Quote: Original post by Amarth

Quote: Original post by Dark Adept
The minimum spec from last year is here.

Hmm, technically, aren't those maximum specs? :P

Technically they're maximum minimum specs. There's nothing wrong with entering a game with minimum specs below those, but if your minimum specs are anything above those, there's a problem.

Last year's maximum minimum specs were very generous, and I hope they won't be too constraining this year too. I'm just curious to see if the minimum will be raised to SM 3 this year. Besides that, I can't imagine there would be that big of a change in the rest of the specs.

I hope this thing gets started soon. I can't wait to start brainstorming, even if the elements are as ridiculously random as last year.

Don't give superpig any ideas! We might get alliteration as an element!

Quote: Original post by pi_equals_3
I'm just curious to see if the minimum will be raised to SM 3 this year.

Sorry, that probably won't happen. There's still enough SM1 devices out there to make it worth supporting them.

Quote: Original post by superpig

Quote: Original post by pi_equals_3
I'm just curious to see if the minimum will be raised to SM 3 this year.

Sorry, that probably won't happen. There's still enough SM1 devices out there to make it worth supporting them.

SM 1?? Wouldn't shader model 2 be more reasonable?

Ehhh.... maybe. I'll look into it.

Quote: Original post by superpig

Quote: Original post by pi_equals_3
I'm just curious to see if the minimum will be raised to SM 3 this year.

Sorry, that probably won't happen. There's still enough SM1 devices out there to make it worth supporting them.

SM 1? Last year's requirement was SM 2. Honestly, I would have been somewhat shocked if it was raised to SM 3, but reducing the contest requirements after over a year has passed seems odd.

My point was really that the shader model was the only major thing that could even change. 1 GB is still a pretty high minimum today, and I can't see the processor requirement changing much, except maybe adding separate minimum speeds for single core/dual core. The 10 GB of hard drive space isn't constraining at all, and 128 MB of graphics memory is still a reasonable requirement. And the software is just a matter of listing the latest common versions of the runtimes supported.

I think I'd be perfectly happy supporting essentially the same requirements used last year.

Oops, so it was. The requirements this year will be at least SM2 then.

Quote: Original post by pi_equals_3
My point was really that the shader model was the only major thing that could even change. 1 GB is still a pretty high minimum today, and I can't see the processor requirement changing much, except maybe adding separate minimum speeds for single core/dual core. The 10 GB of hard drive space isn't constraining at all, and 128 MB of graphics memory is still a reasonable requirement. And the software is just a matter of listing the latest common versions of the runtimes supported.

I think I'd be perfectly happy supporting essentially the same requirements used last year.

The only exception I can think of to your list is the introduction of Flash Player 9. 4E5 had Flash 8 as a minimum requirement, but the introduction of Flash 9 brings in ActionScript 3.0, which has a whole new object oriented approach to the code which isn't very compatible with earlier players.

I'm in the process of teaching myself Flash 9 right now, and it would be great if I could tie it into the contest. Not that I think it'll be much of an issue for most people, as most would have upgraded to Flash 9 anyway, but I'd like to put my voice in early to ensure it's acceptable.

If I were looking at that approach, I would probably want to use Flex, which requires Flash 9. Please can we have support for that? Also what about Silverlight? 1.0 is now in "Release Candidate" while 1.1 is in Alpha.

Yes, Flash 9 will be supported.

Silverlight is probably a no though. Does it work in browsers other than IE yet?