PlayStation®3 General Discussion

[MIST_ME_SUCKOR]

hello, please if this could be looked into, i own a few games (MW3 etc) that read the disc constantly during game play. this chattering noise is constant - my last system was a 250 gig that after many hours spent playing MW my ps3 stopped reading disc's. why.....lense failure..... if, like other systems there was an option for a partial HDD install where you still needed the disc to start the game but the disc was not read during game play rather obtaining info from the HDD- this would make for faster downloads etc...and save or prolong the life of the lense and ps3...... i now own a 320 gig and when i hear that noise it brings a tear to my eye..

if you think this is a good idea please sign.

[Nakatsu_Hime]

Wouldn't this just encourage coders to be lazier? Wouldn't it be better to ask for gamecode to be arranged in as contiguous blocks as possible, so read-head thrashing is kept to a minimum?
The art of this seems to have disappeared, along with the demise of tape-based systems.

Files are probably stuffed on discs in alphabetical order now, and no-one thinks of the impact of access speed, etc.

[Superhornet75]

I completely agree with you, I have an xbox 360 as well and the first thing i do when i get a new game is install it. Generally games load faster aswell. I hope that the next step would be to allow us to not even require the discs. Much like PC, a system like steam would work wonderfully. I have no problems registering a cd-key to my PSN id and then not requiring the disc except for installs. Appreciated there is still a minority that have full hdd's and want to run off of discs. But I would imagine the vast majority of people would much prefer to have on demand access to their games. I love steam being able to just access any game in my library with the click of a button is great. I hope all console manufacturers not just sony consider implementing such as system.

[blackwiggle]

I think you should be given the option to transfer to the HD if the game doesn't do it automatically, rather than constant disc reading.

I think I've only got one or two games that are needed to constantly being read off the disc, and I agree it is annoying, both on the noise front and the fact that you know it's not doing your console any favours.

Not only that, but a lot of problems people have with games [and CD's/DVD etc] are caused by disc reading errors, so when you take that out of the loop, even partially, your going to have a smoother gaming experience.

I suppose this would be one of the few times it would be preferable to purchase a full title as a download from the PStore, if only Sony's pricing wasn't so absurd.

[ICRAUS-Mark]

I only got a 40 gig but I totally agree with you. I'll get my HDD changed if I can do HDD install.

[makobeaver]

Obviously you guys need a liiiiiiiiiiittle bit of guidance here haha.
This feature is already in place. The game automatically installs game data onto the hard drive of the console.
The chattering noise you are hearing - is not the disc spinning, but the console reading and writing to the HDD.
When you first put the disc into the console - that initial load of the game data is installing a portion of the game onto the HDD to help the game run smoother, take LESS resources of the console so it can run more efficiently.

If you don't believe me, go into your game menu on the main menu of the PS3.
Go into Game Data Utillity folder - THAT is your install files.

Games such as Gt5 have between 10 and 25GB of game data to help it run smoothly.
Some games have about 2-5GB worth of game data.
And some of the lower scale games - For example Tekken 6 have close to like 56MB and then about 200-500MB worth of patches to help it run.


I hope this helps
I for one, am not signing for something that is already available

[smelck]

Crikey.....my 5c

The size of the PS3 install varies from game to game . RE5, MGS4 have very large installs ...some games like UC have small ones and rely on some very clever disk reading and streaming tech to mask the joined gameplay...(check your game data to see...very informative if you are wondering where a large chunk of your HD space vanished)

A lot of installs are for graphic/tecture assets etc and help improve loading speeds and reduce things like pop in(someone with a more techically astute background can expand on this or correct me). There is also the speed of the drive .... DVD v Blu-Ray - another factor which can influence install size.

Much of it depends on the dev and the approach they take..

Personally I Iike the option on the 360 and tend to install a new game to the HD and it does make a big to marginal difference to load time and performance (depending on the game- take Skyrim for example where an install has caused some issues). I agree it also reduces optical drive wear and noise.

That said one of the best ways to improve the life of your drive is taking a little care of your disks...keep them clean and tey not to ram the food you had on your hands and then the disk into the tray

Everything has a working life though and one day eventually will pass on into tech heaven....

waffle over...over to someone like tjohn, Renze or Kiwi to expand or correct me...

[Renze]

Sounds pretty much right to me, smelck.

It seems the OP wants the ability to install a full game on the HDD and not need the disc at all to play it, which is feasible on an Xbox 360 as they still use DVDs with a maximum capacity of around 8.5GB. Blu-ray discs, however, have a maximum capacity of around 50GB (although there are also prototype multilayer discs with 400GB+). That is a LOT more than a DVD. It just isn't feasible or practical to install that much data on the HDD.

The current system, that installs important data to the HDD but keeps the game disc in play, is a good compromise. It also prevents piracy, where a game disc gets handed around to all and sundry to install on their HDDs.

[TEABAGNEMESIS]

I actually agree with the op here. As stated though, commonly used data is already installed automatically. It would be nice to have the option to do a full, minimal or custom install though. Then for those with less space on their HDD's could choose a minimal install, while others could choose as much as suits them. Buggered if I know how the 360 works, but I agree with the idea in theory.

[Nakatsu_Hime]

Macobeaver:

I think the OP wants the option for more of an HDD install, so as much as possible can be accessed from HDD. Yes, some games have data installation options, and the patches are just that - patches, but I think he'd like the option on more games.
I know the line has to be drawn somewhere, and some games do benefit from data installs (GT5 being the oft-discussed example).

However, as I said, more work should be given to better data distribution on the media itself, and perhaps more use of data caching and preloading. Plus, all this install data really eats up HDD capacity.