Resistance 2 - Nearly 50GB Big!

[NJ5]

MikeB said:
@ NJ5

there's no reason to optimize for space if you don't need it for other game data.

Sure there is. With regard to graphics and audio you usually can't make files smaller without loosing data and thus quality. On the PS3 there's less reason to sacrifice on quality.

Game code can be compressed up to about a 2:1 ratio, an ultra fast processor like the Cell cannot improve this ratio only improve decompression time. If you understand how data compression works it's not like a lower quality vs a higher quality JPEG, for game data there cannot be any data loss or you'll end up with a broken game engine.

You completely misunderstand what "optimizing for space is". Your post has actually repeated and helped proving precisely what I said.

My point is that when you have the available space on the Blu-Ray disc and you're not space constrained, you might as well use it without worrying, and not waste time and resources (i.e. expensive manpower) on optimizing for space where it doesn't negatively affect other aspects of the game. If you ARE space constrained and you're using uncompressed audio, one of the easiest ways to save space is to compress it with a lossless codec such as FLAC. As you said, the Cell is good for decompressing data so it should be extremely easy to fit that into the engine without performance loss. If that's not enough, you can even use lossy audio compression at high bitrates, which no one except someone with a perfect ear will be able to distinguish from lossless audio.

^ All of this post would not be needed if you understood what optimizing for space refers to.