NG Sigma IS running at 1080p despite the earlier mixup..

[Umon Daisuke]

It wouldn't be a Team Ninja interview if there wasn't an aura of arrogance.. though Hayashi is still a noob compared to the master Itagaki. "Sounds like an excusve to the consumers" is what he said about developers complaining about the PS3 hardware I think the more interesting part was saying that they've made some AI improvements thanks to the SPU's. It's been commonly believed online that the SPU's cannot be used for AI at all.

http://www.gametrailers.com/viewnews.php?id=4312

In order to have this be a great experience for both people who are new to the series as well as those who've enjoyed it since the beginning, we want to provide an experience that looks totally new and fresh. One of the best ways to do that was to have a game that runs at a 1080p with a constant 60 fps, and utilizes real-time self-shadowing. No other game as accomplished all three of these goals at once.

[Dot50Cal]

Hawt.

[James]

I would expect no less from Team Ninja. All their games look amazing and run smoothly (bar Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, which ran at about 30fps in only 720p >_>)

But yeah, good news. =D

[Umon Daisuke]

Demo out on the Japanese PSN on April 27. Yay.

[James]

Cannot wait, though I have to get around to creating a Japanese PSN account. Anyone got any ways to do this? =)

[Umon Daisuke]

Yeah, just create a new user profile, then create a PSN ID within that profile for a Japanese account (using the country as Japan of course).

[James]

If only I could read Japanese. I get lost at the sign up page.

Are they the same as the English ones? Because if they are, I'll jsut write down everything in English and then correspond it with the Japanese ones =D

[A-J]

smoking devkits, damn..

GI: Talking to Itagaki-san, DOA4 was originally a launch-window release, and he said he blew up a few Xbox 360s because he pushed it too far. He said that every game that he makes, he maxes out the hardware. Have you blown up any PlayStation 3 devkits, and do you think you’re in the same realm, where you’re making the most out of everything that you have available with the PlayStation 3?

Hayashi: We’ve made a couple of devkits smoke, but we haven’t had any actually blow up yet. [laughs] As far as using the hardware to its fullest, there are a ton of examples, but it’s about approaching the process gradually. For instance, initially we didn’t think that we were going to be able to do as much as we have been able to, which is something good about the PS3, because we weren’t necessarily limited to what it says on paper. As an example, we had originally planned to only include self-shadowing during the cutscenes, but once we actually started coding, we found that we were able to have cutscenes in real time, fully implemented throughout the entire game and while you’re in the middle of the action. So it’s really a matter of having a certain goal and then you try to see what you can get the hardware to do to achieve that goal, and by the time you look around you have smoke throughout the entire R&D floor.

[James]

O_o

[Carnivol]

"Smoking" a devkit is an impressive feat. But it's not really positive in any way.

[Umon Daisuke]

Neither is blowing one up. In both cases, they managed to push the respective SDK versions further than MS or Sony anticipated at those points in their cycle. So I'd say it's positive in a way.

[Carnivol]

It only means that they've done something that most of all is a potential hardware flaw and that the system somehow is not capable of dealing with things properly, resulting in a hardware malfunction, the type of malfunction that shouldn't happen on a system, especially not on a dev unit.

[Umon Daisuke]

Maybe if I said initial or certain SDK versions (first batch of final versions), you'd get what I mean. What it could mean is that they went lower level to exploit a system than a hardware manufacturer would've liked with the said SDK version. I'm all for lower level libraries, and exploiting stuff beyond required means. Of course, this includes tests that don't make it to the final game.

There isn't anything more to it, but you seem to think it's more serious matter and not questionable boards/wiring in SDKs. Comments like those in interviews would get the average reader thinking that the game is pushing the hardware to the max, while it's not.

I haven't heard of anyone blowing up their consoles with DOA4 like Tecmo did with their SDK's, have you?

[Borman]

Either that, or they are exaggerating to provide an effect. I dont read it as the thing was actually smoking, thats for sure.

[metaleggman]

I agree that it's positivie. It's a sign team ninja is pushing the systems to their fullest, if quite a bit past, which means that, at least technically speaking, we can expect great things, as always. I always placed the hands of "greatest developers" technically speaking with Factor Five, Nintendo, and Sony. I really forgot about Team Ninja and their superb efforts on whatever console they work with. I can't wait for Team Ninja to develop something for the Wii!