The benefits of streaming

[MistaPi]

Would streaming help that much for having more texture/graphics data? Or is it more for a seamless experince (not having to many load screens).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Would streaming help that much for having more texture/graphics data?

Can do.

Or is it more for a seamless experince (not having to many load screens).

Can do that too.

 

[MistaPi]

But the data must or at least should me in memory when its needed, so it dosn't quite solve the problem of limited memory?

 

[Cheezdoodles]

But the data must or at least should me in memory when its needed, so it dosn't quite solve the problem of limited memory?

Yes and no.

If your not streaming, you have to fit everything until you load into your memory.
If your streaming, you only need to have whatever you see (/is close to you) in memory, thus, you can have higher quality textures for example.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Consider the classic example of a racing game. Without streaming, all level data has to be in RAM. Let's say we have 200 MB free for scenery, so in a city with 200 building in view, that's 1MB each for data. With streaming, you only need load enough data for the buildings in view in the current bit of track. So we can portion our memory into two 100MB chunks, one for what's in view now and one for loading data that we'll see later. If 30 buildings are in view at a given moment, that's 3MB available data for each. That's how streaming helps get more data into a given scene. It won't work with all engines.

 

[Novum]

Yes it can. Id Software is doing that in Quake Wars and future tech.

 

[Rainbow Man]

If your streaming, you only need to have whatever you see (/is close to you) in memory, thus, you can have higher quality textures for example.

That doesn't seem so "only" to me.

For starters, you must be certain the player can't at any point in your maps look past the limit of the data that you are able to hold in memory. This restricts and contorts level design so that visibility is limited - sometimes in an unnatural fashion.

Also you must be sure that you can load data fast enough so that the player doesn't move into an area that is unpopulated by textures/models. This can work against using larger textures - because such textures take longer to load.

Especially on a console where loading is very slow.
Peace.

 

[AlNom]

That sure didn't stop Bungie from being super aggressive with it in Halo 2.