3 ms·
If you compress data, it will be smaller and require less i/o to load, so it will load faster. That's ESPECIALLY true on HDDs, but even on SSDs there are decomp
by overthrow 3y ago
If you compress data, it will be smaller and require less i/o to load, so it will load faster. That's ESPECIALLY true on HDDs, but even on SSDs there are decompression algos that run faster than SSD bandwidth. The uncompressed asset cargo cult is hurting everyone who plays their games, no matter what kind of disk they use.
- babypuncher 3y agoJedi Survivor isn't shipping on any platforms constrained by an HDD, so it would be odd if they were making any optimizations for spinning rust, especially when they come at the cost of precious SSD space.
- falcolas 3y agoIt’s releasing on PC, which could be constrained. It wont be for a majority of players, but HDD setups still exist.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- blibble 3y agoif it's on a modern SSD you can DMA it directly into the GPU no CPU required
- ByThyGrace 3y agoInteresting. How modern are we talking here? Is this a "devil's in the details" kind-of feature?
- blibble 3y agodrives since 2018 or so it's marketed by Microsoft as "direct storage"
- toast0 3y agoTurns out a sata storage controller can do that too, Microsoft has been adding support for that too. GPU decompression is also a thing though, so compression is still a way to save I/O.
- kevingadd 3y agoCompression does not guarantee faster loads anymore. Uncompressed assets can be DMA'd directly to their destination. This is part of why GPU decompression (gdeflate like in directstorage, or the special decompression tech in the PS5) is on the rise because it allows you to DMA resources to their destination on the GPU and then decompress them there to avoid the loading time hit involved in decompressing them on-CPU after copying them disk->page cache->userspace app memory. For HDDs, yes, compression is generally a win. HDDs are dead as far as game development is concerned, all modern targets have flash storage. Some compression codecs that produce smaller files are also MUCH slower to decompress, which swamps any benefits from the reduced i/o. This is part of why sometimes people pick less efficient formats for use in games.