With roughly no AAA games being released in a completely working order, it’s becoming disillusioning – and easy to believe that very nearly every game ships broken in some way, especially on PC, where the nearly infinite number of different system configurations adds an extra layer of difficulty in getting things working. If you think that most games ship broken, you’d probably be right. According to former Nvidia driver developer, that’s indeed the case. But it’s going to get better.
User Promit, speaking on a game development forum, said that pretty much all big games ship in a broken state, and it’s often up to the driver teams to get them working.
“Nearly every game ships broken.” He says. “We’re talking major AAA titles from vendors who are everyday names in the industry. In some cases, we’re talking about blatant violations of API rules – one D3D9 game never even called BeginFrame/EndFrame. Some are mistakes or oversights – one shipped bad shaders that heavily impacted performance on NV drivers. These things were day-to-day occurrences that went into a bug tracker. Then somebody would go in, find out what the game screwed up, and patch the driver to deal with it.”
“There are lots of optional patches already in the driver that are simply toggled on or off as per-game settings, and then hacks that are more specific to games – up to and including total replacement of the shipping shaders with custom versions by the driver team. Ever wondered why nearly every major game release is accompanied by a matching driver release from AMD and/or NVIDIA? There you go.”
It gets even more complicated where multiple GPU’s are concerned.
“You cannot begin to conceive of the number of failure cases that are involved until you see them in person. I suspect that more than half of the total software effort within the IHVs is dedicated strictly to making multi-GPU setups work with existing games. (And I don’t even know what the hardware side looks like.) If you’ve ever tried to independently build an app that uses multi GPU – especially if, god help you, you tried to do it in OpenGL – you may have discovered this insane rabbit hole. There is ONE fast path, and it’s the narrowest path of all.”
That said, the new APIs – Like DirectX 12 and Vulkan – should in many ways help alleviate the problems, if not make them go away altogether. It’s these four problems, he says, that are the root causes.
- Why are games broken? Because the APIs are complex, and validation varies from decent (D3D 11) to poor (D3D 9) to catastrophic (OpenGL). There are lots of ways to hit slow paths without knowing anything has gone awry, and often the driver writers already know what mistakes you’re going to make and are dynamically patching in workarounds for the common cases.
- Maintaining the drivers with the current wide surface area is tricky. Although AMD and NV have the resources to do it, the smaller IHVs (Intel, PowerVR, Qualcomm, etc) simply cannot keep up with the necessary investment. More importantly, explaining to devs the correct way to write their render pipelines has become borderline impossible. There’s too many failure cases. it’s been understood for quite a few years now that you cannot max out the performance of any given GPU without having someone from NVIDIA or AMD physically grab your game source code, load it on a dev driver, and do a hands-on analysis. These are the vanishingly few people who have actually seen the source to a game, the driver it’s running on, and the Windows kernel it’s running on, and the full specs for the hardware. Nobody else has that kind of access or engineering ability.
- Threading is just a catastrophe and is being rethought from the ground up. This requires a lot of the abstractions to be stripped away or retooled, because the old ones required too much driver intervention to be properly threadable in the first place.
- Multi-GPU is becoming explicit. For the last ten years, it has been AMD and NV’s goal to make multi-GPU setups completely transparent to everybody, and it’s become clear that for some subset of developers, this is just making our jobs harder. The driver has to apply imperfect heuristics to guess what the game is doing, and the game in turn has to do peculiar things in order to trigger the right heuristics. Again, for the big games somebody sits down and matches the two manually.
So yes, all your games, especially on PC, launch broken. But that should – should – soon be a thing of the past.
Last Updated: March 11, 2015
Blood Emperor Trevor
March 11, 2015 at 09:41
Well that explains why people are unable to play games with online components at launch. Wait… no.
Brady miaau
March 11, 2015 at 09:50
Now, now, play fair……
37
Hammersteyn
March 11, 2015 at 09:51
Wasn’t that 36?
Brady miaau
March 11, 2015 at 10:01
I dunno, never played Diablo III. Could be.
Blood Emperor Trevor
March 11, 2015 at 10:09
Error 36 is what they call Rince’s birthday. trollol
Hammersteyn
March 11, 2015 at 10:18
hahahahaha
ReaperOfSquirrels
March 11, 2015 at 09:41
Just about every piece of software is released broken.
Brady miaau
March 11, 2015 at 09:49
Released broken or the perception of released a broken? How do you define broken?
I have been in the IT industry for nearly 18 years now and I strongly feel that software released NOW is way, way better than it was back when it when I started. I am talking about big business software and the like, from established and reputable firms.
And, believe it or not, this does include Microsoft. They actually have some good products.
konfab aka derp
March 11, 2015 at 09:56
*ignores MS project*
Brady miaau
March 11, 2015 at 10:01
Yes. I have used a lot of PM tools and I always seem to come back to it. But it is pricey now.
Visio?
Excel? – Open Office Calc is getting better, sure.
konfab aka derp
March 11, 2015 at 10:09
Sure it is, but the MS office kiddies are unable to grasp it for some reason
Brady miaau
March 11, 2015 at 10:11
true. But I tend to stick to my Excel, I know it very well and it is a tool to get my job done and made easier, a means to an end not an end in itself.
konfab aka derp
March 11, 2015 at 10:39
For what I use spreadsheets for, the different packages make little difference.
Then again, I have almost completely weaned myself off office software in general.
ReaperOfSquirrels
March 11, 2015 at 09:57
Granted it is better (I’ve been working in IT for 12 years and been working on PC’s since the early 90’s), but the software is still broken in a way, doesn’t matter if you can see it or not. If software is released, and requires a patch (that doesn’t just add functionality), and you don’t know why, then it was broken… you just didn’t notice the bug. EVERY piece of software has bugs, doesn’t matter if it’s from Microsoft or a small development firm.
Not saying you’re wrong, just putting my opinion out there.
Brady miaau
March 11, 2015 at 10:03
Well, yes. I do sometimes sneak a fix in to a patch for functionality. Sure.
“EVERY piece of software has bugs”, I have found bugs in software that has been running without a problem for 12 years on some micro CPU. True. It does seem that way.
But a lot can be done to release software that is near bug free.
Matt Milne
March 11, 2015 at 11:31
I’ve set every windows interface since 98, to default to 98’s. 98/xp were the high point for me. in terms of reliability, un-cluttered but accessible components, and compatibility. Microsoft is still my os and office provider of choice, but I do long for something smooth and reliable, a go anywhere, do anything suite of programs.
Brady miaau
March 11, 2015 at 12:12
I actually enjoy my Windows Phone more than my Android. It is clean, fast and uncluttered. It is the tool I need to help me keep organised.
Am very, very curious to see Windows 10 on my laptop, Xbox One and phone.
Admiral Chief
March 11, 2015 at 09:43
Good, flippen finally
Anon A Mouse
March 11, 2015 at 09:48
That’s the reason why I’ve originally moved away from PC gaming many moons ago, no consoles have the same problem and I’m feeling quite meh about gaming at the moment.
Gardos
March 11, 2015 at 10:36
Same reason I’m not a PC gamer anymore (don’t shoot!). I just want the damn game to work when buy it without having to worry about my setup and whether or not I will need to run liquid nitrogen through my PC to stop it overheating.
I guess I’m a simpleton in that sense.
Anon A Mouse
March 11, 2015 at 10:40
That’s the thing though, even console games in recent times have a gazillion gig day one patch just to ensure the game is working. Ain’t no body got time for that.
Gardos
March 11, 2015 at 10:42
That’s very true, which is why people have become a little disillusioned. Maybe we’ll see a rise in board game sales? Or reading? Or knitting?
I’m open to all 3 options if this continues.
Matthew Holliday
March 11, 2015 at 10:42
Ive been tempted to move to console, its just so much less hassle, but the game prices and the fact that Im absaloutly useless with the analog sticks when it comes to anything shooty, have kept me from moving on.
CAE9872
March 12, 2015 at 09:52
Yeah you not alone. I have pretty much given up hope at the moment; if I want anything I have ended up just waiting. But that sucks but is the only one for me to get it through to companies I am sick and tired of their excuses for releasing games in a poor state.
There is no excuse for it except greed to get it out ASAP. I get that small bugs will happen, I accept that to some extent. But just broken – no.
Brady miaau
March 11, 2015 at 09:48
I do not envy the teams at Nvidia and their ilk. Drivers for so many different devices AND have to manage how the games use the drivers…….
This is, partly, why I own an Xbox
Hammersteyn
March 11, 2015 at 09:52
So why does it ship broken on console?
konfab aka derp
March 11, 2015 at 09:55
Because they spend all their time fixing the bugs on PC versions 😛
Hammersteyn
March 11, 2015 at 09:57
Lol
Brady miaau
March 11, 2015 at 10:00
Funny, games I play on console seem to always just work. Worst I had was a game (Skyrim?) would lock the 360 up sometimes, require a reboot. Very rare. And it was a bug.
I have read some horrible things about games not working on console, but it seems to be those games are just not finished when released, this article is talking about “broken” in the way the tech is used.
konfab aka derp
March 11, 2015 at 10:02
It is generally Bethesta and their open world RPGs that bring out the worst bugs on consoles (and PCs).
The most heartbreaking one for me was Fallout New Vegas on PS3. It becomes unplayable after 10 minutes.
Brady miaau
March 11, 2015 at 10:05
That sucks. I played New Vegas AND all the DLC, without a single hitch on the 360. Oh wait. No. It was New Vegas that hung sometimes, not Skyirm. It really did not happen often
ReaperOfSquirrels
March 11, 2015 at 10:08
GTAV would lock my 360 up at times.
Brady miaau
March 11, 2015 at 10:10
I never had any issues with that on mine. Weird.
But I do no think all consoles are equal, some made earlier or later have slightly different hardware
ReaperOfSquirrels
March 11, 2015 at 10:14
It’s probably because I have an older 360… not the slim version.
Hammersteyn
March 11, 2015 at 10:09
Ass creed Unity was the last one that was pretty broken
Brady miaau
March 11, 2015 at 10:14
point. But was it broken or not finished? I cannot quite remember the complaints.
Hammersteyn
March 11, 2015 at 10:18
This was one of the issues
http://static1.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1544/15443861/2732023-289650_screenshots_2014-11-11_00006.jpg
Brady miaau
March 11, 2015 at 10:21
Broken.
🙂
Matthew Holliday
March 11, 2015 at 10:37
we too, on PC, occassionally launch problem prone games without having them explode.
Double-O-Six and a half
March 11, 2015 at 12:34
Because as alluded to in the article above the devs for the most part do NOT know how to get the best out of the hardware they develop for, even on a “closed” system where the console hardware is known and doesn’t have gazillions of permutations like the PC’s. IMO the devs of today worship more at the altar of “lets get anything out there and fix it later” than at the altar of “lets get a good product out there at first attempt”.
I also think we as software users (not just gamers) have allowed them to get away with this practice by accepting the principle of a disposable society in which we’ll just continue to buy crap and accept that it can be fixed later or just throw it away and get another cheaper one elsewhere. This environment did not exist on the PS2, either the product worked out the box or it died a very quick and painful “smashed CD and dumped in the bin” death…
Martin Human
March 11, 2015 at 10:57
Just me or a few years ago pc game releases were still solid? Seems people are just getting either too lazy or just throwing the game out to make money.
Hammersteyn
March 11, 2015 at 11:03
Internet changed everything. If they released a broken game back then there would be no way to fix it. But now a patch can be released anytime and force you to update the game before playing online
justlikemo
March 11, 2015 at 11:06
I disagree, blizzard n friends make you update the game while you install. You cannot install the game without an active internet connection. To the point where starcraft( heart of the swarm) checks for an update while the map loads.
Hammersteyn
March 11, 2015 at 11:15
Oh right, PC. I lose touch with the masters sometimes. Was referring to consoles.
justlikemo
March 11, 2015 at 11:18
as long as you recognise!
🙂
Hammersteyn
March 11, 2015 at 11:24
XD
Matt Milne
March 11, 2015 at 11:24
the industry’s sense of quality control is through the floor, games companies need to…raise their game.
justlikemo
March 11, 2015 at 12:00
Hence why gamers are changing, looking for easier / simpler ways to get their fix. Brenda (aka batboy aka Darryn) is also looking to upgrade as maybe he’s tired of Indie games http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/im-building-a-gaming-pc-again/.
I have done a huge amount of indie games in the last 4 years now and I have no need to upgrade my pc or PS, indie fills the void for now.
Gr8_Balls_o_KFM_Fire
March 11, 2015 at 16:56
YET ANOTHER PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR POOR PLANNING!
Scot
April 14, 2015 at 23:50
Microsoft does something similar. There are literally hundreds of apps that need special treatment or patches so they don’t crash on newer versions of Windows. Mostly it’s because buggy code works by accident while running under an old version of Windows but crashes on a new version. Without the patch, Microsoft will be blamed rather than the programmer.