Players are used to comparing the consoles and PC exclusively by their power, capabilities, price and set of games – in a word, what they offer the final consumer. But we were always interested in how different platforms look from the developer. Which is more convenient for those who make games: PS5 or Series X? What does the porting process look like with PC? Is Xbox very different from the computer? We decided to learn about all this from Anton Yudintsev, the co -founder of the company Gaijin Entertainment , which issues its projects on all three platforms.
What game did you first portle on the console?
Anton Yudintsev : If you go completely from afar, then the very first was X-Blades , version of the game "Onblede" for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. This is a slasher in anime stylistic, and he even won first place in Japanese sales charts per week of release. Game IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey We first made for consoles, and then transferred to PC. In general, we had a lot of console games, but the two most significant releases – the way out War Thunder in the starting line PlayStation 4 and Enlisted In the starting line of Xbox Series X | S.
How is this process going? Let's start with the bureaucratic side of the issue. How did you go to Sony? What procedures do you need to go through to start developing on PlayStation?
Anton Yudintsev : Now all information is available on https: // Partners.PlayStation.Net, the application is submitted there. It is necessary to provide legal https://space-win-casino.co.uk/ and financial information about the company, corporate IP addresses and mailing address, as well as a pitch of the game that you are going to make. Then the manager is associated with you, and further issues are already resolved in correspondence.
Here, however, it must be borne in mind that, although there is Russia in the list of countries on the above site, it will not work to work with girlfriends for consoles in Russia. This situation was in the era PS2, and with PS4 and Xbox One, and now too. The fact is that the girls can only be ordered at the office of the office in certain countries (for example, in the EU countries), and they should physically remain there and stay all the time. You cannot import them into Russia. Gaijin is a European company, and the developers working with the girl live and do not work in Russia. Of course, modern consoles are much closer to the PC than their predecessors, so many technologies for consoles can be developed without even starting the game there. But ultimately launch, check and debug the code on the girl will be necessary.
What is girlfriend and how it differs from a regular console? And how many girls have you received to portable War Thunder?
Anton Yudintsev : Roughly speaking, this is a special version of the console on which you can download your code and run it. Standard consoles are simply not designed to launch the unsigned version of the game. Usually (but not always), girlfriends also have a more memory and an additional interface for working with a PC of the developer. At the start of any console, the girl’s resolutely lacks: there are literally units. If you can (in theory) for a singleplayer game, then for a multiplayer or online project you need to have at least two (although in fact this is not enough). I don’t remember how much the girl was sent for Lonch to PS4. It seems two.
I remember that at some point in a conversation with one of the platform holders in response to the question of how things are going with preparations for a new generation Lonch, we said “a little slowly, because we have three online games in development, and girl only two On three offices. This slows us somewhat ", and we were sent two more.
Okay, what about the technical side? What does the transfer of the game to another platform look like?
Anton Yudintsev : Our engine Dagor , on which we make almost all our games, it has long supported consoles, and is currently working with all the relevant, including PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X | S and Nintendo Switch. But in any case, we had to first implement this support. And after starting under a particular platform, you need to spend a lot of time on testing, optimization and debugging. If you work on one of the popular and public engines (for example, Unity or Unreal Engine ), then some time after the appearance of a new console, its support is usually added there and there. It is still necessary to optimize, test and check the requirements of the platform holder, of course, but the creators of the engine will make a significant part of the work.
How much I had to change the base War Thunder under the console? Interface, graphics – that I had to redo?
Anton Yudintsev : First of all, it was necessary to process the interface and management so that it was convenient for players to play on the gamepad and in front of the TV. Visually, playing PlayStation 4 corresponded to top computers of that time.
And there were some funny moments or bugs that had to be especially actively fighting during porting?
Anton Yudintsev : During preparation for Lonch PS4, one of the bugs drank a lot of our blood: at some point the game simply hung (tightly). At the peak to solving the problem, 46 developers from Sony And AMD – We just spent the night in the office, trying to find a bug in order to catch Lonch. As a result, we managed to localize and bypass the error, and Sony eventually corrected the console firmware.
In general, at the start of any new platform, documentation and tools are usually weak or absent in principle, so there are many such stories for every developer who made Lonch Tailers (there are not very many of them).
How difficult was the implementation of the cross -platform game? How much Sony supports such stories?
Anton Yudintsev : War Thunder is the first cross-platform PVP game on the PlayStation 4, and it is always not easy to be pioneers. In addition, the cross -platform consists of many subtacle. The most basic-just let players with different platforms meet in one battle, supporting this on their matchmaking servers. Then the questions begin: is it possible to add players from the "strangers" platforms for friends, play in the same detachment and take place? Is the PSN account to log in to the PC version of the game and preserve its progress in it? What about the transfer of purchases from the store? Sony policy on all these issues has changed repeatedly, and we expanded the possibility of cross -platform game after this. In our opinion, at present, the policy of all platform holders is quite loyal and allows players on all platforms to play together.
How Sony controls the final versions of the game? What needs to be done to get green light?
Anton Yudintsev : There is a certain set of technical requirements and politicians (for example, for intra -game purchases and t.p.) that each game should correspond. For release, it is necessary to test the Sony internal command for compliance with all these requirements.
Why, in this case, they missed the funny Cyberpunk 2077?
Anton Yudintsev : The question is not to us: we have no information about this. But you must understand that at present (approximately from the middle of the PS4 era), the requirements for games are strictly formal: some technical and legal things are checked like the use of trademarks, terminology, API. Some of these requirements relate to the quality of the game: for example, loading time, display of errors, the ability to go to the end and so on. But in general, the fact that the game has passed the test of requirements does not mean that it is of high quality, looks and plays without errors.
In fact, the current policy of platform holders is a significant change for the better. In those days when the general quality of the game was checked, this meant that the game could not be missed simply because someone did not like the design. Unfortunately, the NDA does not allow us to call specific platform holders and other details, but we had a situation (and even repeatedly), when after refusing to accept the concept of the game (there was also such a stage of quality control) and the requirements to redo the role system we sent a link to another game with a similar system and in response received “Thank you, the whole office plays the game, everything is super, approved”.
Thus, the personal opinion of some people could influence whether some game will be developed at all, regardless of how much other players like it-simply because it did not “go” to someone from quality control , or even because he would like to see another game.
The exclusion of this subjective factor helps creativity and innovation. But it has the opposite side: you can make a project not only better or just outside of generally accepted standards, but also worse.
In general, the task of understanding what a specific player will like, should not be decided by a platform holder. Demo-versions, press and refunds are more suitable tools that help the user figure out what to spend time and money. Players should help the protection of consumer rights and informed choice, and not some big brother who knows better that they will like more.
So it’s better to ask about why they missed Cyberpunk 2077 , – This is probably not even the most glow game that came out on the consoles. The correct questions are: whether you had the opportunity to make a refund and why did not tell anything about the problems of the game on consoles of the past generation in the press reviews.
Approx. Ed. : All press-key presses on Cyberpunk 2077, which CD Projekt Red sent to reporters (including gambling) for reviews, were intended for PCs – keys on the PS4 or Xbox One Press did not receive at all, and the problems of console versions were revealed only after the release.
How much did the port on the PS4 financially cost approximately?
Anton Yudintsev : It was nine years ago, it is not possible to answer now. But I think the question is not in money. We made the first port (for showing on Gamescom) in just 2.5 months, while the PC version of the game at that time was not even a 64-bit. The principles of free-to-Play monetization and cross-platform policy on the PlayStation 4 were made and approved by us, under our game, in close cooperation with Sony. It took a lot of intense work of our specialists: both we and Sony were sure to be sure that the game would definitely be released on time to announce it at the main presentation of Gamescom. Nine women do not give birth to one child in a month, and, similarly, no money to speed up such a tense process – you need dedication, determination, organization and high technical level.
Is Sony able to intervene in the content of the game and ask for something to change?
Anton Yudintsev : Currently, such requests are always associated with the above technical and legal requirements, and not the content of the game itself.
Let's talk about xbox now. How much communication with Microsoft is different from communication with Sony? From the side it seems that Microsoft is more open and friendly.
Anton Yudintsev : Both companies have traveled a long way to work with third-party developers and, in particular, with conditionally paid online games. Even in the last generation, everyone became clear to everyone that projects on this business model are extremely popular on consoles, including, and the attitude of both platform holders has changed a lot for the better. This applies to support, and a variety of politicians, and just technical points for very frequent (compared to single games) the release of patches and, accordingly, their rapid coordination by the platform holder. Finally, more recently, Xbox owners got the opportunity to play on parole online games even without subscription to Xbox Gold (that is, completely free). Specific ties with corporations are very dependent on specific people: this is always personal communication and, accordingly, personal relations. Our current account manager in Microsoft was our manager in Sony during the launch of the PlayStation VR, and we have warm and friendly relations.
There is an opinion that Xbox is very close to a PC, so porting on it is much easier: almost “reduced the level of graphics, and you can run”. Is this so, or is there any features and difficulties there? And which of the consoles – PS4 or Xbox One – was more convenient to work?
Anton Yudintsev : It's no secret that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are, in fact, system units filling AMD (custom, but still not very different from a similar PC-yels). Each platform has its own nuances, but in general, porting and development were very simplified compared to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 generation.
There are, of course, differences: common memory, direct access to iron capabilities, which allows you to get the maximum result. But the lower you go down [low -level programming, when the work goes directly with the resources of the console -. Ed.], the more you use the specific capabilities of the console, the more difficult the porting becomes, the “further” you are from the PC. So the iron has become “Easy to Learn, Hard to Master”.
On the Xbox, the situation is even closer to the PC, since the operating system there is a special version of Windows, and the API is a special version of DirectX. But Xbox has its own additional difficulties even in comparison with the Sony platform, so in general they are more or less comparable in the complexity of transferring the game from PC.
How much cross -platform gameplay has complicated the rolling of patches and updates?
Anton Yudintsev : Obviously, in the case of a cross-platform server, it is impossible to update only one or two platforms of three, and leave some of them incompatible. Therefore, you need to produce patches on all platforms at the same time. However, as mentioned above, both platforms over the years have become much more convenient in terms of issuing urgent patches, and mostly problems with synchronization with a PC version do not arise.
What happened when PS4 Pro and Xbox One X came out? On the part of the PC, it seemed that it was just an upgrade of iron, as in a computer, and developers could simply increase the conditional settings of graphics from “middle” to “high”. Is it so?
Anton Yudintsev : In general, it is. The main feature of the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X is the ability to display a picture in 4K and include some additional graphic settings. And in the case of Crsed: F.O.A.D. We were able to offer players two modes to choose: 60 FPS in 1080p or 30 FPS in 4K. But it is important to understand that this has not yet been considered a new generation, and the developers were required to support both versions of the consoles. But in the case of Enlisted, which comes only on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S | X, we no longer had to seriously limit the capabilities of the game to support outdated iron.
You have become one of the first companies that transferred its projects to a new generation, and with improved graphics. How much have changed by the PS5 and Series device? How much had to be rebuilt in games to make money on a new generation?
Anton Yudintsev : Like the past generation, these are again system blocks with iron from AMD, but much more powerful. In general, all changes were expected, so penetrating developers were preparing for this in advance. Xbox has changed significantly more.
And how exactly is Xbox Series so different from the predecessor?
Anton Yudintsev : I'm not sure that the answer to this question does not fall under numerous NDA.
How effective the new SSD SSD is? Whether the game was worth the candle, or could you put ordinary SSDs like Microsoft?
Anton Yudintsev : So far, for our tasks, these are just two very quick SSDs that significantly reduce the boot time. The difference in working with them, if there is, is minimal, although this may depend on the specific task and features of the game.
Is the difference in the power of the two competing consoles feel?
Anton Yudintsev : There is no noticeable difference. If we are talking about a graph, then everything that can be done on the PlayStation 5, we can realize, if desired, on Xbox Series X | S – and vice versa. By naked Xbox Series X, that is, at the limit of opportunities, she will be able to draw more/further, but the difference is not a dramatic in any case.
Is there now among PC developers, let's say, a breakdown of the spirit due to the fact that players cannot buy normal video cards for themselves?
Anton Yudintsev : War Thunder system requirements are as loyal to the owners of PC and laptops with rather old video cards. Even the latest updates, where new visual effects are added, almost did not affect the performance of the game. It is very important for us that the maximum number of players can evaluate our products, so we pay great attention to optimization. On the other hand, those lucky ones who were able to buy modern gaming iron receive the most beautiful picture of a new generation.
If we say that miners bought all the video cards, and now the players can’t play, then what can I say? We live in an interesting time.
In your opinion, where games and consoles are moving now? Is there any feeling that the conditional PS6 will never appear at all?
Anton Yudintsev : So far, PS5 cannot produce enough to satisfy demand. If the situation with the availability of GPU is not resolved, then what kind of PS6 is there?
In general, everything has already changed. Xbox Series initially comes out in two versions, although the past generation consisted of only two – with an intermediate generation. That is, everything is no longer as it was in the PS1/2/3 era and at the beginning of the PS4 era. Most likely, the platform holders will produce new models every year or two or look for other approaches to entertainment, as, for example, does MS with cloud gaming or Sony with VR solutions.
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