von 1up.com cord smith von pseudointeractive:
The Infamous Full Auto Demo
This BLOG is a great place to answer questions and field comments in a down-to-earth way. Obviously, game development isn't easy. When you combine completely separate disciplines, gigs of complex content, thousands upon thousands of lines of code, and the need to create a comprehensive whole that will easily interact with gamers from all walks of life, you're facing challenges that no other medium has to consider.
And while speculation is entertaining, most gamers aren't privy to the insane amount of issues that crop up "behind the scenes" at a typical--or atypical in this case--development studio.
Case in point: why release a demo in January that seems to bear little resemblance to the final product that's shipping in only a few weeks. Well, let's first get to the bottom of the mysterious code speculation: the OXM demo and the recently released Marketplace demo are indeed the same code, and given the fact that our development process forces us to branch demo code out from the main code base, you might consider August as the real origin of the final demo code. Although minor alterations were made to address feedback from Microsoft, the main code base continued to evolve while the demo code base remained locked so that it would remain stable.
This meant elements like our ongoing car handling, weapon tuning, HUD overhaul, front end enhancements, lighting tweaks, one touch replay system, pre-race presentation, etc. were not included in the demo. But since we're dealing with a new IP, it's essential that we pushed the demo out as early as possible to ensure that gamers got a good sense of the final game.
Demos (E3, G-phoria, X'05, OXM, Marketplace, etc.) had a major impact on our development cycle as it was, so putting more effort into an updated one late in development would have seriously compromised the overall quality and polish of the final game. This is a conundrum many developers deal with when making their master schedules. No one can deny the importance of creating a demo in today's marketplace, but you have to ask yourself "at what cost?" When timeframes are tight, the full game will always take precedence. Just look to Microsoft's showing at E3 2005 for evidence of this. It's likely that you didn't see PGR3 or Perfect Dark Zero on the show floor because those teams were instructed to prioritize the full version of the game at that time. Not until X'05 did the press get their hands-on experience with those games out in the open at an official event.
It should be noted that demos undergo a certification process very similar to the final game, meaning you can't just wrap up a demo and post it online by yourself. The demo must go through internal QA, publisher QA, and then submission to the 1st party. This process can take many weeks depending upon the complexity of the demo as well as any iterations that are needed based upon feedback from any of the 3 QA groups. Although the Xbox Live Marketplace now allows us a powerful distribution tool for getting demos to the public, getting a demo on a disc such as OXM adds even more time to the equation since the code must be verified, laid into the cover disc and interface layout, the discs must then be replicated, the demos and magazines must be combined, and mailing delays must be taken into account. You can understand that this is not an overnight process, and thus getting a demo out prior to the launch of your game necessitates using older code.
Anyway, we're quite proud of the Full Auto demo, even though it's a bit of a relic compared to the quality of the final game. I'm glad to hear that many of you are enjoying it and can see the inherent promise of the final game even though you're experiencing older code. The demo does have a few interesting quirks that the final game does not:
1) I believe both the 1P and 2P controllers can control the car at the same time so if you play it smart, one person can drive while the other mans the weapons--this was a bug but some gamers seem to think it's a feature we missed out on keeping in the final game.
2) The aiming constraints on the missile launcher are much more forgiving in the demo version of the game so you'll find that you can target areas that you aren't able to in the final game. This change was made to better balance the weapon load-outs, but there is something to be said for having greater range (fair or not).
So that's a bit of background on making demos. Hopefully I've addressed some of your questions.
der redet über alles möglich nur nicht über die framerate... schlechtes zeichen. dazu ist das mit den zwei leuten die mit einem auto spielen ein bug... sch...ande
Zitat
Original von McE
