While the PS4 and Xbox One wowed developers and consumers alike with their copious amounts of RAM – the PS4 more so since it sports 8 GB GDDR5 RAM in a unified architecture – it’s not as though it’ll be difficult to fill up. In fact, that time may come sooner than later according to Crytek’s US Engine Business Development Manager Sean Tracy.

We recently interviewed Havok’s head of product management Andrew Bowell about the 8 GB of RAM in both consoles and had been informed that artists will have no trouble occupying it all. Does Tracy also believe there will be a shortage of RAM in this generation as well?

“I would have to agree with the viewpoint that 8 gigs can easily be filled up, but also keep in mind that developers don’t necessarily even have access to all 8 gigs of it. For example the Xbox One retains some of the RAM for OS purposes. Since technology, as Ray Kurweil states, progresses exponentially, we will soon find that the computational requirements of games will quickly hit the ceiling of a few gigs of ram. We already had to manage quite intensely our memory usage throughout Ryse and this will be one of the limiting factors surely in this generation.

“As hardware gets stronger the complexity of scenes can be increased and the dynamism within them. However, with that said it’s not the raw power alone that will allow for photo-realistic graphics but technology that intelligently scales and utilizes all that the hardware has to offer.”

So again, it will come down to who best optimizes their games for the hardware that both the PS4 and Xbox One offer. It may be a few years till developers are confidently using all the power a system has to provide but it remains to be seen how they’ll go about achieving the same. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.

Developing for the PlayStation 4, especially compared to the Xbox One, has been a relatively painless process for most developers. Whether it’s the x86 architecture or the unified memory, Sony’s next gen console has been praised by both indie devs and big name publishers. Speaking to GamingBolt, founder, president and CTO of Terathon Software Eric Lengyel talked about how easy it was to port the C4 Engine from the PS3 to the PS4.

More importantly, Lengyel outlined how it bodes for development on the platform and how easy it is to optimize on the PS4 compared to the PC.

“There are three main reasons why porting to the PS4 went smoothly for us. First, we were able to use all of our SIMD-optimized PC code without modification because the PS4 is based on x86 processors. Second, many of the APIs used by non-graphics components of the engine (like low-level threading, audio, and networking) are very similar between the PS3 and PS4, so we didn’t have to do much work to get them running.

“Finally, and possibly most importantly, Sony has provided an excellent integration with Visual Studio that makes debugging on the PS4 a pleasant experience.

“It’s always going to be easier to optimize for a console because the exact hardware is known. On the PC, we have to consider a huge range of CPU and GPU capabilities, and that often makes straightforward optimizations impractical.”

As for the advantages that the 8 GB GDDR5 RAM offers when used with the C4 Engine, Lengyel states that, “The fast memory will allow larger textures to be used, and this will enable higher detail on objects when they are close to the camera. Compute shaders are also able to stream data into the GPU faster, and this allows more computation to be done for a large variety of tasks.”

What are your thoughts on the PS4’s ease of development and power? Let us know below.

If you didn’t know about Red Barrels’ Outlast – which won our Best Indie Game and Best PC Game of the Year awards – then you’re in for a treat. That’s because the game will be releasing on PlayStation 4 in February, and for PlayStation Plus subscribers, it will be for free via the Instant Game Collection.

GamingBolt recently had a chance to speak to Red Barrels co-founded Philippe Morin about the PlayStation 4 version of Outlast and how the console’s 8GB GDDR5 RAM helped in porting the game from the PC.

Morrin stated that, “It allowed us to crank everything to the maximum, without having to consider lower specs. It also helped for streaming issues.” As for how easy it was to port the engine to the PS4, he stated that, “We had access to the code of Zombie Studios [developer of Blacklight: Retribution] and we built on top of it. The whole process has been fairly easy.”

Outlast will be available on the PlayStation 4 on February 5th. Will you be picking it up? Let us know in the comments.

NeoGAF member and industry insider thuway is back with more information, especially clarifying the Xbox One driver update mentioned earlier this week. According to thuway, it seems that a 10 percent performance boost should be available at the very least.

On being asked whether this update would allow for games like, say, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag to run at 1080p rather than 900p on the Xbox One, thuway tweeted, “@bravedwarf I can’t say anything about that, but I’ve heard 10% performance boost should be on tap.”

Considering that most hardware receive device drivers to improve performance down the line, this seems reasonable. To see one coming so soon after the console’s release is intriguing though. How much it will affect performance and whether it will make things such as 60 FPS more stable or higher resolutions possible is something we’ll have to wait to confirm.

He also remarks that back in the old days of Orbis and Durango, there was plenty of reason to believe the latter was more powerful. “In early 2012, when the PS4 had 4GB of GDDR5, a developer in the EU region claimed: “Durango tosses the Orbis in every metric.” Of course, then the official PS4 reveal arrived. “When 8 GB of GDDR5 was announced, certain developers were literally speechless.”

On the PS4 side, thuway also confirms that Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XV was supposed to be exclusive to Sony’s next gen console. “FFXV PS4 Exclusivity, even to this day, some insiders claim, was a thing; and these insiders are about as trustworthy as they come.”

What are your thoughts on the above, especially with regards to the Xbox One driver update? Let us know in the comments.

NeoGAF user and industry insider thuway  revealed recently about how he’s looking forward to the next update for the Xbox One’s OS in the coming weeks and that it “should mean great things”. The nature of those great things is up for debate, but what else could be expected aside from better voice command recognition and improved performance?

“I am trying to get a good read on when the next Xbox One driver update happens. Should mean great things. Sometime in the next few weeks,” he tweeted.

He also added that the team working at Redmond were probably some of the best OS programmers in the world, which is a given since this is the company that helped bring us Windows. “Make no mistake about it. The team at Redmond working on the Xbox OS are probably the best OS programmers in the world.”

Earlier today, thuway had spoken to a developer about the biggest bottleneck for the PS4 and Xbox One with the response being memory. Given that both consoles have been proudly touted as having 8 GB GDDR5 RAM and 8 GB DDR3 RAM (along with eSRAM) respectively, there is some limit on the RAM allocated for developer.

However, he clarified in some new tweets that it was a simple answer being given and nothing more. “I should leave a footnote: developer who made RAM comment was not complaining, only giving a straight answer.”

While developers may be satisfied with what the Xbox One and PS4, we shouldn’t assume that their ambition stops at any specific number. “Developers are very happy with these next gen machines, but let’s not delude ourselves into thinking developer ambition stops at 6 GB of RAM.”

What are your thoughts on the overall OS of the Xbox One? Is it superior than the PS4’s or does it pale in comparison? Also, what are your thoughts on the performance that devs will be able to get out of RAM in the coming years? Let us know what you think below.

Though it’s been a little over a month since the Xbox One and PS4 released, there are still doubts whether memory will be sufficient to last an entire generation. Xbox One allocates 5GB of RAM for games and  we’re still a little unclear on how much the PS4 allocates. There have been rumors of 5.5 GB earlier but nothing is concrete at the moment. Regardless of how much RAM these systems have, Havok’s Head of Product Management Andrew Bowell believes it will ultimately result into developers doing more in their games.

“Developers have long dreamt about more RAM. RAM has been so scarce over the last 20 years in console hardware that I feel many prayers have been answered this time around However it will take absolutely no time for artists to use all available RAM, even 8 GB, you can be sure of that,” he said to GamingBolt.

He also explained how Havok deals with sudden developer requests, especially concerning features that might not currently be supported by the engine, and how easy or difficult it is to scale the engine in such circumstances.

“In terms of Havok technology, it has always been our goal to enable developers to do more with less. Even with the large amounts of RAM available, the developers will still find ways to use even last byte. To that end, it is always a requirement for middleware to have the smallest possible memory footprint. This is also becoming even more of a requirement as console developers look at ways to bring their title to mobile platforms.”

It’s already been obvious, especially with concerns to hurdles such as the Xbox One’s eSRAM. However, for developers to be able to utilize, say, all the available game memory of the PS4? It will be a while before something like this is possible, but take that as an assurance that the next generation of consoles isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

“Short term, we can expect some very good games. Long term, we can look forward to the growth in games. There’s a lot of untapped depth in the hardware,” he said to Wired.

Cerny also commented on taking a more collaborative approach with the PS4. “The thought was that we would start with a more open process, a more collaborative look at what worked and what didn’t. I did something that would have been unthinkable in 2004: I went to about 30 game teams about what they would like to see in the next-generation hardware.”

This approach has seemingly worked out, as not only has the PS4 been hailed as the most powerful of the next-gen consoles but also one of the easiest to develop for (which, according to Cerny, saved the Knack dev team a year’s worth of time). Will it elevate Sony back into PS1/PS2 levels of success? We’ll find out in the coming weeks.

How does the PS4’s 8 GB GDDR5 RAM help in developing for the console, especially since every unit is uniform in design as compared to PC? “We can benchmark for much higher graphical settings and to ensure the players enjoy as nice of a graphical experience as we can deliver. It’s nice to be able to dedicate to supporting and optimizing high-end specs for a change.”

Finally, regarding new content coming to the PS4 version of Guns of Icarus Online, Tsao stated that, “With the game in general, we are continuing to update and add new content.By the time we release to PS4, we’ll definitely have a lot more content for PS4 players. When we release the Co-op and Adventure Mode DLCs, they will be available for PS4 players as well. For PS4 exclusive content, we’ll need to keep over balance in mind as we roll out cross-platform play, but we’ll definitely try to do something special for PS4 players as well.”

Excited even more for the PlayStation 4 which launches on November 15th in North America and November 29th in Europe? Let us know in the comments below.

On whether the 8 GB GDDR5 RAM and unified architecture posed an advantage to developers using the Unity Engine to develop on PS4, Helgason replied, “Absolutely. This architecture simplifies development, and makes techniques that previously were in the realm of science fiction doable. We intend to make this extremely powerful and extremely easy to use, like everything else we do!”

That doesn’t mean that the company won’t be catering to the needs of Microsoft’s Xbox One as well. “Unity is a facilitator. We want to make tools that make it as easy as possible to put games and other products in front of as many eyeballs as possible. We will, of course, offer complete compatibility with any unique features that the various platforms from Sony Computer Entertainment and Microsoft.

“As you’re likely aware, Unity’s own philosophy is largely about inclusiveness. We’re doing what we can to get professional and powerful tools in the hands of as many developers as possible. We want every developer, whether they’re large publisher funded studios or one man teams, to have the same chance at success. SCE, and more recently Microsoft, have been moving towards a position of being much more open to smaller developers putting games on their systems and we’re very happy to see that shift. It’s something that we think is good for the industry as a whole and the gamers themselves.”

We’re less than two months away from the release of the PS4 and Xbox One but the competition just keeps heating up. What are your thoughts on Unity for both consoles and its use in next-generation development? Let us know below.

“Transistor has a lot more animation and visual effects than our first game so it’s somewhat more memory intensive. We barely got Bastion running smoothly on the Xbox 360 at 720p so having a much bigger memory budget this time around means our artists don’t need to take as many shortcuts creating the characters and creatures for this game. While memory constraints can lead to some creative solutions, we’re nonetheless very excited to have more breathing room on the memory front now.”

On being asked what was Supergiant Games’ relationship with Sony – since Transistor was one of the first indie titles to be announced as a timed exclusive for the console – Kasavin stated that, “Transistor is making its console debut on the PlayStation 4 and will be available on the PC on the same day, so the game is not exclusive to any platform.

“Part of our decision to work with Sony and come to the PS4 first comes from how open and understanding Sony has been around our needs as a small team. They played the game at PAX East where we showed it for the first time, and really liked what they saw of it so we started talking after the show. They put a lot of faith in smaller teams like ours, as evidenced by the prominent placement we got as part of their E3 lineup. We’re self-funding and self-publishing Transistor, so our relationship to Sony is similar to, say, our relationship to Valve with Steam — we are working on a game coming to their platform.”

Transistor will be releasing in 2014 for PS4 and PC.