Silent_Buddha
Legend
Indeed. Those poor avocados.
Can we eat them now?
[said in Gluttony's voice from FMA]Regards,
SB
Next-Generation NVMe SSD and I/O Technology [PC, PS5, XBSX|S]
- Thread starter Shortbread
- Start date
Can we eat them now?
[said in Gluttony's voice from FMA]Regards,
SB
davis.anthony
Veteran
Some games already use the hardware decompression blocks on XSX.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
Surely they most, or all would? Why would you not compress all data given decompression is effectively free and it makes data smaller.
davis.anthony
Veteran
If it requires modifications to the game engine that you don't have the time to do.
Like what type of modification? The data has to be encoded to the appropriate format but why canāt decoding be transparent to the app itself?
davis.anthony
Veteran
Last gen game engines don't just magically gain the ability to use all new hardware features.
You've caught a lot of flack for your post but, I think the underlying message is fair. Direct storage has just been a lot of talk. A lot of talk I wish people would shut-up about until there's something concrete to show. The PS5's IO innovations while advanced has yet to really deliver any differentiating experiences so it's not really anything to write home about yet. However I agree, it's just some pears and numbers. It means nothing in until it actually starts to affect game design and there are meaningful implementations out in the wild.
I think the issue is praising the ps5 io at the same time, while critizing DS/xbox/pc. Its not like the ps5 has that much going for it either, in the form of enabling new game elements never seen before as others have expressed here.
Cant blame any tech or platform for it as were barely leaving cross gen still.
ASIC based lossless decoders on consoles isnāt new.
Plus, for most of console history, developers had to code to brand new novel architecture. Traditionally, dev kits are made available well before launch. So whatās so special about DirectStorage as an API that requires delaying support until years into the Series Xās life cycle?
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This is a technical discussion forum and the thread is literally about bleeding edge and future IO technologies. Where else is something like Direct Storage supposed to be discussed?
It always takes years from the point of announcement for any new PC API features - particularly where they tie into hardware - to get used in actual games so this is absolutely nothing new or unusual. I see no reason at all why we shouldn't discuss it's implementation and potential merits in the meantime, especially when we now have real world testable demoes to help us explore that.
It's not like anyone is being forced to read this thread.
Highly unlikely. The games will either ship pre-compressed in the DirectStorage compression format (GDeflate) or they will ship in some other, CPU decompressable format and thus be unable to use GPU decompression. There won't be any install time detection of hardware capabilities that can change the compression rate of the game. Not unless the devs package two different versions of the game and allow the user to download the one appropriate for their hardware capabilities. I find this very unlikely because the vast majority of PC hardware will already be capable of hardware decompression (any GPU since Maxwell or GCN), and where that hardware doesn;t exists, DirectStorage still has a CPU fallback path. It's also free for developers to use unlike some of the more popular CPU based compression formats, so there's simply on reason for developers not to use it.
What we don't know at present is whether GDeflate has a better, worse, or similar compression ratio vs something like Kraken and so there may still be some variation in install sizes vs say the PS5.
davis.anthony
Veteran
Which doesn't mean game engines magically gain the ability to use them.
It requires development time.
Iām not saying it takes no effort. I just donāt believe it takes the time you are alluding. Games with DirectStorage support on the Series consoles started on launch day as AC Vahalla supports DS.
If DS isnāt prevalent now on XS games, itās more likely due unified memory and the raw SSD performance jump being so big that devs donāt feel the need to exploit it. Versus, it presents too much of a coding challenge to incorporate for devs to include early on.
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davis.anthony
Veteran
CPU's are programable and can decompresses pretty much anything, so decompressing GDelflate won't be an issue for them, the only thing is the speed at which they do it.
So a game could very well have a pure Direct Storage compression format and still use the slower CPU route for users who do not have a fully Direct Storage compliant system.
Windows 10 isn't fully Direct Storage compliant (One of the reasons I've moved to Windows 11 which is) and I imagine most developers have waited for GPU decompression to become available.
davis.anthony
Veteran
I've not alluded to any time frame.
It's always a case of time vs effectiveness.
Most games have seen a considerable jump in loading performance just moving to the consoles NVME drives so most developers might not feel the need to rush over to DirectStoarge (Yet)
AC Vahalla takes nearly 27 seconds to load on Series consoles, that it not Direct Storage level loading performance.
Pretty sure GDeflate has fallbacks, including ability to run on CPU's if required.
Valhalla may take 27 to load from start up. It takes 5 from quick resume. Quick resume is tied to Direct Storage as QR is reliant on the Velocity arch on Series console.
Microsoft explains why Quick Resume still hasn't come to PC | Digital Trends
Since the launch of the Xbox Series X and Windows 11, one feature has been missing for PC gamers: Quick Resume. And unfortunately, it likely won't arrive soon.
www.digitaltrends.com
davis.anthony
Veteran
Valhalla may take 27 to load from start up. It takes 5 from quick resume. Quick resume is tied to Direct Storage as QR is reliant on the Velocity arch on Series console.
Microsoft explains why Quick Resume still hasn't come to PC | Digital Trends
Since the launch of the Xbox Series X and Windows 11, one feature has been missing for PC gamers: Quick Resume. And unfortunately, it likely won't arrive soon.
Sigh.....Quick resume is not Direct Storage.
EDIT: Reading that article where do they say Direct Storage is tied to Quick Resume?
And parts of Velocity Architecture can be used without using Direct Storage API.
But back on point, AC Valhalla doesn't use Direct Storage as proven by its load times.
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