The ability to optionally install games on the Xbox 360's hard drive is something we've been
jazzed about for some time, because while the machine's DVD drive isn't terribly slow, it isn't terribly quiet either -- and who has time for progress bars? However, those of us still rocking older, 20GB machines quickly discovered that the 6-plus GB install files of some games put a real hurtin' on what little disk space we had left, leaving us to choose between reducing load-times while exploring the Urban Wasteland or deleting all those random demos we keep forgetting about. Microsoft has a solution, and this time it's not a
moderately less expensive new hard drive. Included in the upcoming
Xbox 360 dashboard update, due one week from today, is a previously unmentioned feature that shrinks those game installs, sometimes by a huge margin. King of Fighters XII went from 3.4GB down to 703MB, while Raiden Fighters Aces is now just 484MB. Any of you
early bird previewers finding other titles that have trimmed the fat?
posted August 4th 2009 8:56AM
Old news but yeah this is good news
Now you xbox guys will feel the pain of PC users everywhere when more people start hacking code to cheat.
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=202456
Anything with a '+' at the end of the title has been updated via those in the update preview.
Yeaaaa! Platform tech that promotes gaming “arrested development”! Lets all celebrate so that we convince the suits at the gaming dev houses that we don’t need no stinking near reality, immersive, expansive, 40gb+, AWESOME, 4th gen IPs!
Yes flat-earthers, you live comfortably and embrace the notion that dragons at the end of the earth won’t get you if you don’t go there. Ignore that guy blabbering about how the earth is huge, expansive and really round! This is not good, it's BAD!
I just want to Install Crackdown.....thanks...
Crackdown FTW! best bargain bin game I've ever bought.
Skills for Kills, Agent. Skills for Kills.
yawn
Oblivion went from 6.7GB to 5.9GB
Woooo..
Does the install size automagically change or do you have to reinstall?
How does this work?
Im intrigued by this.
They put 'dummy data' in the free space of the dvd to shorten loading times. this data is stripped during installation now.
Would you please explain how that works? How does the dummy data reduce load times?
I'm guessing that it puts the actual data closer to the outside of the disc, where it is moving faster.
essentially it works by not making the lens have to jump from one layer to another just to read data, or for one part of the disc to the other, This is/was done a lot with some PS3 games to help prevent the need for a HUGE install
It's my understanding data closer to the inside of the disc gets read faster.
I would assume that he is alluding to the duplicate data that game designers put on the disc. This allows certain data that is required freqently to be quickly accessible with minimal movement of the laser head from it's current position. I guess that if you have moved to a harddrive this isn't necessarily required... Bit I think it would speed it up in all cases except for solid state... Hmmmmm
It reads the same speed no matter where the data is on the disc. The bits get longer as you move to the outside of the disc.
The outermost of a disk spins faster than the middle. Just simple science. Not higher rpms, but higher mph. The outer rim would read faster.
@windblownmonkey
"The outermost of a disk spins faster than the middle. Just simple science. Not higher rpms, but higher mph. The outer rim would read faster."
Wrong. The disk is rotating at the same relative speed the entire length that the laser travels. The further you get from the center, the greater the amount of data being stored in a given track (pitch). So, one edge of the disk may have a higher velocity, but the RPM (and therefore the data read/write speed) remains the same.
Not entirely wrong, but does depend if its a CAV or CLV/Z-CLV drive. CAV drives typically read faster at the outer edge.
Transfer rate is variable on a CAV, fixed on a CLV.
I misspoke in my first post. The data doesn't get "read" faster towards the inside of the disc, but it does get accessed faster because the lazer's resting position is in the center.
For those of you confused on how data doesn't get read faster on the outside vs inside, remember the data is being written at the same speed, too. The data towards the outside of the disc is stretched out. Just as it takes the same amount of time to write, it will take the same amount of time to read. The only difference is the access time.
The data on the outside *is* read faster by a CAV drive. I don't know where you guys got this nonsense about longer bits from but the little laser grooves are the same size on the inside tracks and on the outside tracks. The outside tracks contain more data and the linear velocity is higher at the same RPM so a CAV drive absolutely reads those tracks faster.
For that matter a CAV burner also burns outside tracks at a higher data rate than inside tracks.
The Xbox 360 happens to have a CAV drive, so indeed data on the outer rim would transfer at a higher rate than data towards the inside of the disc. Thus dummy filing the games is used to push the usable data to the outside rim area.
I think anybody who's ever backed up a dreamcast game can attest to this. Ahem.
I hope the performance doesn't slip, because Microsoft will come out with some bogus excuse if it does.
Ok, so I got into the beta testing for the new updates but i have no idea what the updates are that are active on my system. Anyone wanna give me a brief once over?
Go to the nice blue Preview channel on the dash and read all about it.
If you mean what the update adds there is a section on the dashboard which gives you all the information on what the update brings.
if you are silver like me then you wont see much...sad but true...lol
You can actually read your player rating.
Netflix works better.
I noticed the lag is less when scrolling the friends list
Well I saw the blue menu but I figured it was the twitter/facebook and some other features that would come with the update
no they are coming later this year I think.
Great news! I filled up my 120gb HDD way too fast.
So what's the process? Will we have to uninstall the game and then reinstall? Or will we get a prompt to "update" an installed game?
uninstall, reinstall
You're telling me. At first I thought, "20GB? That's plenty for a game console," and went with the Pro. But now that they've introduced game installs and since I've been loading a lot of music on there, I've found that it's not nearly enough.
But really Microsoft needs to drop the damn price of the HDDs already so I can upgrade. It's getting ridiculous.
Left 4 Dead was 5GB, went to 3.7.
There's a forum post on the Xbox Forums with lots of games listed, including "before and after" install sizes.
http://forums.xbox.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=28378368
If only your link worked....
the link does work. You have to be in the NXE preview program to access those forums.
I suppose it's too late to bluff and say that I'm in the preview. :)
I am in the NXE preview program but the link doesn't work for me
are they maybe using compression techniques to achieve this?
when I saw the pants I kept thinking how the person playing the xBox would grow to fit perfectly in it.
finally. It worked on my psp and my wii, i was hoping they wiould do this.
I would rather have a physical collection than a virtual. Downsizing the games its quite convenient for travelers and space saving..
They're not asking you to have a virtual collection. You have to own the physical disc for this to work.
Aww, am I the only one who found Terry Bogard holding those jeans incredibly funny? ;_;
Terry! That's his name! I've been trying to remember the name all day! Now I can finally get some work done!
But I still can't remember the name of the game. Was it Final Fight? or...
He's from the fighting game "Fatal Fury" but has had many appearances in various SNK games. Have a good day :D
Fatal Fury! On the Neo Geo!
Well, this picture is King of Fighters XII, but yeah, Terry's from Fatal Fury.