Nick Laslett
Regular
Sorry to bring up a dull topic not related to next gen or technical specs.
It is a continuation of my topic on data streaming in PS2 games.
I got Killzone for Christmas and unlike a lot of recent SCEE releases like Jak3, you can install it on your hard drive and play it using HD Loader.
I've never played my copy of Killzone from the disc.
Anyway, I still see lots of complaints about framerate slow down and other stuff.
It seems to me that playing from the hard drive has a lot of benefits for Killzone.
The improved seek times for data loaded from the hard drive seem to make the game play much more smoothly.
Things like the voice samples are pulled from the Disc and could effect the framerate. This happens with PES3, where crowd noises cause the game to slow down, this is a well reported phenomenon.
The game also streams the larger levels in sections. There are short bland corridor like sections in some levels which hide the fact that the next section of the level is being loaded. You see this in the Docks level. Again, I think the hard drive reduces the impact the streaming data load has on the framerate.
The game also has a sophisticated LOD (Level of Detail) system. Different textures and polygon models are used depending how close you are to an object. I assume some of this information is streamed from disc and would be improved due to the use of a hard drive.
Sometimes I feel like I'm playing a different game when I read the reviews and talk to people about the game. I took for granted the effect the hard drive had on the game, but I realise I might have underestimated the improvements.
Any one else have any thoughts on this topic.
It is a continuation of my topic on data streaming in PS2 games.
I got Killzone for Christmas and unlike a lot of recent SCEE releases like Jak3, you can install it on your hard drive and play it using HD Loader.
I've never played my copy of Killzone from the disc.
Anyway, I still see lots of complaints about framerate slow down and other stuff.
It seems to me that playing from the hard drive has a lot of benefits for Killzone.
The improved seek times for data loaded from the hard drive seem to make the game play much more smoothly.
Things like the voice samples are pulled from the Disc and could effect the framerate. This happens with PES3, where crowd noises cause the game to slow down, this is a well reported phenomenon.
The game also streams the larger levels in sections. There are short bland corridor like sections in some levels which hide the fact that the next section of the level is being loaded. You see this in the Docks level. Again, I think the hard drive reduces the impact the streaming data load has on the framerate.
The game also has a sophisticated LOD (Level of Detail) system. Different textures and polygon models are used depending how close you are to an object. I assume some of this information is streamed from disc and would be improved due to the use of a hard drive.
Sometimes I feel like I'm playing a different game when I read the reviews and talk to people about the game. I took for granted the effect the hard drive had on the game, but I realise I might have underestimated the improvements.
Any one else have any thoughts on this topic.
