Article puts to rest DVD9 size issues forever.

I wasn't talking about primitive in terms of technology.  That has been obvious throughout the decades.  I meant in the future, looking back to this very space in time, they will see how pathetic we were in what we accomplished with the file sizes we used.  But, I must admit technology will be intrinsic to what people will be able to acomplish as humans in this domain.  Nice find though Godknown, did you figure out the code...

I think regardless of the fact that PS1 used CDs and PS2 uses DVDs, the argument about the huge leap in file sizes comparing the two is valid.  On the other hand, a lot has been done in compression recently which works for the author's argument, especially due to middleware.  It's interesting.  It's hard to say for sure what will happen, we really need even more information.

Higher capaities will be used by some games when they become available, but they are hardly a requirement for a good game.

For example, as the article indicated, higher resolution graphics do not automatically demand a larger capacity. Any PC game can scale (usually) from 800x600 all the way up to 1600x1200 or higher. Rendering resolution has nothing to do with on disk capacity, except where texture resolution has to be bumped up to match the high res graphics.

However, higher disk capacity isn't a free license to make super high-res textures because you have to have some serious hardware in order to display those textures on screen. Plus, the visual difference between compresses and uncompressed textures can be pretty minor visually after aa and bump mapping. In Doom 3 on the PC, you need a 512mg video card to play in "Ultra" mode without stuttering from the buffering of textures, but the visual difference between that and "High" mode is pretty minor in spite of the performance difference.

Once we start getting into higher capacity disks, this won't mean another several gig of programming code. It'll just mean more media. Back when I was a kid, we had the first CD games on 3D0. The games themselves weren't much better, but instead of Sega Genesis and SNES synsethised music, every game now had a fully digital version of Rob Zombie's Dragula as background music. It was cool at the time, but for a long time that was like the only licensed song that they had in video games and dear god did we get sick of it. :)

No, HD graphics themselves won't make much of a difference in space. However, 1920x1080 quality FMV will eat up that disk like there's no tomorrow. On the other hand, in game graphics are improving to the point that few games rely heavily on pre-rendered FMV anymore.

-Byshop

Article: http://gamesfirst.com/?id=1132

I hate to say it folks, but HD-DVD and Blu-Ray aren't needed for true next gen games (although movies are gonna be sweet!)

I, personally, believe that the DVD9 is better than Blu-Ray because it is smaller. Why? With DVD9 programmers have to have clean effecient code to make the most out of the space. With Blu-Ray the space is wide open, leaving way too much room for sloppy development.

Discuss Article.

UnlivedPhalanx

Never say that some evidence will put an issue to rest forever... it never does :(

If you would like to get this type of info 24 hours sooner, Check out www.majornelson.com Where he posts links to many intresting stories like this one.dunthisb4

Wow, that's a good read. I find it hard to believe that Morrowind was actually that small. 900 MB seems small for a game in which the entire map takes 30 minutes to cross. Some of these games are large, but that's because they weren't tightly coded. UT2004 and F.E.A.R. are good examples. MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries was only about 1 GB, and that's because it was very tightly coded. Even though the graphics weren't that great, the gameplay was still very well done.Dark_Spartan796

There's a little more to it than that. Textures, sound effects, spoken dialog, and things of that nature (all media) are by far the most space consuming aspects of any game. It's not really fair to compare the sizes of Mechwarrior 4 with modern games since MW4 is a five year old game.

-Byshop

Article: http://gamesfirst.com/?id=1132

I hate to say it folks, but HD-DVD and Blu-Ray aren't needed for true next gen games (although movies are gonna be sweet!)

I, personally, believe that the DVD9 is better than Blu-Ray because it is smaller. Why? With DVD9 programmers have to have clean effecient code to make the most out of the space. With Blu-Ray the space is wide open, leaving way too much room for sloppy development.

Discuss Article.

UnlivedPhalanx

uhh... if this is true, then why is the up and coming rpg Blue Dragon for the xbox 360 going to take up 3 dvd9's? it won't be as expansive as oblivion, but the story will be really long. still, according to the article, this should only take up one disc completely fully. 

i just read the article and started to wonder, they didnt compare Ps1 -ps2, which was a HUGE leap in space size. that takes all the credibility away from that article. ps1 used 650 megs (not counting rpgs) and ps2 god of war was dual sided, as well as gt4. man, i GURANTEE u the xbox will have problems by the 4th year MAX F1Lengend

You are making the mistake of trying to use a comparison between systems of two different generations to systems of the same generation.  The PS1 had pretty bad 3D graphics, the PS2 had much better, and the Xbox even better.  

Regardless, who cares?  Its been a while, but we used to accept disc spanning as a compromise for space limitations, no reason why we can't accept it now.  Also, don't Blu Ray discs costs a whole lot of money?  Like over 20 bucks?  You could span 30 DVDs and still cost less.

[QUOTE="UnlivedPhalanx"]Article: http://gamesfirst.com/?id=1132

I hate to say it folks, but HD-DVD and Blu-Ray aren't needed for true next gen games (although movies are gonna be sweet!)

I, personally, believe that the DVD9 is better than Blu-Ray because it is smaller. Why? With DVD9 programmers have to have clean effecient code to make the most out of the space. With Blu-Ray the space is wide open, leaving way too much room for sloppy development.

Discuss Article.

mistervengeance

uhh... if this is true, then why is the up and coming rpg Blue Dragon for the xbox 360 going to take up 3 dvd9's? it won't be as expansive as oblivion, but the story will be really long. still, according to the article, this should only take up one disc completely fully. 

Article: http://gamesfirst.com/?id=1132

I hate to say it folks, but HD-DVD and Blu-Ray aren't needed for true next gen games (although movies are gonna be sweet!)

I, personally, believe that the DVD9 is better than Blu-Ray because it is smaller. Why? With DVD9 programmers have to have clean effecient code to make the most out of the space. With Blu-Ray the space is wide open, leaving way too much room for sloppy development.

Discuss Article.

UnlivedPhalanx

Being a developer that uses the DVD medium it's what I've been saying for a long time, but still a nice find.

This article a quite old... I'd love to see some real data on it now... I'd love to see what the average capacity for games right now... The article talks about Oblivion... and how it "will" fit on a DVD9... as in the article was written before it's release. in the 360's first year of being out... we've only seen 1 game so far on 3 DVD's... and that's Blue Dragon. And yeah... it's all about the FMV, Dialogue and all that media that is taking so much space. if it wasn't for all that it would prolly fit on 1 disc.

Basically... it's putting restrictions on developers to create. It's saying... ok... make a game... but... don't have voice overs for everything... don't have any FMV... just have ingame... have lower quality sounds... make your textures a bit less crips... and re-use them alot... and YEAH... it'll fit on a DVD. I think it's BS... what's even worst is that people on these boards don't blame the medium... but blame the developers for not coding properlly. And then... those same people will complain that a game sucks because it's too short or it doesn't look good... or just doesn't sound right.

I think it was a terrible decision on MS part to not include a medium, in every 360, that they "support".

[QUOTE="mistervengeance"]

[QUOTE="UnlivedPhalanx"]Article: http://gamesfirst.com/?id=1132

I hate to say it folks, but HD-DVD and Blu-Ray aren't needed for true next gen games (although movies are gonna be sweet!)

I, personally, believe that the DVD9 is better than Blu-Ray because it is smaller. Why? With DVD9 programmers have to have clean effecient code to make the most out of the space. With Blu-Ray the space is wide open, leaving way too much room for sloppy development.

Discuss Article.

illbitcrusher

uhh... if this is true, then why is the up and coming rpg Blue Dragon for the xbox 360 going to take up 3 dvd9's? it won't be as expansive as oblivion, but the story will be really long. still, according to the article, this should only take up one disc completely fully.