This 1 year old article sums it up well enough: http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/190105-does-the-iphone-6-actually-have-console-quality-graphics So there's a lot more to it then pure processing power and numbers. Memory bus for example and GPU- but as well as the battery power that's associated with such.. Not to mention heat. And this was comparing to iPhone 6. These folks are pretty tech saavy. Interesting nonetheless but highly skeptical we're seeing ps4 graphics on iPhone in the next 5+ years unless there's some massive improvement to design/material of chips. Also massive improvements to battery - ps4 using 140 watts to power its chip where it's 3-5 watts maybe on iPhone6. http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/223537-no-mobile-gpus-still-arent-going-to-catch-dedicated-consoles-by-the-end-of-2017
Personally I don't think it's the ability to increase tech that will dictate what you see done but the market itself, you can have all the bells and whistles you like but this means more development time and bigger teams, which increases development cost. I honestly can't see many people buying console priced games on mobile even if the platform were capable, especially with the fickleness of a mobile purchase (pulled, doesn't sell well so go microtransaction heavy or implements ads, software outdated by Apple and their SDK support). Having said that you may see some technically pretty looking games, but they will be targeted generally at quicker acquisition and play sessions and not quite the same thing. You could also see cheaper knockoffs of established franchises or older ports, but really can't see the same level of design and development commitment. Just my personal opinion, who knows... I could be wrong.
It's a combination of many factors but as the article clearly demonstrates that the size and battery are the biggest limiting factors to get power equal to what we see on consoles or PCs. And that won't change in a very long time- I mean there's reasons why PCs and Consoles are large in comparison. As well as needing a power outlet to run. Another method to gauge power is GFlops. iPhone 6 does about 200 and that's being nice, where as ps4 does 1800. iPhones maybe powerful but to say they will be up to ps4 or Xbox one in a couple years is laughable at best. The chip design/function with battery power just won't allow such in limited space. Well, maybe if quantum computing becomes a reality.
That's the single biggest issue when it comes to mobile or Apple TV games, getting people to part with cash when they are so used to getting almost everything for nothing. Those of us who grew up playing console games might be perfectly happy to pay a fair price for a quality product. But the masses just aren't, of course there's only the developers to blame for creating the race to the bottom situation on mobile in the first place. Couple that with the more casual nature of mobile games, where the majority just want quick fix games to fill a few minutes here and there and you just don't have the market for large scale console quality games.
Yes but purely technically speaking, theres just not enough space for chips nor the battery power to compete with console quality graphics. Sure some games now are pretty nice on mobile, but there's lots of shortcuts to achieve it and in a limited view. Unfortunately, mobile devices will not have the power to play open world games like Witcher, Skyrim, or Fallout. Sure there's the GTA ports but they are the ones that ran on ps2 not 3 or 4. And when they do, they cut back a lot on texture quality, view distances, physics, etc. You're in a pipe dream if you think mobile devices will offer full fledge console experiences... Even if the development/companies wanted to.. The technical specs are and will not be capable due to the limited space to put transistors, have proper heat control, and lack of battery power. Batteries would have to improve tenfold, literally, and quantum computing would have to be a reality with mass production and cheap. Call me synical but that happening in the next 5 years is maybe 1% I wish I can eat my words in a couple years as the ARM director said- but seems unlikely to me and many others. Doesn't sound like you all are reading the article, it's quite enlightening about computing power and the limiting factors of mobile. There is the nvidia shield which is most powerful mobile device, but it's quite a bit bulkier then an iPhone.. And it's still far behind modern consoles/pcs
I could care less about graphics. It's the way the game is designed and how it works with the hardware that matters. I love mobile gaming. I love paying for games and I love some f2p games. If they do what they do well, then it doesn't matter to me what business model they follow. My biggest issue is the control scheme. I hate using most on screen controls. If my screen is covered in virtual buttons I'm probably not going to play the game for very long. I also don't like the ios controllers on the market. I like to play games on my iphone and I don't want to have to prop it up on a table to use a controller. I want to play it in bed held over my face like you would a Nintendo DS. When I buy an Xbox game I know it will work on my system and with my controller. That alone makes me prefer playing Fallout on my Xbox over my iphone even if the graphics are the same. Even if the graphics were BETTER on an iphone I wouldn't play it there if my screen is going to be covered in virtual buttons. I also appreciate that console games don't become unplayable after a couple of months or after Microsoft updates the Xbox OS. My discs also don't magically disappear out of my gaming collection. I can pull them out years down the road, stick them into the same piece of hardware and they work. I can play Bioshock on my console right now. Can you play Bioshock on your ios device? I sure can't, even though I paid for it just like I did for my xbox.
Last year there were rumors circulating that the next iPhone would have a pop-up analogue stick where the round home(?) button is on your iPhone. I really thought that was innovative and a game changer- wonder what happened. That would've made for much better controls even if it's just one analogue. But how can you not care about graphics? That's what drives the experience imo. It's not everything but certainly plays a role.
What kind of time frame are you basing these claims on? Moore's Law is a thing, and to argue that mobile technology won't be able to compete just seems... Weird. Consoles are on a 10-ish year hardware cycle. In that time, mobile SoC's will be more powerful than decade old silicon. It's just how technology works, and seems real weird to try to base an argument on technological progress not happening.
Depends on the game. Have you not enjoyed any of the recent "retro style" games? Shovel Knight, Minecraft, Downwell, etc. These are great games and most of them could run on much lower end devices than what they are on. I also love big graphic console games like Fallout, Witcher, Destiny, etc. However, if I had to play Destiny with virtual buttons or even a single analog stick I probably wouldn't play it. No matter how good the graphics are.
Did you read the article in the original topic, that's where I'm basing my claims. A very technical saavy site that has been analyzing hardware and specifically chips for many many years. It's just my opinion , I'd love to see console graphics on mobile. But there's only so many transistors, heat, and watt to power that you can put in a small piece of hardware. And that's the basis of all chips until quantum computing. Technological progress is true but it gets to a saturation point especially when you must keep it in a small area, battling heat as well as battery/watt power. It's not a matter of time, it's having to re-invent how chips work beyond transistors which has been the base for past 20 years. As great as the soc's maybe.. They still need power for the transistors. And batteries in iPhone aren't going to be juicing it past 4-5 watts at a time- in comparison to consoles or pcs that do up to 140 watts. So there also needs to be a massive improvement to batteries and that's hard to anticipate anytime soon.
Sure, but arguing that technology can't advance is not a great bet to make. It's like saying we'll never be able to travel faster than the fastest horse. Our best and brightest people on this planet are working tirelessly on cracking all these limitations... And if history is any indication, it's a matter of "when" not a matter of "if."
I'm not saying technology can't advance, not at all. Just thought 1-2 years we'll see ps4 performance on mobile is extremely hopeful. As right now, the newest iPhone does about 200 gigaflops (maybe a little less) and the ps4 does 1,800 gigaflops. If you believe that much improvement can be made, all power to ya for being an optimist This quote sums up my thoughts: "It (Apple) would have to create a GPU that’s capable of 1,840 gigaflops, while still only consuming a few watts. It would have to create a GPU that has a performance-per-watt ratio that’s around 10 times greater than the best efforts of Nvidia or AMD. I’m sure Apple’s chip team is very good — but they’re not miracle workers" Mind you nvidia or AMD has been specializing in chips for many years- so that's quite a huge undertaking. I just read that article on this site and how it derived from one of the ARM directors... Seemed a little too hopeful to me that's all. The future is great regardless, but let's be realistic. Took Apple about 5 years to go from about 60 gigaflops processing power to 180ish in new iPhones. 180 to 1,800 is pretty crazy jump in two years. But hey, here to hoping - cheers
The other option would be cloud computing and then streaming it to mobile devices. However, then you have to bet on isp's catching up with the rest of the modern world and offering better speeds than what they do in the US. It's pitiful how behind our isp's are.
This is true, or huge battery improvements. But seems like batteries been in a stalemate for quite some time with only minor improvements. We been stuck on the lithium-ion for decades. Another great article on Moores law: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/223022-the-myths-of-moores-law There's a lot more to technological advances then numbers. What's constantly overlooked in mobile processing is the power (TDP) generally mobile is limited to 3-5 watts because of heating issues among other things like actual battery capabilities. Where as bigger things like consoles and PCs have more space as well as many more fans/cooling systems and go anywhere from 100-200 watts. So the biggest hurdle is the TDP/Watt to processing power. And to really make substantial jumps- the chip has to be completely re-designed both in materials and function. That takes a long time,10-15 years but who knows when they started. I think we'll continue to see small improvements but nothing that competes with consoles or PCs for at least another 5+ years. Hopefully I'm wrong
