Hey all,

Just wanted to voice my opinion/hope that the PC version of this game will not just be another 'console' port.

I understand there is more money in consoles because they're harder to pirate for, but i feel you would get a massive increase in PC sales if the PC version makes use of the features available to it, such as insanely good hardware, and DX11 features.

I was watching a few trailers earlier and i just thought that if this game had tessellation, it'd look ridiculously good!!

So c'mon, give the PC gamers the game they've been waiting for, not just another console port.

What do you guys think?

It's been stated numerous times that all versions are being developed independently on their respective platforms. There is no "porting" of the game.

SD was until Brink a PC only dev, no ports.

I'm all for good graphics, but they are not even close to a defining factor in my decision of buying a game. It's mostly just gameplay.

Case in point: Minecraft.

I've spent more hours in MineCraft than I did with Crysis.

As much as I share your hope for the PC platform ( I've got the game coming via Steam ), I found your poll a bit stilted, so I opted for pancakes.

And as has already been said, Splash Damage as a company is composed of PC gamers. I'd be extremely surprised if the PC version lacked a brilliant sheen of polish.

I honestly don't care much for graphics. I just need good gameplay and story, both of which Brink seems to have. I have to say though, I am not a fan of the cartoony art style. It kills some of the immersion for me.

BRINK will only support DX9, I guess. Because after all it still is a multiplatform-title. And as long as assemblies of outdated hardware are used for gaming, this will stay the same.

Seriously, Crysis 1 did support DX10, Crysis 2 does not. That means something for sure. BRINK won't be any different in that respect.

Some day (maybe soon) console players will complain about "PC Ports".

I cannot wait for that day.

None of the poll options fit my thoughts (great gameplay, i'll buy it), so I went pancakes.

Pancakes here as well. When creating a poll you should be sure to include various viewpoints, or at least a "Something Else (Explain Below)" type of option.

Graphics are all well and good but do not affect my opinion, considering we've seen screenshots and I'm satisfied that they at least don't svck, and that would be good enough for me...the fact that it looks pretty awesome is merely an added benefit. I've read and seen so many amazing things about the game that I've preordered it. Graphics honestly didn't enter into my decision-making process in the slightest. So, yeah...in conclusion: PANCAKES ALL THE WAY.

Brink doesn't use DirectX at all - it is a modified version of id Tech 4, which is an OpenGL based engine (a direct competitor to Microsoft's DirectX) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id_Tech_4

Hopefully the fact that it is a modified version of an older engine will introduce some graphical enhancements, but i doubt you will see anything akin to tessellation or other DX11 effects.

Splash Damage have mentioned the possibility of switching to a DX based engine in the future, but at the minute they prefer to develop using the tools they are comfortable with.

*edit* there is some nice info here about the PC development and features: http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,691212/BRINK-Multi-core-support-and-better-scaling-on-the-PC/News/

Besides the already mentioned Virtual Texturing, we have moved over from shadow volumes to shadow buffers. While shadow volumes still have their place and some of their properties are still preferable, the overall look of the game benefits from having the smoother look of blurry shadows as a result of shadow buffers. Our artists definitely agree with this.

The engine features a powerful material and shader system allowing us to have many varying ways of rendering surfaces. Parallax mapping, anisotropic lighting and various other techniques are also used to create the look desired for the game.

We have spent some time making sure our whole rendering pipeline is gamma-correct as well. All our lighting calculations are done correctly in linear colour space, resulting in a much more predictable output. One of the areas where this is most noticeable is on lighter surfaces, where we no longer get undesirable highlights.

As graphics hardware gets more powerful, it allows us to do more and more effects through post processing. A wide range of techniques is available to us here, such as motion blur and depth of field.

Being an OpenGL game the situation is a bit different for us. We look at new hardware coming out and see if there are any features we can make use of. API- only changes, such as the move to per-thread render contexts, don't apply to us at all. Interestingly enough we are running per-thread GPU context internally in our renderer for the consoles and might well apply this to the PC platform too.

DirectX 11 class hardware does offer several features that will become very interesting to use in the future. Finally being able to do correct per-sample operations will make correct MSAA doable for deferred techniques. Tessellation is also an appealing avenue for the artists to use as it can greatly improve the quality of rendered art. It does require custom-made art though, making it hard to warrant the investment until it is available on all platforms.

Good find, Strike(!)!
I knew I had read that thing before, but I did not remember BRINK to be OpenGL based, actually.

Even though that is yet another disappointment. Because from what I've heard recently, OpenGL is vastly behind DirectX in just about everything.

Hell, as long as it doesn't look like Doom 2, we are good.

I'm not sure if you're saying that consoles will one day become more powerful than PCs, or that one day the primary platform for games will be PC.

Either way, I doubt that either will ever happen - especially the latter, considering the opposite has been happening during the past few years.

Oh, and I voted for the console option because, well, I'm a console guy. It was a difficult choice though, because pancakes are pretty awesome.

I think OpenGL is just about hanging in there. mostly due to the likes of id and developers like Splash Damage - plus it is the main way of doing 3D games on Linux/Apple platforms.

Rage using id tech 5 looks pretty good on the graphics front, it probably uses the latest OpenGL extensions http://youtu.be/d3QAUhBMJ2w?hd=1