Remedy Interview - Part 3: "The Power Behind Wake"
YouGamers: A lot of people will be wondering whether there will be a significant difference in the, for example, quality of the shadows and textures or volumetric effects between the PC and Xbox 360 versions. Järvilehto: The PC version will definitely be scalable - that means every PC experience will be a bit different depending on your setup, whereas the 360 is a fixed platform. So there are some differences obviously but at this stage in the development, both platforms are pretty much identical.
YouGamers: Physics is obviously the "big thing" at the moment - anything unique going on? Mäki: Yes. Next question. [lots of laughter from everyone - it was getting late and we'd already been there a long time]. We're using Havok [smiles]. YouGamers: Ah - so with Havok, any support for hardware physics acceleration on the GPU in the PC version? Mäki: I don't think we see effects physics done on the GPU as being that relevant to the gameplay experience just yet, as it only impacts visuals.
YouGamers: Textures demands in Alan Wake are clearly going to be much, much bigger than in Max Payne because of the whole size and type of the environment. Was what you originally planned artistically just too much for what the technology could cope with? 
Volumetric lighting again - the contrasts between light and dark play a key role in Alan Wake. Quite often, it is only the former that will keep you safe and well. Don't fear the reaper but wet yourself when night comes...
Mäki: On texturing demands? Järvilehto: [smiles] You always have to make compromises on that… Mäki: I don't think that texture memory limits are our biggest bottleneck. Järvilehto: But that's also something that streaming affects too - with Max Payne, you had to store the level with all textures in memory, but now that we can stream stuff, it makes it a lot easier.
YouGamers: On the 360 version you're streaming the data from the DVD and hard drive for the PC, so is that technically difficult to do to accommodate those two different systems? Järvilehto: Not really - you set everything up for the DVD and then it should work pretty good from a hard disk! [laughs]
YouGamers: Okay, time's pressing so we'll be quick! Of late, a couple of games installations have been well over 10GB in size, is Alan Wake going to be of a similar size or will it fit onto a single DVD? Mäki: We'll fit it on a single DVD.
YouGamers: Any cool post processing effects not seen in PC games yet? Mäki: Yes but [smiles and at the same time as Järvilehto] next question! You should know from the demo! YouGamers: Yeah, we do but the readers don't! [laughs] Mäki: You need to use post-processing to enhance the mood and the gameplay experience - not huge bloom everywhere. [smiles] Järvilehto: Also, if you want to create an experience that transfers a TV or movie-like feel, then you definitely need to have the same tools as they have; so using depth of field and motion blur makes a lot of sense.
YouGamers: It does seem that post-processing effects are a big thing in today’s games - two or three years ago, you would just have a bit of bloom - but now you’ve a huge amount going on to get that movie-like experience. Järvilehto: Which I think is completely fantastic - we're getting to a state where the palette available to us is constantly growing; it's like we've finally transcended from silent black & white movies into working with colour film! [laughs]
Related Stuff Games: 3DMark Vantage
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