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Crackdown 3 uses cloud-based physics processing to enable environmental destruction

Kagoshima_Luke

Gold Member
First thing I can think of is: great, the destruction is cool, but the game turns into a crippled version of its former self the moment the servers are brought down or moved to use in some other game.
 
Does anybody in this thread have a fair idea on how much that would cost? I'm sure Sony could work out a partnership (just brand every game as 'Powered By Amazon') for a lower rate, but it still seems like a massive recurring cost to take on.
Microsoft will always have a cost advantage, because they own the servers, and they set their prices.

The question from me is, will anyone other than MS bother? If they do, will MS cloud price advantage transfer to a console sales advantage, or will they be happy just selling more Azure to third parties. Will they resist selling Azure to cross platform teams? Or will we see PS4 titles with "powered by Azure" on a splash screen?

I bet David Jones wants to sell Cloudgine to as many people as possible. Unless he's tilting for an MS buyout.
 

djkeem

Unconfirmed Member
Wouldn't latency affect gameplay?

Latency is the number one reason i have no interest in Playstation now or any other cloud based gaming solutions.
 

FyreWulff

Member
tl;dr:

Game uses dedicated server to do heavy lifting not possibly by having the server be on the client box.

In other news, home computers don't have the power to run a WoW server, either. Whouda thunk?

Having the server handle most of the interactions is neither new and not surprising that they can pull it off. It's been a staple of most PC games for years.

Sony doesn't have the infrastructure to offer this kind of experience on this kind of level.

Sony doesn't have online infrastructure? You do realize they put out this small game nobody played called Everquest, right?
 
First thing I can think of is: great, the destruction is cool, but the game turns into a crippled version of its former self the moment the servers are brought down or moved to use in some other game.

MS doesn't have a server farm for this game. Its all VMs that spool based on usage so they don't manually move games to other servers.

If XBL/Azure goes down you aren't playing online anyway.
 
Well we can pop over to the Azure pricing page and have a guess with made up numbers?

Based on Dave's demo at Gamescon he explained that each multiplayer instance consists of a number of compute services processing chunks of the world. He also mentioned that the highest number of "Xbox like" instances they have utilised was 15.

Lets say that an average game uses 5 compute instances. Since they said that this would equal 5 times the power of an Xbox One, let's assume that each instance is an Azure A3 instance (4 cores, 7GB ram).

That would cost £1 an hour. Each game instance has 4 players. Now let's just say they have 100,000 players playing simultaneously that's £25,000 an hour for 4 player games using 5 compute services each game.

Now I have just made all the numbers up and plugged them into the Azure pricing calculator so almost certainly 99% of what I have said is probably bullshit but hey... until we get some more information on how exactly they are utilising the Azure platform - we will really never know the cost.

Made up in what way?

Age of Ascent, a game using Azure....

4e5kuIs.png


https://twitter.com/lee_stott/status/486437448348860417

So yeah.
 
While I threw that comment in half-jokingly, because the irony of Sony buying infrastructure from Microsoft would be really funny, you are assuming that Microsoft can use its own servers for free, or at least for a non-trivial amount of money. That is not the case. Building and running those data centers costs money, and every unit of server time that is used by Microsoft itself, is server time that cannot be sold to customers for profit anymore.

So, while they get their own server time for cheaper, they don't get it for free, or even for cheap.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-10-15-the-difference-engine

This is a link to an article I posted a thread around the time when the Xbone was first released. In this article Microsoft employees clearly state that
persistent worlds, improved AI, better rendering and dedicated servers for every multiplayer game on the platform. And it's all being offered to developers for free.

Also, Albert (Microsoft employee - forgot his last name) stated in another thread this tidbit.

Also to be clear. One of the benefits of publishing games on Xbox One – ALL game developers get Dedicated Servers, Cloud Processing, and “storage” (for save games) free.

If you want to do dedicated servers on other platforms, you have to prop them yourself. But on Xbox One, while developers can choose to use their own methods, we make it available to everyone.

There should be no confusion on this point. We do not charge developers for Dedicated Servers.

Link to the thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=697684&highlight=
 

Stiler

Member
The fact that this is limited to MP really really annoys me.

I mean, why not allow people to use it in single player? I would GLADLY connect online in single player to have this, yet they are just like "nah, we can't let people do that!"
 

Overside

Banned
Haven't we had full level destruction on Ps2's red faction already? Why is Crackdown the first next gen game to take it a step further?

Yes, and its a similar solution. Take incoming data, create new assets based off data, animate said assets with physics simulation.

However, well, google the new video and the answer to your question is very self explanatory. Its pretty damn cool.

But this... This snake oil journolist pr is reaching too far, and once again into fradulant territory.... The things you can do with the cloud are very specific with hard limits set by current latency technology, ie how fast can electricity travel... And this is just implying once again that it makes the system super powerful, as if you could simply use the cloud for any aspect of the game, as if it was now a part of the closed system itself.
 
Many posters here talking about the cost of Microsoft using Azure for cloud computing have no idea what they're talking about. Cloud is the future for Microsoft, and they are heavily invested in it, and they have ways of dealing with the cost that are beyond what average posters here understand. They have built their servers to be massively scalable, including the use of virtual servers. The more gamers are using the cloud, the more the data will be scaled and shared across to the local machines. They are not using cloud for XB1 or for gaming because it's going to cost them a ton more money; they have built the cloud specifically to target mass usage; the more users are on board doesn't mean they will tax their servers more...there is lots of info online about this and they talked a lot about this in the initial reveals about cloud being a future component for XB1.

Another point is that Sony simply won't be able to add cloud computing to their system cheaply...they will have to go to Amazon/Google/MS if they want cloud computing....and there's also room to question which platform, in their internals, is better set up to handle external parallel processing...
 
Microsoft will always have a cost advantage, because they own the servers, and they set their prices.

The question from me is, will anyone other than MS bother? If they do, will MS cloud price advantage transfer to a console sales advantage, or will they be happy just selling more Azure to third parties. Will they resist selling Azure to cross platform teams? Or will we see PS4 titles with "powered by Azure" on a splash screen?

I bet David Jones wants to sell Cloudgine to as many people as possible. Unless he's tilting for an MS buyout.
Azure is a totally different business unit in Microsoft. They don't care who they sell it to. Same way how Samsung competes with Apple but happily sells them components for in their products.
 

Kagoshima_Luke

Gold Member
MS doesn't have a server farm for this game. Its all VMs that spool based on usage so they don't manually move games to other servers.

If XBL/Azure goes down you aren't playing online anyway.

Halo 2 multiplayer went down years ago and Live itself is still up. I just hate stuff that will inhibit enjoyment of a game, especially single player, years down the road.
 

oldergamer

Member
I've never heard of crackdown
apparently there's been 2 games before this one right,still it seems that
these building have physics like angry birds on steroids,my money is that
this will be just like Titan fall all over again, it's super hyped then everyone forgets about it.
Not to mention the lol glitches will be fun to watch with those building physics.

Any basis for that reasoning other then the obvious?
 

hawk2025

Member
Man, this tech is so exciting. I can't wait to see what else people do with it.


Also, Albert (Microsoft employee -....com/forum/showthread.php?t=697684&highlight=


We've already heard from multiple developer sources that this is not true.

Nothing Albert says on GAF should be taken on face value.
 

Sevyne

Member
Microsoft will always have a cost advantage, because they own the servers, and they set their prices.

The question from me is, will anyone other than MS bother? If they do, will MS cloud price advantage transfer to a console sales advantage, or will they be happy just selling more Azure to third parties. Will they resist selling Azure to cross platform teams? Or will we see PS4 titles with "powered by Azure" on a splash screen?

I bet David Jones wants to sell Cloudgine to as many people as possible. Unless he's tilting for an MS buyout.

If MS isn't eating the full cost then don't expect a single third party to get on board. There would be absolutely no benefit for third parties if MS charged them for it's use, and only benefits for MS. It's part of the reason I was saying before that you'll only see this utilized in MS' big hitters and not much more outside of that.
 

Kayant

Member
Isn't it like $75 per hour per 100k users?

I thought I saw it mentioned in a thread.
More tweets -

Age of Ascent paying $75per hour for 100,000 users
https://twitter.com/lee_stott/status/486437448348860417
BsAsSCRIMAEiEuO.jpg

Yes for one dev but we can't use that as a definitive pricing + given it's MS's own infrastructure it won't be as much as they're are charging people as they are trying to make a profit.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-10-15-the-difference-engine

This is a link to an article I posted a thread around the time when the Xbone was first released. In this article Microsoft employees clearly state that

Also, Albert (Microsoft employee - forgot his last name) stated in another thread this tidbit.



Link to the thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=697684&highlight=
It's already confirmed to not be free or at least for most devs will have to pay because it's only free for a set amount of users see the leaked SDK. Also Albert says lots of stuff....
 
Halo 2 multiplayer went down years ago and Live itself is still up. I just hate stuff that will inhibit enjoyment of a game, especially single player, years down the road.

Halo 2 was on the original Xbox infrastructure. At the launch of 360 they took it in a different path and had to shut down the original because it was all bootstrapped. An IGN unlocked interview with 3 of the heads of xbox from a month ago details this.

360 games are still playable today unless they are EA/Acti.
 

sangreal

Member
Man, this tech is so exciting. I can't wait to see what else people do with it.





We've already heard from multiple developer sources that this is not true.

It is true, there are just caveats to it.

Taken straight from the xdk:
On Xbox One, we provide Xbox Live Compute to developers/publishers who are already using Xbox Live services. The use of the service without charge is predicated upon following the policies mentioned below. We currently offer a dedicated amount of computation per game session based on the size of the session or player count.
 

Popsickles

Member
Hey, now both have a (not so) secret sauce. But yeah, of course the one of ps4 is better, gpgpu is worth dozens of servers ;-)
Seriously, what makes you think gpgpu could do it better?

For a start thre would be no lag, it could be changed on the fly and doesn't require an interent connection.
 
It wont be wasting Gpu power thats why they are there General purpose GPU cores something that are not really being utilised yet by devs.

Do you have proof of this? That there are untouched GPU cores that can be utilized for Physics calculations and not cause any issues with graphics?
 
Azure is a totally different business unit in Microsoft. They don't care who they sell it to.
Historically that's not always been the case. Under Gates/Ballmer there was cross unit strategy aimed at always protecting Windows. Word would come down from on high that you could not do that, because it harmed Windows / Office.

This does seem to have changed with the new guy though. Office on iPad and all that.
 
Man, this tech is so exciting. I can't wait to see what else people do with it.





We've already heard from multiple developer sources that this is not true.

Nothing Albert says on GAF should be taken on face value.

Yeah, I know he was banned, but even Kampfheld was saying it wasn't free. It IS free DURING development, though. That's probably what Penello was referring to.
 

hawk2025

Member
Yeah, I know he was banned, but even Kampfheld was saying it wasn't free. It IS free DURING development, though. That's probably what Penello was referring to.

Regardless, absolutely none of his comments on GAF should be taken at face value. They are clearly and purposefully misleading. I mean, the guy says "There should be no confusion on this point", then proceeds to confuse. It's ridiculous.
 
Yes for one dev but we can't use that as a definitive pricing + given it's MS's own infrastructure it won't be as much as they're are charging people as they are trying to make a profit.

It was more a comment on what one developer is paying. AoA was developed with Azure in mind, so I assume they got a discount. Knowing what the developer is paying, or was paying last year, gives us an idea of the cost of using Azure.

It could be more for other developers, it could be less.
 

scitek

Member
Who knows what another company could make with this, given the time?

This is the key. How many developers will bother taking the time to make games with something that requires utilizing an always-online connection? That alone significantly shrinks your potential audience size. It's like the MotionPlus with the Wii, when given the time, we got some legitimately cool games that took advantage of it. But I can think of only two like that off-hand.
 

quickwhips

Member
The fact that this is limited to MP really really annoys me.

I mean, why not allow people to use it in single player? I would GLADLY connect online in single player to have this, yet they are just like "nah, we can't let people do that!"

Have they said once this was multiplayer only? I think people are assuming it for pvp and not coop.
 

Kayant

Member
It was more a comment on what one developer is paying. AoA was developed with Azure in mind, so I assume they got a discount. Knowing what the developer is paying, or was paying last year, gives us an idea of the cost of using Azure.

It could be more for other developers, it could be less.

Ah fair point. Yh just like with Respawn although we probably will never know how much of a discount they got.
 

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
Will I then be unable to destroy the buildings?

That's correct. The campaign itself has limited destructibility whether you're online or off. The campaign does not use the servers. It's an MP mode on a completely separate map that does all this destruction and leverages the servers for physics calculations.

It's very different, because it affects single player.

But, if what others have said is true, it sounds like the current version of Live isn't at risk of being brought down anytime soon.
No it doesn't. See above.
 

leeh

Member
Halo 2 multiplayer went down years ago and Live itself is still up. I just hate stuff that will inhibit enjoyment of a game, especially single player, years down the road.
I highly highly doubt the same would happen here, its not like when Crackdowns player count drops to zero, they're wasting money on servers dedicated to the game. These are servers which are used by over 50% of the fortune 50.
 

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-10-15-the-difference-engine

This is a link to an article I posted a thread around the time when the Xbone was first released. In this article Microsoft employees clearly state that

Also, Albert (Microsoft employee - forgot his last name) stated in another thread this tidbit.



Link to the thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=697684&highlight=

Yet in this article, Titanfall developers say that they have to pay for that.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...one-cloud-following-a-lot-of-confusion-online

It sounds like Microsoft isn't charging developers too high a price for access to Azure, either. "Microsoft priced it so that it's far more affordable than other hosting options," Shiring said. "Their goal here is to get more awesome games, not to nickel-and-dime developers. So because of this, dedicated servers are much more of a realistic option for developers who don't want to make compromises on their player experience, and it opens up a lot more things that we can do in an online game."
 

hawk2025

Member
Not all of them. But yes, some of them were pretty misleading.

Well, obviously. I don't expect the guy to literally lie on every single one of his posts.

But if we can't parse out the truth in some until months later, the general recommended approach is to not trust anything.

Anyways, we're veering off-topic and discussing someone that doesn't post here anymore -- I just wanted to clear that up :)
 
Yeah, I know he was banned, but even Kampfheld was saying it wasn't free. It IS free DURING development, though. That's probably what Penello was referring to.

He is definitely working on the game though. He was right with about 95% of what he said about how they were thinking about it. Likely not at Reagent but Sumo. I think he got banned because they wanted to control the flow of information.
 
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