RAGE Requires 25GB of HDD, 3 Discs for Xbox 360

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By Kevin Parrish
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RAGE will require 25 GB of HDD space on a PC, and 8 GB of HDD space on the PlayStation 3. The Xbox 360 version will arrive in three discs.

If you've already missed it, Bethesda said back on September 16 that id Software's new shooter, RAGE, has officially Gone Gold and will arrive on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC here in the States on October 4, followed by a European release on October 7.

Saturday during the Eurogamer Expo, Digital Foundry talked with id Software creative director Tim Willits about the studio's new shooter, the technology behind it, and its ability to offer the same experience across all three platforms. But during the interview, he also revealed what PC and console gamers need to expect in terms of physical media and hard drive storage requirements. In short, it's going to be massive.

What we already know is that the PC version will require 25 GB of HDD space. And according to Willits, the PlayStation 3 version will require an 8 GB install which will contain all the textures at their highest level. "What is nice about the PS3 platform is that it's just one platform," he said. "Everyone has one Blu-ray drive, one hard drive, it's all the same. Some of the other systems you have... should I install it on my 360? Should I not install it? So yes, it's very nice."

As for the Xbox 360, id Software crammed the game onto three discs. "We recommend installing the game to the hard drive, but you don't need to install all three discs," he added. "If you don't have the space available on your hard drive, don't stress. Install the first disc, the first chapter, the first half of the game, then when you're done, uninstall and install disc two."

The third disc will focus on the multiplayer portion, but there's no need to install the content if users are really tight on disc space, he said.

For previous shooters, the studio focused on the PC platform and ported their games to the consoles afterward. That's not the case with id Tech 5 which was built from the ground-up supporting all three platforms. That said, there will be a consistent experience across the board, and if any problems pop up after the release, they'll likely appear on all three.

"[A PC focus] never worked out well for us [in the past] to be honest," he said. "Right from the get-go, John and his group of programmers - I call them the Big Brain Group - they looked at the three systems. There are more similarities between them than most people realize, so they developed a codebase that would take care of these multi-core systems."

"It makes a lot more sense than taking on old technology and shoving it into a modern day console and then having to multi-thread," he added. "So the basic gamecode is the same, the basic engine is the same and it's only the graphical APIs, and a few sound things that are really different on all the three systems, which is really nice. If we have an optimisation on the 360 for instance, it automatically optimises it also for PS3 and PC. Because we started on the engine from scratch it allowed us to more easily develop cross-platform technology."

To read the full 3-page interview, head here.

Kevin Parrish
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61 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Swolern
    Idiots. Why make another console port! This is why I had your game preordered then found this out and canceled. "focus on PC didn't work out for you heh? Looks like it's working for Battlefield 3 pretty well seeing it's the #1 wanted upcoming game. If you want the best game that everyone will want you need to make it the best for each platform. Big letdown, I was looking forward to this game.
    Reply
  • Mark Heath
    I'm still getting past that 25GB bit, if games come out that big too often it's bye bye ssds o_O
    Reply
  • helipro
    Swolern.... You didnt read the article that closely did you? They did the exact same thing dice did.

    They BOTH made their own engines that fully utilize every platform that they will be used on. I am pretty sure you do not know the definition of a port.

    The only thing Dice did differently is make the graphics for pc insanely better than the consoles. Which is nice dont get me wrong, but truthfully 90% of pc gamers dont have a rig that can utilize the graphics to its full ability where as rage will be able to be played at max graphics by a larger amount. Both Publishers are not porting anything, but making engines that are cross compatible where as past engines were not as cross compatible and one platform would suffer.

    Now no one suffers. Life is good.

    So rather than judge this game based on the fact that they are far superior when it comes to engine writing than almost all other publishers, judge the game on its actual gameplay.
    Reply
  • notuptome2004
    SwolernIdiots. Why make another console port! This is why I had your game preordered then found this out and canceled. "focus on PC didn't work out for you heh? Looks like it's working for Battlefield 3 pretty well seeing it's the #1 wanted upcoming game. If you want the best game that everyone will want you need to make it the best for each platform. Big letdown, I was looking forward to this game.

    The game is not a console port. if you read the article the interview you Read this

    Digital Foundry: Let's talk about Mega Textures... virtual texturing I believe it's called.

    Tim Willits: Yes, it's a virtualised world. The word "Mega Texture" isn't exactly correct. Virtualised world is more correct, but Mega Texture sounds cooler! Basically what that allows us to do is uniquely paint all the environments differently. It allows us to have some really interesting areas, for new scenes to be fresh and exciting, you're not stuck in the same buildings for 15 hours, and it really creates a look that is unique to Rage. And when you see it running, it's like: yeah, that's Rage. And that's based on the virtualisation of everything.

    Digital Foundry: So you can build an entire game world, limited only by your concept.

    Tim Willits: Yes, the raw texture is ridiculously huge. It's terabytes. But through John Carmack wizardry, we're able to pare down all the textures and the assets that we need to reasonably fit on any system. People always ask me - why's Rage so big? It's because of the texture data, but it is very unique. It has a very beautiful style to it, it runs real fast because the world, the visuals, are all virtualised.

    It creates extra space for game code, rendering, physics, sound... all those things. That's why we can run at 60Hz which is what gives us that good connection to the game. And of course, it's all cross-platform so all the assets that are created for the PC version are just the same on the PS3 and 360.


    The PC assets are all streamed to the 360 and PS3 and they are the same they run the same the only differences are the graphics APIs and Resolutions and some small sound things but largly the same so if you was to run the 360 or Ps3 version at say full 1080p which we dont know if the ( consoles ) run but if you did it loook the same on the Pc and both consoles which are running the PC code as it is all one Code
    Reply
  • Murissokah
    fully utilize every platform that they will be used on

    Exactly the point. Their racing 5-year old tech against brand new computers. And it has to be smooth for everybody. Guess who's being held back. And I bet will see mouse acceleration, crappy interfaces made for low-res (720p), and a huge X360 gamepad on the settings menu. If I'm wrong you can say they actually developed for each platform.
    Reply
  • lol @ 720p

    I really don't see why Sony doesn't change up their market and create 3 versions of the PS4's and dual boot it with Windows. Take one for simple games, one for popular decent sized titles, and one which can pretty much handle any thing throw at it for a year or two to come. Put in a decent sized HDD, with an SSD option and it would be perfect.

    Now imagine an office full of PS4s ... all hooked up to 1080p screens, with shiny new black keyboards and mice ... Apple what?
    Reply
  • professorprofessorson
    anonnnlol @ 720pI really don't see why Sony doesn't change up their market and create 3 versions of the PS4's and dual boot it with Windows. Take one for simple games, one for popular decent sized titles, and one which can pretty much handle any thing throw at it for a year or two to come. Put in a decent sized HDD, with an SSD option and it would be perfect.Now imagine an office full of PS4s ... all hooked up to 1080p screens, with shiny new black keyboards and mice ... Apple what?

    You know, the PS3 is the first real home console that was actually more powerful hardware wise then one of the competition. The PS1 was actually a tad weaker then the Saturn, though you'd not really see many examples of the Saturns ability in the US titles library. The Dreamcast had a bit more untapped umph then the PS2 that was eventually glimpsed at more in its Naomi and Atomiswave arcade counterparts, and the GC and Xbox were well above the PS2 hardware. Its really sad that it took Nintendo going simple for Sony to finally surpass someone with their PS3.

    Anyway, back on topic, this Rage game being such a large install, just how long is this game supposed to be exactly? Really makes me wonder. Game better have a pretty huge story and top notch visuals to be eating that much of a hard drive up, or people are going to mock it to no end.
    Reply
  • nebun
    Mark HeathI'm still getting past that 25GB bit, if games come out that big too often it's bye bye ssds o_Othat's why you install two large capacity hdds and raid them.....i haven't ran out of space yet...then again i have a 256 revodrivex2, so i really don't need to worry about space...once i get tired of a game i just remove it to make space for new ones...nothing lost :)
    Reply
  • rb420
    9312825 said:
    fully utilize every platform that they will be used on

    Exactly the point. Their racing 5-year old tech against brand new computers. And it has to be smooth for everybody. Guess who's being held back. And I bet will see mouse acceleration, crappy interfaces made for low-res (720p), and a huge X360 gamepad on the settings menu. If I'm wrong you can say they actually developed for each platform.


    Ya no matter how they try and spin it, this is exactly how I feel.

    Reply
  • arushrehman
    I'm quite happy with FallOut 3. Rage who? Bloated software from the looks of Willit's comments. Where is John Carmack and what was his contribution?
    Reply