Take a lesson Ubi

[paulipaul]

http://pc.ign.com/articles/872/872756p1.html

Here's a preview of a game that was CORRECTLY ported from consoles to PC. Notice the attention to detail, the way they fixed problems from one platform to the other, the fact that they changed things like the HUD knowing PC users sit closer to monitors than consolers do to TVs. Notice how everyone is happy, and all is good in the world. Now look at the half hour you spent porting this game over. How can you possibly NOT be embarrassed?

[FXH Reaper]

http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/16x16_smiley-very-happy.gif yea I read that in my GI that came last month and thought why couldn't UBI give their customers this kind of support, then it hit me why............... its UBI

[Dealer_0_Death]

Well good for BioWare. I was wondering if they would simply try to do a "UBI style" quick port or not. I'm so glad they didn't. I'm glad someone can get it right.

UBI on the other hand, are blind and lazy evidently. Maybe the UBI programmers were out sick or something the day they taught programming.

[neilthecellist]

See? There was a user on these forums, won't mention the name, but he keeps going on and on about how game design is so hard and how we should forgive Ubi for their ****-job-game-design (including the PC port).

If we should forgive Ubi, then we should all ask ourselves... How does BioWare do it? And how does Epic do it?

Forgiving Ubi is like forgiving a serial killer for their crimes. No, I'm not going to forgive them.

[Dr__Cube]

Well good for BioWare.

Bioware has ALWAYS done a good job of porting their games. They are a rare star in the gaming industry.

[Mysticaly]

It's neat that someone actually are able to port a game to PC, maybe there really is a lesson in i, not only for UBI but for others as well, as i.e epic.

Not my kind of game really, but neat none the less.

[FXH Reaper]

Originally posted by neilthecellist:
See? There was a user on these forums, won't mention the name, but he keeps going on and on about how game design is so hard and how we should forgive Ubi for their ****-job-game-design (including the PC port).

If we should forgive Ubi, then we should all ask ourselves... How does BioWare do it? And how does Epic do it?

Forgiving Ubi is like forgiving a serial killer for their crimes. No, I'm not going to forgive them. I haven't seen anyone who says that, with that said they obviously don't know what they are talking about (no offence)
I am currently a couple of months from graduating.... and guess what I am going for..... game design. I know what all goes into it and beleive me unless the engine is super hard to develope for (Unreal is not) then properly porting a game just takes a little effort.... something UBI never wants to put out.

[DrumFiend]

Originally posted by SILLENTASSAULT:
I haven't seen anyone who says that,

I've seen him. He usually talks down to people and shows how little he knows about game design in one swift motion. Almost like a UBIntern or something... http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_cool.gif

[AntiPersonnel]

im going to take a shot in the dark here (obviously i wouldnt really know for sure)

but i think what separates certain game companies who port from console to PC, is the possible fact they may be planning ahead of time for the PC, rather than porting it down the line as an afterthought.

from what i know of the RSV's ported to PC it really seems like Ubi is just porting it directly from the XBOX 360 with minimal thought into how it should work on a PC.


if you think about it, there is actually no reason why a console game shouldnt port to a PC, so long as you think about certain things ahead of time.


imagine for example being a film studio that for whatever reason, decided not to release their movie on DVD first, but rather release it on the internet (via streaming video) first. but they had the foresight to transfer the film digitally in HD with every bit of standards as if it were going to be pressed on a DVD, and then compress it into an Mpeg for internet streaming. that way when the time came to release the film in stores, the transfer is already at 100% lossless quality for the DVD format (and for that matter can also be transferred to an HD format like Blu-Ray without any further loss).

Ubi's take in this situation would be to make the film by doing the whole thing in Mpeg first, release it on the internet cause mpeg is "good enough", then use some kind of cosmetic software to port the Mpeg onto DVD.

[FXH Reaper]

Originally posted by AntiPersonnel:
im going to take a shot in the dark here (obviously i wouldnt really know for sure)

but i think what separates certain game companies who port from console to PC, is the possible fact they may be planning ahead of time for the PC, rather than porting it down the line as an afterthought.

from what i know of the RSV's ported to PC it really seems like Ubi is just porting it directly from the XBOX 360 with minimal thought into how it should work on a PC.


if you think about it, there is actually no reason why a console game shouldnt port to a PC, so long as you think about certain things ahead of time.


imagine for example being a film studio that for whatever reason, decided not to release their movie on DVD first, but rather release it on the internet (via streaming video) first. but they had the foresight to transfer the film digitally in HD with every bit of standards as if it were going to be pressed on a DVD, and then compress it into an Mpeg for internet streaming. that way when the time came to release the film in stores, the transfer is already at 100% lossless quality for the DVD format (and for that matter can also be transferred to an HD format like Blu-Ray without any further loss).

Ubi's take in this situation would be to make the film by doing the whole thing in Mpeg first, release it on the internet cause mpeg is "good enough", then use some kind of cosmetic software to port the Mpeg onto DVD. Thats exactly the problem, they don't think ahead. Or put any effort into thinking ahead, if they did there wouldn't be as many problems. For vegas2 I haven't played it on the PC, now I have played other UBI games that were ported straight from the console to PC (SC series) and I know just how annoying it is. But on top of that there was a major uproar about the random spawn BS and yet what happened they kept that feature in the PS3 up date when it was so clearly hated by those of us with 360's. That was one reason why I only play vegas for about 4 hours a week now and I only play TL and A&D.

[neilthecellist]

At least the PC versions of the Splinter Cell games had identical graphics to their console counterparts.

Vegas2 PC has terrible LOD-culling on character shadows, and anti-aliasing is of extremely poor quality on the PC version, compared to the XBOX360/PS3 versions.

Also, many HDR bloom points seem to have been completely removed in Vegas2 PC on many maps. Reason? I don't know. It didn't optimize performance over Vegas1 at all on my computer.

Oh, and when enemies drop weapons, you can see the null textures on the gun, just this gray nothing-ness.

Ugly.

Just ugly.

[FXH Reaper]

Originally posted by neilthecellist:
At least the PC versions of the Splinter Cell games had identical graphics to their console counterparts.

Vegas2 PC has terrible LOD-culling on character shadows, and anti-aliasing is of extremely poor quality on the PC version, compared to the XBOX360/PS3 versions.

Also, many HDR bloom points seem to have been completely removed in Vegas2 PC on many maps. Reason? I don't know. It didn't optimize performance over Vegas1 at all on my computer.

Oh, and when enemies drop weapons, you can see the null textures on the gun, just this gray nothing-ness.

Ugly.

Just ugly. Hehe wow it seems like they must have just barely put enough work into porting it so it would just barely run on the PC.... wow they are getting lazier and lazier

[neilthecellist]

Forgot to elaborate:

So let's say I'm this scenario:

Me: "Go go go!"
Jung: "Roger that!"
Jung/Michael move.
Me: "Hey what the hell? Your shadow just disappeared and you're only 4 feet away from me!"
Michael: "Sorry Bishop. This isn't the XBOX version."
Me: "What, so you're saying my 7900gs can't render shadows beyond five feet?"
Michael: "Sir, that's correct, sir. Proper, sir."
Me: "F*ck you."
Michael: "Sorry sir."

============Scenario 2===============
Jung shoots a terrorist

Terrorist: "Uh!! Uh, uh, uh, uh, *orgasms* UUUHHHH!!!"

Me: "Mike! I need you to answer this: Do all terrorists have orgasms when they die?"

Michael: "Yes sir. In tactical combat, when a Rainbow operative shoots and kills a terrorist, the terrorist will orgasm from having dropped his gun."

Me: "And how do you know this?"

Michael: "Sir, if you look carefully, sir, the terrorist weapons lose their color after the gun holder dies."

Me: "How come <span class="ev_code_green">I</span> don't get an orgasm when I drop my gun for another?"

Michael: "Well... you're not a terrorist."

Me: "How does that work? Jung?"

Jung: "Don't ask me, in Korea, we have self-orgy's after we drop our guns."

Me: "You know... I don't feel like playing this game anymore on PC."

======SCENARIO 3=====

Me: "Mike! Jung! Get over here fast!"

Jung: "Sir! What's wrong?"

Me: "Look at that car... It's got edges sticking out of it!"

Jung: "Huh? That's expected. Nothing wrong with that. Are you alright, sir? Too much coffee?"

Me: "I'm running on an 8800GTX right now at 8x antialiasing. I should NOT be seeing this sh*t."

Jung: "Sorry sir. If you want full performance in Vegas2, you'll want to buy the XBOX version."

Me: "Shut the f*ck up you ****."

Jung: "Cuss all you want, you know you'll have to pay Ubisoft in the end if you want your full experience so badly."

Me: "You know what?! You know what?!!! YOU'RE FIRED. Go be like Gabe and do a hollywood-i'm-gonna-betray-everyone-******bag"

Jung: *snickers at me*

Me: "Mike?"

Michael: "Sorry Bishop, but he's right. XBOX is the awesome."

Me: "But an XBOX costs more than my computer!"

Michael: "Well... then go play Raven Shield."

Me: "Good idea."

Michael: "Wait! WAIT! I didn't mean that! Come back! I want your money for future Ubisoft games! WAIT!!!!"

[athenian]

The result is a Mass Effect that should look and feel like a PC game, not a port.

I think nUBI should tape this message to the foreheads of everybody who works on ports.

[MD_Sennet]

I wonder if the UBI execs are truly so blind that they simply do not recognize that the best PC games (the ones that win awards) are games designed FOR THE PC FIRST?

Do you think they are so far gone as to not even realize that?

[abnegnejs]

Originally posted by neilthecellist:
See? There was a user on these forums, won't mention the name, but he keeps going on and on about how game design is so hard and how we should forgive Ubi for their ****-job-game-design (including the PC port).

If we should forgive Ubi, then we should all ask ourselves... How does BioWare do it? And how does Epic do it?

Forgiving Ubi is like forgiving a serial killer for their crimes. No, I'm not going to forgive them.

http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/agreepost.gif Exaggerated analogies is the way to go.

[nkorfhage]

I'm jelous. Mass Effect guys get a near perfect optimized for the PC game and all we get are the bugs that were still left over from the first game. This is horrible. I'm never buying another PC game that was developed by Ubisoft- Montreal. Right now I've made up my mind not to get HAWX, Far Cry 2, or Beyond Good and Evil 2. Oh I've "heard" that the reason why there is so much silence from the dev team is because of "Ubidays" in Paris happening soon. Some sort of game convention for them. I hope they get booed by any fans of this franchise that are there. Last night when I was playing T-hunt it was plagued by the repeating machiene [sic] gun sound. Very annoying.

[FXH Reaper]

Originally posted by neilthecellist:
Forgot to elaborate:

So let's say I'm this scenario:

Me: "Go go go!"
Jung: "Roger that!"
Jung/Michael move.
Me: "Hey what the hell? Your shadow just disappeared and you're only 4 feet away from me!"
Michael: "Sorry Bishop. This isn't the XBOX version."
Me: "What, so you're saying my 7900gs can't render shadows beyond five feet?"
Michael: "Sir, that's correct, sir. Proper, sir."
Me: "F*ck you."
Michael: "Sorry sir."

============Scenario 2===============
Jung shoots a terrorist

Terrorist: "Uh!! Uh, uh, uh, uh, *orgasms* UUUHHHH!!!"

Me: "Mike! I need you to answer this: Do all terrorists have orgasms when they die?"

Michael: "Yes sir. In tactical combat, when a Rainbow operative shoots and kills a terrorist, the terrorist will orgasm from having dropped his gun."

Me: "And how do you know this?"

Michael: "Sir, if you look carefully, sir, the terrorist weapons lose their color after the gun holder dies."

Me: "How come <span class="ev_code_green">I</span> don't get an orgasm when I drop my gun for another?"

Michael: "Well... you're not a terrorist."

Me: "How does that work? Jung?"

Jung: "Don't ask me, in Korea, we have self-orgy's after we drop our guns."

Me: "You know... I don't feel like playing this game anymore on PC."

======SCENARIO 3=====

Me: "Mike! Jung! Get over here fast!"

Jung: "Sir! What's wrong?"

Me: "Look at that car... It's got edges sticking out of it!"

Jung: "Huh? That's expected. Nothing wrong with that. Are you alright, sir? Too much coffee?"

Me: "I'm running on an 8800GTX right now at 8x antialiasing. I should NOT be seeing this sh*t."

Jung: "Sorry sir. If you want full performance in Vegas2, you'll want to buy the XBOX version."

Me: "Shut the f*ck up you ****."

Jung: "Cuss all you want, you know you'll have to pay Ubisoft in the end if you want your full experience so badly."

Me: "You know what?! You know what?!!! YOU'RE FIRED. Go be like Gabe and do a hollywood-i'm-gonna-betray-everyone-******bag"

Jung: *snickers at me*

Me: "Mike?"

Michael: "Sorry Bishop, but he's right. XBOX is the awesome."

Me: "But an XBOX costs more than my computer!"

Michael: "Well... then go play Raven Shield."

Me: "Good idea."

Michael: "Wait! WAIT! I didn't mean that! Come back! I want your money for future Ubisoft games! WAIT!!!!" http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/88.gif http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/88.gif that was hillarious!!!!

[Mysticaly]

Hmm, there's many that say UBI should change there ways, graw, graw2, vegas and vegas 2 have been some of the most successful games ever on console, possibly topped by gears of war, but I doubt that...
So why should they change ? They have nothing to fear, there console games is and will continue to be one of the most popular once available..
Don't kid your selves into believing this is going to change, EndWar will be the first RTS game on console where you can control the game entirely with voice commands, FarCry 2 will possibly be one of the best looking games for consoles (I might be wrong about that) and it seems that FC2 indeed has a story to tell. As if this was not enough we have H.A.W.K coming up which have been getting great previews and even Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway which have been getting even more impressive previews.

All of those games are gonna sell like crazy, the greedy UBI is not in any danger of becoming bankrupt or even loosing a penny, they will make more, more and even more money in the months to come, in fact UBI is in danger in becoming the leading publisher for consoles (if they are not all ready) and will probably get filthy rich doing so.

UBISoft view the PC market as a small bonus, if they loose a few pc customers they will simply not even notice, at least not care (the evidence is already here). Why do you think UBI simply straight port there games from console, and this practicaly without changing anything at all (in vegas 1 they even included lots of unused x360 files) ??? To make a few extra bucks on it, not to please a massive group of customers, and don't fool your selves again, PC gamers is no longer a massive group of customers.. If there ever was to be a war between the console gamers and the pc gamers there wouldn't be a single PC gamer left http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

I hate these facts just as much as anyone, especially since I wont ever touch a console with my sticky fingers for anything else than guitar hero.

The future is hopefully studios like Bohemia Interactive, Valve which refuses to say that PC as a platform is dead, Blackfoot Studios (hopefully), GSC, possibly ID, studious like these.

[nkorfhage]

I hate to admit it too, but it seems to be the case. I guess I'll stop posting about technical issues as far as complaining about them. I'll still visit and post fixes as I come across them, but I'm done complaining.

[FXH Reaper]

Originally posted by nkorfhage:
I hate to admit it too, but it seems to be the case. I guess I'll stop posting about technical issues as far as complaining about them. I'll still visit and post fixes as I come across them, but I'm done complaining. Yea thats all we can realy do now. I know I used to be real active on the SC boards until I saw what was happening in SCC I right then and there gave up on UBI.... I was hoping that would be the one game they make that I still loved that wouldn't get screwed up. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif

[Want2Snipe]

Originally posted by SILLENTASSAULT:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by neilthecellist:
Ugly.

Just ugly.

Hehe wow it seems like they must have just barely put enough work into porting it so it would just barely run on the PC.... wow they are getting lazier and lazier </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

But the better question to be asked is... Why do they do it?

The simple answer would be... because they can't

Why can they you aksed? Because people keep buying the games regardless of how bad the game is... no need to implement on something you are selling like hot cakes now, is there?

[FXH Reaper]

Originally posted by Want2Snipe:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by SILLENTASSAULT:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by neilthecellist:
Ugly.

Just ugly.

Hehe wow it seems like they must have just barely put enough work into porting it so it would just barely run on the PC.... wow they are getting lazier and lazier </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

But the better question to be asked is... Why do they do it?

The simple answer would be... because they can't

Why can they you aksed? Because people keep buying the games regardless of how bad the game is... no need to implement on something you are selling like hot cakes now, is there? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>QFT, I just hope that their sales drop fast enough so that I won't forget about my favorite series and they go back to making great games.

But I am not going to hold my breath on that

[neilthecellist]

Same. It's not going to happen, I think.

Not unless we all dished in on Ubisoft shares, and then TEAR THE COMPANY APART. (joking... sort of.)

[KibOsh]

People still buying this game is also the fault of those review sites like Gamespot etc... I've read some reviews about Vegas 2 and they all say the game is good. Also you will see a big advertisement of Ubisoft in the back.

So we are here shooting and screaming on the Ubisoft forums but maybe we should start and do the same at those review sites. Telling them that they should be a shamed of themself for lying to the public for some sponsering money from Ubisoft.

[FXH Reaper]

Originally posted by neilthecellist:
Same. It's not going to happen, I think.

Not unless we all dished in on Ubisoft shares, and then TEAR THE COMPANY APART. (joking... sort of.)
Originally posted by KibOsh:
People still buying this game is also the fault of those review sites like Gamespot etc... I've read some reviews about Vegas 2 and they all say the game is good. Also you will see a big advertisement of Ubisoft in the back.

So we are here shooting and screaming on the Ubisoft forums but maybe we should start and do the same at those review sites. Telling them that they should be a shamed of themself for lying to the public for some sponsering money from Ubisoft. Both of which are good ideas

[neilthecellist]

I'm going over to Gamespot now.

[KibOsh]

When you do make a post to another site, make sure to add the link to the thread UBI-to-consumer as in my signature below. Now we have +/- 100 posts saying the same... We need one big one.

[Expedition]

Originally posted by neilthecellist:
Forgot to elaborate:

So let's say I'm this scenario:

Me: "Go go go!"
Jung: "Roger that!"
Jung/Michael move.
Me: "Hey what the hell? Your shadow just disappeared and you're only 4 feet away from me!"
Michael: "Sorry Bishop. This isn't the XBOX version."
Me: "What, so you're saying my 7900gs can't render shadows beyond five feet?"
Michael: "Sir, that's correct, sir. Proper, sir."
Me: "F*ck you."
Michael: "Sorry sir."

============Scenario 2===============
Jung shoots a terrorist

Terrorist: "Uh!! Uh, uh, uh, uh, *orgasms* UUUHHHH!!!"

Me: "Mike! I need you to answer this: Do all terrorists have orgasms when they die?"

Michael: "Yes sir. In tactical combat, when a Rainbow operative shoots and kills a terrorist, the terrorist will orgasm from having dropped his gun."

Me: "And how do you know this?"

Michael: "Sir, if you look carefully, sir, the terrorist weapons lose their color after the gun holder dies."

Me: "How come <span class="ev_code_green">I</span> don't get an orgasm when I drop my gun for another?"

Michael: "Well... you're not a terrorist."

Me: "How does that work? Jung?"

Jung: "Don't ask me, in Korea, we have self-orgy's after we drop our guns."

Me: "You know... I don't feel like playing this game anymore on PC."

======SCENARIO 3=====

Me: "Mike! Jung! Get over here fast!"

Jung: "Sir! What's wrong?"

Me: "Look at that car... It's got edges sticking out of it!"

Jung: "Huh? That's expected. Nothing wrong with that. Are you alright, sir? Too much coffee?"

Me: "I'm running on an 8800GTX right now at 8x antialiasing. I should NOT be seeing this sh*t."

Jung: "Sorry sir. If you want full performance in Vegas2, you'll want to buy the XBOX version."

Me: "Shut the f*ck up you ****."

Jung: "Cuss all you want, you know you'll have to pay Ubisoft in the end if you want your full experience so badly."

Me: "You know what?! You know what?!!! YOU'RE FIRED. Go be like Gabe and do a hollywood-i'm-gonna-betray-everyone-******bag"

Jung: *snickers at me*

Me: "Mike?"

Michael: "Sorry Bishop, but he's right. XBOX is the awesome."

Me: "But an XBOX costs more than my computer!"

Michael: "Well... then go play Raven Shield."

Me: "Good idea."

Michael: "Wait! WAIT! I didn't mean that! Come back! I want your money for future Ubisoft games! WAIT!!!!"


Neil, It's been awhile since I got a good laugh on this forum - LOL

You should write the next storyline http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/11.gif

[noubiforyou]

Originally posted by paulipaul:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/872/872756p1.html

Here's a preview of a game that was CORRECTLY ported from consoles to PC. Notice the attention to detail, the way they fixed problems from one platform to the other, the fact that they changed things like the HUD knowing PC users sit closer to monitors than consolers do to TVs. Notice how everyone is happy, and all is good in the world. Now look at the half hour you spent porting this game over. How can you possibly NOT be embarrassed?
http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/agreepost.gif QFT

[Expedition]

Is poor porting due more to the extra time it takes, or is it the amount of drivers and configs to be considered?

Why do some get it so right - and others (Ubi-cough..cough) get it sooo wrong?

[UKJack67]

Good question. I can understand PS3 ports being difficult to achieve but I don't see why XBox 360 games should be so difficult. After all the XBox is basically a cut down PC, it has an IBM PowerPC CPU and ATI graphics, so the only concerns in the port should be controller issues and installation to hard drive.

Can't be too difficult can it?

[aspen_wrx]

Originally posted by UKJack67:
Good question. I can understand PS3 ports being difficult to achieve but I don't see why XBox 360 games should be so difficult. After all the XBox is basically a cut down PC, it has an IBM PowerPC CPU and ATI graphics, so the only concerns in the port should be controller issues and installation to hard drive.

Can't be too difficult can it?

That's pretty much it unless you actually want to take advantage of the DX10 API in Vista, thus giving you much better graphics capabilities.
Far be it from UBI to do such a thing though http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif