PS5 SSD is so fast, developers need to redesign their games
PS5 SSD is "truly special" says VP of engineering from Fortnite dev
We've heard plenty about the PS5's technical brilliance from Sony and its associated developers. Another testimonial from a senior staffer at Epic Games has emerged, this time full of praise focused on the new console's SSD.
VG247 (via TechRadar), speaking to Epic Games' VP of engineering Nick Penwarden, reports that the custom SSD storage offered by the next-gen PlayStation is "truly special".
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“The ability to stream in content at extreme speeds enables developers to create denser and more detailed environments, changing how we think about streaming content" continues Penwarden.
"It’s so impactful that we’ve rewritten our core I/O subsystems for Unreal Engine with the PlayStation 5 in mind."
The claim that developers are needing to rethink how to create games and game engines for the PS5 vindicates what Sony talked about in its Road to PS5 presentation. While this was a highly technical talk that left many gamers cold, it made some bold claims about how the speed of the PS5's SSD would revolutionize level design.
With increased loading speeds, devs will in theory not need to use arbitrary pieces of environment such as elevators or narrow corridors to break up graphically intensive areas, but can build levels exactly as they want to.
Penwarden is full of praise for the other parts of the PS5's hardware too, saying the console "provides a huge leap in both computing and graphics performance." While this is certainly true compared to the PS4, the PS5 has been confirmed to have a lower compute output compared to the Xbox Series X. Sony will be relying on its console's other features such as 3D audio and the haptic abilities of its new DualSense controller.
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Xbox fans needn't get jealous though. Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney posted on Twitter that the changes to Unreal Engine will help improve the Xbox Series X and other platforms too.
There has been a massive effort to upgrade Unreal Engine loading and streaming to ensure CPU doesn’t become the bottleneck. PS5 has provided much of the impetus, but the work will benefit all platforms.June 3, 2020
Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X will go head-to-head when they hit retailers' shelves around November, but until then we have a series of events revealing more about the consoles and their launch titles in store. Sony's upcoming PS5 games event, which was delayed in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, should give us an idea of what we'll be playing on the PS5 by the end of the year. And Xbox will follow up with a July exclusives event that will showcase hotly anticipated titles, including Halo Infinite.
Richard is based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, tablets, gaming, and whatever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's also written for WIRED U.K., The Register and Creative Bloq. When not at work, he's likely thinking about how to brew the perfect cup of specialty coffee.
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d0x360 Sorry but anything epic says about the ps5 has to be taken with lots of salt considering they currently have an exclusive deal where Sony gave epic some of their PlayStation exclusives and in turn epic would use ps5 to aid in marketing which is why we saw ue5 on a console before PC and it's why Sweeney is hyping them upReply
Also we know for a FACT that Sweeney has a grudge against Microsoft in general because he thought UWP would be locked down and was designed to kill modding when we know damn well that's not true since you can mod UWP games just as easily as you can the same game from steam.