SCEA aware of porting difficulties, requiring "re-engineering"
We have a love-hate relationship with these kind of articles, lest they deter into all-too-familiar fanboy territory (wink wink). Regardless, they still are fascinating reads on technology and where our beloved full-time job hobby is headed. Gamepro recently questioned a developer tasked with high-profile PS3 ports from Xbox 360 code and the response was unsurprisingly, "nobody wants to touch that issue right now." Can't say we blame them. It's becoming increasingly complex a situation, with console exclusives falling by the wayside as publishers strive to get the most out of their investment. Professing love for one platform over another just doesn't seem like it would make things easier for anyone.
An article by Dr. Dobbs Portal that ran in March, delivers an in-depth dissection about how much longer the learning curve is when it comes to developing for the Cell and how much more fruit the Cell can bear once established and competent developers get through the crux of utilizing its potential.
So Gamepro wanted an official response on these claims of variably complex programming porting between the Xbox 360 and the PS3. SCEA's Dave Karraker responded by admitting the difficulties some developers have expressed with porting. "If your game starts on Xbox 360 you will have to re-engineer aspects of the game to run properly on PS3," he says. "Some developers have been complaining about this [additional effort] but I don't believe we can solve that," he adds. Still, we find it refreshing to at least hear admittance of the complexities involved in porting code from Xbox 360 to PS3.
That same Dr. Dobbs article pits the performance gains from effective Cell utilization at up to 22 times higher than that of a comparable Intel chip. Wow. If that's the case, we urge developers to keep their ports in the incubator for as long as it takes. If there is anything we need less of, it would be bad ports. Time to get your Cell learn on, pronto!
[Via Gamepro]
