This is a rather empty victory, as the powers that be determined late Wednesday night/midnight is the optimal time for an iOS app release.
Also, it's already Thursday morning in some parts of the world, so I've been able to grab the game on my Australian iTunes account for a couple hours now.
Soon some games will only support the latest GPU so other phones or older gen GPU owners are screwed. It's a bit ridiculous that you have to upgrade your phone quicker than your video card these days.
So nVidia said the Tegra 3 version has better graphics than the upcoming regular Android version, but does the Tegra 3 version have better graphics than the iOS version? If the answer is yes, then nVidia can legitimately claim their aid in optimization for Tegra 3 helped Sega produce extra visuals above iOS and the rest of Android. However, if the answer is no, and the iOS version on A5/A5X devices ends up having the same high quality visuals as the Tegra 3 version, then it could be argued nVidia is basically promoting Tegra 3 by artificially crippling the rest of the Android ecosystem. It's not like Tegra 3's GPU is significantly more powerful than the Adreno 225 or the upcoming higher clocked Mali400-MP4 in the Exynos 4412 such that Tegra 3 visuals are impossible on other Android devices.
Would you honestly put it past NVIDIA to artificially limit the abilities of a competitor's products? CPU PhysX, anyone?
That being said, I really don't think that will end up being the case here. It's probably just NVIDIA working with the developer to enable higher IQ in this game, and the visuals on iOS will likely end up looking like non-Tegra3 Android devices unless Apple has done something similar.
The difference is "iOS version" means you have to support 3GS too (and maybe older models). Same with "regular Android version" so you have to support something like Droid X and Incredible, etc... A Tegra 3 version can be optimized just like programming to any specific gaming console.
NVidia did the same with Tegra 2. Chainfire managed to come up with a patch so that the games wouldn't refuse to run on a patched non-Tegra phone and for the most part they worked fine as long as it was a decent phone.
NVidia pays developers to produce exclusive titles for Tegra. They pretend that developers do it because they have the best chips but it's really because they have the best marketing department, deepest pockets and most readily-available developers to support the game's writers. There's only one of those three that I don't have a problem with...
It's what bothers me most about the Galaxy S3. Power-wise it'll smoke anything else out there, but what's the point if nothing uses that power? If all the high-performance titles are Tegra-only then all that power's wasted. I'll still buy one though.
What is this minor game for Tegra review doing on anand? I could forgive something like Diablo 3 with all the fuss around it, but this it beyond help.
It's not what I'm (and I hope most others) expect to read here. I'm not demanding awesome hardware reviews each day, but less noise like this would be nice.
Agreed. This is pretty ridiculous. I'm so close to removing AT from my RSS feeds. This is pandering/marketing, 'anand in the pocket' crap.
Worse is the Trinity review where at the end of their AMD Trinity review they say "yeah this is great but you can still do better with Intel cpu + Nvidia switchable graphics". Its like wow, AMD can't win with you guys, no matter how good the chip is, the alternative that existed before Trinity was released is STILL goign to be superior. Didnt realize that.
A fair review would be that Nvidia has no competing CPU/GPU solution- and Intel has a lackluster APU for sale. And the latter is not at the same price point- nor would many want some Nvidia standalone monstrosity in their laptop..
From a fair, unbiased perspective there is a lot of pandering- to say the least.
How is this a big deal? Does anyone care? Sonic is released on Tegra3.. wow. I see the source listed as an NVIDIA blog entry. Which is marketing, and so is this.
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felipetga - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
What about Tegra 2 owners, will the graphics be like Adrenos, PowerVRs and Malis, or will it be optimized, even just a little bit for it?Aikouka - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
Typically, large iOS app/game releases come out on Thursdays.mavere - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
This is a rather empty victory, as the powers that be determined late Wednesday night/midnight is the optimal time for an iOS app release.Also, it's already Thursday morning in some parts of the world, so I've been able to grab the game on my Australian iTunes account for a couple hours now.
aguilpa1 - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
Sonic 4: Episode II Now Available for Tegra 3 on your Galaxy SII...., LOL, OMG, WTf?Aren't these versions getting out of hand? Does anyone make anything new and unique anymore?
bersl2 - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
Well, when it comes to Sega and Sonic games, they've tried "new", and they managed to fuck it up most of the time.vision33r - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
Soon some games will only support the latest GPU so other phones or older gen GPU owners are screwed. It's a bit ridiculous that you have to upgrade your phone quicker than your video card these days.Which use to be the other way around.
ltcommanderdata - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
So nVidia said the Tegra 3 version has better graphics than the upcoming regular Android version, but does the Tegra 3 version have better graphics than the iOS version? If the answer is yes, then nVidia can legitimately claim their aid in optimization for Tegra 3 helped Sega produce extra visuals above iOS and the rest of Android. However, if the answer is no, and the iOS version on A5/A5X devices ends up having the same high quality visuals as the Tegra 3 version, then it could be argued nVidia is basically promoting Tegra 3 by artificially crippling the rest of the Android ecosystem. It's not like Tegra 3's GPU is significantly more powerful than the Adreno 225 or the upcoming higher clocked Mali400-MP4 in the Exynos 4412 such that Tegra 3 visuals are impossible on other Android devices.Goty - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
Would you honestly put it past NVIDIA to artificially limit the abilities of a competitor's products? CPU PhysX, anyone?That being said, I really don't think that will end up being the case here. It's probably just NVIDIA working with the developer to enable higher IQ in this game, and the visuals on iOS will likely end up looking like non-Tegra3 Android devices unless Apple has done something similar.
fm123 - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
The difference is "iOS version" means you have to support 3GS too (and maybe older models). Same with "regular Android version" so you have to support something like Droid X and Incredible, etc... A Tegra 3 version can be optimized just like programming to any specific gaming console.BugblatterIII - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
NVidia did the same with Tegra 2. Chainfire managed to come up with a patch so that the games wouldn't refuse to run on a patched non-Tegra phone and for the most part they worked fine as long as it was a decent phone.NVidia pays developers to produce exclusive titles for Tegra. They pretend that developers do it because they have the best chips but it's really because they have the best marketing department, deepest pockets and most readily-available developers to support the game's writers. There's only one of those three that I don't have a problem with...
It's what bothers me most about the Galaxy S3. Power-wise it'll smoke anything else out there, but what's the point if nothing uses that power? If all the high-performance titles are Tegra-only then all that power's wasted. I'll still buy one though.
Senti - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
What is this minor game for Tegra review doing on anand? I could forgive something like Diablo 3 with all the fuss around it, but this it beyond help.It's not what I'm (and I hope most others) expect to read here. I'm not demanding awesome hardware reviews each day, but less noise like this would be nice.
fm123 - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
Sonic is popular. Based on the data I looked up, about 80 million copies of Sonic games across different platforms.BugblatterIII - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
Sure that's not 80 million versions? ;o)Senti - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - link
Sonic in general – yes, I don't argue against that.I'm speaking about this random Tegra release.
Obsoleet - Saturday, May 19, 2012 - link
Agreed. This is pretty ridiculous. I'm so close to removing AT from my RSS feeds. This is pandering/marketing, 'anand in the pocket' crap.Worse is the Trinity review where at the end of their AMD Trinity review they say "yeah this is great but you can still do better with Intel cpu + Nvidia switchable graphics". Its like wow, AMD can't win with you guys, no matter how good the chip is, the alternative that existed before Trinity was released is STILL goign to be superior. Didnt realize that.
A fair review would be that Nvidia has no competing CPU/GPU solution- and Intel has a lackluster APU for sale. And the latter is not at the same price point- nor would many want some Nvidia standalone monstrosity in their laptop..
From a fair, unbiased perspective there is a lot of pandering- to say the least.
Tuvok86 - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link
what about Jazz the Jackrabbit??Obsoleet - Saturday, May 19, 2012 - link
How is this a big deal? Does anyone care? Sonic is released on Tegra3.. wow. I see the source listed as an NVIDIA blog entry. Which is marketing, and so is this.