That's content. Content is not the same thing as the engine driving it. Rage was originally written using OpenGL, which is only available on the PC and Mac versions. The 360 uses XNA and the PS3 uses libgcm (or GL ES if you're nuts and want to get 10% of the performance you would otherwise). It's graphics engine is clearly a PC-oriented graphics engine, which may have been developed with other 3D APIs in mind, but is most definitely not a port.

Content may be the same, but saying the engine is the same, or that the PC version is any kind of port, is way off the mark.

I would also like to see a new patch that would improve the game's difficulty---if any of you guys are scanning multiple forums, you'll find that quite a handful of people are disappointed with the game being ridiculously easy. (Sure the mod tools will give rise to mods upping the difficulty but I would like to see an official patch addressing this issue.) See my review for more feedback from a long time id Software fan.

No and Yes

The versions aren't identical. They are not ports either. Carmack already said it was a simultaneous development, that means there are 4 versions of the engine, RAGE PC DirectX version is coming, linux might be a probability. The unannounced is WiiU version, officially teased and very positive response but unconfirmed. iOS Rage is not IDTech5 so that doesn't count.

The textures are - which is what you're saying and what i already said because is what ID said in the behind the scenes and what carmack also confirmed... long time ago.

The engine or it's builds are built to accept the same dataset. We don't know if the engine is all-in-one (console code would then be present on PC but just working in "Windows mode" so it would be disabled)

I am starting to think that's not the case ... that each version of the game has it's own build of the engine, the PC version doesn't look like it has unneded other version is, unlike a port for example GTA4.

It is very logical that the console version have only the console engine, that would have been a stupid thing to try to make all-in-1 engine to run on consoles ... remember the memory issue that carmack can't stop talking about, why would PC, PS3 and Mac code be present , it would have eaten a chunk of memory they could use for textures.

I never said the versions didn't look the same as in textures, the only thing might be the differences with hardware would output a different finish or effect but that's all, but they already made so much polish to make em looks as identical as possible, the actual texture files are the same indeed.

Ofcourse the game looks the same on the outside - that was the main goal, to be able to use the same dataset without rebuilding assets; in this context it doesnt' have anything to do with super resolution textures, that's another thing; which is just a PC bonus to run uncompressed textures already built.


im talking about the release year, the word about it's release or not.

either way ... 2007 is before the game went into production, and that was a small tech demo, since Mac uses opengl as well, that much easier.

Tim Willits interview on engine :

The game plays at 60hz on each system and when you play a game at 60hz, versus 30hz like lots of other games, there’s a huge improvement with the precision, control, and sharpness. In fact, at QuakeCon we had a live

Rage demo running on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 at the same time on big 10ft screens so the audience could see that they look exactly the same and they all ran at 60hz. It’s truly a cross-platform engine and the texturing technology allows us to move past the tiling texture system that most games have.

Fair enough, but that doesn't make any of them a port, and your earlier comment about the textures above is still relating to content.

True.

Rage is not a port, people don't get that. The engine compiles the codes for the different platforms. It's multiplatform. It's not a port, it's not any sort of new translation to try to get it running on something else. The game was designed to look the same on all platforms, that has nothing to do with any sort of "porting."

Well actually the compiler compiles the code into an executable. The engine is the "calculating" part of the executable that throws the art at the display drivers.

It would be interesting to know what he's using. I'd bet it's GCC with some tweaks.

There are multiple versions of id Tech 5, each of which was developed to run on a different set of hardware (PC, Mac, Xbox, PS3). They were all built to look and play basically identically and they all eat the same data, but internally they are very, very different.

I'm not familar with Microsoft's Visual Studio series at all (I play with the fringe compilers/IDEs like OpenWatcom and GCC) but John's stated before that that's what the team uses to write their games. I'm not sure how they port to other OSs...

EDIT: Btw, just wanted to say that I'm happy to hear some official word from gstaff in this thread (even if it is rather late in coming).

Yeah, that's why I figured GCC. It compiles code for a frightening number of platforms.

But the xbox is pretty close to windows it's true. The PS3 however ...

1.You can avoid the API/drivers on consoles (whatever api)
2.Not on PC

Carmack explains here as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hapCuhAs1nA
Topic on drivers starts at 3:00 mark


... a lightyear away.

Perfectly right.
If you make a multiplatform game, you have to design your code and artwortk somewhere middle of the road to make it compatible with all platforms.
This doesn't make Rage a "console game ported to pc" but it does affect the maximum potential for each platform.
Designing a game for multiplattform usage will reduce costs and raise profit which is absolutely necessary to cope with the insane production costs of today but it prevents the programmer from using 100% of each platform's max power.

If they would have made a console game ported to pc, the pc version would have looked a lot worse!
It's the console versions that suffer more from these slow texture loading problems with their small system memory and not so much the pc.
Assuming the pc graphics card in someone's pc is running with a working driver.
And it's the pc version that can deliver higher resolutions and not the console versions.
If the pc is up to date, driver and hardwarewise, the pc version should be slightly superior.

I have watched that vid before.

Do you know what an API is?

Do you know what a compiler is? Did you know that the GCC (Gnu C Compiler) compiler is used very widely for many projects? It was Carmack's compiler of choice at one time.

The M$ compiler in Visual Studio is closed source and is used just for windows code. Which is why I am surprised it's the one id uses as the PS3 is a very different platform while the xbox is very close to the windows platform.

THis comes up every time Id releases a new game and every time it is a load of old cobblers. The game is full of interesting things to do, colourful, charasmatic NPCs and a truckload of weapons and ammunition types to play around with. I'm seven or eight hours in and I'm not too far through the main storyline (I've just gotten to the Dead City which is awesome) and I've enjoyed the game more than I have any other shooter in a very long time. People talk about thirty hours of gaming which is really good for a shooter these days.

I get the complaints about the bugs when the game was first released but other than that Rage is great.

Thank you Gstaff for an update.