Nvidia Hiring More Developers

[570091D]

source: FudZilla

Nvidia's Executive VP of Content and technology group Tony Tamasi himself, a rather influential figure and also a great guy to talk to, has told us that the talk about Nvidia caring less about games is absolutely not true. This was a reaction to one of our articles, in which Jensen said that Nvidia is 65 percent in parallel and 30 percent visual company these days. You can read it here.

Nvidia's developer relations guys, who are extremely passionate about their job also added that they are hiring more people and this implies that Nvidia cards are more about gamers and games, as well as about Geforce as a brand. We have to agree with this comment as Nvidia spends significant amounts of money to help the coders implement new things in their games.

We will tell you more about what Nvidia does for the gaming word some other time, but let me give you a hint, I strongly believe that Nvidia is a key element in keeping PC gaming alive.

full article for those opposed to giving fz a hit.

troll on.

[Frontl1ne]

What's the point? Games run good and look nowadays thanks to consoles.

[570091D]

What's the point? Games run good and look nowadays thanks to consoles.

.... the point is to reverse that trend...

[Final8ty]

.... the point is to reverse that trend...

They haven't been doing a very good job then.

Nvidia: Without TWIMTBP, PC gaming would be dead

Published on 3rd October 2009 by Tim Smalley

Ashu Rege, the Director of Nvidia's developer tech team, said that without the work of his team, PC gaming would continue to decline until it eventually dies.

Rege's team supports developers as part of the company's The Way It's Meant To Be Played program and has come under continued criticism from AMD.

Clearly angered by this, he explained that there are over 50 engineers in his team who work "damn hard" around the clock with developers to make PC games better.

"If we hadn't done anything with Batman, for example, what we would have had is the continuing end of PC gaming," he said. "Let's be honest, developers love PCs and they love developing on PCs, but the reality is that the consoles are where the bread is buttered. It's where the money is made.

"If we didn't do all of this work with developers to help them improve their games on the PC side, most games would be straight ports from Xbox 360 or PS3 and with no differentiation whatsoever. Add that to the fact that PCs are, let's be honest, a little more challenging to get to grips with for the casual gamer, more and more people are just going to migrate to consoles and kill PC gaming."

He later pointed out that his team makes no money and the group's whole mission is to make PC games better. "It's an enormous investment for Nvidia, there's no doubt about that," added Tony Tamasi, head of content and technology at Nvidia. When asked, neither Tamasi nor Rege would confirm how much money was spent on DevTech each year, but we've heard that it's between 50 and 100 million dollars a year. That's a lot of money.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/...ould-be-dead/1

[Calmatory]

Developers love to develop for PC, right. Oh, it never said that. It said that they love to develop ON PC!

PC gaming will go down, just as the second wave of thin clients will arrive with cloud computing. It will make things LOTS more interesting for everyone. And no, they won't run crysis, or any real time 3D games.

[Shadov]

Yeah, I love the "support" of Nvidia to game developers.

One touch with a magic cheque... err wand and the game isnt able to run Physics on CPU (e.g. Havok, Bullet ect.) but requires Nvidia hardware for "acceptable" frame rates.

Ohh how I hate the developers that go for standards that run on every hardware.

/sarcasm off should someone miss it

[trinibwoy]

There's only one game that is built around PhysX and that's Cryostasis. For every other game, go into the menu, turn off the PC only PhysX effects and voila! you will have your standard console/AMD experience. So quit yer moanin' !

Valve is doing more for PC gaming than any other company because they've tackled two big issues - piracy and ease of use. Every single game I have is on Steam, don't buy anything otherwise. The setup is as close to the consistency of a console environment as we have on the PC and it even goes one better because there are no discs to bother with. The other big thing missing from the PC experience is the social aspect - the couch+controller is a killer combo. It baffles me that PC motherboards don't come standard with bluetooth and HDMI - by this point the PC should be a common living room appliance. Why do I need a separate adapter for every wireless peripheral I connect to my system? It's ridiculous.

[crash5s]

What's the point? Games run good and look nowadays thanks to consoles.

I dunno, I've grown to love consoles. Less driver crap, no having to buy 2x or more GPU's to really harness the platform and shelling out around a grand for that every 2 years. No bull physx and proprietary wars over a game that should work fine for all. Less stupid DRM schemes.

Plus everybody wants low power portable devices now.

If you want to complain about PC gaming, it's failure lands fairly on people pushing high end graphics and large desktops. You want to sell games on a "computing platform", you need to target the average laptop, because that's what everybody is buying now. Apart from dedicated enthusiasts like this board, and we make up a fraction of the consumer base.

trying to harness dual gpu's, or even high end GPU's, those are for benchmarking. Make a quality game that can be maxed out on your average laptop (no, not intel IGP's calm down) and it will sell.

As much as you might hate it. The ugly truth is that desktops and high end GPU's are a disadvantage to most everybody. Low voltage laptops, with crappy GPU's are what makes the most sense for the public. So that's what's being bought. Which has killed off the base of possible gaming PC's. And this trend is only going to continue.

Blaming consoles is a cop out. Blame people that make laptops. Blame people that make high end power sucking hardware for desktops. These people have made owning a gaming PC a frankly idiotic option for many people. You have to accept this.

[Shadov]

There's only one game that is built around PhysX and that's Cryostasis. For every other game, go into the menu, turn off the PC only PhysX effects and voila! you will have your standard console/AMD experience. So quit yer moanin' !

Im moaning? You're delusional...

Why do normal features like physics have to be disabled in some titles, since Nvidia paid for implementing pissX? Dosent havok/bullet offer enough features for every gamer?

Im sorry, but I dont see anything more behind Nvidia "help for developers" then an attempt to lock gamers to their hardware.

I just hope they stay away from Blizzard games and they never get tempted (read paid) to implement a locked/marketing standard.

[HelixPC]

This is a business, the sooner you accept it, the sooner you can move on. nVidia is in the money making business, they dont run a charity.

[SoulsCollective]

DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS

[570091D]

this is a business, the sooner you accept it, the sooner you can move on. Nvidia is in the money making business, they dont run a charity.

qft

[Final8ty]

This is a business, the sooner you accept it, the sooner you can move on. nVidia is in the money making business, they dont run a charity.

qft

Everyone knows that & its silly to keep bring up that MEGA obvious fact as it does not change the argument when everyone already knows that fact, the only reason why people take issues when they try to make out that there doing it for other reasons than business like they are doing it for the gamers.

[Svnth]

Im moaning? You're delusional...

Why do normal features like physics have to be disabled in some titles, since Nvidia paid for implementing pissX? Dosent havok/bullet offer enough features for every gamer?

Im sorry, but I dont see anything more behind Nvidia "help for developers" then an attempt to lock gamers to their hardware.

I just hope they stay away from Blizzard games and they never get tempted (read paid) to implement a locked/marketing standard.

Starcraft 2 just implemented 3D Vision support. Guess you're going to uninstall all Blizzard games now and sit in a corner?

[trinibwoy]

Im moaning?

Yes, you are.

Why do normal features like physics have to be disabled in some titles, since Nvidia paid for implementing pissX? Dosent havok/bullet offer enough features for every gamer?

You're not disabling "normal features like physics". You're disabling the add-on effects coded for Nvidia's GPUs. By disabling them you get the standard experience you're clamoring for, equivalent to what havok offers - i.e. no hardware accelerated effects.

[Frontl1ne]

I dunno, I've grown to love consoles. Less driver crap, no having to buy 2x or more GPU's to really harness the platform and shelling out around a grand for that every 2 years. No bull physx and proprietary wars over a game that should work fine for all. Less stupid DRM schemes.

Plus everybody wants low power portable devices now.

If you want to complain about PC gaming, it's failure lands fairly on people pushing high end graphics and large desktops. You want to sell games on a "computing platform", you need to target the average laptop, because that's what everybody is buying now. Apart from dedicated enthusiasts like this board, and we make up a fraction of the consumer base.

trying to harness dual gpu's, or even high end GPU's, those are for benchmarking. Make a quality game that can be maxed out on your average laptop (no, not intel IGP's calm down) and it will sell.

As much as you might hate it. The ugly truth is that desktops and high end GPU's are a disadvantage to most everybody. Low voltage laptops, with crappy GPU's are what makes the most sense for the public. So that's what's being bought. Which has killed off the base of possible gaming PC's. And this trend is only going to continue.

Blaming consoles is a cop out. Blame people that make laptops. Blame people that make high end power sucking hardware for desktops. These people have made owning a gaming PC a frankly idiotic option for many people. You have to accept this.

The price to keep up to date with PC's is a moot point. Consoles are basically PCs without the freedom. PS3 runs on a nvidia 7800 derivative and a cell processor, X360 runs on an ATI 3800 derivative with a triple core processor. Any budget computer nowadays can match those specs easily and would have no problems playing at the IQ level that the consoles play at. The difference is that you can adjust the settings to what you like, not what is predetermined.

Also it's not like you have to buy new parts. If you opt not to, then you just have to lower your graphics to console standards. The higher graphics settings is for the people who can afford it and who enjoy such things.

The only reason we still have games coming out in DX9 is because of consoles. Consoles are the weakest of the three platforms, but at the same time they rake in the most money. The whole thing has nothing to do with Nvidia at all, it's just how people are.

[saaya]

Executive VP of Content and technology group

content and technology? that is so vague i dont have the slightest clue what hes actually doing... and then hes the VP, not the P...

and seeing how he disagrees with his ceo, i cant see him become P, not even of an even more vague group at nvidia anytime soon

nvidia focusses less on gaming, we all know it... and then a guy at nvidia whos working with game devs is claiming its not true, who didnt see this coming... :P
still, pretty stupid to disagree with your ceo... especially when you dont have to, as all hed have to say is that its true, but nvidia didnt actually cut down their efforts and funding on game development and still work very closely with game devs... there, no disagreeing with mr kim jong jensen, no confusion for light minded investors, and you still get the message out...

now whether thats true or not would be interesting to see...
i wonder if we will see game devs jump to ati or btch about nvidia cutting support or if nvidia really continues to spend a lot on games...

[ToxAvenger]

DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS

That NEVER gets old, ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8To-6VIJZRE

[Shadov]

Starcraft 2 just implemented 3D Vision support. Guess you're going to uninstall all Blizzard games now and sit in a corner?

Not really, I dont care about additional 3d support but normal features like physics in games...

Nvidia touches a game and suddenly normal physics/effects cant run on a CPU and require additional hardware. Is that good for gamers?

In my opinion they should just stay away from games if they "add features" by "blocking standard features".

Yes, you are.

You're not disabling "normal features like physics". You're disabling the add-on effects coded for Nvidia's GPUs. By disabling them you get the standard experience you're clamoring for, equivalent to what havok offers - i.e. no hardware accelerated effects.

You dont get the point, do you?

A. Nvidia pays the developer and effectively blocks standard physics effects on the CPU.

B. Developer implements havok / bullet that runs on every hardware (CPU).

Take a look on e.g. Batman, normal fog or waving banners are not possible without PhysX enabled. Is that adding or disabling all in the name of "support for gamers".

[trinibwoy]

Take a look on e.g. Batman, normal fog or waving banners are not possible without PhysX enabled. Is that adding or disabling all in the name of "support for gamers".

Like your friend Xoulz you're missing one very important piece of information - any evidence that those tacked on PhysX effects were going to be in the original game at all. It's one thing to convince yourself that your fantasies are reality but you need facts in order to convince other people.

[Shadov]

Like your friend Xoulz you're missing one very important piece of information - any evidence that those tacked on PhysX effects were going to be in the original game at all. It's one thing to convince yourself that your fantasies are reality but you need facts in order to convince other people.

Yeah, since fog effects or animated banners are such a breakthrough!

Cmon - youre starting to sound silly and on top of that ignorant.

[Krizby87]

oh hey last time I checked every TWIMTBP games runs just as good on AMD hardwares (if not sometimes even better). So Nvidia is paying developers to have additional visual flares for their own graphic cards, something to differentiate them from the competitor.

These visual flares haven't yet to affect gameplay, so gamers who use AMD hardwares are not being left out of anything, obviously developers want their games to sell to a larger audience. IMO PhysisX are for those who love to tinker with their PCs and have the cash to spend. People are different, some like it simple, some like the experience of maximizing the performance, visuals of a game. Don't think everyone would just like games to look the same for anyone, that's just communist way of thinking.

[Zloyd]

Well so umm nvidia is spending money to make games look and run better on their cards ..... at the expense of their competitor .... gee now that seems so unfair.

[Shadov]

Well so umm nvidia is spending money to make games look and run better on their cards ..... at the expense of their competitor .... gee now that seems so unfair.

Geee how narrow sighted people tend to be...

If AMD ever takes the same approach we will have an game auction house on the developers side.

Want some standard features like physics, fog, animated cloth, maybe AA? Sorry buddy to bad, this game was sponsored by AMD and you CANT have it on your Nvidia card as an example.

How does this approach help the gamers and industry long term?

Furthermore Nvidia isnt paying to add extra features but have their proprietary standard adopted instead of open standards and sell more hardware this way.

If you believe otherwise then you just made my day.

[ElSel10]

Furthermore Nvidia isnt paying to add extra features but have their proprietary standard adopted instead of open standards and sell more hardware this way.

If you believe otherwise then you just made my day.

Captain obvious to the rescue? Nvidia is a business.