Interview with Codemasters (3): Technical challenges

Codemasters: Without doubt it’s the handling of the multiple number of processors.

Yes, wouldn’t life be easy if we had one very big and powerful processor. But it isn’t and reality is multiple processors are the future. So we’ve had to rethink our processing models very carefully in a parallel way.

We’re taking it very seriously at Codemasters, in fact we’ve organised a lecture course with Edinburgh University in parallel processing.

These guys have been doing parallel processing in the academic world for years. We’re not expecting to run on 10,000 processors (!) like they do but there’s a lot as an industry we can learn from their experience.

Codemasters: Of course! Although it’s the biggest technical challenge, it’s also the one that provides the biggest bang for your bucks when you get it right.

The teams also like the PowerPC architecture to work with. New technology and processors always provide an exciting challenge for those who like to get down to the metal of these things.

Codemasters: We have to assume that a lot of gamers won’t have the HD. That way we’re designing a fast loading experience for everyone from day one. Any HD caching benefits from there are icing on the cake.