When it comes to the newly revealed 39.7GB final file size for Killzone: Shadow Fall, Guerrilla Games previously had their PS4 launch title at a much higher number, as Michiel van der Leeuw, Guerilla Games’ Technical Director explained to Eurogamer:
I think at some point the disc image that we were generating was around 180 gigs. And if we would have put all the levels in, which we didn’t, because then the disc image generator broke, it would have been around 290 gigs of data.
So we had to completely re-architect how we deal with data. And we did a lot of work – this is actually something I’m extremely proud of – to optimise our disc access pattern. Sony made special libraries for us because we were the first ones hitting these sort of problems. I think it’s something that a lot of people will need to be doing in future.
What causes Shadow Fall to be so big in the first place was mostly due to the textures, with van der Leeuw adding, “I think we’re probably a lot larger than the other cross-generation games, because we have no assets that have been made to a lower spec.” And when you compare the surface area to Killzone 3, Michiel guesses it “must be five to 10 times bigger.”
As well, Guerrilla has taken the time to ensure the in-game load times for Killzone: Shadow Fall are eliminated following an initial 30 second load, and those annoying logos you’d see when you boot up the game are gone as well:
To me, that’s still something that fills my heart with joy when I see it. You insert the disc and go straight to menu. People here worked very hard… We had to ask legal and Dolby, the epilepsy warning stuff, the logos from Havok – we had to negotiate with them that we could put it in the credits and not the title screen… All the rules are built around the previous generation. I’m really happy that we’re one of the first ones in, and I hope it’s an example that people are going to follow.
Do you hope more PS4 games do away with those openings logos before getting to the menu? How happy are you about the heavily reduced load times in Shadow Fall? Let us know in the comments below.
