One of the Xbox 360′s developers has commented on the need of the Xbox 720, as well as explaining the fact that they can still utilize Microsoft’s current platform’s hardware.

Turn 10′s Dan Greenawalt, the developer of the soon-to-be-released Forza 4, told Eurogamer when asked whether their upcoming racer is the last title in the franchise to see a release on the Xbox 360:




There’s no reason it has to be. There’s more than one way to skin a cat. A lot of how we get our improvements, such as the graphics, was not with more hardware. It’s actually through a knowledge of the hardware. It’s actually easier to be on a platform after it’s been several years out, because we can borrow from Epic, Rare, Lionhead, 343, and we give back to them.


Plus, we borrow from the rest of the industry: SIGRAPH, DICE, GDC. A lot of people think, what about the rivalry with this company? It’s like, we all work in game development. Marketing teams rival. PR teams rival. Platforms rival. We’re game developers, and we want to deliver a vision, so we’re not really looking at the rivalry.


When asked if more RAM would help (referring to the possibility of releasing a future Forza title on the Xbox 720):


Hardware can always help, but only after you’ve had some time to trick the hardware. The reason we’re able to do what we do is not by using the hardware the way it was supposed to be used. That’s what happens on every version. Every game that looks great, the way it does it is by getting the hardware, learning every nook and cranny of it and tricking it into doing things more efficiently.


It’s like packing up a moving van. When you unpack a van and you put it on your pavement and repack it, you get more space. Well also it’s about knowing every nook and cranny of that van, so you’re putting things in the glove box, and you’re putting things where you were never supposed to store them. You’ve tricked it into doing more.


The developer then commented on new hardware (the Xbox 720 in this case) and the ways which more RAM is effective to a certain extent:


When you get new hardware, it’s actually really hard to trick it because you need a couple of years to develop that. It’s nice to have other developers like Epic, who are like, hey, we’ve found a spot, if you rip the door panel open you can shove some stuff underneath the window. The window doesn’t work any more but that’s OK, you’ve got more room in here.


There are a lot of PCs that are really powerful now and yet a lot of the games don’t look much better because it’s an unstable platform. You have to make it for the lowest common denominator. So, would more power and more RAM help? Always. But it wouldn’t help immediately. And there’s still plenty of things we can do on this hardware because it’s not always the hardware that delivers the experience. Auto Vista, the new IBL, new physics engine, new AI… there’s a lot of new innovation we have in this game. And this is our third version on this box. So innovation is a lot more than hardware.

Posted: Oct 02, 2011 9:12 pm

Source: http://www.gamersmint.com/developer-comments-on-xbox-720-utilizing-360-hardware-more