Epic acquires RAD Game Tools

Post by Jasper_ » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 10:18 PM UTC

zamadatix wrote: post #34

Jasper_ wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bink isn't the codec, though that's good too, it's the software stack. How do you render AV1 on a PS4 or a Nintendo Switch, synchronize it with the audio stream? No, seriously, tell me. GStreamer with its ridiculous threading architecture and lock-heavy approach? You think that's going to run on a console CPU? ffmpeg / libavcodec? Yes, we can hook that up, have it crank out YUV buffers and display those on the GPU, o…

PS4 and Switch both have hardware decoders (though neither would be using AV1 in particular due to age). I'm not sure about how it works on PS4 but on Switch games just use NVDEC like a PC with Nvidia hardware would and the functionality is exposed in the SDK. You can use h.264, h.265, VP8, and VP9 (the hardware supports more but it's not exposed). When Bink was released and the PS2 and Gamecube were on the horizon t…

Post by tomc1985 » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 10:20 PM UTC

mappu wrote: post #33

The history of RAD is a history of media read speeds - playing back full-motion video from a CD on a PS2 with its near-zero available CPU resources was a superhuman effort. So low-overhead (fast) decompression is essential for AAA titles. But recently I guess developers think disks are fast enough now, because PC games have been using more uncompressed assets to free up CPU time, massively bloating install size. Curr…

Post by koala_man » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 10:28 PM UTC

azornathogron wrote: post #24

randtrain34 wrote: post #8

For those interested in what RAD Game Tools actually makes, as far as I understood from their website ( http://www.radgametools.com/ ): Bink 2 - video codec Oodle - data compression suite Telemetry - profiling toolkit Granny 3D - toolkit for building 3d games Miles Sound System 10 - sound authoring toolset in 2D and 3D

Basically any game you've played that has any pre-rendered video (for cutscenes, logos, whatever) most likely uses Bink video for it. Their stuff is very well regarded and widely used. At least that is the impression I have got, watching from outside the industry. It's always possible that I've got a distorted view as an outsider.

Post by jan_Inkepa » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 10:30 PM UTC

tomc1985 wrote: post #44

mappu wrote: post #33

The history of RAD is a history of media read speeds - playing back full-motion video from a CD on a PS2 with its near-zero available CPU resources was a superhuman effort. So low-overhead (fast) decompression is essential for AAA titles. But recently I guess developers think disks are fast enough now, because PC games have been using more uncompressed assets to free up CPU time, massively bloating install size. Curr…

It seems weird to use specialized video decode hardware when videos are almost always played in a full-screen exclusive fashion. Like, other than loading, what is the CPU doing during those times?

Post by sudosysgen » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 10:32 PM UTC

Jasper_ wrote: post #45

sudosysgen wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gstreamer and FFMpeg would certainly run on a Switch, a PS4, or whatever else. We know this because it runs on devices with the same processor. That said, yes, Bink certainly is a more turnkey solution, which can definitely make business sense to use. This is a byproduct of consoles being closed platforms.

When I say "run", I mean "runs at target performance". Yes, sure, Turing completeness technically means that software raytracing "runs" on the Switch, we all know that, but it's not a viable solution for a shipping product. This is not a biproduct of consoles being closed platforms, multimedia is a challenge everywhere; cross-platform, usable multimedia playback lacks a high quality product even on open PC platforms.