SSD Impact on Games Will Be Massive as We Often Have to Discard Features Due to Long Loads, Says Dev

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Solid state drive (SSD) technology suddenly became a recurring topic in gaming news ever since Microsoft and Sony proclaimed that the SSDs featured in the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles will offer a transformative experience in games.

Since then we've heard various enthusiastic comments from tech-savvy game developers such as Crytek and Epic, just to name a couple. In our recent interview with Firesprite Games, the studio behind the roguelike survival horror The Persistence, we also learned from Game Director Stuart Tilley that there's a very specific reason games developed for SSD technology will be better: very often, features have to be discarded because their inclusion would lead to much longer load times.

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I think the players are going to be the real winners here. The SSD is going to be massive to allow us to create larger worlds that load faster, to move quicker within them. It opens up possibilities for us. The new positional sound stuff is great for like, for games, being able to like play sound effects that feel like they're around you while you're on the couch, it's gonna make another big improvement. I think all the platforms have got a ton that they're offering. And I think it's gonna be a big win for players as far as I can see. It just is super exciting for us to be able to make our ambitions greater, sometimes you might have to discard a feature because it might require a long load, for example. Now, in the future, that may not be a problem. That'll very much directly allow us to make better games, I think that that's absolutely true.

Beyond the SSD tech, Stuart Tilley also claimed to be excited about the PlayStation 5's DualSense controller as controls are a massive part of immersion in games.

We always strive to immerse the player in the world. The immersion comes through how you touch the game, and what you see of the game. Obviously the chipset improvements will help with the visuals and the audio, but control is a massive part of it. You know, being able to get a much better feel for the surface the character is walking on or the things they're carrying in their hands or whatever. Again, even to be able to start creating some game experiences that perhaps you're not quite used to. It's just great, as a game creator we wait a long time for next-gen stuff to come around, so it's kind of like Christmas in game development land in that sense.

Both Tilley and his fellow Firesprite co-founder told us ray tracing is something the studio is actively looking at for The Persistence. In addition, they hinted at upcoming news regarding next-gen projects and games, which we'll be eager to post as they are announced.

matfalko on May 22nd, 2020 at 11:18 UTC »

Finally R* will be able to show off their most hyped feature: loading the map.

TheTarasenkshow on May 22nd, 2020 at 05:56 UTC »

SSD is better than HDD in every way possible except for price. It’s great we’re finally standardizing SSDs now.

dulun18 on May 22nd, 2020 at 05:32 UTC »

with consoles going SSDs.. maybe we can finally pick up a 2TB Samsung EVO 860 for $150 ?