PSP Impressions

[-tkf-]

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-17-71-7o-74-ox.html

 

[hey69]

and what about hands on with the music ? games? maybe, baterylife ? even with playing mp3s...

 

[thop]

ign has been quiet about battery life as well ... they only complained about the long loading times.

 

[PC-Engine]

they only complained about the long loading times.

Eeewwwwww....they should take a lesson from Nintendo's GCN.

 

[Phil]

who is they? Loading times might be more dependend on developers and software and not necessarely because of the hardware.

 

[PC-Engine]

Most games on PS2 have very long loading times also. Regardless it's a problem that shouldn't be there and is highly annoying in this day and age.

 

[Phil]

Most games on PS2 have very long loading times also. Regardless it's a problem that shouldn't be there and is highly annoying in this day and age.

...and yet there are games that have absolutely no loading times or in the sub 5-10 seconds range - so what's your point?

 

[PC-Engine]

Most games on PS2 have very long loading times also. Regardless it's a problem that shouldn't be there and is highly annoying in this day and age.

...and yet there are games that have absolutely no loading times or in the sub 5-10 seconds range - so what's your point?

Point is they can learn somthing from GCN developers and/or hardware since most of those games have short loading times.

 

[zurich]

they only complained about the long loading times.

Eeewwwwww....they should take a lesson from Nintendo's GCN.

Right, because it makes perfect sense to compare a home console plugged into the wall to the first gen model of the first handheld with an optical drive.

 

[PC-Engine]

Then we can easily compare GCN load times vs PS2 load times...it's annoying.

 

[add n to (x)]

The speed of modern optical drives is such that it should be possible to fill memory within 10 seconds or so. e.g. a 4x DVD-ROM drive should be able to transfer around 5MB/sec, and so fill 32MB of RAM in 6.4 secs. Of course, it's not that simple, there's pointers to fix up and processing to be done.

 

[thop]

Load time to start up a game varies based on the game. Minna no Golf takes about 20 seconds to start up, with Dokodemo Issho and Ridge Racers being a bit lower at, respectively, 18 and 15 seconds.

To start up a race in any of the modes, you have to wait through a ten second load session as the game loads up the car select and track select screens.

Getting into a race takes another fourteen seconds of load time.

I wonder at what rate the PSP is reading from the UMD.

 

[-tkf-]

Load time to start up a game varies based on the game. Minna no Golf takes about 20 seconds to start up, with Dokodemo Issho and Ridge Racers being a bit lower at, respectively, 18 and 15 seconds.

To start up a race in any of the modes, you have to wait through a ten second load session as the game loads up the car select and track select screens.

Getting into a race takes another fourteen seconds of load time.

I wonder at what rate the PSP is reading from the UMD.

Saving battery life speed!

I guess someone at Namco fucked up the loading routine?

I find it embarrasing that even today, after years of knowing how much users hate loading time that developers don't take this serious.

Burnout 3 loads slow on every platform. Halflife 2 is infested with loading screens (the drinking game). The examples are countless.
Installing a HD into your XBOX or PS2 is a breath of fresh air.

 

[Phil]

Then we can easily compare GCN load times vs PS2 load times...it's annoying.

In a PSP thread?

We already established that there are games on both platforms that suffer from long loading times, yet there are also examples of efforts with ultra-fast loading times. Hardware really isn't the issue, making any attempt to compare GCN with PS2 or even PSP base-less... one could even call it trolling.

 

[Fafalada]

The speed of modern optical drives is such that it should be possible to fill memory within 10 seconds or so. e.g. a 4x DVD-ROM drive should be able to transfer around 5MB/sec, and so fill 32MB of RAM in 6.4 secs.

PSP drive is only capable of around 2MB/sec though (it's more comparable to GC's optical drive in that regard actually).

Of course, it's not that simple, there's pointers to fix up and processing to be done.

That stuff is typically orders of magnitude faster then optical-disc reading speed. It's perfectly possible to get within 5-10% of raw disc-reading speed with a good load scheme, with included decompression of data you read from disc.
The biggest killer on optical discs is how you place your seeks (and how many you end up with) - those can easily make a difference between loading a game in 6 seconds, or 60+...

 

[function]

PSP drive is only capable of around 2MB/sec though (it's more comparable to GC's optical drive in that regard actually).

OT, but what is the GC's drive speed then? Double speed DVD? I know 2X DVD should be about 3MB/s max, but GC disks are smaller...

 

[Fafalada]

I don't know what the rotation speeds are on GC drive - but the read speed is rated at 2MB/s(inner tracks) to 3MB/s(outer tracks).

 

[function]

Thanks.

The circumference at the outside edge of a GC disk is almost exactly 2/3 that of a DVD, so I would assume 2/3 the peak read speed of a full size DVD with the same rotational speed. That would indicate a 3X drive in the GC, I reckon.

 

[Guden Oden]

Standard DVD read speed is based on CLV, so the read speed is constant across the entire surface of the disc. It sits specced at ~10-12Mbit/s for 1x drives I believe.

Funny though, MP loads fairly quick, but turn off the sound and listen to the drive chugging away as it loads! There's QUITE a number of seeks going on there, and of course even more when one is running around from room to room.

 

[cthellis42]

ign has been quiet about battery life as well ... they only complained about the long loading times.

Did they complain about specifics anywhere? All I remember is a few mailbag comments saying "it will have loads" (duh) and hoping devs both keep it under control (duh^2) and reduce the number of CGI intros and splash screens that infect many games these days, and that they don't have a good feel as to what it would be, but that the size of the disk and speed of transfer should keep it short. Since the released media about the games (like from Play-Asia in this thread) are showing off those intros, one can't tell much on that front. :?