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[sonomamashine]

The PlayStation 5 SSD is among the console's most exciting features, but it will not change open-world games dramatically, at least by itself.

In a recent post on the ResetEra forums, Digital Foundry Content Producer Alexander Battaglia commented on the console's SSD, highlighting how open-world games will not allow different looking open-world games, as the data pulled from the SSD would be static data, and open-world games increase details and variety through procedural methods.

I typed this elsewhere, but people saying things about the SSD enabling entirely different looking open-world games does not make much sense based upon what we know about open-world development really. All data pulled from SSD would be static data, completely unmutable. That would mean perfectly predesigned level data and arrangements, which is the exact opposite methodology of how modern open-world games increase their detail and variety — which is in fact through procedural method not living on the disk... Procedural methods exist to increase the efficiency of artists and diversity of the game world and even increase detail beyond static draws.

On a related note, Alexander Battaglia also commented on the Xbox Series X GPU, highlighting how it is simply better than the PlayStation 5's.

This won't happen unless the Xbox Series X is targeting unattainably higher settings and resolution or a developer messed up. Xbox Series X GPU is just better, full stop. Just like this gen with PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. If a game is performing worse on Xbox One X, I think a developer has all the wrong prioritize or some software problem they need to work around. Also I just want to shut down any discussion of 'brute forcing' regarding any hardware. Sometimes things are just better. Like the RTX 2080 is better than the 2060S.

The PlayStation 5 SSD Will Not Change Open World Games Dramatically

Digital Foundry Content Producer Alexander Battaglia recently commented on the PlayStation 5 SSD and on how it will not, by itself, change open-world games

wccftech.com

 

[phil_t98]

interesting take on it all, its gonna be interesting the real world performance of all this. yes the PS5 SSD is awesome but the Series X is no slouch either, I mean look at what they did this gen with really slow drives. question needs to be asked is exactly how much needs to be streamed at any one time to put it on screen as wee see it? with it be the full 5.5gb Sony has or less?

 

[The Bloody-Nine]

Thread number 1,34353465,3456363436345,34636363,46366363 on the PS5 SSD.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

"STOP GETTING EXCITED IT WON'T CHANGE THINGS DRAMATICALLY... if we assume next-gen open world games are designed in the same way they are now based on current hardware limitations"

 

[darkinstinct]

"STOP GETTING EXCITED IT WON'T CHANGE THINGS DRAMATICALLY... if we assume next-gen open world games are designed in the same way they are now based on current hardware limitations"

That's not a hardware limitation, though. It's a cost limitation. You can't design vast open worlds without procedural generation. It's cost prohibitive. Having an SSD doesn't change that.

 

[Goliathy]

We will see what Sonys First Party devs come up with.

For Multiplatform I agree, but 1st or exclusive games? We will see.

 

[Perrott]

Wow, I had no idea that Alex Battaglia is now a videogame developer and has a PS5 devkit on his desk.

 

[cireza]

This is the Neo Geo actually. It would mean streaming the exact graphics you want to display from the SSD. It is a totally different approach than putting data in memory and transforming it for whatever purpose you have.

It could be possible I think, but you would have to build your engine around it.

 

[Panajev2001a]

The PlayStation 5 SSD is among the console's most exciting features, but it will not change open-world games dramatically, at least by itself.

In a recent post on the ResetEra forums, Digital Foundry Content Producer Alexander Battaglia commented on the console's SSD, highlighting how open-world games will not allow different looking open-world games, as the data pulled from the SSD would be static data, and open-world games increase details and variety through procedural methods.


On a related note, Alexander Battaglia also commented on the Xbox Series X GPU, highlighting how it is simply better than the PlayStation 5's.

The PlayStation 5 SSD Will Not Change Open World Games Dramatically

Digital Foundry Content Producer Alexander Battaglia recently commented on the PlayStation 5 SSD and on how it will not, by itself, change open-world games

wccftech.com

 

[Goliathy]

That's not a hardware limitation, though. It's a cost limitation. You can't design vast open worlds without procedural generation. It's cost prohibitive. Having an SSD doesn't change that.

Well, to be fair:

"their success is due in large part to Sony's deep pockets funding delays rather than skill alone" - so it looks like those first party games will get tons of money, maybe? Let's see how sony will surprise us, hopefully.

Ex Naughty Dog Dev Says Studio Success Is Mostly Due to Sony-Funded Delays Rather Than Skill

Former Naughty Dog animator Jonathan Cooper said the studio's success is mostly due to Sony's deep pockets funding delays, rather than skill.

wccftech.com

 

[martino]

That's not a hardware limitation, though. It's a cost limitation. You can't design vast open worlds without procedural generation. It's cost prohibitive. Having an SSD doesn't change that.

also remains to be seen how many different asset is enougth to bootleneck thoses gpu.

 

[Agnostic2020]

The PlayStation 5 SSD is among the console's most exciting features, but it will not change open-world games dramatically, at least by itself.

In a recent post on the ResetEra forums, Digital Foundry Content Producer Alexander Battaglia commented on the console's SSD, highlighting how open-world games will not allow different looking open-world games, as the data pulled from the SSD would be static data, and open-world games increase details and variety through procedural methods.


On a related note, Alexander Battaglia also commented on the Xbox Series X GPU, highlighting how it is simply better than the PlayStation 5's.

The PlayStation 5 SSD Will Not Change Open World Games Dramatically

Digital Foundry Content Producer Alexander Battaglia recently commented on the PlayStation 5 SSD and on how it will not, by itself, change open-world games

wccftech.com

I got to give it to your efforts for trolling ps5 and wfcctech haha . U seem obsessed with ps5

 

[Aceofspades]

Is this "Don't read much into it" Version 2?

 

[GeorgPrime]

The PlayStation 5 SSD is among the console's most exciting features, but it will not change open-world games dramatically, at least by itself.

In a recent post on the ResetEra forums, Digital Foundry Content Producer Alexander Battaglia commented on the console's SSD, highlighting how open-world games will not allow different looking open-world games, as the data pulled from the SSD would be static data, and open-world games increase details and variety through procedural methods.


On a related note, Alexander Battaglia also commented on the Xbox Series X GPU, highlighting how it is simply better than the PlayStation 5's.

The PlayStation 5 SSD Will Not Change Open World Games Dramatically

Digital Foundry Content Producer Alexander Battaglia recently commented on the PlayStation 5 SSD and on how it will not, by itself, change open-world games

wccftech.com

Thats true. Not the SSD will change open world games but the developers who put some effort in them. When they just stick to copy and paste big worlds... open world gaming will never change

 

[sonomamashine]

I got to give it to your efforts for trolling ps5 and wfcctech haha . U seem obsessed with ps5

You should calm down, you are way too paranoid.
Keep up the fight soldier.

 

[it_wasn't_me]

But XSXs SSD with Velocity will dramatically change open world design, right, DF?

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

That's not a hardware limitation, though. It's a cost limitation. You can't design vast open worlds without procedural generation. It's cost prohibitive. Having an SSD doesn't change that.

Procedural generation can be used to bake a static world, too. It is not limited to only being used "on the fly" necessarily. The reason it is done for current-gen games (and even moreso on the PS3/360) is because the limited RAM and slow disk/HDD speeds make it prohibitive to load all those assets as you go.

When you have a storage drive that can stream assets, the crutch of procedural generation becomes less necessary, or not necessary at all. Depends on how the devs design their games, like I said.

 

[SuperLupeRap]

The PlayStation 5 SSD is among the console's most exciting features, but it will not change open-world games dramatically, at least by itself.

In a recent post on the ResetEra forums, Digital Foundry Content Producer Alexander Battaglia commented on the console's SSD, highlighting how open-world games will not allow different looking open-world games, as the data pulled from the SSD would be static data, and open-world games increase details and variety through procedural methods.


On a related note, Alexander Battaglia also commented on the Xbox Series X GPU, highlighting how it is simply better than the PlayStation 5's.

The PlayStation 5 SSD Will Not Change Open World Games Dramatically

Digital Foundry Content Producer Alexander Battaglia recently commented on the PlayStation 5 SSD and on how it will not, by itself, change open-world games

wccftech.com

Seriously nobody believes that the PS5 SSD is some revolutionary thing besides you know who. I can't wait for the 1st games to be released. Curious what new excuse the SSD SSD SSD camp will come up with.

 

[martino]

Seriously nobody believes that the PS5 SSD is some revolutionary thing besides you know who. I can't wait for the 1st games to be released. Curious what new excuse the SSD SSD SSD camp will come up with.

you're sure it was him ? he says it's not.

 

[Bankai]

I got to give it to your efforts for trolling ps5 and wfcctech haha . U seem obsessed with ps5

I personally can't wait for the following topic:
"Developer claims PS5 is slower than Xbox One X"

And wait 'till you'll get a load of:
"PS5 is a mistake, says a former Sony employee"

And ofcourse, everybody's (soon to be) favorite topic:
"The PS5 won't cure cancer ánd COVID-19, contrary to popular belief. Xbox Series X just might"

 

[Gargus]

Change open world games? That isnt up to the hardware, that's up to the developers.

But it could greatly enhance them. They could have more draw distance with a lot more detail. A ssd as fast as the one in the ps5 then instead of have to lower distance and quality they could increase it because the drive is so fast it is able to draw everything in instantly as the player turns. So really it can load on the fly real time to only show what the player sees.

Not to mention it can also allow faster travel than previous games. Before they would have to cap the speed a player moved forward at so the system could keep up with being able to keep streaming it ahead, the ps5 ssd can allow faster movements since it can load faster.

I'm sure there are a lot of tricks devs can come up with also that I dont think of.

 

[darkinstinct]

Procedural generation can be used to bake a static world, too. It is not limited to only being used "on the fly" necessarily. The reason it is done for current-gen games (and even moreso on the PS3/360) is because the limited RAM and slow disk/HDD speeds make it prohibitive to load all those assets as you go.

When you have a storage drive that can stream assets, the crutch of procedural generation becomes less necessary, or not necessary at all. Depends on how the devs design their games, like I said.

Baking a procedual world as a static world is just a waste of RAM. Sure, you can do it, but it doesn't make sense to do it.

 

[SuperLupeRap]

But XSXs SSD with Velocity will dramatically change open world design, right, DF?

Don't forget Sony is the one begging people to believe their SSD is revolutionary. Hence these fact checks.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Baking a procedual world as a static world is just a waste of RAM. Sure, you can do it, but it doesn't make sense to do it.

I think you are citing techniques that you don't understand.

When devs are sitting behind their desks making a game, they use "procedural generation" to fill out a world. It is one tool in a vast suite of middleware that allows devs to make a game. These assets are then baked into a game, printed onto a disk / compiled into a digital executable and sold to the customer.

There's another sort of procedural generation -- like in No Man's Sky -- that loads from a common set of assets and procedurally generates the universe along a fixed algorithm. Neither the disk nor the HDD contain all of those planets, but they do have the textures, grasses, animal parts, and so forth.

In both examples, a faster drive will improve the end result for the user because faster asset streaming means these things can be loaded more quickly. Quicker loading translates to longer draw distances and better level of detail (LOD). I think you are confusing one kind of procedural generation with the other, however.

In modern open-world games, the bulk of the assets will be loaded into RAM and swapped in and out from the slower HDD as the player encounters them. This is the tradeoff because the speed of a Blu Ray or an HDD isn't fast enough to load those assets into the world.

Alternatively, if your storage medium is fast enough, you can stream a much larger percentage of your assets -- and a larger volume of assets overall -- instead of relying solely on the RAM to cache it.

 

[48086]

We will see what Sonys First Party devs come up with.

For Multiplatform I agree, but 1st or exclusive games? We will see.

Sony first party games are going to be amazing. There is absolutely no doubt about that. I will be shocked if they are visually better or performs better than first party xsx games though.

 

[Goliathy]

Seriously nobody believes that the PS5 SSD is some revolutionary thing besides you know who. I can't wait for the 1st games to be released. Curious what new excuse the SSD SSD SSD camp will come up with.

thing is, the casuals... how do you sell this to the casuals?
"Yeah um this thing now has an SSD and not an HDD"! Do you think they care? lol
Or hey "the PS5 ssds is faster than xbox series x ssd" -- do you think they will care?

Or will this matter more to them: "The xbox has 1TB of storage and ps5 only 825GB!"

I mean when you compare iphone to android.. do people there really care about how fast the storage of the phone is? I think they care more about the storage capacity... alking about casuals of course.

 

[M1chl]

Open worlds, if anything are already really fucking big they need to get Saints Rowed soon.

 

[Goliathy]

Sony first party games are going to be amazing. There is absolutely no doubt about that. I will be shocked if they are visually better or performs better than first party xsx games though.

oh yeah, I can't wait. Will be interesting to see how last of us 2 and Got are going to look on the ps5 enhanced! Not sure if I can wait so long though to play those games, but we will see how it turns out. both platforms will create amazing games for sure!

this is the first time in a LONG TIME that Consoles can actually compete with PCs!

 

[vaibhavpisal]

It would change hand made, small sized open worlds.

For procedural stuff we have faster graphics chip and processor compared to last gen.

Either way it will improve. Might even inspire devs to make smaller but crafted worlds leading to tighter gameplay and leave out padding.

 

[cireza]

Procedural generation can be used to bake a static world, too. It is not limited to only being used "on the fly" necessarily. The reason it is done for current-gen games (and even moreso on the PS3/360) is because the limited RAM and slow disk/HDD speeds make it prohibitive to load all those assets as you go.

When you have a storage drive that can stream assets, the crutch of procedural generation becomes less necessary, or not necessary at all. Depends on how the devs design their games, like I said.

Which lead the open world game to be 300 GB and fill a third of your SSD. Slightly exaggerated I know

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Which lead the open world game to be 300 GB and fill a third of your SSD. Slightly exaggerated I know

Indeed, there's a reason why both Sony and Microsoft have made much ado about their decompression in their next-gen consoles.

 

[Orta]

I find that thread title hard to believe. From what I'm hearing the PS5 is going to bring about an end to global conflicts, end world hunger, poverty and illnesses.

I think revolutionising silly little open world games won't exactly be beyond its otherworldly, awe-inspiring universe conquering abilities.

 

[Psykodad]

Don't forget Sony is the one begging people to believe their SSD is revolutionary. Hence these fact checks.

Sony is begging now?

 

[cireza]

Indeed, there's a reason why both Sony and Microsoft have made much ado about their decompression in their next-gen consoles.

Sure, but game assets are already compressed I believe. The gain in size will probably be pretty small I think.

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

Mostly always better FPS VS higher rez all over again? The world will be fine with that.

 

[Wandering Leopard]

Didn't Cerny already provide a good example of how it will primarily impact the more linear types games. Removing the current need for developers to hide loading by using elevators, long open door animations etc...

There are fewer open world games than linear games, it'll simply provide developers more options with how they choose to design their games.

And with open world games, fast travel will actually be fast. But it's obvious the SSD will really complement GG's Decima engine.

As is usually the case, I'm predicting it'll be first party devs - designing from the ground up on the new system - who make the most out of these new features.

 

[it_wasn't_me]

Didn't Cerny already provide a good example of how it will primarily impact the more linear types games. Removing the current need for developers to hide loading by using elevators, long open door animations etc...

There are fewer open world games than linear games, it'll simply provide developers more options with how they choose to design their games.

And with open world games, fast travel will actually be fast.

As is usually the case, I'm predicting it'll be first party devs - designing from the ground up on the new system - who make the most out of these new features.

It's especially funny how guys at DF contradicts themselves.

Dictator - the PS5 SSD will not change open worlds games dramatically

Dark1x

 

[greencoder]

Goliathy, off-topic question. Do you live here? You are less than a week on the forum, and you already have 261 posts.

 

[Wandering Leopard]

It's especially funny how guys at DF contradicts themselves.

Dictator - the PS5 SSD will not change open worlds games dramatically

Dark1x

I just think Dictator is a pessimist

The potential is definitely there, but it's always better to show this stuff in action.

 

[Ellery]

Well he is definitely not wrong that dev time will always be a huge bottleneck and tools need to be better in order to bring us giant leaps in games, but I have faith that next gen will stun.
The same things are always being said though. We are reaching the limits, we can't go any further until one day some people just do and don't listen to the naysayers.

I remember young me thinking Super Mario 64 was the pinnacle of gaming. It can't get any better. It looks like REAL LIFE. Those graphics are too good to be true !

Reality :

One thing to add from my personal side is that I actually don't want open world games to be bigger. If anything make them smaller and give me more substance. It is cool and all but fatigue hitting me bigly and playing those games can feel exhausting and no desire to explore empty barren lands where I will hit an invisible wall eventually.

 

[iHaunter]

Another idiotic click-baited title. I swear you guys are worse than car salesmen. Not shit it won't affect the World if it's not designed to utilize.

 

[LordKasual]

"PS5 TECH IS REVOLUTIONARY"

"HERE IS WHY [x feature] OF PS5 IS ACTUALLY NOT REVOLUTIONARY"

""PS5 IS ACTUALLY BAD", SAYS SOME DEV"

"IS THIS THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURE IN GAMING? PS5 [x feature] BREAKDOWN"

""PS5 IS ACTUALLY AMAZING", SAYS SOME DEV"

*rinse repeat*


This is Gaf. This is what you are.

 

[FranXico]

It's especially funny how guys at DF contradicts themselves.

Dictator - the PS5 SSD will not change open worlds games dramatically

Dark1x

DF is not a hive mind and those different opinions prove it.

I know who I would listen to, out of those two, though.

 

[Kenpachii]

Well he is definitely not wrong that dev time will always be a huge bottleneck and tools need to be better in order to bring us giant leaps in games, but I have faith that next gen will stun.
The same things are always being said though. We are reaching the limits, we can't go any further until one day some people just do and don't listen to the naysayers.

I remember young me thinking Super Mario 64 was the pinnacle of gaming. It can't get any better. It looks like REAL LIFE. Those graphics are too good to be true !

Reality :

One thing to add from my personal side is that I actually don't want open world games to be bigger. If anything make them smaller and give me more substance. It is cool and all but fatigue hitting me bigly and playing those games can feel exhausting and no desire to explore empty barren lands where I will hit an invisible wall eventually.

I actually agree, witcher 3 last dlc in my view was perfect size wise and content wise and story wise. The main game was far to big to my liking it just feels like it never ends.

The same i had with ac odyssey, it took me about 160 hours to get through all of it and frankly it was mind number awful to get stuff completed. A smaller world with better quality content would be far better. Which is why i liked the DLC's, same goes for origin on that front, however i get a weakness for egyptian mythology so yea i had no issue's going through it at the end of the day.

Zelda botw, i quited half way in, the lands and the rewards where just not interesting to me, koraks where just awful, chests never gave anything interesting and most of the land was pretty much that nothing to do area's. The temples where interesting to unlock not so much to do.

Again a smaller more tight world would have been better.

 

[GymWolf]

Sony first party games are going to be amazing. There is absolutely no doubt about that. I will be shocked if they are visually better or performs better than first party xsx games though.

why tho?
there is no microsoft game on xone x that looks better than ps4 exclusives (except rdr2 but that game is from rockstar, not microsoft studios)
the last forza horizon is by far their best game in terms of graphic and driveclub\gt are very close.
ori 2 is the best 2d games of the gen but sony doesn't make 2d games with relatively big budget so M wins without sony even putting a fight.
even gears5 is not noticeably better than full fledged openw world games like horizon, tsushima or days gone in terms of graphics but it run at 60 frame, i give you that (and this without mentioning sony linear games like the order or tlou2 who utterly destroy gears5)

i think that ps5 exclusives are still gonna look IN GENERAL better than most sex exclusives, maybe with worst resolution and framerate most probably.
yeah we saw an incredible non-ingame trailer for hellblade 2, but we haven't seen shit from full fledged ps5 exclusives so it's kinda soon to say how really impressive is the H2 trailer in the grand scheme of things.

ALL multy are gonna look better on sex except for lazy developed games, we can be almost sure of this.

happy to be disproved, i'm gonna have a series 3000 gpu to push microsoft games at their max and a ps5, so i win in everycase.

 

[GHG]

Goliathy, off-topic question. Do you live here? You are less than a week on the forum, and you already have 261 posts.

He's not new, just like many of the other fanboy "neo members".

These guys love an alt account. It must be business for them or something.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

The PlayStation 5 SSD is among the console's most exciting features, but it will not change open-world games dramatically, at least by itself.

In a recent post on the ResetEra forums, Digital Foundry Content Producer Alexander Battaglia commented on the console's SSD, highlighting how open-world games will not allow different looking open-world games, as the data pulled from the SSD would be static data, and open-world games increase details and variety through procedural methods.


On a related note, Alexander Battaglia also commented on the Xbox Series X GPU, highlighting how it is simply better than the PlayStation 5's.

The PlayStation 5 SSD Will Not Change Open World Games Dramatically

Digital Foundry Content Producer Alexander Battaglia recently commented on the PlayStation 5 SSD and on how it will not, by itself, change open-world games

wccftech.com

This can’t be true, you’re saying the 2,000,000 posts claiming the storage bandwidth makes PS5 gaming so much more “different” and “creative” might have been exaggerated??????

 

[PocoJoe]

Isnt it kind of obvious that OPEN world games cant be much more OPEN that they already are?

If it is true that you can move faster inside the world, that I would consider already as dramatic.

What is more exciting is what highly detailed more linear games become.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Isnt it kind of obvious that OPEN world games cant be much more OPEN that they already are?

If it is true that you can move faster inside the world, that I would consider already as dramatic.

What is more exciting is what highly detailed more linear games become.

weren’t you the “4k is boring, 60 FPS is boring” guy? Or am I mixing things up?

 

[drganon]

Oh thank God. I was worried the front page wasn't littered with enough threads about the ps5, ssds, and " insiders" talking about the ps5 and ssds.