online updates: what are it's limitations

[Brainhulk]

lets assume when GT5 comes out in march, that it is not perfect (heaven forbid) and there would have to be online updates to improve it. Say fix bugs, add porsche, and a livery editor.

are there limits as to what an online update can accomplish? or is sky (line) the limit?

 

[CerealKiller]

Probably hard to do anything but speculate unless you're talking to an actual developer or someone with PS3 dev experience elsewhere. I'd assume that it depends on how well PD modularizes their code to allow for it, and if done well then essentially yes, sky's the limit.

 

[Cheshyrkat]

Skys pretty much the limit and if its a major update there will no doubt be alternative methods of update delivery for those without internet.

 

[cobraagent90]

I personally think they can do anything they want via DLC

 

[z28black98]

I agree with Cobraagent90. Just think what the PS3 was when it first was introduced and everything they have given us via system updates since then. I know it's not to everyones liking, but they have come along way via updates since the introduction of the ps3

 

[Messiah]

I think the fact that the PS3 installs a lot of game data to the HDD gives a lot more flexibility with regards to DLC, any updates to the game can overwrite whats on the HDD already so the game just reads the data as normal, whereas on something like the 360, the updated data has be stored in the cache and a routine for "don't use this data, use this version instead" has to be held in memory.

We might moan at having to lose say 4 or 5gb of HDD space with a game but what we lose in one place we make up for in others.

Copying info the HDD is also to do with the Blu-ray drive, it has a faster transfer rate than DVD but I think the seek time is actually longer, one of my biggest gripes is how long it takes to select a vehicle in the original MotorStorm...

 

[Devedander]

There is a limit, however that limit is not something defineable, it depends on the code in question, how you want to change it and how much it ties into other code. Patching is not an end all solution and there are limits. There is a point at which the company would pretty much be looking at re releasing the game fully rebuilt rather than patching it.

I believe this is the case with some of the games MS is using to demo Natal. They have recoded them to support Natal input, but it's not the kind of thing that can just be pushed out on a patch, it's major work.