Loading times

[Seismica]

Compressed vs Uncompressed data, uncompressed has many advantages, but for sound files in particular, the time when you needed to compress them has passed. But still developers continue compressing sounds in favour of graphics. But with a decent set of speakers the difference in sound is quite large.

As for GT loading times, i hope they solved the big loading times when purchasing a new car. Or maybe its just because GT5P had many manufacturers but few cars in each so i kept having to switch. But either way, loading times on menus need shortening. But as far as i can tell, they have done an excellent job when loading a race.

 

[steve30x]

If you call that big loading times you must have never played any games on a comodore 64. Those were long loading times. The loading times in GT5 are just fine.

 

[Seismica]

If you call that big loading times you must have never played any games on a comodore 64. Those were long loading times. The loading times in GT5 are just fine.

Never played on the Comodore 64, i'm a little too young too be honest, the first console i played was the Sega Mastersystem II. The loading screens since then have been pretty quick mostly.

GT5P doesn't necessarily have long loading screens, its just everything you click on in the menu is followed by a 5-10 second loading screen. It adds up, it can take several minutes to exit the online, change car in the garage and then re-enter the online event. Now if you discount the time it takes to connect to the server, it still takes pretty damn long.

In GT1 the loading screens were instant. We need faster menu loading times. If it means removing the HD background in the main menu, or reducing the lighting effects on cars in the showrooms, then do it. Or at least keep on tweaking/optimising it to work faster.

 

[irnbrutwinturbo]

If you call that big loading times you must have never played any games on a comodore 64. Those were long loading times. The loading times in GT5 are just fine.

The commodore 64, a classic, the thing that made the loading times even more interesting is that about every fifth time the game wouldn't load at all. Rewind the tape and try again.

 

[Stonemonkey]

Never played on the Comodore 64, i'm a little too young too be honest, the first console i played was the Sega Mastersystem II. The loading screens since then have been pretty quick mostly.

Before cartridges there were......... audio tapes. 5-10 mins of screeching to load 20k, if you didn't have the volume or tone set right you might have to try again although some of the 8 bit machines loaded in small blocks and would tell you if the block had failed and to rewind a little to try again.

Some games even had loading screens that took almost as long to load as the game itself, you could just about watch each pixel being filled by the beeps and screeches from the tape. Then you would have to wait on the game loading but at least you'd have some pretty (320*200,8 colour) artwork to look at.

 

[steve30x]

The commodore 64, a classic, the thing that made the loading times even more interesting is that about every fifth time the game wouldn't load at all. Rewind the tape and try again.

I remember it alright. The frustration of waiting about 5 minutes for a level to load only to have to rewind and try again. People complain about loading times of new games but the loading times are blisteringly fast towards the comodore 64 or amiga 500.

 

[Jay]

Even went Commodore 64 went to 5 inch floppy disks it often failed to load..

Oh the fun.

 

[Seismica]

I see now after looking into it, why compressed data will have to return soon if the hardware does not improve in the right way.

In the past 15-20 years, loading times have increased. CD and Cartridge games loaded almost instantly. Round the time of the N64/PSX, better storage media was needed in order to improve the graphics and gameplay further whilst keeping the loading screens short.

The introduction of DVD was the answer. (including the mini-dvd from the Gamecube). It boasted a much higher read speed than the cartridge and was dirt cheap to produce like a CD. And the overall storage was amazing. The PS2 is the best example of how it was utilised and how it furthered gaming so much.

But now we have hit a point where to improve games, we need to pile on the hardware. But it is futile, as currently DVD, Blu-ray and even Hard Drives are so limited in their data transfer rate/read speed that loading times are just going to increase at an alarming rate.

Does anyone know of the next revolutionary storage media (That new type of Harddrive for example? I don't know the name)? Because we need it now. Otherwise the loading times will just increase and increase and the only way to stop it will be by compressing the data more and more.

 

[juniordee]

I see now after looking into it, why compressed data will have to return soon if the hardware does not improve in the right way.

In the past 15-20 years, loading times have increased. CD and Cartridge games loaded almost instantly. Round the time of the N64/PSX, better storage media was needed in order to improve the graphics and gameplay further whilst keeping the loading screens short.

The introduction of DVD was the answer. (including the mini-dvd from the Gamecube). It boasted a much higher read speed than the cartridge and was dirt cheap to produce like a CD. And the overall storage was amazing. The PS2 is the best example of how it was utilised and how it furthered gaming so much.

But now we have hit a point where to improve games, we need to pile on the hardware. But it is futile, as currently DVD, Blu-ray and even Hard Drives are so limited in their data transfer rate/read speed that loading times are just going to increase at an alarming rate.

Does anyone know of the next revolutionary storage media (That new type of Harddrive for example? I don't know the name)? Because we need it now. Otherwise the loading times will just increase and increase and the only way to stop it will be by compressing the data more and more.

Consoles could go solid state but at the moment that would be just plain expensive and would only help loading data straight from the drive, not the disc.

 

[Seismica]

Consoles could go solid state but at the moment that would be just plain expensive and would only help loading data straight from the drive, not the disc.

Thats the name!

Those are capable of 700MB/s (Thats Megabytes not Megabits). That is the future of gaming!

Install times from a disc will be marginally faster due to higher write speed, but not by much.

It seems the way things are going, in 5 years time the large majority of games and movies will be online downloads rather than hard copies. Not keen on that idea as i like my hard copies. But I wouldn't be surprised if they took it the same way as the PSP GO by removing the BD and then putting in an SSD.

 

[juniordee]

Thats the name!

Install times from a disc will be marginally faster due to higher write speed, but not by much.

.

Actually, write speeds for Solid State Drives are slower than HDD but they make up for it with an incredibly fast reading speed. So installing games from disc would take longer than usual, but loading times would be much faster.

 

[Owen.C93]

Why no 7200rpm HDD, I'm amusing the ps3 uses a 5400RPM?

 

[Seismica]

Why no 7200rpm HDD, I'm amusing the ps3 uses a 5400RPM?

Yes it does use 5400RPM as standard. It can easily be upgraded if you like.

 

[Owen.C93]

Yes it does use 5400RPM as standard. It can easily be upgraded if you like.

Would this make a difference?

 

[juniordee]

Would this make a difference?

Of course it would. Can't guarantee a huge difference over small loadings but in games where it takes a long while to load you could definitely shave seconds.

 

[Owen.C93]

Of course it would. Can't guarantee a huge difference over small loadings but in games where it takes a long while to load you could definitely shave seconds.

Oh yeah, after some research I guess it can be a little quicker, however since the blu ray still needs to be accessed there is very little speed to be gained. Would be nice to try with a demo though.

 

[juniordee]

Oh yeah, after some research I guess it can be a little quicker, however since the blu ray still needs to be accessed there is very little speed to be gained. Would be nice to try with a demo though.

Yeah as long as most games are read directly from the disc you won't notice much difference.

 

[Smoke&Slide]

But people tried with a faster hdd & got overheating problems.Not a good idea.

 

[Seismica]

But people tried with a faster hdd & got overheating problems.Not a good idea.

Some are more energy efficient than others, If you buy a cheap 7200RPM one you're bound to have heating problems.

I don't know much about harddrives, but i do know they can vary in quality for the same spec and this can cause overheating if you don't get a good one.

 

[Sureboss]

Thats the name!

Those are capable of 700MB/s (Thats Megabytes not Megabits). That is the future of gaming!

Install times from a disc will be marginally faster due to higher write speed, but not by much.

It seems the way things are going, in 5 years time the large majority of games and movies will be online downloads rather than hard copies. Not keen on that idea as i like my hard copies. But I wouldn't be surprised if they took it the same way as the PSP GO by removing the BD and then putting in an SSD.

Us devs would love for everything to be digital download. Even though we released our digital version a month before the retail version, the retail version was significantly more successful.

Anyway, we will get there eventually. I can see consoles in 4 to 5 generations not having an optical drive.

Other ways loading times will increase (and they will, but do bare in mind how far more complex games are on the current gen, than on PS2/Xbox and the PSX/N64 era.), could be through a 128-bit OS...Though the more obvious thing that will be available before then is SSD, as mentioned above.