when developers use this term do they mean their engine is maxed out or the console hardware?

The console hardware is maxed out WITH THE ENGINE

devs can always optimize and find new ways to do things though

dosgrtr


when developers use this term do they mean their engine is maxed out or the console hardware?

There's no exact answer to this.

It depends on the dev. It could be either, or both. But there is always room for optimization.

yeah i dont like the way they throw this term around , look at ps2 9-10 years in the games were looking and playing better god of war 2.  with ps3 i think it will take about 6-7 years to see games looking like gow 2 did compeared to other ps2 games at that time . but who knows look at the first 2-3 games on ps3 ,i had that F1 game and i was thinking back then when i saw the car shine , wtf .. this looks amazing , now when i play it its like how could i have thought this was good. hopefully the devs shear more of there methods with one another.

 
add me for some uncharted 2 mp ( thats me with the shotgun :)  

sig created by JVIDICAN

don't let these people fool you, although most developers are exaggerating when they say maxed out, a bottleneck will always be present, for example, NO decent looking games run at 1080p at 60frames on the ps3 or 360, and they never will. But fanboys will tell you "TEH SKY IS THA LIMIT!!!", But maxed out means that they are utilising all hardware components ( multicore optimised etc), and that they have created a texture streaming method that allows for good graphics while avoiding some of the gpu bottleneck and have crammed as high res textures and effects as possible while maintaining playable frame rates....but like i said there's only so much they can optimise...and then texture streaming becomes pop up

Round the hangin' tree
Swaying in the breeze
In the summer sun
As we two are one
Swaying