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[RCU005]

One of the most exciting features for me about the SSD on PS5 was the ability to install just the part of the game you want to play. You are not into MP, you don't install it. You finished the single player campaign and will only play MP, just delete it!

This feature was supposed to also help keep the storage capacity not get full so fast. However, I don't know any game that does this. Is there any?

Another thing is that updates were supposed to be faster and smaller in size because they would install directly to the file instead of making a complete copy or something like that (I'm not sure about the tech lingo), but so far everything seems to be working exactly like it did on PS4.

Then, there's the ability to redesign the games because there was no longer need to have an elevator to have a level load. This is too soon to tell yet, but since many games are still being developed as cross-gen, I think it will take a longer time.

It seems like developers noticed that people were happy with just shorter load times, and didn't bother to implement all the things that were supposed to be available with the SSD.

It's disappointing that the ability to install only the part or gam mode that you want it's not there (AFAIK) yet.

Ever since I watched the first UI tour when the PS5 released, it was obvious that the PS5 shipped with an alpha or beta version of the OS. There is no way the UI is finished. The worst part is that with Sony you never know when or if feature will be back or available when they are needed. It could take months, years or never come, but one thing is for sure, you'll never know for sure.

 

[Blond]

I only had BLOPS multiplayer installed, I guess it really depends on the game you're playing if it really shows up or not.

 

[Tickle My Tendies]

As far as space filling up, yes, more games allowing partial installs (pick and choose what you want) would be useful. I guess that's up to the devs? I don't see how Sony could force it.

But, really, they REALLY need to get the internal expansion bay activated and get us a list of approved drives. 825gigs just is not enough. It just isn't. Not for many of us, anyway.

As for the SSD being used for gameplay. The loading times in Nioh 2, SMR, MM, and Demon's Souls are great early returns. Demon's Souls also demonstrates has the ultra fast asset streaming can be used help devs make games look better, as Bluepoint has talked about, but so far that is the only real example to go by.

Seeing LOD pop-in issues in cross-gen games like Control still irks me. I know that is more of an issue with the game's engine, but I was kinda blindly hoping that pop-in would be a thing of the past this gen with how these consoles can stream data.

 

[BigTnaples]

Yes. Depends on the game obviously.

 

[Codes 208]

So far many I’ve definitely noticed it. Some older games like monster hunter saw a boost in loading speed, and the speed for first party games are insane. Demon souls takes just a few seconds (comparatively, dark souls 1-3 on the PS4 would take 20-40 seconds) and spiderman miles morales has next to no loading times

 

[YCoCg]

As pointed out in the Nioh comparison videos, the games need to be optimised for the IO speeds, which seems like most are just enjoying piggybacking off the natural boost of the SSD instead.

 

[Gamerguy84]

No we're still in the cross gen period and should be for a while. When games are designed for PS5 most features should be there, especially for the bigger titles. Surely you've seen the Ratchet and Clank scene traversal..

There are only a few PS5 exclusive games out that were in design a few years ago and complete before it even released.

And yes the UI is far from being done.

 

[Tickle My Tendies]

It's fascinating which posts get reactions and which don't when everyone is basically agreeing/saying the same thing.

 

[THE DUCK]

I think given time, it will be more obvious. Check back in 365 days.

 

[EverydayBeast]

SSD is a universal feature now and embraced by the gaming community...

 

[CyRuZ]

Only if dev's implement it. So be sure only a fraction of games, mostly 1st party, will support it.

 

[Yselacrey00]

One of the most exciting features for me about the SSD on PS5 was the ability to install just the part of the game you want to play. You are not into MP, you don't install it. You finished the single player campaign and will only play MP, just delete it!

This feature was supposed to also help keep the storage capacity not get full so fast. However, I don't know any game that does this. Is there any?

Another thing is that updates were supposed to be faster and smaller in size because they would install directly to the file instead of making a complete copy or something like that (I'm not sure about the tech lingo), but so far everything seems to be working exactly like it did on PS4.

Then, there's the ability to redesign the games because there was no longer need to have an elevator to have a level load. This is too soon to tell yet, but since many games are still being developed as cross-gen, I think it will take a longer time.

It seems like developers noticed that people were happy with just shorter load times, and didn't bother to implement all the things that were supposed to be available with the SSD.

It's disappointing that the ability to install only the part or gam mode that you want it's not there (AFAIK) yet.

Ever since I watched the first UI tour when the PS5 released, it was obvious that the PS5 shipped with an alpha or beta version of the OS. There is no way the UI is finished. The worst part is that with Sony you never know when or if feature will be back or available when they are needed. It could take months, years or never come, but one thing is for sure, you'll never know for sure.

How would there be any if there are no games???

 

[waquzy]

Only if dev's implement it. So be sure only a fraction of games, mostly 1st party, will support it.

Yep, I expect games like Gran Turismo 7 to showcase it.

 

[iHaunter]

Demon's Souls loads so damn fast. Ratchet and Clank will show it off more I presume.

 

[BadBurger]

They have some kinks to iron out, that's for sure. Some games still install both the PS4 and PS5 version even when you only chose the PS5. Both Control and Dreams (Edit: I actually can't remember what the other game was now - Sackboy maybe?) did this for me. Further exacerbates the storage issues for anyone unaware that they have two versions of the same game installed.

 

[M1chl]

We don't know

 

[Mister Wolf]

It loads faster. All the other stuff is bullshit until proven otherwise.

 

[The_Mike]

One of the most exciting features for me about the SSD on PS5 was the ability to install just the part of the game you want to play

That's not an ssd feature. You can do that on pc as well, and can't you also do it with cod on ps4 and Xbox one?

 

[Kagey K]

Yep, I expect games like Gran Turismo 7 to showcase it.

Better doubt it maggot, it’s barely going to live up to your wet dreams maggot.

 

[waquzy]

Better doubt it maggot, it’s barely going to live up to your wet dreams maggot.

Steady on kid.

Rent free

 

[Calverz]

So far iv noticed zero difference from last gen.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

The SSD? Yes.
The I/O complex for fast asset decompression? It isn't being used almost anywhere yet.

The I/O complex is completely custom and has no possible equivalent in the PC hardware. This means almost all of this new gen's earlier games that were developed on Devkits based on PC hardware couldn't have been made with it in mind.

And if they're not using the I/O complex for asset decompression, it's because they're using the CPU cores for that task, often using a single thread (on the PS4/XBone the HDD source was so slow they often didn't need more than one Jaguar to work on it).
That's also the reason we're seeing the SeriesX beat the PS5 in multiplatform loading times, despite having a much slower SSD and slower I/O hardware complex. In these games the I/O complex is probably being completely bypassed so it becomes a single-core performance benchmark where the SeriesX CPU has a couple hundred MHz more.



The only games I'm aware of that are using the I/O complex are Miles Morales and the PS5 Nioh "Complete Edition".
Nioh is a nice example of what to expect in loading times. With an average effective throughput of 9GB/s, the console should be able to fill the ~13GB of non-OS memory in a little over 1 second, which is exactly what's happening.
With Oodle Texture + Kraken in play the I/O should be averaging around 15GB/s or more, meaning we should expect less than one second of loading times, in all games.


To summarize: yes, the SSD is being used as advertised. It's just severely bottlenecked by the CPU in most cases.

Expect Ratchet&Clank to really show off what the PS5's I/O can do.

 

[Werewolfgrandma]

I like that everyone has these lists of what's using what when none of you actually have a clue.

 

[Bernd Lauert]

So far, mostly not. We'll see more of it on both consoles in the coming years though.

 

[J_Gamer.exe]

Most bc games multiplats aren't re coded for it and some probably just limited by ps4 pro mode.

The above though clealry taps into the io and look at the difference, he even shows running it in bc mode for comparison.

So its clear whats happening.

Ps5 is built for next gen games and all games going forward will be designed for it, amy last gen games with relevant code changes will also benefit. Those quick ports won't and the xbox setup favours old games.

I know which id rather have seeing as its a next gen console.

 

[MonarchJT]

both nextgen architectures advantages are basically not used still.

 

[Malakhov]

Demon's souls says yes

 

[MonarchJT]

Demon's souls says yes

we don't know how long it would take to load on a xsx (I say Xbox because it would be the only comparable) utilizing velocity architecture....we can say that the architectures will be exploited when we have comparatively data on which to base ourselves. we are at least 1 year away (also thanks to the covid) to see some tangible results. When we see that xsx loads faster than ps5 and the ps5 graphically performs better than xsx it just means and scream at a lack of optimization.

 

[Panajev2001a]

we don't know how long it would take to load on a xsx utilizing velocity architecture....we can say that the architectures will be exploited when we have comparatively data on which to base ourselves. we are at least 1 year away

Well, that is fair but to benchmark the solutions so it is a bit of goalpost moving comparing to the question asked in the thread’s OP IMHO.

We have enough games to see that the PS5 solution can work and work very well: Demon’s Souls, Spider-man (PS4 vs PS5 release), R&C, Nioh Collection (PS4 vs PS5).

 

[Panajev2001a]

both nextgen architectures advantages are basically not used still.

Agreed, XVA has a lot more to give too, the I/O revolution is really enabled by devs changing how they store and stream content which is not small feat. Fully virtualised geometry is one of the dreams behind UE5’s Nanite for example.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

I just care about more storage.
6 games ain't cutting it.

 

[Thirty7ven]

My experience with Sony first party is sublime. Their WWS are on the cutting edge of data management ATM, which makes sense given the PS5 architecture.

Unfortunately it also means that expectations raise and so when I play other games on it I get bummed by loadings that aren't near instant.

 

[Woody337]

I just care about more storage.
6 games ain't cutting it.

At this point i'll believe this when I see it. They have been silent on the storage situation since last year.

 

[DForce]

Astro, Demon Souls, Spider-Man and Ratchet and Clank nearly loads instantly. Bluepoint Games said they able to stream large amounts of textures into Demon Souls as the player turns the corner.

So the answer is yes.

Devs will slowly start taking better advantage of the hardware.

 

[ethomaz]

Yes there is enough games with < 2s loading times.

NiOh Remaster is the last example that showed 3rd-party old engines can use it too but 3rd-party multiplatform development are making devs lazy and delivering sub par gaming experiences.

 

[yurinka]

One of the most exciting features for me about the SSD on PS5 was the ability to install just the part of the game you want to play. You are not into MP, you don't install it. You finished the single player campaign and will only play MP, just delete it!

This feature was supposed to also help keep the storage capacity not get full so fast. However, I don't know any game that does this. Is there any?

Another thing is that updates were supposed to be faster and smaller in size because they would install directly to the file instead of making a complete copy or something like that (I'm not sure about the tech lingo), but so far everything seems to be working exactly like it did on PS4.

Then, there's the ability to redesign the games because there was no longer need to have an elevator to have a level load. This is too soon to tell yet, but since many games are still being developed as cross-gen, I think it will take a longer time.

It seems like developers noticed that people were happy with just shorter load times, and didn't bother to implement all the things that were supposed to be available with the SSD.

It's disappointing that the ability to install only the part or gam mode that you want it's not there (AFAIK) yet.

Ever since I watched the first UI tour when the PS5 released, it was obvious that the PS5 shipped with an alpha or beta version of the OS. There is no way the UI is finished. The worst part is that with Sony you never know when or if feature will be back or available when they are needed. It could take months, years or never come, but one thing is for sure, you'll never know for sure.

It's up to the developers to implement it or not but as happened in PS4 devs have the option to allow you to install or uninstall separate parts of the game (like single player campaign vs multiplayer in CoD).

Yes, game sizes and game updates are smaller in PS5 (but it's up to devs to optimize sizes and compression or not, just for being SSDs you don't need to repeat some asseds as happens when optimizing loading times for HDDs), they download faster (they improved PSN speeds) and they install faster than in PS4. I remember the comparision with Spider-Man Miles Morales and Spider-Man Remaster. Even if the PS5 version has higher quality assets the size was smaller in the PS5 version.

Regarding the redesigning of the game to take advantage of the streaming speeds, it's up to the developers. The speed is there and it's real. But devs need to make next gen only games and next gen only engines designed to take full advantage, and as of now they are focused on crossgen stuff or released the typical rushed launch window games made with engines that are basically the last gen ones with a few patches to run in next gen using some new next gen stuff but still not fully adapted to next gen to reach all its potential. This traditionally happens in the 2nd gen games, those released 2-3+ years after the console launch. We'll need some patience to see this, if we are lucky and GoWR isn't crossgen it may be the first case of using that.

Regarding loading speeds, with the normal PS5 compression it loads at an average of 8-9GB/s (speed depends on the content of each file). Since PS5 has 16GB of RAM and there is a part reserved to OS it means all loading times for native PS5 games should be under 2 seconds and even less because in a loading screen they typically don't fill the whole RAM, so unless they do additional stuff in these loading screens is should be under 2 seconds. We already seen that in many games. And thanks to the new Oodle Texture stuff, which will be free and very easy to use for all devs, it helps to compress better some file types increasing to speed to up to 17-22GB/s. So in the near future once games start using it loading times would go beyond that.

All the stuff is there, but some of these things are optional and game devs decide if to use them or not, or if to optimize for it more or less. You can see them implemented more frequently in the next gen only games, particularly in the exclusive ones.

 

[Heisenberg007]

PSA: We primarily associate the benefits of SSD with loading time. That is just a by-product of Sony's vision. The main idea behind a super-fast SSD is uninterrupted data streaming -- which would lead to unique game designs and higher graphical fidelity.

Therefore, do not judge by how quickly Demon's Souls loads. Instead, judge by how much higher-quality texture does Demon's Souls have because it is able to send data at 4 Gb/s.