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Forums - Gaming - Rockstar: GTA V Could Be Too Large for Xbox 360

makingmusic476 on 23 April 2008
cwbys21 said:
makingmusic476 said:
 

Well, even in context Dan Houser's words certainly don't paint a pretty picture.

From 1UP:

*snip*

Also, the entire game is installed on the ps3? Are you serious?

First, the ps3 simply does not have enough storage space to make full installs feasible. When data is installed on an HDD, it is decompressed, often fully (as decompressing on the fly would eat into CPU cycles, thus hindering game performance). As such, the 4gb of data installed on the ps3 would take up significantly less space on the actual disc than it does on the HDD, and any game of a reasonable size (5gbs and up on the disc) would significantly eat into the ps3's available storage space if they were fully installed.

Installs are common on the ps3 version of multiplats simply because the ps3's Blu-Ray drive has a slightly lower read speed compared to the 360's DVD player. As such, the installs are done to help decrease loading. However, on ps3 exclusives developers can just have all the textures, etc. uncompressed straight on the disc, and allow them to be streamed directly from the disc when needed, ala Uncharted (stunning textures, no install, no loading whatsoever).

Secondly, while a DVD-9 has 8.5gbs of available storage space (9.0 in a base-10 system), MS requires that a certain amount of space be partitioned off on a 360 disc for security reasons. Because of this, 360 discs only have around 6.8gbs of available space (7.2 in a base-10 system) for developers to use. The 360 version of GTAIV has already been pirated, and the ISO takes up 6.4gbs of space. That shows that 1. GTAIV is larger than 4gb, and 2. R* is in fact dangerously close to running out of space, as they themselves said.

Third, are we even sure the data takes up 4GB of space? I seem to recall a mock GTAIV review being the first to mention that number. R* said the install only takes 5 minutes, while DMC4's 5 GB install took 25 minutes.


Couple things here. What is this about the PS3 not having space? Worst case it has 20gb best case it has 80gb and you can put in any sized hard drive you want. Some clarification maybe? Because I'm confused. And yes the PS3 has a slower drive, but a blu ray lazer reads more data than a dvd lazer, so I believe the ps3 has a slightly faster read rate than a dvd drive at whatever speeds the 360 has.


It has plenty of space, just not enough to have multiple games fully installed. The 20gb ps3 could hold 1-2 fully installed games at max. Because of this, developers wouldn't create games with a full install in mind.

As for the drive speeds, the ps3's drive is roughly on par with the 360's drive on average, but it has a slower max read speed.

The ps3 uses a 2x CLV* BD-Rom drive which reads at a constant 9 MB/s. The 360 has a 12x CAV** DVD drive (8x for dual-layered DVDs) that can read DL DVDs at a maximum of 10.57 MB/s and a minimum of 4.36 MB/s (I'm not sure what the average read speed of the 360's drive is, as the outer edge can hold the most content). As such, data that is streamed from the disc the most often can be placed on the outer edge of the disc, thus allowing the 360 to achieve surperior loading times versus the ps3.

Of course, this only effects multiplat games. Ps3 exclusives can utilize Blu-Ray's other features to easily get around this issue, like I pointed out with my Uncharted example.

*CLV = Constant Linear Velocity, which means that the drive reads at a constant speed across the entire disc.
**CAV = Constant Angular Velocity, which means that the read speed of the drive fluctuates depending on which part of the disc is being read. The drive spins at a constant speed, and thus data on the outer edge of the disc is read at a quicker pace than that on the inner edge, as the outer edge of the disc is moving at a higher velocity than the inner edge.



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Ail on 23 April 2008
NeoRatt said:
Nice, GTA IV is just shipping and fanboys are already arguing about GTA V...

They could just put on the box that there is a hard drive requirement and how much space it would take...

I'm looking forward to the here and now... Not what might be. Too much time is spent speculating on what might be when there is a lot to talk about for the here and now.

That would be the easy way out :)

My guess though is that right now the certification process for 360 games probably require games to have the basic features working without a HDD  ( some features like online can require HDD but the basic game has to work without it) ( Kinda doubt microsoft sells Arcades SKU and then certifies games that won't work on it at all...)



PS3-Xbox360 gap : 1.5 millions and going up in PS3 favor !

PS3-Wii gap : 20 millions and going down !

tombi123 on 23 April 2008

Whether the statement is true or not, if this statement gets all over the internet (it probably already has), this will damage 360 hardware sales and help PS3 hardware sales. Why would Rockstar say this days before GTA4 comes out? I suppose Rockstar prefer Sony...