Gaming direct is it possible ? wouldnt it be nice ?

in relation to the console vs pc thread

i have often thought this would be a good idea...

like how dell have media direct, so you dont have to go right in to windows to play music etc, i think microsoft/windows or someone, should make a games direct thing, more so as these days a lot of pc owners have them in front rooms connected to their big tvs, sort of like media centere but for games

so you install windows etc and all your games, but if you just wanna play games you can boot in to a games only thing so it doesnt load windows fully and all other programs, but just the gaming stuff you tell it to

so you can just turn your pc on and use it in like a console mode to just play games and have a quick game of pro evo soccer with your 360 controllers plugged in, or whatever you want without all the hasttles of loading windows and all other stuff thats loaded you dont want when just playing games

wouldnt that be good !

 

It sounds like a good idea, until you realize that's exactly what a console is. If you want to do that, just buy a console.

 

I really think it is a good idea. >.> your comments like saying why have media direct just buy a dvd player. On the other hand microsoft would have no reason to do this because they already do have a console. Just my take on this, but being able to run games outside of the OS would be a good and bad thing for some people.

 

you need to install games for windows because everyone's computer is different

consoles are all the same, hence less need to install (for compatibility)

and installing crap = faster loading times

and

MS is trying to implement these types of on the go, no install gaming

 

i have a console and a pc, why is it not a good idea to just be able to switch your pc on just to play games and not load loads of windows stuff that uses power and resources thats not used for gaming ?

thus all it would do is channel all of your pc`s power in to running that 1 game your playing,rather than also having 50 other processes running in the background, i dont mean just putting the disc in and playing like a console...but you install as normal and can play games in normal windows mode, just if you want you can boot up in just the gaming mode so it puts all your pc power in to the game and doesnt have it running stuff thats not needed for gaming


media direct...just loads what you need to watch a dvd or listen to music without all the windows stuff you dont need to just enjoy a dvd

gaming direct...just loads what you need to play a game without all the windows power consuming stuff you dont need just to playa game...thus making the game able to draw on ALL the power of your processor and ram and enable higher settings,fater frame rates,and making the game expirience better !!

it makes perfect sense really and is a great idea !

 

FWIW, all consoles have an OS that loads before the game boots.

Your idea of using a small, faster-loading, game only OS would make things take a lot longer for people who generally leave their PCs turned on. Now to play, they'd have to shut-down windows and re-boot in "game mode." To say nothing of those who fully install their games and don't use the physical disks at all---how would this be faster than just clicking on a shortcut/icon?

 

it makes perfect sense but has anyone found a solution on how to run all these games at optimal setting using different mix of hardware?

 

no coz you could still play as normal like we do now, this wouldnt take anything away from how gaming on pcs is played now, like media direct doesnt take away the ability to play music or dvds in windows, or media center, this would just add the ability to play games without windows and all other processes that are not needed for gaming running

so people can system/power demanding games like crysis with all background stuff they dont need turned off, thus making more power available to the game, as afterall a lot of people when they wanna play a game like crysis...will boot in to windows then manualy close down all the stuff they dont need

and...the ability to just play a quick game of say pro evo soccer against a mate by just pressing a couple of buttons and not having to load all in to windows etc

 

Because world peace and the elimination of poverty are also good ideas. It's one thing to come up with ideas. It's another to actually implement them. The reason consoles can do this is because they're standardized. All the programming is the same, all the hardware is the same. To do this with the gagillion computer systems out there requires ALL the companies to come up with a new standard. Achieving world peace may be easier.

 

i dont think you understand what i mean,, and this would do the same, nothing has to be standardized at all, just no matter what games you have installed,or the power of your pc , it would just mean you could just boot up to play games , exact same as media direct works on any pc no matter what its spec or what music or pics you have

 

you do realize that optimizing games to perform well on specific set of hardware is different than playing music or movies off dvd-rom right?

 

And how exactly would you program that? Black Magic or Voodoo? A DVD player is a standard. DVDs are a standard. Games are all over the place.

 

Well doesn't Halo 2 for the PC offer tray-and-play function? Play the game while it installs?

I don't mind installing a game. I just click "next" a couple of times and go do something else while my computers works. Installing a game isn't a dealbreaker for me.

 

I don't know if Halo 2 has that, but Tray and Play is a lot different from not booting up Windows in the first place.

T&P just loads the critical stuff first, the engine and first few textures. Then it loads the rest as the you play the game.

 

Um, because those loads of Windows stuff *are* used for gaming?
Come on, how do you think one game can run on literally millions of different hardware configurations? Magic? Or because the game developer has coded support for *every* piece of hardware in the world?

Or perhaps because it's running on Windows, which does all the heavy lifting?

Now, if we removed Windows from the equation, you wouldn't be able to run your game.

But for the sake of argument, enlighten me, what "loads of windows stuff" is it that uses power and resources but isn't used for gaming?
I can think of a few minor services, which, if you disable them, might save you a whopping 30MB of RAM. Gosh, that's really going to make a difference when games commonly use up to 1.5GB. Now they'll only need 1.470MB!

PC games work *because* they have a big heavy OS underneath doing all the hard work of translating millions of different types of hardware into one standardized interface. If you get rid of that... your games are screwed, simple as that.

I don't suppose you've actually examined how much CPU time other processes get while you're gaming?
A big fat zero, that's how much.
They get exactly what they need, which is virtually nothing. Of course, you may yourself install third-party software that constantly uses resources, but that's nothing to do with Windows.

In short, Windows *already* achieves the same thing in a much simpler way.

Nah, he understands what you means just fine. If anything, you don't understand what you mean.
Last I checked, Media Direct doesn't work on any PC. It works on some Dell PC's, as far as I know. And it certainly doesn't work no matter what music or pics you have. It works with common, standardized formats.

 

--edit---LOL sorry Jalf, didn't read page 2 before typing this, you stated it 1st and better.


You would still need everything from DirectX to internet connections to run a PC game. What exactly do you plan on not using/loading? How much time would this save vs just loading the OS as usual?

PC games are usually made to scale up or down depending of which of the millions of possible hardware configurations you're using. You can't get rid of these abstraction layers without requiring everyone to have the exact same hardware....ie a console.

If it's just an issue of time saving, why not just use sleep mode, or buy an SSD for your PC/notebook?

 

while I like the Idea (in fact i suggested it in a tread a few months ago), it would be hard to pull off considering all of the components of windows that are used to run games. I wouldn't be able to take advantage of this feature very well mainly because I never turn off my computer.

 

You can essentially do the same thing right now by closing all of your programs and turning off background services. Other than that, it is still an OS with DirectX software and a ton of drivers.

The benefit of consoles is not streamlined software but their identical hardware across the line. Console makers don't have to worry about programing a game to run on 8800GTX and a 7300GT.

 

Of course it's a good idea. Yes, there would need to be SOME files loaded onto the HD. I can't see any reason why files with configurations for Graphics card, CPU, Sound card, etc could be installed (Maybe 50MB or so, MAX), and then the game can play directly from DVD.

Eg. Gears of war - Insert DVD into XBOX 360 - 30 seconds later, you're playing.

PC - Insert DVD, One hour later, you've installed.
Every time you want to play, insert the DVD (Just to check that you haven't fed it to your dog (Epic wouldn't like that), and then away you go.

Another point is, I have almost 20 XBOX360 games. At today's standard of "12GB hard disk space" 20 Games would take up 240GB of HD Space , but I'd still need to insert the disks to play the games, even though no game content would be read from them, yet I can download the game directly from the Publishers web site, and then wouldn't need the disk.

It's all messed up.

 

Because you wouldn't have an OS.

 

I think tray and play is the closest PC's can come to consoles without installing. But whats the problem anyway? Because you have the files on your HDD you can mod them and have mods for the game. I have yet te see mods being made for consoles.

I'm not worried about HDD space. I uninstall games after awhile anyway. If I know I won't beplaying them anymore I just remove them. No sense waisting that space.

 

You would, you'd still be running from the disc, but in your normal O/S.

 

A good idea? Yes, in the same way that time travel, or cars that don't consume fuel are good ideas.
Unfortunately, there's also the small matter that these things aren't actually possible. It's the exact same thing here. Treating a PC as a console is not possible, because the assumptions that make consoles work do not hold for PC's.