Crackdown 3 will feature one of the most destructive environments on Xbox One. During a recent panel at GDC 2017, Joseph Cusimano detailed Crackdown 3’s cloud processing and just how the destructible environment will be processed.
A video directly compared the physics running on an Azure cluster directly to one on a local machine, a rather high-end PC built with a powerful processor and a GTX 980 TI. Although, no video was allowed at the GDC panel the image provided below is rather impressive when taken into context. The first thing that stands out in the Azure image is that everything is separated by different colors. The different colors seem to represent how the physics will be distributed throughout the physics server. Interestingly enough the server will be dividing each color shown into an individual physics server set-up as players play the game. Since the server is constantly distributing the “destruction” it sits at a fairly consistent Frames-per-second, while the local machine couldn’t keep up and dropped as low as 10 frames-per-second.
DualSHOCKERS provided the image below:
The Azure cluster holds a lot of potential for not only Crackdown 3 but for gaming in general. It’s hard to look this and not see how nearly every Xbox exclusive would benefit. We will have to wait until later this year to see exactly how Crackdown 3 pans out, but the more we hear about this system the more exciting it looks. With locked frame rates and individualized physics servers, Microsoft’s Azure is an exciting development for the entire gaming industry.
With E3 just around the corner, we will likely get more information on not just the cloud computing systems but gameplay and story as well. Crackdown 3 is set to release for Xbox One and Windows PC “holiday” seasons 2017.
