Could I install windows Embedded and just install enough stuff so that Steam works and get my games to run better without extra crap running in the background?
Isn't it just a limited windows distro that you can install different bits depending on what you need. Like you'd need different bits for a settop box than for video poker machine. Or is that windows CE? I'm not pretending I know everything about this crap. Thats why I asked.
Isn't it just a limited windows distro that you can install different bits depending on what you need. Like you'd need different bits for a settop box than for video poker machine. Or is that windows CE? I'm not pretending I know everything about this crap. Thats why I asked.
Well, I don't know all the specific details, but for one thing it typically runs on ARM and other embedded style CPUs instead of Intel/AMD x86-derived CPUs.
You need actual windows. If you have "slowness from things running in the background," it's not Windows' fault. If you have ever used a perfectly clean install of Windows, or one of my computers, you would see it's lightning fast. Your problem is that you fucked up your computer by installing bullshit, or unknowingly allowing bullshit to be installed. Also, your hardware might just suck.
Oh no thats not my problem. I just meant like the idea that games don't need as much power as most computers have to run, its just that they are running other crap besides the game. Like how an Xbox is a lot less powerful than a pc that plays the same game.
Oh no thats not my problem. I just meant like the idea that games don't need as much power as most computers have to run, its just that they are running other crap besides the game. Like how an Xbox is a lot less powerful than a pc that plays the same game.
The fact that an XBox has less applications competing for CPU time is far from the primary reason that a weak XBox can play a game that a PC might struggle with.
Gee Scott, you always get so emotional. If I didn't know what you looked like, I'd say you were moe.
I think writing straight to the hardware is a part of why console games are so well optimized; They don't have all the layers and peripheral programs running. A reinstall of Windows might help, as would some new hardware.
I think writing straight to the hardware is a part of why console games are so well optimized; T
They're not written this way by and large. Programming for XBox is the same as programming for Windows PC.
hey don't have all the layers and peripheral programs running.
What layers? They have a Windows style abstraction of hardware through Direct X, same as a Windows PC. The only real difference is the lack of other applications running.
What layers? They have a Windows style abstraction of hardware through Direct X, same as a Windows PC. The only real difference is the lack of other applications running.
It's also possible that said abstraction layer is crazy optimized since it's a single hardware platform with more or less identical components across the entire installed base as opposed to hardware "wild west" that is the PC platform. Some more optimization/streamlining may be possible due to not requiring drivers for hardware that will not be used (i.e. no need for a printing subsystem) and general design of the hardware such that it leaves out anything not necessary for gaming (no need to worry about expansion slots, legacy I/O support, and so on). Otherwise, yeah, you pretty much got a stripped down PC running a stripped down version of Windows on a triple core cousin of the PowerPC chip used in the old PowerMac G5 computers.
I think writing straight to the hardware is a part of why console games are so well optimized; They don't have all the layers and peripheral programs running. A reinstall of Windows might help, as would some new hardware.
It's an incredibly small part of why. You don't know what you are talking about either.
Here are the three primary reasons that a less powerful console can play a game seemingly so smoothly and perfectly when a PC can not.
The first reason is settings. Console games you never have to configure settings because all consoles are the same. PC games do the best they can to have default settings, or automatic settings that are optimal for your hardware. Even so, they are far from perfect especially when players start screwing with them. It really doesn't help when players don't even understand what the majority of those settings actually do. If your game is running slowly it takes a lot of knowledge to be able to find the bottleneck and figure out what setting to change, and by how much, to make it run smoothly.
The second reason, and perhaps the biggest, is that the quality level that console games run at is ridiculously low compared to PC games. Even an HD console game runs at 1920x1080 resolution and 30 frames per second. That's right, 30 frames. My PC runs games at 1680x1050 resolution and has a vertical sync of 75 frames per second. Even though the resolution is slightly lower on my monitor than on a 1080p HDTV, at 75fps it is working twice as hard as a console to play the same game. Add onto that the PC settings might be adding more advanced graphical effects that aren't in the console version, like cranking up the anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering all the way. Because PCs are so much more powerful than consoles, the games give you the option to actually take advantage of that extra horsepower to enhanced the graphics.
The third reason is because people screw up their computers with spyware and viruses and malware.
It's also possible that said abstraction layer is crazy optimized since it's a single hardware platform with more or less identical components across the entire installed base as opposed to hardware "wild west" that is the PC platform.
True. The fact that you have a dedicated and guaranteed-to-be-uniform "driver" for everything can help, nevermind the lack of distracting interrupts and unnecessary old buses in the way.
The biggest factor, I'd say, is that you only have to push 1080p at most: that's fewer pixels per second than any PC display I've had in the last half-decade or more. You can also fudge the display settings transparently to the player (how many people would really notice if the anti-aliasing were dropped a factor?) and optimize the settings exactly to the hardware capabilities.
You know, we should have you on the show some time. AB reminded me more than anything that you're a techie at heart. ;^)
Ok, quick thing. A poll popped up on Facebook with a simple math problem, 6÷2(1+2)=?. The two options for answers were 1 and 9. Since the order of operations goes parenthesis -> multiplication -> division, I found that the answer was 1, yet most people had voted 9. I commented on the poll saying how it's surprising how many people weren't able to get this problem correct.
But just a few minutes ago my friend commented on my comment challenging my answer. I'm pretty damn sure I'm right, but he's a lot more math-y than me and I'm second-guessing myself now. I don't see how the answer could be anything other than 1 using the order of operations PEMDAS.
Order of operations says you add 1 and 2 first, but since division and multiplication have equal standing in order of operations, you go from left to right from there. So:
No prob, there are basically no good math mnemonics - they can *all* have contingencies that you need to remember, which pretty much ruin any hopes of simplifying it.
-EDIT- Well, except SohCahToa. I still use that to this day.
Comments
Long Answer: You have no idea what windows embedded is, do you?
You don't know what you are talking about.
I think writing straight to the hardware is a part of why console games are so well optimized; They don't have all the layers and peripheral programs running.
A reinstall of Windows might help, as would some new hardware.
How the XBOX gets away with 512 of ram split between system and GPU would be worth investigating though.
Here are the three primary reasons that a less powerful console can play a game seemingly so smoothly and perfectly when a PC can not.
The first reason is settings. Console games you never have to configure settings because all consoles are the same. PC games do the best they can to have default settings, or automatic settings that are optimal for your hardware. Even so, they are far from perfect especially when players start screwing with them. It really doesn't help when players don't even understand what the majority of those settings actually do. If your game is running slowly it takes a lot of knowledge to be able to find the bottleneck and figure out what setting to change, and by how much, to make it run smoothly.
The second reason, and perhaps the biggest, is that the quality level that console games run at is ridiculously low compared to PC games. Even an HD console game runs at 1920x1080 resolution and 30 frames per second. That's right, 30 frames. My PC runs games at 1680x1050 resolution and has a vertical sync of 75 frames per second. Even though the resolution is slightly lower on my monitor than on a 1080p HDTV, at 75fps it is working twice as hard as a console to play the same game. Add onto that the PC settings might be adding more advanced graphical effects that aren't in the console version, like cranking up the anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering all the way. Because PCs are so much more powerful than consoles, the games give you the option to actually take advantage of that extra horsepower to enhanced the graphics.
The third reason is because people screw up their computers with spyware and viruses and malware.
The biggest factor, I'd say, is that you only have to push 1080p at most: that's fewer pixels per second than any PC display I've had in the last half-decade or more. You can also fudge the display settings transparently to the player (how many people would really notice if the anti-aliasing were dropped a factor?) and optimize the settings exactly to the hardware capabilities.
You know, we should have you on the show some time. AB reminded me more than anything that you're a techie at heart. ;^)
But just a few minutes ago my friend commented on my comment challenging my answer. I'm pretty damn sure I'm right, but he's a lot more math-y than me and I'm second-guessing myself now. I don't see how the answer could be anything other than 1 using the order of operations PEMDAS.
So, FRCF, tell me, am I going crazy?
6/2(1+2)
6/2(3)
3(3)
9
6/2(3) = 3 * 3 = 9
Yay, being a music major :P
-EDIT- Well, except SohCahToa. I still use that to this day.
Math, man.