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Eurogamer: New Xbox One tech can save hard drive space and cut download times

tuxfool

Banned
Well, this could potentially have benefits for PC owners too. You don't get to choose not having ultra art assets it you're on a lower end card, or excising the singleplayer from Battlefield 1.

Mind, I feel like this may simply enable some developers to go even more absurd with their file sizes, opting to encourage user management rather than file compression.

You mean like steam already can do?
 
This hasn't always been a feature available to developers? Steam lets devs just make stuff like higher resolution textures, or in the case of Black Ops III, the single player or multiplayer, optional downloads for the player in the form of free DLC.

What's stopping devs from doing this on XBL and PSN?

I've always seen it as a case of whether or not the devs want to put in the effort.
 
MS taking a page from repackers' books ^^

E: I'd really like this to show up on PC. Would be a great thing to have as standard, rather than the rare optional high resolution texture packs.

From what Ms presented at GDC this is actually being added as a uwp feature, usable even by non store apps.
 

tuxfool

Banned
This hasn't always been a feature available to developers? Steam lets devs just make stuff like higher resolution textures, or in the case of Black Ops III, the single player or multiplayer, optional downloads for the player in the form of free DLC.

What's stopping devs from doing this on XBL and PSN?

I've always seen it as a case of whether or not the devs want to put in the effort.

Pretty much.

Given the roaring success we've seen with developers doing the whole "play as you download", people shouldn't get their hopes up. This will be implemented in a case by case basis.
 

Keinning

Member
Wouldn't that still be dependent on the implementation by the devs? I don't see how it could auto detect different language files, texture qualities, etc...

devs would only have to tag their content accordingly and the system would split and do the rest

so yes, up to the devs, but somewhat effortlessly
 
You mean like steam already can do?

From the gdc talk, this system allows the game to signal what's the next package to be installed, essentially allowing playing while the install is streaming (at gdc they said from disc, but it's clear now they want from cloud too).
 

tuxfool

Banned
From the gdc talk, this system allows the game to signal what's the next package to be installed, essentially allowing playing while the install is streaming (at gdc they said from disc, but it's clear now they want from cloud too).

That's pretty clever. But first they have to provide steam-like download speeds for this to be practical. Never mind the fact that on the ps4 this system, while less granular, has been an absolute failure.
 

Keinning

Member
That's pretty clever. But first they have to provide steam-like download speeds for this to be practical.

i don't believe download speeds are a widespread problem for XBL

at least it isn't for me

and people expecting GaaS like games with tons of weekly/monthly MP content added to significantly reduce size will of course be bound to disappointment.
 

Akai__

Member
Haven't watched the video, but I assume those of us with 1080p screens wth downsampling will be able to do the same?

The video says that it's a system tag. That means, it will just check if your console is a Xbox One X or a standard Xbox One and download the stuff for your console, despite you playing in 1080p on your Xbox One X.
 

Lucifon

Junior Member
This sounds awesome. I hope devs take it up and also hope Sony follow this.

4k / 1080p assets makes sense, but cutting out languages you don't need could be huge, along with manually being able to uninstall a singleplayer portion of a game and just leave multiplayer is amazing.
 

Jumeira

Banned
Forgive my lack of knowledge on the subject, but couldn't they just have a smaller download available to begin with?

I guess compression is a factor.

Games are packed tightly already interms of density, given we require higher quality audio, assets and video we cannot optimise further at the moment, so removing excess seems like a sensible solution. Seems like the only solution, what determines excess is unique to each gamer.

But this is like saying why cant my phone use less battery even though i continuously use its high end features .
 

Akai__

Member
Halo 5 will be reduced from 100gb to 95.5.

I'm hoenstly curious if games will be revisitted for this or if this is just a "in the future" thing.

Also, I know you are joking, but Halo 5 Arena MP (excluding Campaign and Warzone) is 10GB of audio alone. If they did this, it would probably easily be 30+ GB.
 

dex3108

Member
Steam already offers most of those things but very little devs are using it. until it is optional many devs won't bother with it i am afraid.
 
I'm hoenstly curious if games will be revisitted for this or if this is just a "in the future" thing.

Also, I know you are joking, but Halo 5 Arena MP (excluding Campaign and Warzone) is 10GB of audio alone. If they did this, it would probably easily be 30+ GB.

I suspect first party titles will be used to show it off to developers/publishers and convince them it's a good idea, assuming they can reasonably go back and do it for older titles
 

leeh

Member
Steam already offers most of those things but very little devs are using it. until it is optional many devs won't bother with it i am afraid.
Steam offers the devs to split up their game and add things like better textures as an extra package in the store, not a system/OS level function which will do this automatically based on the metadata of the data involved and the system you're running on.

It will be far more likely to be used across the board.
 

MrFlooD

Member
Love this, let me download my games with English only audio and no multi-player bloat. Should save tons of space.

I am going to assume when launched we will get a download preference setting. Allowing us to pick what gets downloaded. (4k assets, language, SP, MP)

For those asking, no other console currently offers this. However, I expect this to be the norm for everyone in the future. This will help bring down bandwidth costs. Win/win
 

leeh

Member
I am going to assume when launched we will get a download preference setting. Allowing us to pick what gets downloaded. (4k assets, language, SP, MP)
Nah, it'll be seemless and pick the assets based on the console (OG/1X), and pick the language based on your settings.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
that sounds like a very smart idea in the age of ballooning game sizes. i guess it would probably be too much to ask for sony to adopt a similar technology?
 

Akai__

Member
I suspect first party titles will be used to show it off to developers/publishers and convince them it's a good idea, assuming they can reasonably go back and do it for older titles

I ask, because I don't know if this will only apply to UWP games, which Halo 5 is not for example. Their GDC talk was all about how UWP games will be able to do this.
 
Wouldn't that still be dependent on the implementation by the devs? I don't see how it could auto detect different language files, texture qualities, etc...

Yeah, but I assume the process will be consistent across all games, and it'll be much easier to program and implement.
 
This is great, and much needed. I hope they can retrofit it to some of the bigger titles already released. And this tech would be godsend on PC as well.

Hopefully Valve will decide it's worth their time to implement on Steam.
 
You mean like steam already can do?

Steam only really lets you do that if those high res textures came after the fact, rather than as part of the base experience. So while you can choose not to with the original Skyrim, you can't do it with the Skyrim special edition. I can't go to Doom and dump the lower or medium setting assets because I don't need them with my GTX 970. I can't toggle Shadow of War to say not to download the Ultra textures that I simply don't have enough VRAM for.

But then I suppose that gets into an issue of technical capacity vs standard expectation and usage. In which case, devs have technically had the capacity for this for years if they simply chose to segment their whole games like they do their DLC. Now Microsoft is actively encouraging them to do so, with the main premise of targeting specific console variants.
 

Sorne

Member
Soooo... basically what Asset Bundles for the Unity Game Engine is. Cool.

EDIT: Okay, was a bit too fast on the trigger. It also contains a lot of user options/settings to enable and disable. That's really nice.
 

tuxfool

Banned
Steam only really lets you do that if those high res textures came after the fact, rather than as part of the base experience. So while you can choose not to with the original Skyrim, you can't do it with the Skyrim special edition. I can't go to Doom and dump the lower or medium setting assets because I don't need them with my GTX 970. I can't toggle Shadow of War to say not to download the Ultra textures that I simply don't have enough VRAM for.

But then I suppose that gets into an issue of technical capacity vs standard expectation and usage. In which case, devs have technically had the capacity for this for years if they simply chose to segment their whole games like they do their DLC. Now Microsoft is actively encouraging them to do so, with the main premise of targeting specific console variants.

There is nothing that makes it only work after the fact. Free DLC and addon content that is released at the same time as the game works in exactly the same way.

As always it is up to the developers to distribute their game in such a way that allows piecemeal content.
 

AmyS

Member
Probably the only game I can think of that's 100 GB or move is Star Citizen, even though right now it's PC / digital download only.

The multi-disc install tech could come in handy if games like that came to Xbox One X / Xbox Two.
 

tuxfool

Banned
Probably the only game I can think of that's 100 GB or move is Star Citizen, even though right now it's PC / digital download only.

The multi-disc install tech could come in handy if games like that came to Xbox One X / Xbox Two.

It's not. Currently sitting at 30-odd GB.

DOOM or Halo 5 are. Forza is going to 100+ GB.
 

AmyS

Member
It's not. Currently sitting at 30-odd GB.

DOOM or Halo 5 are. Forza is going to 100+ GB.

Ok I stand corrected.

Wasn't Star Citizen supposed to eventually hit 100+ GB? Oh, this is what I remember reading:

Star Citizen's client will be a 100 GB download

https://www.polygon.com/2015/3/12/8198615/star-citizens-client-will-be-a-100gb-download
http://www.pcgamer.com/star-citizen-client-expected-to-be-around-100gb/
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/star-citizen-pc-client-could-be-100-gb/1100-6425874/
 

horkrux

Member
Finally, in 2017, when can have multi-disc releases. What a wonderful new feature. Who would have thought you can put files on one disc and then - oh my god it's unbelievable - another one, and use them both for one game! It was deemed impossible, but they must have employed wizards over at Redmond to make such a feat possible.
Sony must be years behind in tech.
 

lostcauz

Member
Aside from parts being automatically being removed like languages, I hope there's a manual choice, I know it won't be supported but games like halo 5, I have no need to ever play the campaign again.
 
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