In a subreddit, Bryan Johnson of BioWare’s Quality Assurance department wrote about Dragon Age: Inquisition’s install size and graphics.
Speaking about the game’s install size, Johnson set out to answer the question as to why the PC version takes up only around half the room as the current-gen versions of the game take up. He noted that the PC version takes up approximately 24gb of space, while the current-gen console versions take up around 40-46gb of space.
1) On Consoles there is generally less skus, so you generally need more than 1 language on a disc. So for example the europe version of PS4 has German, French, and English for VO. Each of these take up about 2gb (or slightly more). PC by default we will only deliver 1 VO language, to cut download size/disc install.
2) The “bigger” reason, PC is still predominately DVD9s in disc form whereas next gen can go up to 50gb with dual layer blue rays. So 1 Disc is approximately 6 discs. So Data size is actually harder to come by on PC. There is 2 different primary data formats on frostbite, each giving their own benefits. The PC version has smaller on disc size, at the sacrifice of a bit load times. These load times can easily be negated by using a solid state drive, or symlinking *.cas formated files onto a USB drive or a SSD (This is a well established BF4 “trick”).
3) This is more of continuation of 2, but for games it is pretty difficult to find some sort of packaging solution that can fit more than 4 discs these days. The old “double size” spindle cases are pretty much out of existence in terms of manufacturing.
Johnson also wrote about the RPG’s graphics, and noted that the PS4 and the Xbox One versions of Inquisition will be comparable to the PC version running on “high” settings. He did note that he believes that the water does not look as great on consoles, however.
Next gen is mostly on high, water won’t look quite as good but the game is definitely comparable at least to my eye.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is set to come out on November 18 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. What do you think about the RPG’s install size and graphics? Were you surprised to see that the PC version takes up so much less room?
[Source: Reddit via Worlds Factory]
