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I disagree. Software nowadays is atrocious because it's not optimized. It's just that average users have become more accepting of long load times and bloat. He

I disagree. Software nowadays is atrocious because it's not optimized. It's just that average users have become more accepting of long load times and bloat. Here's an example. In the mid to late 90s, gamers would complain a lot about load times for CD ROM games. For some gamers, the load times were a deal breaker. This was one reason Nintendo could get away with using cartridges on the N64. Fast forward to the present, and load times for many mainstream games is FAR worse than the 1-2x speed CD based consoles of the 90s. And a lot of this is due to sloppy, unoptimized code, e.g. loading assets. And yet no one bats an eye. Another example is the web. There are so many garbage, unoptimized sites that load on my smartphone as if I were on dial up (I'm looking at you, Gawker). Yes, those pages contain a lot more multimedia content nowadays, but they still load at the same rate as a typical page in the 90s would have on dial up. And with Moore's Law now ending (ended?), optimization may come back in vogue.

bitwize 7y ago
The N64 lost its console generation and solidified Sony as the market leader, in part because it used cartridges while everyone else used CD-ROMs. Way to choose an example that disproves the very point you were trying to make. As for load times today, most modern games are implemented as scripts and assets for one of the big engines, usually Unreal or Unity. It's hard enough to manage all the assets that go into a modern game; an optimized loader would just make wrangling them all even more difficult.
- codesushi42 7y ago
  The N64 lost its console generation and solidified Sony as the market leader, in part because it used cartridges while everyone else used CD-ROMs. Way to choose an example that disproves the very point you were trying to make. Yes, I realize that. But the point was that poor decision was not enough to kill it, and the N64 was still a commercial success. A lot of gamers even preferred cartridges back then because of they didn't require load time. As for load times today, most modern games are implemented as scripts and assets for one of the big engines, usually Unreal or Unity. It's hard enough to manage all the assets that go into a modern game; an optimized loader would just make wrangling them all even more difficult. That's not a real reason to not optimize.

bitwize 7y ago

The N64 lost its console generation and solidified Sony as the market leader, in part because it used cartridges while everyone else used CD-ROMs. Way to choose an example that disproves the very point you were trying to make. As for load times today, most modern games are implemented as scripts and assets for one of the big engines, usually Unreal or Unity. It's hard enough to manage all the assets that go into a modern game; an optimized loader would just make wrangling them all even more difficult.

codesushi42 7y ago
The N64 lost its console generation and solidified Sony as the market leader, in part because it used cartridges while everyone else used CD-ROMs. Way to choose an example that disproves the very point you were trying to make. Yes, I realize that. But the point was that poor decision was not enough to kill it, and the N64 was still a commercial success. A lot of gamers even preferred cartridges back then because of they didn't require load time. As for load times today, most modern games are implemented as scripts and assets for one of the big engines, usually Unreal or Unity. It's hard enough to manage all the assets that go into a modern game; an optimized loader would just make wrangling them all even more difficult. That's not a real reason to not optimize.