Ps3: Firmware 1.6

[djskribbles]

true background downloading will be available in the 1.6 update. you can download while playing games offline. if you go online, it will pause.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/774/774165p1.html

UPDATE: We've received word from Sony that you will indeed be able to play games while downloading content in the background. Similar to how downloads on the Xbox 360 works, you'll be able to play games offline while downloads work in the background, and if you hop online your queue will simply pause until you disconnect.

The update is set for release on this coming Thursday, March 22nd.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

If this is confirmed on the 22nd, I will let Sony off. Just this once, mind

Seriously, that'd be an important confirmation that the OSSPE is finally doing something, which means progress will happen on refining it's features - giving more things to do multitasking, and eventually less resources nabbed from games (presumably, unless they actually find a way to fill up 96 MBs.).

 

[DieH@rd]

true background downloading will be available in the 1.6 update. you can download while playing games offline. if you go online, it will pause.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/774/774165p1.html

Awesome. So it will download while playing ps2/ps1 games also.

 

[Jesus2006]

Seriously, that'd be an important confirmation that the OSSPE is finally doing something, which means progress will happen on refining it's features - giving more things to do multitasking, and eventually less resources nabbed from games (presumably, unless they actually find a way to fill up 96 MBs.).

Is this 96MB figure actually confirmed btw?

 

[ninzel]

Sounds like a great update I can't wait.
It's funny though how surfing the web is ok while downloading,but playing games online is not.

 

[Nesh]

Sounds like a great update I can't wait.
It's funny though how surfing the web is ok while downloading,but playing games online is not.

djskribbles post sais you will be able to play games while downloading. Now about downloading while playing ONLINE I think that has a very logical reason.

When you download, bandwidth available for online play is reduced. Lag could be becoming a problem

So no thats not funny. Its logical

 

[Sis]

Is HDD unavailable?

Is HDD infinite storage?

 

[Blazkowicz]

Is this 96MB figure actually confirmed btw?

yes, wasn't it 64MB? 96MB leaves only 160MB RAM for games.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Is there enough content to create an infinitely long download list?

Ignoring the semantics here, the real point is 'is a list of 6 items long enough? Why not implemented a list of inifinite (reads more than enough, such as 256 items, or 65536) items?'

 

[Blazkowicz]

besides the downloaded content, why should the download queues eat more than a few KB?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

yes, wasn't it 64MB? 96MB leaves only 160MB RAM for games.

64 MB XDR, 32 MB DDR. Unofficially confirmed in these very fora through discussion.

 

[patsu]

Is there enough content to create an infinitely long download list?

Ignoring the semantics here, the real point is 'is a list of 6 items long enough? Why not implemented a list of inifinite (reads more than enough, such as 256 items, or 65536) items?'

It's probably for simplicity (Don't have to implement searching and pagination). They have other more important functions to attend to.

But I do note that the audio/video conferencing feature has similar 6 concurrent user limits. For downloading, we will have to find out if these 6 queued items run in parallel (or sequentially).

 

[Sis]

It's probably for simplicity (Don't have to implement searching and pagination). They have other more important functions to attend to.

But I do note that the audio/video conferencing feature has similar 6 concurrent user limits. For downloading, we will have to find out if these 6 queued items run in parallel (or sequentially).

That's what my thinking was. Technically, you can't get infinite, nor is there a need for it. 6 is probably just the simplest and most-likely upper limit that a user would ever need (need being a subjective term; as geeks we tend to optimize for edge cases, where optimizing for the typical case usually benefits a larger number of people). So with a lower fixed number, you can now optimize your displays and logic around a fixed number.

 

[ninzel]

djskribbles post sais you will be able to play games while downloading. Now about downloading while playing ONLINE I think that has a very logical reason.

When you download, bandwidth available for online play is reduced. Lag could be becoming a problem

So no thats not funny. Its logical

Did you read my post? I though it was funny that SURFING THE WEB(which requires bandwidth) was ok but playing games while online(which requires bandwidth as well) is not. See the connection now to my original question and why I would logically wonder?Now the logical explanation might be that surfing the web requires much less bandwidth than playing games online,but I don't know the answer to that which is why I logically wondered.


"Up to 6 pieces of content from the PlayStation store can be queued up for download while the user enjoys other functions of the PS3 system, including playing games, browsing the web,

 

[Mmmkay]

...

Downloading would greatly impact your online gameplay experience.

Anyway, how is that this IGN update has yet to be corroborated or refuted? It has been a whole day now. :/

 

[ninzel]

...

Downloading would greatly impact your online gameplay experience.

Anyway, how is that this IGN update has yet to be corroborated or refuted? It has been a whole day now. :/

Obviously any time you share bandwidth,each experience will be impacted.Sony might have concluded that a slower web browsing experience is ok,but laggy online gameplay is not.

 

[Mmmkay]

Well someone finally bothered to check up on this background downloading rumour:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/background-downloading/sony-clarifies-background-downloading-246099.php

There was much confusion, at least in my head, about how exactly the new Playstation 3 background downloading was going to work.

The problem, it seems, was that the US press release and UK press didn't exactly jibe with one another. Jibe... I like that word..

So I emailed David Karraker, head of SCEA PR, to get to the bottom of things and I've got some relatively good news for you.

You can play games and download in the background, you just can't play online. So playing offline in a single player mode is doable, but once you hop into multiplayer or something that uses the network the download pauses.

When the online portion ends, the download resumes without any lost data. Hazzah!

 

[ninzel]

What about web browsing then ?That doesn't use the PS Network does it?It's like it's own independent channel that you don't even have to log into to use.

 

[Todd33]

The web browser and PS Store are two different apps in the XB.

 

[patsu]

What about web browsing then ?That doesn't use the PS Network does it?It's like it's own independent channel that you don't even have to log into to use.

I don't think it's related to PSN at all. Background download can work simultaneously as web browsing because the latter do not have a near real-time requirements (A few seconds response time is probably ok/tolerable).