FFXIII 360 was begun two months ago

[Reverend Blu]

http://www.gametab.com/news/3017929/

FFXIII 360 was begun two months ago



Square Enix has revealed that work on the Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII began two months ago.

"Up to the trial demo version that was released [in April] in Japan, [FFXIII] was PS3-only in terms of development," producer Yoshinori Kitase told Giant Bomb (spotted by vg247).

"The Xbox 360 version is definitely following after the PS3 version, but [we] were finally able to come to a point in the PS3 development where some of the staff could take their hands off and start programming the 360 version."

Kitase and fellow producer/designer Motomu Toriyama gave an on-stage demonstration of FFXIII for Xbox 360 during Microsoft's E3 conference. The pair promised a Western release of spring 2010.

Head over to the Digital Foundry at Eurogamer blog for a technical explanation of how Final Fantasy XIII will work on Xbox 360.

Final Fantasy XIII launches this winter exclusively on PS3 in Japan.

[michealo]

not sure what this implies

[Reverend Blu]

Visit the website for the videos.......................


http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/fi...on-360-article




Final Fantasy XIII: How Will It Work on 360? Article


Welcome to the Digital Foundry channel at Eurogamer. Check out the Editor's blog to find out what it's all about, and make sure to explore for loads more technical breakdown and analysis.

We’ve had the Final Fantasy XIII demo for quite some time now, and our detailed analysis of the code (and by extension our first look at Square-Enix’s Crystal Tools engine) is now complete. First impressions? While the engine itself doesn’t particularly excel from a technical standpoint, it’s still a great-looking game, with much of the credit reserved for the development team's many artists.

First things first. Despite some rumbling from certain quarters of the internet, the game engine is most definitely running at 720p resolution, with clean visuals brought out thanks to the inclusion of 2x multisampling anti-aliasing. The inclusion of MSAA is somewhat rare on PS3, but very common indeed on Xbox 360. What is clear, however, is that Square-Enix is facing key technical challenges, with variable and sometimes disappointing performance in the demo code. Translated interviews suggest these issues have already been overcome, but in the here and now, the apparently outdated demo is all we have to work with.

Square-Enix is clearly targeting 30FPS for the game, but it is falling some way short in certain scenes and that’s generally down to the bewildering range of transparent alpha effects employed in the combat. This generally doesn’t tend to be so much of an issue for 360 (thanks to the daughter module of 10MB eDRAM connected directly to the GPU), but it can hit PS3 hard. The solution is generally to employ a lower resolution buffer for these effects (as seen in Killzone 2 and Red Faction Guerilla to name two examples), but right now, Square-Enix is adopting a zero compromise approach to the visuals in terms of visual effects and that’s what’s causing the lag. Where the company is compromising is with certain effects such as the characters’ hair. You’ll see an almost interlacing-style effect – it’s called ‘alpha to coverage’ and it’s an immense fill-rate saver, albeit at the cost of visual quality.

But any way, onto the technical analysis. We have two videos for you to digest, available in both embedded article format and streaming HD. Let’s get going.

[Badger3920]

If this is smackdown, I dont really get the angle.

If it's not, I think this is generally expected - especially if they're hoping to release within a year or so

[Reverend Blu]

not sure what this implies

From the article.......can hit PS3 hard................

[michealo]

From the article.......can hit PS3 hard................

a bit early to get the pom-pom's out.

[Chachi]

From the article.......can hit PS3 hard................

The Cell can hear you....I pray for your soul.

[Reverend Blu]

If this is smackdown, I dont really get the angle.

If it's not, I think this is generally expected - especially if they're hoping to release within a year or so

We keep hearing about how its.......... too hard to develop on the PS3.......... and how it is going to be........... a problem for it to run on the 360...........

EA says this.................no EA says that...........................

I found it funny that they said that for some effects its going to hit the PS3 hard........... all we need is an article where Valve complains that they only did a PC release since they found it too hard to do on the 360

Sometimes I wonder if a few Game Developers sit around and go gee we need some more free publicity to boost our stock value.

As far as Square Enix what is wrong with them as far as launching games in the same time frame.

[Badger3920]

None of that really relates to how this has a smackdown angle though. We knew they're planning to released in Japan next spring, and possibly here next holiday season, so it seems right that they'd be starting to throw some hands onto the 360 version now.

I'm just having a hard time finding the smack

[HuskerGuy]

Is ......... the new !?

[Chachi]

I'm just having a hard time finding the smack

...unlike Rhianna

[grasp]

Rev,

Just curious.... .. .. .. . ... whats.....with .....the.....post...ing....style?

And what is with the sig? Periods that get bigger? What does it all mean.... ?

[UraMallas]

No doubt, ellipsis FTL.

[MSX2]

From the article.......can hit PS3 hard................

From the article, one paragraph earlier:

What is clear, however, is that Square-Enix is facing key technical challenges, with variable and sometimes disappointing performance in the demo code. Translated interviews suggest these issues have already been overcome, but in the here and now, the apparently outdated demo is all we have to work with.

And on page 2:

In plain English? Realistically we expect the 360 version to match the 720p and 2x multisampling anti-aliasing of the PS3 game, but at a cost – the HDR lighting in the PS3 game will most likely be pared down from high range to medium range dynamic rendering.

[Gr00v3r]

Well if this means the US release will not be far from the Japan that is good news. Otherwise you would hear people complain the 360 was holding back the US release date.