Nvidia responds to Batman:AA

[Charles Wirth]

NVIDIA statement on Batman AA
A representative of AMD recently claimed that NVIDIA interfered with anti-aliasing (AA) support for Batman: Arkham Asylum on AMD cards. They also claimed that NVIDIA’s The Way It’s Meant to be Played Program prevents AMD from working with developers for those games.
Both of these claims are NOT true. Batman is based on Unreal Engine 3, which does not natively support anti-aliasing. We worked closely with Eidos to add AA and QA the feature on GeForce. Nothing prevented AMD from doing the same thing.
Games in The Way It’s Meant to be Played are not exclusive to NVIDIA. AMD can also contact developers and work with them.
We are proud of the work we do in The Way It’s Meant to be Played. We work hard to deliver kickass, game-changing features in PC games like PhysX, AA, and 3D Vision for games like Batman. If AMD wants to deliver innovation for PC games then we encourage them to roll up their sleeves and do the same.

NVIDIA Developer Relations

[Shadov]

And this explains why Batman Demo could run AA fine on ATI Radeon, after changing the device_id. NOT!

Im sorry but this is a typical PR response they have given you Fugger

[Bodkin]

Im felling for nvidia here. They put in the effort, and AMD did not. AMD is calling unfair. I dont see how it is

[DosDuoNo]

in a way this seems knee jerk, and i would question the accessibilty of AMD to these titles that Nvidia is already 'Working On', i suspect every hurdle possible has been put in the way of AMD, similar to the Intel fiasco in the EU.

[Bodkin]

ABout the hardware ID thing. Nvidia made the code work on there GPUs and therfore it was enabled. It was not checked on ATI hardware therefore it was not enabled. I dont think this is a case of fake blocks, rather rockstedy not wanting to enable features on untested cards.

[Shadov]

ABout the hardware ID thing. Nvidia made the code work on there GPUs and therfore it was enabled. It was not checked on ATI hardware therefore it was not enabled. I dont think this is a case of fake blocks, rather rockstedy not wanting to enable features on untested cards.

Hmm, AA is such a new feature in gaming that everyone needs to hold hands of the software engineers to make it work... Right

Furthermore can you imagine ATI telling the developers to go to hell when they requested hardware?

Anyway this is kinda getting silly. I understand new directx 11 effects that need evaluation and testing, but AA?

[Truckchase!]

There is the DX Spec way to implement AA, and then there is this. This is one of those very rare moments in life where there is a right way to do something and a wrong way. This was done the wrong way. Story over.

[Bodkin]

Hmm, AA is such a new feature in gaming that everyone needs to hold hands of the programing team to make it work...

Im sorry but this is kinda getting silly. I understand new directx 11 effects, but AA?

Im playing devils advocate here, im not any form of fanboi. But i suppose the argument against this is the unreal engine 3 has always had AA problems and if nvidia had not added there AA support mayby rocksteady would have not bothered at all

[jaredpace]

And this explains why Batman Demo could run AA fine on ATI Radeon, after changing the device_id. NOT!

Im sorry but this is a typical PR response they have given you Fugger

I agree.

[LordEC911]

Link to response? Or was it an email/pm?

[highoctane]

It's something called initiative, its a part of everyday life. You can sit back and wait for people to cater to you or you can go out and "make" things happen by taking the initiative.

Don't blame the people putting forth effort and taking the initiative to make something happen because others may not think they need to put forth the same initiative to make things happen, as if everyone is entitled.

[Charles Wirth]

The response was sent via email. I see that it was sent to several sites.

[marten_larsson]

ABout the hardware ID thing. Nvidia made the code work on there GPUs and therfore it was enabled. It was not checked on ATI hardware therefore it was not enabled. I dont think this is a case of fake blocks, rather rockstedy not wanting to enable features on untested cards.

Since it's not a DX11 title, it's quite strange they didn't test it on the Radeons. I mean, the 4000 series is only what, 15-18 months old now? Surely they didn't have time to test it!

I'm getting the same vibe as with the reason for disabling PhysX if ATI card present; there were three reasons (not in order of importance):

- Unable to validate
- Business reasons
- Development expense

This stinks IMO. I can understand no1 but the other two?!

Source

[Frodin]

So what's next? ATI have to start paying developers to add colour to games?

[lockee]

NVIDIA statement on Batman AA
A representative of AMD recently claimed that NVIDIA interfered with anti-aliasing (AA) support for Batman: Arkham Asylum on AMD cards. They also claimed that NVIDIA’s The Way It’s Meant to be Played Program prevents AMD from working with developers for those games.
Both of these claims are NOT true. Batman is based on Unreal Engine 3, which does not natively support anti-aliasing. We worked closely with Eidos to add AA and QA the feature on GeForce. Nothing prevented AMD from doing the same thing.
Games in The Way It’s Meant to be Played are not exclusive to NVIDIA. AMD can also contact developers and work with them.
We are proud of the work we do in The Way It’s Meant to be Played. We work hard to deliver kickass, game-changing features in PC games like PhysX, AA, and 3D Vision for games like Batman. If AMD wants to deliver innovation for PC games then we encourage them to roll up their sleeves and do the same.

NVIDIA Developer Relations

They didn't do it and Physx is awesome. So is the AA stuff in batman and their 3D vision glasses.

[XS_Rich]

So what's next? ATI have to start paying developers to add colour to games?

This is exactly the point.

How do they distinguish between graphical features that are assumed to work on all platforms (e.g. colour), and those which they will only enable for tested validated hardware (e.g. this implementation of AA)?

[Bodkin]

Since it's not a DX11 title, it's quite strange they didn't test it on the Radeons. I mean, the 4000 series is only what, 15-18 months old now? Surely they didn't have time to test it!

I'm getting the same vibe as with the reason for disabling PhysX if ATI card present; there were three reasons (not in order of importance):

- Unable to validate
- Business reasons
- Development expense

This stinks IMO. I can understand no1 but the other two?!

Source

I agree its wired they did not test on ATI hardware, but with TWIBTBP nvidia test your game only hundreds of configurations for you with little effort from the developer. ATI on the other hand dont seem to do much at all

[Charles Wirth]

I downloaded the demo and I must admit the Physx really make the games visual experience complete. Without it, it would be rather bland.

[OCguy]

Looks like the outrage was all for nothing.

[CQSTELUSH]

In every lie there is a piece of truth...

[OCguy]

I agree.

So you are saying the engine does natively support AA, and nV paid the developer to remove it?

I'm going to have to disagree on that one.

[Solus Corvus]

So what's next? ATI have to start paying developers to add colour to games?

Nvidia: pioneering kickass, game changing features like color and AA.

[DilTech]

The engine doesn't natively support it... Just check the menu for UT3.

[Shadov]

Honestly Im just worried this will end up in a huge game titles auction house.

Wanted to try Batman 2? Sorry buddy you have an ATI Radeon card, this game runs only on GeForce. Are you interested in Dirt 3 or Alien Vs Predator 2... Sorry game works only on ATI Radeon.

While both companies will survive this is very bad for consumers.

Someone has to make it clear to Nvidia to not use and set such business practices before others adapt it and things start going downhill...

[marten_larsson]

Looks like the outrage was all for nothing.

LOL! So when Nvidia says something it has to be true but not when AMD does? How is that?

The truth is probably somewhere in between. Sure AMD/ATI could have worked closer with the developer to ensure AA was functional but at the same time it should be in the developers interest to see their game look as good as possible on any hardware. And to claim hardware wasn't available is ridiculous, the 4870/4850/4770/4890 costs less than an i7 965 - the four of them together.