Xbox Gamers are no stranger to the last-generation “feature” of swapping disc in the middle of their games in order to continue. Recent damp squib Max Payne 3 used two discs on the 360, as did Mass Effect 3, L.A Noire and countless JRPG’s this generation. PlayStation Gamers have pointed and laughed, from the maintained comfort of their couches. Could that change for the next generation?
Square Enix certainly believes it to be a possibility. Talking up their rather impressive Luminous engine, chief technical officer at Square Enix Yoshihisa Hashimoto, said it’s a possibility that future games might not fit on to a single Blu-ray.
"Of course, it’s too massive of a data to use in a game as-is, but I think the look and feel will probably remain. If we had time, we could’ve compressed the data even smaller. We didn’t have time to do that, so we just used the same master data – but it can definitely be reduced." continuing, he said. "Yeah, that could be a challenge. There’s a possibility that just one Blu-ray may not be sufficient.
"We have to really consider the mechanism of compressing the data carefully."
Interestingly, he revealed that because of the power of cutting edge graphics processors and the luminous engine itself, there’s a possibility of reusing assets from pre-rendered scenes in real time rendering – bridging the visual gap between cutscenes and gameplay.
"That’s what we’re expecting to do," he said. "For the backgrounds used in this – the mountains, the houses – we are using exactly the same assets as are used in the Visual Works CG version."
Last Updated: July 2, 2012
