Examples of PS5 SSD in action

[Andromeda]

Yep, if anything games will take less time to load as developers get more experienced.
Yes it does. Data can be streamed directly to the GPU, which was what I talked about and as for decompression Nvidia uses the GPU, while Xbox uses the decompression HW (and a small fraction of one core of the CPU). There are no bottlenecks with all these solution as far as we know. Just different methods of getting there.

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Do you know what "bypassing the CPU" actually means? It means the CPU is doing 0% of the task, which is not the case here. Sure the CPU doesn't decompress stuff, but almost everything (coherency for instance) is managed by the CPU. The real problem is not that it takes 10% (so they say, whatever) of one core, the problem is that anything that uses the CPU will cause latencies. Also the CPU has to work with high latency GDDR6 ram for those tasks, not even DDR4 (because the cheap SSD controller they use on XSX doesn't have its own cache).

 

[Soriku]

thinking about how much of my life has been spent on loading screens after that spidey clip

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Seriously what a waste of fucking time. SSDs consoles need to be here yesterday.

 

[Amnixia]

That's pretty cool

 

[Dirtyshubb]

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This is too good 😂

 

[mrjohill]

oh boy that miles one is slick

 

[VG Aficionado]

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My sides!

 

[just_myles]

Wow that spidey clip is crazy. It's amazing.

 

[Deleted member 25128]

i think the mist is a very, very clever way of hiding the actual loading times, which are still very fast. But not instant as in instant.

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I think even if loads were instant there will be an element of "something" that's required to transition between two different scenes nicely. So in a few examples like say Astro appearing, that may be a design decision to make it appear rather (fading in - in parts) than just place the object in the world. So I think anything around 1-3 seconds is probably going to be the best it can be, except in cases I guess like Spiderman where you are naturally moving from one area to another.... if that makes sense.

 

[Muppet of a Man]

Sony doubled down on the SSD raw speed, but Microsoft, Nvidia, ... all worked on bottlenecks and made sure the SSD won't be hold back. The biggest difference is imo the speed of the SSD itself. But when it comes to changes that the I/O can bypass the CPU and go directly to the GPU for example, then that's something everyone thought about.

And this is very good, because having so much hardware out there with great I/O capabilities means we will see a much faster transition towards I/O heavy games than we all are probably anticipating. This is great for all gamers, because third party can take advantage of the new game design possibilities without worrying how many people their game can reach.

I think the fact that even the lightning fast PS5 SSD has to do very quick transitions mean these sequences will also be possible on slower I/O. It will just take longer, which can be cleverly hidden like the Mist in DS shows on PS5. What would happen on PC (with a slower SSD) and Xbox? The mist would take a bit longer to build up.

We have to talk to Bluepoint to get any confirmation, but it seems like the player can't control the game anymore when pressing a button at the portal. Which means everything outside of the players view can already be replaced and refilled with new assets. Second step imo is the mist effect, which not only fits the game atmosphere. But it also ensures imo that they can quickly start to replace more assets as soon as they are hidden by the mist. Third and last step is the ultra quick transition to the new area.

i think the mist is a very, very clever way of hiding the actual loading times, which are still very fast. But not instant as in instant.

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They'll all figure it out with different techniques. The best part is that everyone adopting and supporting some form of I/O acceleration will ensure widespread implementation of game design and techniques that exploit said acceleration.

 

[Liabe Brave]

There are no bottlenecks with all these solution as far as we know. Just different methods of getting there.

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Incorrect as a general principle. There are always bottlenecks on every platform.

However, you're also incorrect in a less philosophical and more germane way, in that these bottlenecks are not all equivalent. PS5 and PC have file transfer speeds more than double Xbox (with PC having an edge). PS5 and Xbox have decompression hardware that frees other system resources versus PC (with PS5 having an edge). PS5 is the only platform with specialized hardware to maintain cache coherency. PS5 is the only platform with improved check-in and memory management tools.

In other words, PC and Xbox have some of PS5's advantages, but not all of them. Your "different methods of getting there" don't all make it to the same place. All three platforms will give better results than in previous years. That doesn't negate the fact that PS5 has the most thorough approach to this technical challenge.

 

[Why would you do that?]

I wonder if the faster loading means we will see more in-engine title screens like in the old days (e.g. Ocarina of Time with Link riding Epona) and much more in-engine credits sequences, too.

 

[Creepy Woody]

The amount of time we all spent waiting at load screens over the years...

Thank god this is finally happening.

I've been SSD only in my PC and PS4 for years now, can't wait for them to be properly optimised for games and save even more time.

 

[VanWinkle]

I bought a little too much into the hype of SSDs on consoles as this magical thing. Cerny said "ultra fast boot" and "no load screens" was the goal. And this stuff IS super fast. There's no doubt about that. But I mean, there is still loading screens. And boot times are really fast, but it's more like a situation where EVERY game will boot as fast as Killzone Shadow Fall on PS4 did.

It's very fast loading, but it's more like...every game will now load as fast as some of the fastest HDD games used to load, rather than "woah, I've never seen loading like this before."

Still very happy, though. Just need to adjust my expectations.

 

[ShotZ]

I'm curious what loading times will look like on XSX compared to PS5. A lot of excitement for the PS5 SSD/IO as if pretty much the same improvements won't be on XSX or PC. I suspect the difference will be negligible. I have a PC and I'll have both consoles on launch day so I'll be able to see for myself.

 

[VanWinkle]

I'm curious what loading times will look like on XSX compared to PS5. A lot of excitement for the PS5 SSD/IO as if pretty much the same improvements won't be on XSX or PC. I suspect the difference will be negligible. I have a PC and I'll have both consoles on launch day so I'll be able to see for myself.

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Raw speed is 2.3x faster on PS5. Theoretically, game loading times on multiplatform titles should be roughly in line with that. That being said, that could mean 3 seconds on PS5 about about 6 seconds on Series X, which isn't that much.

Boot times and OS stuff, though, who knows. Those may have to do more with specific optimizations to things that may not make it a one-to-one comparison.

 

[Snake Eater]

Just played AC Origins, good god the loading times were massive in that game

can't wait for SSD console gaming

 

[hydruxo]

I bought a little too much into the hype of SSDs on consoles as this magical thing. Cerny said "ultra fast boot" and "no load screens" was the goal. And this stuff IS super fast. There's no doubt about that. But I mean, there is still loading screens. And boot times are really fast, but it's more like a situation where EVERY game will boot as fast as Killzone Shadow Fall on PS4 did.

It's very fast loading, but it's more like...every game will now load as fast as some of the fastest HDD games used to load, rather than "woah, I've never seen loading like this before."

Still very happy, though. Just need to adjust my expectations.

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I mean, 2-3 second loading is insanely fast. That's what we're looking at here with the examples in the OP so if you're not impressed by that then I don't know what to tell you.

 

[Muppet of a Man]

Incorrect as a general principle. There are always bottlenecks on every platform.

However, you're also incorrect in a less philosophical and more germane way, in that these bottlenecks are not all equivalent. PS5 and PC have file transfer speeds more than double Xbox (with PC having an edge). PS5 and Xbox have decompression hardware that frees other system resources versus PC (with PS5 having an edge). PS5 is the only platform with specialized hardware to maintain cache coherency. PS5 is the only platform with improved check-in and memory management tools.

In other words, PC and Xbox have some of PS5's advantages, but not all of them. Your "different methods of getting there" don't all make it to the same place. All three platforms will give better results than in previous years. That doesn't negate the fact that PS5 has the most thorough approach to this technical challenge.

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Right, this is what I was referring to when I said PS5 has the most well thought out and extensive implementation of I/O acceleration integrated into its overall system architecture, in that it deals with the existing I/O bottlenecks most thoroughly. Enough to make it a differentiator for Sony.

 

[Toriko]

I bought a little too much into the hype of SSDs on consoles as this magical thing. Cerny said "ultra fast boot" and "no load screens" was the goal. And this stuff IS super fast. There's no doubt about that. But I mean, there is still loading screens. And boot times are really fast, but it's more like a situation where EVERY game will boot as fast as Killzone Shadow Fall on PS4 did.

It's very fast loading, but it's more like...every game will now load as fast as some of the fastest HDD games used to load, rather than "woah, I've never seen loading like this before."

Still very happy, though. Just need to adjust my expectations.

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Games like Demon Souls and Spiderman are instant though.You cannot have zero loading. Even if you can they will still create artificial transitions to make it seem less jarring.

 

[Muppet of a Man]

I bought a little too much into the hype of SSDs on consoles as this magical thing. Cerny said "ultra fast boot" and "no load screens" was the goal. And this stuff IS super fast. There's no doubt about that. But I mean, there is still loading screens. And boot times are really fast, but it's more like a situation where EVERY game will boot as fast as Killzone Shadow Fall on PS4 did.

It's very fast loading, but it's more like...every game will now load as fast as some of the fastest HDD games used to load, rather than "woah, I've never seen loading like this before."

Still very happy, though. Just need to adjust my expectations.

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To give you an idea of how fast PS5 is transferring data from storage, the best parallel would be back when we used ROM cartridges back in the day. Except now, they are transferring millions of times more data over the same unit of time.

 

[Einchy]

thinking about how much of my life has been spent on loading screens after that spidey clip

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Kids these days won't know the pain of having to pull your phone out to browse Twitter for 20 seconds while the game loads.

 

[Apathy]

I can absolutely see the likes of Naughty Dog being ambitious and giving us stuff like this. Especially if you can zoom into an object, you can cull everything else and replace it with the next scene.

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100% ND will do these kinds of transitions

 

[Kalentan]

 

[kungfuian]

Yeah, it's fast.

I wonder if later in the gen we could see some neat transitions like these (in cutscenes or gameplay) or if it's too much work/impossible:

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This is exactly what I think we will see from Sony. It's right in line with their story narrative driven first party ethos. People keep dismissing the differences in Sony and Microsoft's approach to their IO and SSD but I think the differences will be pretty tangible specifically for this reason. If I said 3 vs. 6 seconds to load a level then who cares, as that benefit is negligible. If I said Zoom in on a character's face and when you zoom back out they are in a new level, then that 3 seconds difference is a pretty big deal. These smooth cuts will only be possible if the transition is fast enough. 1-3 seconds yes. X-box's 6 seconds no. That SSD and IO are going to allow Sony to move toward an almost seemless movie presentation between scenes and I don't see Microsoft being able to do the same thing.

 

[Mahonay]

Kids these days won't know the pain of having to pull your phone out to browse Twitter for 20 seconds while the game loads.

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[MetalKhaos]

thinking about how much of my life has been spent on loading screens after that spidey clip

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Honestly, it's really killed a lot of my desire to keep playing some console games right now. I've been having fun playing through Avengers game, but the loading times are just getting to me and sucking out the fun. I even gave Destiny 2 another quick try on my Pro and remembered why after going to PC and never looking back.

SSD was already incredibly nice on PC, but I'm not getting anywhere near the speeds the consoles will have. I look forward to spending more time gaming and less time sitting there waiting for things to load.

 

[Einchy]

Yeah, it's fast.

I wonder if later in the gen we could see some neat transitions like these (in cutscenes or gameplay) or if it's too much work/impossible:

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Last of us Part III will have the Lawrence of Arabia match cut right into gameplay.

 

[dlauv]

I wonder what Miles will do on PS4. I feel like I saw a comparison but maybe I'm imagining it.

 

[EvilBoris]

100% ND will do these kinds of transitions

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I prefer the "help me open this door" transition and the "give me a boost up" transition

 

[kungfuian]

I prefer the "help me open this door" transition and the "give me a boost up" transition

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It should be acceptable practice for reviewers to lower their final score if these are in anyway present in a narrative driven game. How are developers not aware how forced and lame these are. Super immersion breaking.

 

[-Tetsuo-]

As someone who played PC games with an SSD, loads were never this fast.

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some were some were not. Doom Eternal loads in like 2 seconds. Make a game where the baseline is an SSD this is what you get.

 

[WarMacheen]

sweet jesus, that spiderman loading comparison is nucking futs.

 

[Facosao]

Wow, the loading in Miles Morales reminds me of Zelda Skyward Sword. I remember being bummed that you couldn't jump out of Skyloft and start flying straight away due to a 2 second load time (which is pretty fast but still a loading).

 

[Arta]

In ten years the new gamers will be puzzled as to how we enjoyed games with load screens.

Has any outlet with the PS5 tried experimenting with load times using PS4 games? Or is that under embargo still?

 

[jsnepo]

I fear some obnoxious fanboy will eventually comment that games aren't instant when transitioning to different screens or levels, etc.

Even games for the NES needed a transition screen. The original Super Mario Bros. had to show you how how many lives you have left before moving to the next level.

 

[AndyD]

In ten years the new gamers will be puzzled as to how we enjoyed games with load screens.

Has any outlet with the PS5 tried experimenting with load times using PS4 games? Or is that under embargo still?

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We haven't seen any of that. Today was unboxing only. I imagine os another day, then games.

 

[AndyD]

Honestly, it's really killed a lot of my desire to keep playing some console games right now. I've been having fun playing through Avengers game, but the loading times are just getting to me and sucking out the fun. I even gave Destiny 2 another quick try on my Pro and remembered why after going to PC and never looking back.

SSD was already incredibly nice on PC, but I'm not getting anywhere near the speeds the consoles will have. I look forward to spending more time gaming and less time sitting there waiting for things to load.

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Worth mentioning that basic BC games without optimization patches are not going to be this amazing. Shorter loads sure, but no magic.

 

[MetalKhaos]

Worth mentioning that basic BC games without optimization patches are not going to be this amazing. Shorter loads sure, but no magic.

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I'm well aware. Sadly it won't be until next year for the upgrades for Avengers, but it's still a jump going from the HDD to PCIE 4.0 SSD. If it can cut loading times by 1/2 - 3/4, I'm good.

 

[DongBeetle]

They haven't in the past, that's for sure.

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Idk depends on the game. Monster Hunter World for instance loads pretty much every area instantly on my SSD

 

[nss]

While I'm sure the SSD will not disappoint. I do think some of these examples may not necessarily have anything (or little) to do with the SSD.

Astro's Playroom is rumoured to be 2.4 GB in size. Even if it's hyper compressed at a 4:1 ratio, that still fits entirely in RAM, which means there no real SSD action as the whole game is sitting in RAM.

For the MM one, you're going from one enclosed room to the outside. Again I have to imagine that once the boss fight in that room is finished the game is already loading all the assets for the outdoors to RAM as there's nowhere else for you to go, while you're still inside the room. I will be interested to see how this is handled/looks on the PS4.

 

[Darmik]

I'm just forward to some more cinematic transitions between locations. Really opens up the flow for a game if you can basically snap to an entirely new location in a few seconds.

Even the simple concept of cutting between two characters doing two different things in two different places during the same time frame should be more common now. The odd game like The Evil Within 2 does this but from what I remember it was extremely difficult for them to accomplish.

 

[Iwao]

If this is what we're getting in the first few months, imagine how games will be optimised in the future.

So exciting.

 

[GK86]

That spiderman example was blink and you missed it. Had to rewind it.

 

[VanWinkle]

I mean, 2-3 second loading is insanely fast. That's what we're looking at here with the examples in the OP so if you're not impressed by that then I don't know what to tell you.

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I am impressed. It's just not quite at the level I had hoped it would be months and months ago.

Games like Demon Souls and Spiderman are instant though.You cannot have zero loading. Even if you can they will still create artificial transitions to make it seem less jarring.

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I know that you still have to have transitions. Demon's Souls gave me that "YES, this is what I want" feeling. And Spider-Man was awesome, although we've seen instant access between interiors and exteriors on open world games before; it's mostly impressive in comparison to their last game. Fast travel should be fantastic to see, though.

But perfect example of what I'm talking about is Astro Bot. The transition into a world is like 4 seconds long compared to 20 seconds for levels in Astro Bot Rescue Mission. It's very short by comparison, but it definitely doesn't feel instantaneous, and the transition is clearly prolonged strictly because it's loading. I mean, something like Super Mario 3D World took 6-8 seconds to load levels from a disc. Less complex, smaller, etc. I understand. I'm just saying it's one of those things that IS fast but not transformatively so. In addition, the transition for respawning or changing levels within the world are clearly loading screens rather than a, say, one second fade out-fade in as you would expect of an instant-load transition.

I also remember thinking, "huh. That took longer than I expected" when we saw Destruction All-Stars boot to menu on the UI video. Fast, yes, but I think it was like 12 seconds or something? And that assumed you could skip all the logos, which some games may not allow you to do. Killzone Shadow Fall booted to menu in like 12 seconds too under similar context (skipping the logos), and that was on a drive 50-100x slower.

Again, I'm SUPER HAPPY with this SSD. It's just not quite as insane as I had hoped it would be in a lot of these games.

 

[arkay]

Some people are acting like leaving a building without a loading is some crazy SSD innovation when it's more about optimization.

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I don't see it as being that impressive either as Arkham Knight did this 5 years ago..

More excited to see other examples of fast/instant loading such as fast travel or going from start menu to gameplay.

 

[Deleted member 6539]

Yeah, it's fast.

I wonder if later in the gen we could see some neat transitions like these (in cutscenes or gameplay) or if it's too much work/impossible:

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I'll be disappointed if we don't get transitions like this.

 

[Deleted member 70824]

Raw speed is 2.3x faster on PS5. Theoretically, game loading times on multiplatform titles should be roughly in line with that. That being said, that could mean 3 seconds on PS5 about about 6 seconds on Series X, which isn't that much.

Boot times and OS stuff, though, who knows. Those may have to do more with specific optimizations to things that may not make it a one-to-one comparison.

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Yeah, the PS5 SSD will outperform Series X SSD, no doubt. The Series X loading is still very fast though, as we've seen in recent demo videos.

The difference is, once loading is done, that's when the Series X will have the advantage. It's tit for tat.

 

[brawndolicious]

While I'm sure the SSD will not disappoint. I do think some of these examples may not necessarily have anything (or little) to do with the SSD.

Astro's Playroom is rumoured to be 2.4 GB in size. Even if it's hyper compressed at a 4:1 ratio, that still fits entirely in RAM, which means there no real SSD action as the whole game is sitting in RAM.

For the MM one, you're going from one enclosed room to the outside. Again I have to imagine that once the boss fight in that room is finished the game is already loading all the assets for the outdoors to RAM as there's nowhere else for you to go, while you're still inside the room. I will be interested to see how this is handled/looks on the PS4.

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Probably the best way a video game can max out random read/write speed on an SSD is by doing fast travel in some super detailed open world game. Ubisoft has two open world games coming out in the next couple weeks so I imagine there will be a lot of comparisons between next-gen/current-gen consoles and PC.

Essentially though, SSDs have almost eliminated the ability to multitask when gaming. I propose next-gen load times be measured by the number of individual cheetos you can get in your mouth before the game loads.

 

[nss]

Probably the best way a video game can max out random read/write speed on an SSD is by doing fast travel in some super detailed open world game. Ubisoft has two open world games coming out in the next couple weeks so I imagine there will be a lot of comparisons between next-gen/current-gen consoles and PC.

Essentially though, SSDs have almost eliminated the ability to multitask when gaming. I propose next-gen load times be measured by the number of individual cheetos you can get in your mouth before the game loads.

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I agree. I think most fast traveling in games will be done before one deep breath and exhalation.

I just don't know if the examples provide are all that indicative of just how good the SSD is.

 

[Shadow_FFVI]

5 seconds loading or 10 seconds loading doesn't really matter to me but the almost seamless transition like spiderman is a game changer.

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Games like the Witcher 3 killed me on the PS4. If those kinda games reduced their loading times considerably, I will be ecstatic.