The Future of Source - Article

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[br]Games that will fully support multi-core systems - It's the way of the future. It's no secret that Valve wants to stay king in the technological department with their Source engine, but with a select few other gaming firms moving towards developing games that utilize multi-core systems, Valve is going to have to do exactly the same thing, and better, to keep their rightful place on the throne.[br]Bit-Tech.nethttp://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2006/11/02/Multi_core_in_the_Source_Engin/1.html has published an extremely well written and interesting article that discusses the future of Source. Some of Valve's gurus explain that "Fundamentally, games are about what you do, not what you see. So in terms of things which make games fundamentally profound experiences - and differentiate them from non-interactive entertainment such as TV and film - it's more about what you do on the CPU than on the GPU." In other words, supporting multiple cores is a must for what they are seeking in terms of a cinematic experience. Until now, support for more complicated AI sequences were nearly impossible to do because of limitations from the CPU...
AI: "As an AI programmer, what really excites me about multi-core is what it means for the AI potential. In the case of dual core systems, because so much time is spent on rendering, you're better off dedicating both cores to increasing your frame rate. But at a certain point, the frame rate is good enough that increasing it gives diminishing returns to the player. This is why four cores is more interesting than just two - it gives us the power to create new experiences."
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Along with the article, Bit-Tech was given a benchmark demo that showcases some of the effects possible with a multi-threaded engine. A new rain effecthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwD6u960joI&eurl= in which the rain realistically collides with the ground and other drops of water, as well as a another collision demo that showcases Valve's new particle systemhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvVcxruVeMk&eurl= where smoke is able to interact to each other and surrounding objects... Better quality videos are to come from Bit-Tech when they are able to distribute them.[br]This new technology will be added to the Source engine before the year is up. Performance increases to already launched games will be the first noticeable change, and Episode Two will be sporting all kinds of new effects.[br]Read the article. It's not an option - It's a must.
 
gg no title :p

Reading now.

Edit: OMG that water looks hawt :O
Great read aswell.
 
'Tis a mystery post!


My apostrophes seemed to have... Dissapearred?
 
Dual cores are only just being used in games with very limited benefits and already they are obsolete. I love the bleeding edge.
 
nutcrackr said:
Dual cores are only just being used in games with very limited benefits and already they are obsolete. I love the bleeding edge.
Click to expand...

That's how fast the industry grows! :p Obviously you will see improvements with dual cores, but the more cores you have, the better performance you will get! :) They aren't outdated, but they are saying that if you want top of the line performance, get the most cores you can.

Hopefully sometime next year, quad cores and their respective motherboards will go down in price! I can't wait to get some of this tech, but need for it to be a bit cheaper first...

Can't wait for the tech demo to come out though! Even though me and my single core machine will not do so hot on it :p
 
Excellent read. I always find it interesting to read about these sorts of things.
 
I don't know about you guys but those videos didn't do anything for me.
 
WhiteZero said:
What are the really faint words in the picture?
Click to expand...

Reflection of the words above :p


Can't see whats really going on in the smoke demo, but the rain looks pretty nifty.

Teh future looks shiny...
 
Btw this alone sold me on the QUAD core. I was thinking of going DUAL but this has sold me for QUAD.
 
This is why I bought a cheap, but good, dual core solution for now (E6300). I plan to get a quad core next year, along with a nice DX10 card.

I can't love Valve enough.
 
I think the smoke are particles being effected by physics. Maybe even fluid dynamics. As for the rain, nice blur shader. Id be interested to see what else the source engine could do if running on a quad-core processor.

-Dodo
 
so am guessing you won't see much of a performance gain on a dual core system? ;_;
 
I guess you will see in cases where heavy intensive fights and physics take place, will be smoother: overall smooth performance
 
Read that yesterday, sounds good.

I'm building a new DX10 machine when the card fight is settled and was going to go for a Conroe and overclock it to death. This has me thinking that the quad-core expense could be worth it.

I need proof before I throw down that much cash though... they are very pricey compared to a solid dual-core...
 
Dual Core CPU's will also have better performance in future games. Quad Core CPU's will just have an even better performance ;)

Remember, that Quad Core CPU's will be extremely expensive for some time. It will take over a year for the prices to drop enough to be affordable to someone who's name isn't Gates or Newell :p

Also, the current Quad proposition from Intel is... a very bad design. It's just two Core 2 Duo processors locked in the same package. Both dual-core cores (it doesn't sound too well :p) communicate through the FSB. Common cache and the elimination of FSB is the key advantage of Core 2 Duo over Athlon X2 (which communicates through HT, which is a lot faster than FSB, but still slower than an internal design like in Core 2 Duo).

Right now, it seems that AMD may take the lead in Quad Core processors. But Intel ain't stupid and won't make a mistake like it did with Netburst. It's all good, competition makes the prices lower ;)
 
Can't wait for real fluids in source... Think of the fun you could have with that.

Equally realistic fabrics would be nice too.

Get a move on valve! ;)
 
Przemek said:
Dual Core CPU's will also have better performance in future games. Quad Core CPU's will just have an even better performance ;)

Remember, that Quad Core CPU's will be extremely expensive for some time. It will take over a year for the prices to drop enough to be affordable to someone who's name isn't Gates or Newell :p

Also, the current Quad proposition from Intel is... a very bad design. It's just two Core 2 Duo processors locked in the same package. Both dual-core cores (it doesn't sound too well :p) communicate through the FSB. Common cache and the elimination of FSB is the key advantage of Core 2 Duo over Athlon X2 (which communicates through HT, which is a lot faster than FSB, but still slower than an internal design like in Core 2 Duo).

Right now, it seems that AMD may take the lead in Quad Core processors. But Intel ain't stupid and won't make a mistake like it did with Netburst. It's all good, competition makes the prices lower ;)
Click to expand...

So, Intel's Quad-Core is basically made in the same way as the Pentium D.

Bah, I'm sure AMD shall come up with something magical.
 
So dual-core will give aproximately a 1.8x performance?
 
nutcrackr said:
Dual cores are only just being used in games with very limited benefits and already they are obsolete. I love the bleeding edge.

Iced_Eagle said:
That's how fast the industry grows!
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Which means lots of bargains for todays cutting edge as little as 6 months down the line :cheers:

Yes things do move quick in this industry. I was cutting edge in the new year 2005 with my new Socket 939 mobo, 64bit Athlon chip & DX9 gfx card. Old hat now though. But how much do you want to spend on new kit & how often? I decided to always buy the bottom end of the cutting edge technology. So my AMD 64bit 3000 chip only cost £100 at the time. But the jump to a 3500 chip was about another £250!! My DX9 6800 was only £150 being that it was an LE. Still does the business with HL2 & CSS though & I'm still running that kit now. I can't really be arsed upgrading every year & I certainly have better things to spend my money on.

But I wonder what sort of kit I'll need to run these new technologies? My kit still does me but it's already been floored by HDR lighting. I must admit I also have to turn down 1 or two of the settings in HL2 to keep things smooth (generally guided by what 'Tweak Guides' had to say about optimisation at the time of HL2's release). But it does me & going to 64-bit with 1GB of fast RAM only cost me £300. What would that get me now? Obviously I'd need a new mobo + the new dual/quad core chip. Then there would be the DX10 card on top of that. We're talking a fair bit more than £300 that's for sure!

At least that reinforces my logic of buying the botom end of the cutting edge & just tweaking those graphic settings a little. Otherwise where does it end? It doesn't! And the expense is huge if you do want to stay cutting edge. I admire the dedication & financial commitment of people that do but to me it feels to much like thorwing money away for stuff that in a years time won't be worth much anyway! Not with the increasing speed things move on these days. I'm excited by the new software technologies in games .......... Until I realise the price of the hardware involved to run it smoothly!
 
I haven't upgraded a single part in my PC since 2003... When my 9800Pro was "The Perfect Choice for Half-Life 2!" at E3 2003... So, everyone knows how I feel now. :(

I know when Vista is released, I'm going to spend a bunch on a bleeding edge PC. Again, I probably will hold off on incremental updates, but will do full upgrades sooner than every 4 years.
 
I updated my PC. To a Radeon 9250SE from a GeForce4 MX420. And that was only like, a year ago?

Gah.
 
-smash- said:
I haven't upgraded a single part in my PC since 2003... When my 9800Pro was "The Perfect Choice for Half-Life 2!" at E3 2003... So, everyone knows how I feel now. :(
Click to expand...

Hey don't be knocking the 9800 Pro...one of the best cards ever released. I'm still running one as well, and personally until Vista, DX10 and the quads are firmly in place I'm not remotely thinking about upgrading. The OS shift/DX10 is going to be a big stepping stone and I really don't think that there is much point investing in hardware until after it's impact has been assessed. I'd rather be a johnny come lately 6 months down the line and save myself a few hundred pounds/dollars/euros buying fully functional parts than be a first adopter and pay through the nose for initial hardware with limited DX10 functionality.
 
I really should've bought a multicore CPU for my latest set-up. Oh well.
Pretty interesting stuff.


I still grin inanely every time I see Gordon stretch out his hands in the HEV gloves.
 
Sorry to bump an old thread but theres this article
http://www.driverheaven.net/articles/Valve_Editor's_Day_1106
that show an extra two videos i haven't seen in other articles
 
No0bz said:
Sorry to bump an old thread but theres this article
http://www.driverheaven.net/articles/Valve_Editor's_Day_1106
that show an extra two videos i haven't seen in other articles
Click to expand...

Ahh, better footage of the rain and collision part, also a bit more hi-res. Thanks for posting it. :)

The rain does, indeed, look super sexy.
 
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