after many pestering messages, Carmack as responded to one of my tweets. here is the conversation..




JeffHollingswor Jeff Hollingsworth
@ID_AA_Carmack @karehaqt "so you answer others but not me? lol I'm not the only one mad, grow up an answer us you coward."
2 hours ago
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@ID_AA_Carmack
John Carmack
@JeffHollingswor "convince Sony to allow unbuffered hard drive IO and/or free up more OS mem and we can make it better."
23 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone
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Where's the part where he said something?

I guess that means they won't fix it and are not trying to sort it out with Sony themselves... well... that's a shame.

@ Cvnticvs: Carmack's response is "convince Sony to allow unbuffered hard drive IO and/or free up more OS mem and we can make it better."

Let me just have my doubts that he's the real Carmack....I mean nobody tells us anything and here's f...n' Carmack on tweeter with this stupid statement. Come on people, what are you? Five year olds?

No, that is John Carmack's official Twitter account.

I think he's the real Carmack, Carmack, ID and/or Bethesta would have deleted the account if it wasn't real.

I think something is wrong with Carmack's answer.

The texture pop-in is a common issue across all platforms. This is a fact!

So pushing the blame onto Sony for harddrive i/o and free memory space on PS3 platform seems strange. No?

Agreed. I'm sure what he said there would help. But I think he's passing the buck on this one really. It doesn't change that this is a problem across all platforms.

I think If they're going to release a patch for either console It's going to have to be a very comprehensive one, so as to avoid putting the user in a state of 'update hell' where the user is being peppered with lots of little updates. Also keep in mind this is the first true big outing for tech5. Remember the pop-in, screen tearing, and white patches in Gears of War 1 and UT3 on the PC?

All I'm saying is that I had expectations that this would come out on sorta wobbly legs. As a game developer myself, I know to a _small_ degree what kind of pitfalls await while writing a game in a new and changing environment. So, for now, I'll just enjoy blasting bandits heads open like beef-stew pinatas and looting cavernous hideouts with some pop-in. I'm sure a patch and goodies will come along, we're just going to have to be patient.

John referred to the PS3's memory problems in an earlier interview, stating that the PS3 OS/ XMB grabs a sizable chunk of RAM and holds onto it. The PS3 OS is always running in the background and with the PS3 limitations on RAM this becomes an issue.

Interesting note, the PS Vita will have more RAM than the PS3 when it's released.

Maybe I'm way off here... but his comments do make some sense - which might explain why some people experience a *slightly* improved pop-in experience on the PS3 when they are signed out of PSN (the OS is consuming less memory without PSN in the background), and also why people are reporting huge improvements with a solid state hard drive in their PS3.