Is this the truth about Blu-ray Drives?

[compres]

To save space, he contends that audio will be down-sampled, video will be downgraded or sacked altogether, features and extras such as "the making of", multiplayer, and the biggest storage whore of all, interactive gameplay, maybe cut completely, leaving you with this:

LMAOROF

thanks for the good laugh...

 

[bleon]

Besides, even at 4x speed BRD, the transfer speeds relative to memory size will still be Slower then they are with PS2/XBox, making the relative effect of seek times smaller as well.

Thats interesting... does that mean load times will probably get longer for next gen PS3 games?

 

[Fafalada]

Thats interesting... does that mean load times will probably get longer for next gen PS3 games?

It means smart content management is even more critical to keep load times in check with nexgen games.
This applies equally to 360 as well (Relative to size of memory, the 360 DVD drive is ~3x slower then in original XBox) - and the load times are already out there for people to judge.

 

[Phil]

Oh jeez, well I'm a nobody so my opinion doesn't hold much weight. But I'd say that for at least the next 2 years the 360 will remain the lead platform (for the majority!! of multiplatform games). There may be a point where there are joint development plans, when PS3 development tools mature enough and market share becomes more evenly split. After that, it may just become developer preference, it really depends on how well the PS3 sells. I know that just as some developers are keen to work closely with the technology innovations the Rev promises, there will be a similar keenness towards expanding on the possibilities for the extra space Blu-Ray offers. There are so many things that could happen over the next 2 years before everything becomes clear and we still know very little about the Revolution and its place.

My take is that the majority of high profile games this generation will likely to have the PS3 as its lead platform since the targeted fanbase are current PS2 owners (not Xbox360/Xbox owerns). Even games like GTA that is rumoured (?) to be a PS3 exclusive (I'm betting time exclusive) will be targeting PS3 hardware initially - when and how easy that will port over to Xbox360 really depends on the teams foresight. The only games I see targeting Xbox360's hardware are current multi-platform targeted games from EA, but even then, given that both consoles are in a close enough stage, chances are you're having two dedicated teams working on each version independantly with only the art-assets and game-designs being shared. When PS3 launches and if the success is anything like the PS2s, that will further establish PS3 as the lead platform.

Of course, there will be various teams that will target the Xbox360s hardware - I'm assuming especially those developers that are targeting their fanbase from the Xbox, as various PC developers that are finding their ways into the console-industry.

 

[croc hunter2]

BR may allow the movie and game to be on the same disk (god help us).

So Spidey2 the movie and the game on the one disk. weeeeee

 

[rabidrabbit]

It should allow that, but I don't think we'll see full games with movies... demoes certainly (as already in some DVD's), but that would just bring the disc price for consumer up and wopuld make little sense in marketing pov anyway.
Some simpler Java games I think had been said would be on some Blu-ray movie discs, but not full commercial high production value games.
Well, maybe in some special edition versions, like re-releases of both the movie and game a year or two after first release.

 

[Hardknock]

It should allow that, but I don't think we'll see full games with movies... demoes certainly (as already in some DVD's), but that would just bring the disc price for consumer up and wopuld make little sense in marketing pov anyway.
Some simpler Java games I think had been said would be on some Blu-ray movie discs, but not full commercial high production value games.
Well, maybe in some special edition versions, like re-releases of both the movie and game a year or two after first release.

I think Sony will really try to push this. Stealth on PSP has a version of Wipeout on the disc with new tracks.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Well, the Stealth DVD + Wipeout UMD combo actually has just three tracks, all of them somehow "Stealth" related (advertisements ?) so it's essentially just a PSP game demo, not a full game.
But yes, I can see similar deals coming for Blu-ray, a game demo is included with a movie, and the game isn't necessarily a direct movie tie-in, but maybe a "customised" version of some other game with adverts for the movie or something like that.
For example a sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that follows the further adventures of Charlie and a soccer team in the Willy Wonka world could feature a demo of FIFA 2008 with adverts for the game and assorted candy companies on the field and player uniforms.
Except that C&CF is a Warner movie I think, so it probably won't happen.

 

[London Geezer]

For example a sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that follows the further adventures of Charlie and a soccer team in the Willy Wonka world could feature a demo of FIFA 2008 with adverts for the game and assorted candy companies on the field and player uniforms.

*rubs his eyes*


.... WHAT....? And here i thought *I* was doing too many drugs...

 

[Teasy]

To save space, he contends that audio will be down-sampled, video will be downgraded or sacked altogether, features and extras such as "the making of", multiplayer, and the biggest storage whore of all, interactive gameplay, maybe cut completely, leaving you with this:

Video is quite clearly the biggest "storage whore", not interactive gameplay.

 

[London Geezer]

Video is quite clearly the biggest "storage whore", not interactive gameplay.

You mean... Gameplay doesn't occupy any disc space?!!

 

[Platon]

You mean... Gameplay doesn't occupy any disc space?!!

Nope, you can take an empty DVD and play frisbee, fun as hell:smile: ...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Video is quite clearly the biggest "storage whore", not interactive gameplay.

Champions of Norrath is a dual-layer PS2 game. There's practically no video in that. In it's case it was the resources needed for random dungeon creation. The sequel RTA lost the random dungeons and fit onto a single layer.

In my experience most games don't have much video content.

 

[Farid]

The BR Drives are capable of both CLV and CAV modes.

A BR drive of 2X/3X, if used correctly, should be useful to reduce seek times, the main problem with loadings from optical storages, by using a lot of redudant packed data.

 

[dodo3]

The BR Drives are capable of both CLV and CAV modes.

A BR drive of 2X/3X, if used correctly, should be useful to reduce seek times, the main problem with loadings from optical storages, by using a lot of redudant packed data.

How do you know that BR drives are both CAV and CLV modes?

I read in the technical white papers @ blu-raydisc.info and couldn't find it anywhere.

Can you please put me in the right direction on where I can read about it?

 

[London Geezer]

How do you know that BR drives are both CAV and CLV modes?

I read in the technical white papers @ blu-raydisc.info and couldn't find it anywhere.

Can you please put me in the right direction on where I can read about it?

http://www.cddimensions.com/storage_solutions/sony_blue_laser.asp

Automatic CAV/CLV selection:
"Professional Disc for DATA" drives support both CAV (constant angular velocity) and CLV (constant linear velocity) transfer modes when reading and writing data. In CAV mode the disc rotates at a constant speed, meaning that the transfer rate slows as the pickup approaches the center of the disc, but seek operations are fast (110ms average). In CLV mode the speed of the pickup is constant, so although seek operations take longer, the maximum transfer rate of 11MB/s is maintained at all times. The drive firmware automatically selects the Optimum mode to ensure the best overall performance. For example, if accessing a series of relatively small text files, CAV is used for fast seek times, but when reading large music or video files, CLV is employed to ensure the maximum transfer rate. The factory setting ensures that the drive automatically selects the optimum transfer mode. But if necessary the user can select the transfer mode: DIP switches allow selection of either CAV or Optimum mode, while any one of the three modes (CAV, CLV or Optimum) can be specified by a mode select command.*

 

[Platon]

How much time does this switching of the modes take?...

 

[London Geezer]

How much time does this switching of the modes take?...

Well they don't say that... :smile:

 

[Nick Laslett]

Thats interesting... does that mean load times will probably get longer for next gen PS3 games?

Load times on 360 launch titles is longer than on Xbox and PS2. There is just so much more memory to fill.

 

[London Geezer]

Load times on 360 launch titles is longer than on Xbox and PS2. There is just so much more memory to fill.

And as Faf said, the speed of the drive hasn't increased at the same pace as the increase in memory:

RAM 64MB --> 512MB = 8 times increase.

DVD 5X --> 12X = 2.4 times increase.

From the numbers, loading times could be more than 3 times as long on X360 than on Xbox. However we all know that loading times are not all about the drive speed. In fact some games have loading times that are much longer than the speed required for the drive to fill up the memory, so in the end it's all - once again - in the hands of the developers.