Microsoft has posted a new interview with Codemasters on its official Xbox Wire website, talking to Technical Director David Springate about optimising Dirt 5 for Xbox Series X.
Springate heavily praised the system in the interview, pointing out various features that he's excited about such as its "very powerful" CPU, as well as the "great, smooth experience" of playing Dirt 5 at 120fps. And in regards specifically to its 1TB solid-state drive, Springate was again full of admiration:
Obviously, that SSD drive is incredible. It’s not like a PC SSD, it’s more than that. Being able to load data so ridiculously fast is not only really impressive but as a developer, it’s very interesting. For Dirt 5, we’re going to be able to get into races super fast. It means no loading screens getting in the way, no dawdling, no looking at my phone, it means that the action will be non-stop.
The Technical Director went on to talk more about the Xbox Series X's SSD later in the interview, explaining that he felt this technology could "change the face of videogames" in the future, and noting that while there are still loads of things for the team to explore in the new hardware, he's most intrigued to see what they can do with the new drive:
"The drive is so fast that I can load data mid-frame, use it, consume it, unload and replace it with something else in the middle of a frame, treating GPU memory like a virtual disk. How much texture data can I now load? I’m looking forward to pushing this as far as I can to see what kind of beautiful experiences we can deliver."
What do you make of Springate's comments? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
[source news.xbox.com]
Comments 5
It's nice to hear developers finally talk more about the Series X SSD solution.
I do plan to get a PS5, and I applaud to Sony for getting's it's custom controller so darn fast; but given that Series X can allocate, use, and deallocate resources "mid-frame" makes me wonder if Sony's solution is a touch overkill. I guess PS5 can load a much bigger set of assets within the same time-frame, but again, at what point is it overkill?
@GamingFan4Lyf My thoughts exactly. I have a very strong feeling that the difference for the end user will be completely negligible, even if some background data could be pushed even faster on one platform than the other already can.
The differences will probably be most notable in exclusive titles, but in cross-platform titles, not so much.
Is the SSD just as good as the PS5 one? That one seems to be world wonder nr. 9 when you have to believe the "independent" developers.
I will wait and see but I am afraid that we have to wait for the 1st party developers to see the real potention of the consoles.
@Kohaku PS5 has a custom I/O solution capable of speeds up to 5.5GB/s of raw data, but can handle up to 9GB/s of compressed data.
Series X has a custom I/O solution capable of speeds up to 2.4GB/s of raw data, but can handle up to 4.8GB/s of compressed data.
However, there is some rumor mill going on that 4.8GB/s is a conservative average for compressed data speed, and the Series X can spit out as high as 6GB/s - I don't remember where I saw that or if it has been debunked.
The SSD in the Series X is a massive leap up over current generation and with the way they are using SSD's is also 'unique' so not like just sticking an SSD in a PC or current gen console. They are NOT just storage and being used to stream data to the RAM and then from RAM to the GPU but can stream direct to the GPU as and when required. Obviously some data can be held in RAM for quicker access.
What the difference between the PS5 and Series X could be is that the PS5 'could' transfer more data per second or use 'higher' quality assets (and therefore more data per asset) etc. It maybe that some assets - maybe ones in the distance for example - could be of lower quality on Series X to reduce the amount of data needed OR could take a bit longer to load. It would take over 2s to fill the RAM (assuming it has ~13GB) with RAW uncompressed data from SSD and 5s to do the same on Series X. That is so much quicker than current Gen can stream just 5GB to RAM from a HDD.
It may be slower than PS5 but its still an amazing leap over current hardware and it really depends on the developers, what other systems they have to develop for etc. With data transfer that fast, you can have every asset swapped out inside a frame - which means you can fill EVERYTHING in view with a completely different set of assets inside a single frame. You don't have to hold data for the whole area you occupying in RAM so if you turn, those assets are in RAM already. You don't need transition sections - like the 'elevator', slow door opening, crack in rocks etc - button press actions to enter the next area as it swaps assets for the next area - it can be instantaneous swapping of the assets. No need for cut scene transitions either - although these can help push the story forward. Literally, you can have all the assets for 'every' frame load in from SSD meaning that you can have far more assets on screen, much high quality and much greater LoD distances.
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