Julian Eggebrecht, President of Factor 5 — developer of the Star Wars Rogue Squadron games for Lucas Arts — said that the Cell processor found in the heart of the PS3 is not only powerful, but that the strength of the chip is virtually unlimited. Factor 5 is currently developing the game Lair, an exclusive title for the PS3.
In comparing the difficulty of the programming learning curve of the PS3 as compared to other next gen machines, Eggebrecht remarked, "…The baseline isn’t hard to figure out. Yes, it’s a harder ramp. Everybody acknowledges that compared to the 360 and the Wii. It’s not all that bad. It’s not like the PS2 ramp was at the very beginning. The interesting question becomes ‘oh boy, we could go on forever optimizing for the PlayStation 3.’ The PS3 has more of the situation where you could go another six months easily and forever. You can get so much more power. RSX is a known quantity. But Cell is pretty limitless at this point."
He then went on to comment about how Factor 5 is utilizing the processing power of the Cell processor to make graphics that have never been seen before. "Lair is also the only game which does all of its light in real time, and the atmospheric calculations. That gives us the day and nights cycle, the fluid dynamic simulations in the water. That wouldn’t have been possible half a year ago."
To date, only several titles have hinted at the PS3’s potential graphical abilities (Resistance, MotorStorm), with the majority of games being somewhat disappointing. With Lair scheduled for release in July 2007, perhaps Sony can finally say, "We told you so," as the first wave of "real" PS3 graphic intensive games hits store shelves.
But, when its the developers of games start telling us which console is the powerhouse in the console race, we may as well believe them. After all, they have the most intimate relationship with the hardware, and know it best. As for the impact on gamers, maybe other studios will heed Eggebrecht’s words and find an easier way to deliver the best quality games to all platforms.
With additional reporting by Eddie Inzauto.
[via The Mercury News]
