All of these developments were made patently clear at the recent Microsoft Build
conference. Justin Saint Clair, a Microsoft business development
manager, stood before an audience of game developers and encouraged them
to reset their approach. Don’t just think about graphics, themes, and
plot lines, argued Saint Clair. The first question every developer
should be asking is, “What is a PC?”
The very definition of the term “personal computer” has been upended
over the past few years, and now PC gaming looks to be catching up at
last. We’re no longer bound to keyboard and mice. We’re no longer even
bound to playing the very same game—or the very same campaign within a
single game—on the same device. In this article, I’ll walk you through
all the new use cases that game developers are exploring. The fruits of
their labor will become manifest in all genres of PC gaming, from the
casual titles we play on tablets to the deep, textured 3D extravaganzas
we download from Steam.
One game, multiple manifestations
When the iPad launched a couple of years ago, the tablet quickly
redefined the rules of video gaming. Thanks to its built-in
accelerometers and touch sensitivity, the iPad became both a game screen
and a game controller. Not only could we tilt the tablet to, say,
control a car’s steering in a driving game, but we could also use our
fingers to directly manipulate the gameplay action.
But that was the state of the mobile gaming art in 2010, and simple
accelerometer and touch tricks are now considered a given. In 2013,
Microsoft will be encouraging developers to imagine tablet gaming
experiences that extend beyond the tablet—in essence, single games that
manifest themselves in different, creative ways across a variety of
devices and platforms.
Microsoft is working on APIs that allow developers to create a single
game that plays more or less similarly on PCs and tablets, but with
different control schemes and less-demanding graphics for tablet
iterations. For example, the Xbox Live multiplayer API will live on both
Xbox and Windows, allowing developers to build seamless multiplayer
games that span platforms. Another Microsoft development path taps into
the “second screen” approach, in which a single game leverages both your
big-screen TV and a tablet—a scheme that’s already being realized on
Windows 8 tablets running the Xbox SmartGlass app.
The Xbox 360 racing game Forza Horizon, for instance, lets you (or a
friend) view highway maps on your tablet, while you continue to steer
the car with your console's button-oriented driving interface. In
effect, the tablet allows you to have a second person in the “passenger
seat,” helping you with navigation.
Microsoft is also taking advantage of its Windows runtime platform
(the underpinning of all Windows 8 Store apps) along with Xbox Live
networking features to iterate a single game franchise in unprecedented
ways. Take, for example, the Mass Effect series of sci-fi third-person
shooters. Mass Effect 3 is already a big single-player hit on the PC,
but now a companion game, Mass Effect: Infiltrator, is available for
iOS, and both titles tap into the franchise’s cloud-based “Galaxy at
War” system. The upshot? In Infiltrator, when you gather intelligence
data, your achievements will improve your “Galactic Readiness Rating,”
which is integral to the PC game.
Of course, the cloud offers simpler benefits as well. Imagine firing
up a game on your PC, playing a few minutes, and then saving your
progress to Microsoft’s servers. Later, you’re in a hotel room in a
distant land, where you load an iteration of the same game on your
tablet, and continue where you left off. Such a scheme is already
available in the desktop PC gaming titles Mass Effect 3 and Dirt
Showdown, but you can expect more deployments to follow. It’s also worth
noting that even simple Microsoft Store apps keep their status and save
games in the cloud, ensuring that the whole lot of them offer seamless
starting, stopping, and restarting regardless of your physical location
and of which Windows 8 device you’re using.
At the Build conference, Microsoft's Saint Clair also shared a new
vision of online multiplayer gaming. He encouraged developers to imagine
a single multiplayer game on PCs, Xbox 360 consoles, and Windows 8
tablets—three different platforms, but with players engaged in exactly
the same online environment. This model is already available in Hydro Thunder Hurricane.
Then there's the LAN party, which is begging for redefinition.
Today’s LAN party typically involves every player lugging a bulky PC or
beefy gaming laptop to a common location, plugging in a bunch of cables
and switches, and joining a multiplayer server. But Windows 8 running on
mobile devices could dramatically reduce a bunch of logistical pain
points. As Saint Clair asked, "What happens when everyone in the house
has a tablet?"
The tablet changes everything
Tablet gaming isn't just PC gaming with touch control tacked on. A
good tablet game will also recognize a suite of behaviors and
technologies specific to modern mobile devices: touch gestures, of
course, but also accelerometers, GPS, near-field sensors, gyroscopes,
and more. Windows Runtime—Microsoft’s new development platform that
unifies PCs, tablets, and even Windows Phone 8—incorporates all of those
possibilities, enabling game developers to take advantage of new
mechanics and models. As a result, any developer who is comfortable with
Windows Runtime can tap into gameplay dynamics as rich as anything we
see deployed on iOS.
But although tablets are rich with creative development
opportunities, they often drop the ball in pure performance. Tablets and
hybrid devices don't offer the raw CPU and GPU firepower of a good
desktop PC, and this is a limiting factor that all traditional PC gaming
developers will have to respect. Making matters worse, the GPUs inside
current-generation Windows RT tablets and Windows Phone handsets don't
support the full range of DirectX 11 features available to desktop PCs
with modern graphics cards. Game programmers will need to ensure that
Windows 8 Store games will work in Windows RT using only Direct3D 9 in
their 3D content.
That doesn't mean games will look terrible on tablets, however. Low
polygon counts and low-resolution textures don’t look nearly as bad on
small tablet displays as they do on a large desktop display. Also, many
of the games built for sale on the Windows Store will be lighter, casual
fare, so performance problems likely won't be a major factor.
Minesweeper: A prime example
The updated version of Minesweeper is a shining example of a casual
game that takes full advantage of the new features Windows 8 enables.
The original Minesweeper, of course, has been available for free in
every version of the OS since Windows 3.1; this single game is probably
responsible for more lost productivity than any other title, except
perhaps Solitaire. Microsoft wanted to completely reimagine Minesweeper
and make it a showcase for what a Windows Store game could be. To that
end, Microsoft hired experienced casual game developer Arkadium, and the
new version of Minesweeper adds much more than just simple touch
control.
First off, the game no longer runs in a window. It's now a
full-screen app suitable for tablet devices, but it still works well on a
desktop PC. Arkadium also added a new skin, the garden theme. Beyond
that, the revamped game also has a new Adventure mode in which you
explore a set of caves with a cartoony character.
Unlike in the Minesweeper of yesteryear, you don't need to clear or
mark every tile to pass an Adventure level. In fact, there’s no single
“perfect” way to complete a level: You can explore every inch to
maximize the amount of gold you collect, or you can simply find the
quickest route to the exit. It’s your choice.
Racing through an Adventure level without uncovering or marking most
of the tiles nets you a lower score than exploring the level more
thoroughly. Monsters and other obstacles block your travel along the
way, but you also pick up tools and weapons to ease navigation.
In total, Adventure mode changes Minesweeper from a simple
clear-the-map game into a sort of "roguelike" in which you explore
levels and overcome challenges to get through a maze. The game also
incorporates social media sharing: Each time you complete a level, you
have the opportunity to share your accomplishments.
Minesweeper also adds the social dimension of daily challenges and
achievements. Daily challenges let you collect virtual currency for
earning badges, and hold the promise of an unspecified prize. But these
challenges are also saddled with advertising. Yes, in-game advertising
has come to Minesweeper, usually in the form of short video clips or
clickable hotspots that take you to an external site. This commercial
element—along with the limitation of not being able to run Minesweeper
in a window—definitely reduces the game’s fun factor. Still, there’s no
debating that the new social elements show how Microsoft is trying to
advance even the Windows platform’s most rudimentary games.
Enhanced desktop games on Windows 8
The Windows desktop is still a big part of any Windows 8 system,
including tablets and hybrid PCs running the new OS. All-in-one PCs with
touch capabilities are gaining prominence in the Windows 8 desktop
hardware landscape; and some higher-end all-in-one PCs, such as the Dell
XPS One and Lenovo A720, include discrete GPUs, which allow them to run more 3D-intensive titles.
Even desktop games can benefit from additional features built into
Windows 8, such as the enhanced touch interface. Intel has worked with a
couple of key developers to bring touch to desktop games. Firaxis added
touch, including support for gestures, to Civilization V, one of the
biggest strategy titles of the past year.
At least one desktop PC game, Wargame: European Escalation by Eugen
Systems, was developed from the ground up for touch. Eugen's first game,
R.U.S.E., supported touch under Windows 7, but the interface was a
little obtuse. In contrast, the top-down map interface of European
Escalation—a real-time strategy game that takes place in a hypothetical
war between the 1980s superpowers in Europe—offers tiles, rather than
small buttons, as the main selectable user interface elements. Touch
select and other gestures also work as expected.
Both Civilization 5 with touch support and Wargame: European
Escalation work well with Windows 8. European Escalation, like Eugen's
earlier game, will also work with touch-enabled Windows 7 systems.
Interestingly, both games have also been optimized for Intel's
integrated HD 4000 graphics, so their performance should be adequate on
Ultrabook-class hybrids and tablets. That's a reality that all game
developers will face going forward: In raw performance, the graphics
hardware on these sleek systems currently doesn't measure up to discrete
graphics cards on desktop PCs.
A new generation
Windows 8 and Windows RT have arrived, and with it, the new
generation of Windows Store games. Many of these games will be built on
JavaScript, HTML 5 canvas, and Microsoft's XAML core languages, allowing
easy porting between mobile and PC platforms. Higher-end titles will
continue to be developed in more traditional languages.
More important for users, new gaming experiences are emerging. With
many Microsoft Store apps, you'll be able to transition easily from your
game when you're moving from one platform to the next. The widespread
adoption of Windows 8 games on mobile devices such as Ultrabook hybrids
and pure tablets will encourage the spread of certain gaming genres that
have had modest traction, such as location-based or augmented-reality
titles. New sensors built into tablets and hybrid laptops will allow
game designers to build new control types into games, which in turn will
give them the ability to create new types of games.
Although Apple iOS fans will no doubt snort, suggesting that such
features have always been available on iOS, relatively few
cross-platform titles exist between iOS and Mac OS. Plus, Apple's
laptops seem to be evolving toward higher-end display technology, but
aren't adopting touch as a key part of that OS.
The new generation of Windows games, on the other hand, will
integrate titles on desktop PCs, laptops, smartphones, and even Xbox
consoles, creating new experiences for users of all kinds of games,
ranging from the very casual to the hard-core. It's going to be exciting
to see what games emerge, given the plethora of platforms and sensors,
all running on a common platform.
By Loyd Case of PC World
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2014338/how-windows-8-rewrites-the-rules-of-pc-gaming.html?page=2
Thursday, December 6, 2012
How Windows 8 rewrites the rules of PC gaming
11:10 AM
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