- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I've seen a demonstration, and read about the features of XNA, what they call the new Xbox2 SDK (Software Development Kit). It is so sweet. More on that in a moment.
The XNA is the ultimate answer to the gap between PC Gaming and Console Gaming. In the past there has been SDK's for each console and the PC. If you wanted a multi-platform game you had to port your work over from one to the other. As we know Ports are horrible. XNA allows you to develop your PC games and Xbox2 games on the same SDK. If this works as claimed, you get two platforms for the same effort you'd put into only one of them.
This means, more game developers are going to steer towards Xbox2 and PC since it has a larger distrubution angle. They've already released the XNA... and they're gearing up to get the Xbox2 out a year before the PS3. If they can... the market's going to be already glutted by Xbox2's and here's why--
Now, back to the demo. The demo opens up a blue sports car revolving in place. It's pretty, nice figure, wonderful lighting and reflections in the mirrored blue finish... lovely but unimpressive. We've seen it all before. Then the double doors open up revealing a length of tunnel. The siren sounds and the car barrels down full speed, getting up to about 320 kph before it slams into a wall. GOOD LORD... the car suffered real time deformation, perfectly, accurately depicting the warping of steel and the crushing power of the impact. The scene cuts, different angles of collision ensue. A wheel flies across the screen, every time the model is deformed perfectly, accurately depicting a real life crash.
All of this seems rather simple but the mathematics involved, the number of calculations... it's staggering. Then you think what it would be like if the marine driving the warthog next to you slammed into the corner of a building caving in his engine block, the entire vehicle almost wrapping itself around the edge of the building, a tire spins off slamming into a Grunt with the force of a melee attack and then finally the warthog explodes as you shake you head in bewildered shock at the realism and get back to killin' covies.