"You can choose to design a game around the specs of a high-end PC and make console versions that fail to hit the design point, or design around the specs of the consoles and have a high-end PC provide incremental quality improvements,"
"We chose the latter." - John Carmack

Kotaku svcks sometimes but ... it's good overview here: http://kotaku.com/5847761/why-was-the-pc-launch-of-rage-such-a-cluster


PC Gamer: http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/08/carmack-pissed-about-rage-issues-but-admits-id-doesnt-see-pc-as-leading-game-platform/


It's the graphics drivers mostly - please stop blaming ID Software. Carmack already said at quakecon that GPU drivers are the most frustragin thing on the PC - because of abstraction and and brute force needed -

One of the most important things is this is OpenGL , it's not DirectX and GPU vendors just weren't prepared or how should i say -- definitely less effort on that obviously.

I have no knowledge of how graphics cards are used in the development process but something should change so that there isnt any layers between the hardware and game, Carmack said a while ago that there was trouble getting the game up to 60fps because of all the layers, and that they can't develop straight onto the hardware like they do with consoles. I know PCs are used for more than just games but something should change.

As for the super quality pack I don't think that is 'total proof' but I hope it is!
I don't care if I have to download another 50GB of textures, RAGE will look brilliant and all the self-obsessed 'PC Gaming Master-Race' will stop saying that id aren't taking their job seriously, even though other PC gamers have had terrible launches. Half-Life 2 was one of the worst, but no one blamed Valve just because they didn't have 3 different versions of the game.

Carmack was talking about super quality packs long before , search google "carmack quakecon 2011 super quality pack"



“We do not see the PC as the leading platform for games,” he explained. “That statement will enrage some people, but it is hard to characterize it otherwise; both console versions will have larger audiences than the PC version. A high end PC is nearly 10 times as powerful as a console, and we could unquestionably provide a better experience if we chose that as our design point and we were able to expend the same amount of resources on it.”



This is a funny statement which holds truth - actually only as a consequence.

both console versions will have larger audiences than the PC version. - because the stuff like THIS happens in the first place.

http://www.geforce.com/News/articles/how-to-unlock-rages-high-resolution-textures-with-a-few-simple-tweaks

may explain the textures on PC question.

Until there is someone from id/Bethesda saying it is coming on the xxth of YYYY it is not coming!