starcraft said:
MrOuija_AK said:
The thing you're all forgetting is that compression isn't "free". It still requires resources to uncompress the data.
Also, when it comes to "just add another disc": adding a second disc, doesn't double your storage space. In order to run the game, the engine and textures have to have copies on every separate disc. Let's say you have a 20GB game on a Blu-Ray Disc with no problem. Let's say 5 GB of that is shared data like the engine, sound and texture files used by every area in the game. Too fit it on dual-layer DVD, you would have: Disc 1 (5GB Base + 4Gig other) (9 Gigs so far), Disc 2 (5GB Base + 4Gig other) (13 Gigs so far), Disc 3 (17 Gigs so far), and finally Disc 4 (20 Gigs with a gig to spare). Take a dual-layer Blu-Ray game, and suddenly you've got a half a dozen or more DVDs.
If games get to the point where the basic shared data is close to or passing 9GB; then it won't matter how many DVD's you add, the game won't fit. I doubt this happens in this generation, but it's possible it could near the end. |
Thats unlikely. Most of the engines that will be used this generation have already been selected already. What this means is they are being refined, made more efficient, and compressed. Early next generation when we are picking new engines to use on stronger hardware, then it is possible that the engines will be larger.
But whilst textures may get more detailed as we get more out of hardware, engines get smaller. On a side note, everyone play that 96kb Kreiger file. That game is amazing and fun. |
Games won't be using the same engines the entire generation. And even if it is an optimized, more effecient version of an engine already used, that just means it will be capable of using larger, more detailed textures as you said. The amount optimization of engine code changes the actual storage size of the engine (for better or worse), would be neglible. The textures and sound are what consume most of the shared data space, not the engine.
