad as a pool game I played last year (Pool Paradise) that actually moved the balls after shots.
www.digital-essence.co.uk\misc\pool1.png
www.digital-essence.co.uk\misc\pool2.png
Oh, I can't remember who mentioned it, but not every computer game is scripted, chess, tetris, pretty much any driving game are examples of non-scripted games.
)
) and to - like always when i feel cheated in a computer soccer game - the ultimate, undefeatable champion of (arcade but 100% fun) soccer glory - World of Sensible soccer.