What is it that makes console so different to PC


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Watching videos of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days on youtube, and I watched the xBox 360 version first and then the PC one

There is something about Console games that the PC doesnt have..... what is it?

Depth of field ?

Something while watching them makes the console games looks much better but I can not put my finger on what it is

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I am not a games programmer, but it probable has something to do with the presentation layer of the game. When you are dealing with consoles, you have a guaranteed set of hardware specifications that every console has, which makes it easier to write the graphics code and properly display it. When you are dealing with a PC, you have to take into account the vast majority of hardware that is available. Sure you have libraries to assist you with this (such as DirectX), but you still have some amount of compromise because different cards (even top-end cards) support different specifications and standards, each vendor has their own proprietary extensions, and successive generations of cards add new features meaning that you have to be able to enable/disable many features in the game depending on the user's setup.

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Post the said Dog Days videos. I'll point the finger on it for you.

But usually it's just slower movement of the screen, less detailed textures and a lot of bloom that tries to hide it.

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With a computer you've got a account for the hardware variation. With a console it's pretty much set in stone also with a computer it's running stuff like the OS, the internet, and more with a console it's just got to run the game, it can kill the main dashboard process (taking xbox360 into account here) so it can put more resources into running the game. Hope my post helps

~ Lauren

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PC software takes more hardware testing to see how it runs on different hardware configurations. console hardware testing is a breeze and very cheap both time and money wise compared to the process pc games must go through.

PC also has different OS's games need to be able to run on, with varying API's. a dx11 game on pc need to be able to run in dx 10 and dx 9 at the very least on win xp, win vista, and win 7. although i've sen some dx11 games that totally ignore dx10.

you might wonder why a game like gta 4 for example runs pretty good and looks pretty good on a xbox360, but needs a fairly high end system to run on pc with the same level of detail and bells and whistles running. that's a very good question, and there's a lot of speculation about it, usually under the header of "yet another ****ty console port"

pc games also need to run on a variety of resolutions, where as most console games need to just run at 720p. sure ps3 and xbox are "technically" capable of outputting 1080p, but games that actually run at 1080 are few and far between, and some games such as rdr for example run at lower actual resolution than even 720p on ps3.

now you see a lot of titles on xbox that you'd think would be great or even better to play on pc. and you wouldn't be surprised to learn that many xbox 360 dev's have pc game backgrounds. that's because xbox 360 dev tools are very similar to windows games dev tools, so it doesn't take long for a pc game dev to transition from pc to xbox360. as well the hardware configurtation fo a an xbox 360 is very similar overall to a low end old pc.

where as the ps3 uses very different dev tools from the 360 or PC, with a different kind of hardware configuration. these two things is alot of what goes into making multi platform releases different on the ps3. it takes alot more effort to port to and optimize games for the ps3 due to it's different cpu type, and different hardware configuration paradigm, along with different machine code needed. it also takes alot more time and effort for devs to learn how to effectively use ps3 dev tools just for ps3 exclusives or native ps3 games. this is part of the reason games on all the ps consoles have looked and played much better years after release and at EOL as opposed to at launch.

this my understanding of some of the differences between the platforms. it might not be 100% correct, so take it with a grain of salt.

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Thanks for the replies - yea it makes sense that its easier to code for specific hardware, and that there is no OS running underneath

But you would think with an extremely high end PC they could get it looking the same, but you can just tell, maybe its the mouse movement, its not a steady speed like the controller of the Xbox360 ? Then again I guess you can use a controller on a PC too

And the two videos in Q are here

Xbox360

PC

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Thanks for the replies - yea it makes sense that its easier to code for specific hardware, and that there is no OS running underneath

But you would think with an extremely high end PC they could get it looking the same, but you can just tell, maybe its the mouse movement, its not a steady speed like the controller of the Xbox360 ? Then again I guess you can use a controller on a PC too

And the two videos in Q are here

Xbox360

PC

Well they could, but why would they? It's obviously going to look better on the [high end] PC

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Thanks for the replies - yea it makes sense that its easier to code for specific hardware, and that there is no OS running underneath

But you would think with an extremely high end PC they could get it looking the same, but you can just tell, maybe its the mouse movement, its not a steady speed like the controller of the Xbox360 ? Then again I guess you can use a controller on a PC too

If they wanted, they could make the game look MUCH better on the PC than it does on the xbox, but doing so would require them to raise the PC requirements and therefore would push their game to a smaller group of people who actually have the hardware to play it.

As for the controls, you are right, mouse movement is not a steady speed like a controller, which is why mouse movement is better for everything except controlling vehicles IMO. With a controller, you push the joystick a certain distance then WAIT for the crosshair to get where you want it, with a mouse, you move your hand/mouse a distance relative to where you want to aim, once you get use to the sensitivity, aiming to different areas are only a matter of moving your mouse to that relative position on your mousepad. The faster you can move your mouse, the quicker you can kill that enemy that just jumped out from around a corner.

In short, PC gives faster more accurate aiming (in games that require aiming), while controller gives pressure sensitive consistent movement (which can be much slower, but allows you to do things like turn a consistent corner in a racing game much more easily). Its really up to the player to decide what is better for them, for me, mouse gives MUCH better control for any type of shooter game which, while it still sticks with your "console so different than PC" topic title, it completely disagree with your "makes the console look much better" statement in your first post. Fast accurate aiming in a shooter game (whether first or third person) > Slow and steady aiming.

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As for the controls, you are right, mouse movement is not a steady speed like a controller, which is why mouse movement is better for everything except controlling vehicles IMO. With a controller, you push the joystick a certain distance then WAIT for the crosshair to get where you want it, with a mouse, you move your hand/mouse a distance relative to where you want to aim, once you get use to the sensitivity, aiming to different areas are only a matter of moving your mouse to that relative position on your mousepad. The faster you can move your mouse, the quicker you can kill that enemy that just jumped out from around a corner.

which is why i like my driving games on consoles and my fps on pc. :)

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Which is why I have two cordless X360 controllers for the PC!

do they work the same way on pc as they do on xbox? i assume since you use them for that purpose they must. i've always had my doubts about them myself.

though most of the time when i see people posting on them it's on mmo forums saying they love using them for x mmo except for y issue, but honestly i could never give up my mouse and keyboard/n52 for mmo's unless they changed radically from the wow/eq paradigm of click on target then use numbered button for skill attack paradigm, since i tend to have my skill bars loaded up with the max number of keybindable skills using my n52 and then hope i don't need to use anymore than that(i prefer a 20 skill configuration using 10 numbered buttons arranged around wasd, and a modifier button bound to the thumb dpad, though i've been known to add a second modifier button for a third skill bar or 30 skills bound total, though the mmos that require that many bound skills tend to suck in my experience)

people who play alot of racing games, and especially if they take them seriously, tend to shell out for racing game specific peripherals such as steering wheel and pedals. i've even seen custom DIY made seat/control/"viewscreen" assemblies utilizing nvidia 3d vision that use hydraulics for force feedback for the ultimate pc driving experience.

me personally i'm the kind guy that if a room mate brings home the latest version of need for speed for the ps2/3/360 in teh living room, i'll try it and if i like it i'll try and beat it. but otherwise i generally don't bother looking for or buying them.

the other type of game i will only play on consoles is fighting games (ie street fighter, tekken) though it's been years since i've been into them. back in the 90s i played this goofy pc fighting game but it just wasn't right playing it with a keyboard.

i also wouldn't bother with guitar hero type games on the pc, as for me they're more for partying with my friends, and you need a decently big, but not necessarily hd screen to really enjoy them that way.

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The thing about console games is that they use tricks to get around hardware limitations. After all, the hardware cannot be upgraded like PCs. Sometimes, console developers would blur the game a little bit in an attempt to minimize aliasing. They'll also make the game render at resolutions below 1280x720 (e.g. Modern Warfare 2 at 1024x600). Developers do this to gain performance and/or to increase image quality. On the PC side, developers don't have to do this. The inherent design of PC games account for this because users can run the game at various settings and sometimes, at custom settings with certain features turned on or off.

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