Uncharted series (1 Viewer)

[joshEH]

Remastered, yep, plus "[better] lighting, textures, and models," according to the official press release. I'd figured Bluepoint was working on this. They've been dead-quiet since Titanfall came out -- this was the most likely thing, especially since all the real heavy-lifting was basically done once TLoU's engine got ported over to the PS4.


Pretty shocked this isn't a November release, though. Sony really must have a major holiday game to announce at E3.

 

[Tino]

Remastered, yep, plus "[better] lighting, textures, and models," according to the official press release. I'd figured Bluepoint was working on this. They've been dead-quiet since Titanfall came out -- this was the most likely thing, especially since all the real heavy-lifting was basically done once TLoU's engine got ported over to the PS4.

Pretty shocked this isn't a November release, though. Sony really must have a major holiday game to announce at E3.

If it's half as good as TLOU remastered I'll be ecstatic !![emoji3]

 

[LeoA]

Still curious about the file sizes at play here. No multiplayer surely helps, but they still have a very daunting task if it's to fit on a single disc.


And I'm still crossing my fingers that Golden Abyss pops up again in the future. I still say that it would be perfect fodder for the PS3 as it enters the latter stages of its life, much like how most of the late releases for the PS2 were PSP ports (Often happening much later than the original PSP release).


Seems an ideal way to leverage this asset that relatively few ever got to play, while giving the substantial and still growing PS3 install base something new.

Confirmed:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/06/04/uncharted-the-nathan-drake-collection-is-confirmed.aspx?utm_content=buffer4f97b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

A bit disappointed to not see Golden Abyss (Disappointed, I didn't say surprised...).


That would've been a perfect carrot to dangle in front of those of us that were satisfied with the PS3 editions and correctly recognize that a bump to 1080p/60fps, while nice, isn't going to be a night and day difference.


But a new Uncharted adventure, previously exclusive to the small screen, would've been tempting.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

No brainer purchase for me.

 

[Venomn]

Thanks for the video,game looks awesome

 

[Sam Posten]

That grapple tho!
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/06/23/uncharted-4-inside-that-e3-demo/

 

[LeoA]

With release nearing, have they talked about the file size and disc count yet?


Nice to see that a good job is being done with these. Eurogamer is saying that it's almost a remake in many areas, rather than a mere remastering. Looks like the project is in good hands.


Also seen speculation, I think from Eurogamer, that cutscenes might be in-engine this time. If they're not pre-rendered, that's going to be a significant savings where space is concerned since an awful lot of Uncharted 1-3 on the PS3 are just video files.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

There's no 3D or multiplayer in any of the games, so there's a huge amount of space saved right off the bat.

The Sony PlayStation Blog said that the character skins from all of the games are available to use in each game, like Donut Drake. This suggests to me that they may be trying to use the same assets across all 3 games so that could be another way to save space.

Microsoft got all 4 Halo single player campaigns on one disc, so I don't see why Naughty Dog can't pull off 3 games with Uncharted. At the very least, I'm sure they're using some compression technique that can squeeze all of the data on there, especially since it just gets decompressed and installed on the HDD anyway.

 

[LeoA]

We shall see, but my money is on a two disc release,


After the well publicized struggle that this same developer had with fitting the remastered release of The Last of Us into the confines of a 50GB Blu-Ray, it's still seems the safe bet. If it's in-engine cutscenes though now, like Eurogamer speculates, they at least have a fighting chance.


The Master Chief Collection had a very large day 1 patch, so they didn't really make it. The campaigns were playable though, so it was still an admirable effort.


I'd hate to see what a fully patched install of that one, including the addition of ODST, runs these days. Bet it's approaching 80 or 90 gigs now.

 

[Tino]

The Halo MCC currently takes up 70 gb including ODST

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Halo 1, 2, 3, and 4 were on the single bluray disc. The downloaded data was for multiplayer and ODST (if you qualified to get it).

I believe they're using the same engine to run all 3 games and they're sharing assets, too. Removing the 3D cutscenes and then possibly rendering some cutscenes in realtime would save them even more space. But really, I don't see Sony doing this as a multiple disc release. That would be so annoying for people who own the game.


This article says it's coming on a single disc. Not sure whether to trust it, but it seems to be the only time I've seen it mentioned: http://www.primagames.com/games/uncharted-3-drakes-deception/feature/uncharted-nathan-drake-collection-treasures-unearthed

 

[LeoA]

Out of curiosity, what makes you say that it would be "so annoying"?


This isn't an 80's or 90's computer game. The only disc swap that ever has to happen is during the initial installation to rip that data off the disc and install it to the internal HDD.


From there on, disc 1 would be used as DRM verification while disc 2 stays in the case. You would not need to swap discs to transition, for instance, from playing Uncharted 1 and 2 to Uncharted 3 just because their data is physically separated.


If people find that so bothersome, they really need a new hobby since modern console gaming is full of jumping through hoops far worse than swapping in a 2nd disc to finish installation, in order to enjoy a game. The days of plugging in a couple of cables, a controller, inserting a cartridge, and hitting the power button to play a game that's instantly booted up and largely bug-free is alas a part of the past.


Now, you're lucky in the opening hour of setting up a new console if you even get to a videogame. And even just acquiring a new retail release, particularly on the XB1 and PS4, can keep you busy for quite a while for data to install and the obligatory large patch to fix issues that "slipped by" during the initial QA testing.

The downloaded data was for multiplayer and ODST (if you qualified to get it).

The 20 gig day 1 patch most certainly didn't include ODST. That's only a recent addition.


Surprised that it's only 70 gigs these days (Thanks Tino), since it was 65 on day 1 when fully installed and patched, and they've released an awful lot of fixes and a 5th Halo game for it since then.

This article says it's coming on a single disc. Not sure whether to trust it, but it seems to be the only time I've seen it mentioned: http://www.primagames.com/games/uncharted-3-drakes-deception/feature/uncharted-nathan-drake-collection-treasures-unearthed

That seems sort of suspect, between the lack of it being repeated elsewhere and the fact that it was published when the project was first confirmed.


There weren't many details available then, besides the lineup, the Uncharted 4 multiplayer beta deal, the absence of original multiplayer, and the developer for this collection.


Even 60fps/1080p was just taken for granted by the media and gamers like ourselves, since they didn't even provide that basic detail. Yet this news article is portraying stuff like that as confirmed back when the game itself was first revealed.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I've only seen 1 source that says anything about how many discs the games will come on that isn't just forum speculation. And that 1 source says one disc.


I know Halo MCC didn't have ODST on day 1. It also wasn't 70 GB on day 1. What I was commenting on was that the full install size of the game right now includes all of that extra data, but if you didn't have an internet connection at all you could still play the single player campaigns of all 4 on-disc games. And aren't Halo 1 and 2 the Anniversary Editions, where you can switch between the classic and HD visuals?

 

[LeoA]

I've only seen 1 source that says anything about how many discs the games will come on that isn't just forum speculation. And that 1 source says one disc.

Yes, but that information wasn't publicly released and I doubt they had an inside track with such information that has yet to be reported anywhere else after over two and a half months.


Looks like an assumption to me. Perhaps an accurate one, but all but certainly an assumption.


Thanks for passing it on though, since it indeed seems to be the only thing out there that says anything about it.

And aren't Halo 1 and 2 the Anniversary Editions, where you can switch between the classic and HD visuals?

Yes, they can be switched.


Like I agreed, it's an impressive effort from a storage viewpoint. Particularly when one realizes that it likely wasn't economized as much as it could've potentially been, since the project was outsourced to many different studios.


At least a half dozen were involved, including the core of the games themselves being split between two primary developers with the Halo 1 port and Halo 2 remaster being done by a different developer than the ports of 3 & 4.


Not a recipe for maximizing space savings and taking full advantage of the sharing of assets.

It also wasn't 70 GB on day 1.

Nope, but it was 65 gigs on day 1 when all was said and done, significantly outstripping the capacity of a double layer Blu-Ray disc.


Really the only prayer that Uncharted has with 1080p textures, regardless of all the stripping and potential savings through the sharing of assets, revolves around the cutscenes themselves.


If they're 1080p/60fps encoded videos, The Last of Us Remastered which saw the majority of its nearly 50 gigs of space be taken up by videos, pretty much demonstrates that there's really no chance when we're looking at three entire games (Each of which has just as much of an abundance of cutscenes as that single remaster did).


1 or 2 discs rests on if the cutscenes are in-engine (Like done on the Halo collection), or pre-rendered like was originally done with these three games. .


I just hope that it's not 1 disc with a large day 1 content patch to make up the difference...

 

[LeoA]

They confirmed 1 disc during a recent streaming event.


http://www.dualshockers.com/2015/09/14/uncharted-the-nathan-drake-collection-on-ps4-comes-in-a-single-disk/


Also if what I read is correct, they confirmed that the cutscenes aren't real-time. But I found that just now on GameFaqs while searching for details, so take the source into account.


If it's true that the cutscenes are pre-rendered, I don't know how they did it since that's an amazing accomplishment and one that their experience with The Last of Us HD seemed to guarantee wasn't a possibility


I just hope they're not depending on a huge day 1 patch to make this all possible.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

The only reason Halo: MCC got a huge patch on day 1 was because the features included in the patch required an internet connection to be used. Plus, that collection had 4 full games (including anniversary editions of 2 games) in addition to all of the multiplayer content from all 4 games. I don't see why this collection needs all of that stuff so I am not too surprised it fits on 1 disc.

It's probably a safe bet that the Uncharted 4 multiplayer beta won't be on the disc, though.


There had been talk previously of some updates to Uncharted 1 and minor changes to 2 and 3 based on player feedback and how the games evolved over time. I wouldn't be surprised if they're trying to share assets between the games, even if its just things like gun and character models or animations. That should save some space. This is also a pretty substantial porting job, so they may have just updated the game engine to be the same for all 3 games instead of porting each version individually. Plus, the original PS3 games needed to have all of the data in a relatively uncompressed state on the disc in order to be streamed live to the console, whereas the PS4 disc could be heavily compressed to fit on the disc but totally uncompressed once it is installed on the system.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

My guess is they ported the engine from Uncharted 3 and run the earlier games' assets on it. That would seem to be both space- and cost-effective.

 

[LeoA]

My guess is they ported the engine from Uncharted 3 and run the earlier games' assets on it. That would seem to be both space- and cost-effective.

The game engine isn't that large. So we're certainly talking about savings here if all three games share this component like we're all assuming is the case, but not huge savings.

The only reason Halo: MCC got a huge patch on day 1 was because the features included in the patch required an internet connection to be used.

While I don't know why this came up again, I have to add that it had a day 1 patch for a very simple reason. The content included was much too large to fit in what little room was left open on the Blu-Ray disc.


That more than anything else is why the Halo Collection had a very large day 1 patch. It wasn't going to fit regardless if it was for the online/local multiplayer modes or single player mode, or perhaps wasn't quite ready in time for the discs to be pressed with it included and still meet their scheduled release date.


They have a hard limit of 50 gigs. Go over that and you either switch to multiple discs or go the DLC route by patching in the excess.

I don't see why this collection needs all of that stuff so I am not too surprised it fits on 1 disc.

Looks like in the end, you were right.


That said, they were quite clear with the public just how much of a battle that The Last of Us: Remastered was to make fit. File sizes increased with 1080p textures, 1080p/60fps videos, etc. Things didn't decrease. they only increased. So to do so with the Uncharted trilogy, regardless of some eliminations of features, is quite an accomplishment in comparison.


This single title, which is hardly anywhere close to the length of the first three Uncharted adventures put together and which has a fraction of the pre-rendered video cutscenes of those games combined, was a major hurdle in making it all fit. And most of it was taken up just by video files.


So this not only warranted skepticism I believe, it still continues to since I wouldn't be surprised if there's a day 1 patch of many gigs in size or if that GameFaqs post I found is bogus about the videos still being pre-rendered. I don't care if they're pre-rendered or in-engine, but the latter certainly is the most efficient where space is concerned.


If they made it though and the game truly is complete on a 50 gig Blu-Ray disc with no need for a large download to finish the job, it's quite an accomplishment despite some obvious room for savings like losing Uncharted 3's 3D cutscenes.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Halo: MCC had Halo 1 Anniversary Edition, Halo 2 Anniversary Edition, Halo 3, and Halo 4 on one disc. You could play through all 4 games without having to download the patch. Just about the entirety of the online multiplayer component, which requires an internet connection to use (thus, it's kind of acceptable for it to be included in a downloadable patch, since you can't even use the content without the internet), was in the big day 1 patch. It's very different from the Uncharted situation. I doubt they will require a downloadable patch that includes single-player offline content. That would be extremely stupid. Sony is pushing the PS4 at people who never owned a PS3, which is why the series of remastered games they are making is important to their customer base. A lot of PS4 users don't have PS+ and a good chunk aren't even online. So why would they require people to have an internet connection to get essential content for a strictly offline-only experience that they are pushing as a major release in one of their biggest exclusive franchises? I know single player games have patches all the time, but I can't think of one game that had absolutely zero online connectivity and required an internet connection to play it.


I understand your skepticism and questions, but the closest thing to solid answers (as in, directly from Sony, not a message board) suggest that the videos are pre-rendered, there isn't a day 1 patch, and it all fits on one disc. Until I see credible information suggesting otherwise, I have no idea why we're even talking about this.

 

[LeoA]

Not going to go around in circles. I've expressed my curiosity and friendly explained it when the moment seemed to call for it. Nothing wrong with that at a discussion board.


But I will respond to some portions of your post that don't call for reiterating the same things that I've already said.

Just about the entirety of the online multiplayer component, which requires an internet connection to use (thus, it's kind of acceptable for it to be included in a downloadable patch, since you can't even use the content without the internet), was in the big day 1 patch.

You never knew that the Halo series is famous for local multiplayer? I believe that this feature is disappearing with the upcoming game, but it has been a hallmark of the franchise since the original Xbox release and very much is present in the Halo Collection for each included title.

It's very different from the Uncharted situation.

Content is content. Go over your disc capacity and something has to give. What said content contains is irrelevant, so I really don't see what point you think you're making here.

I doubt they will require a downloadable patch that includes single-player offline content. That would be extremely stupid.

In today's online world, most aren't going to care that a few gigs of single player content has to be downloaded to make up for lack of disc capacity, scheduling considerations, etc.


We've seen other games do just that, such as Forza 5 (On a console by the way that has to be taken online at least once to do pretty much anything offline).

A lot of PS4 users don't have PS+ and a good chunk aren't even online.

I doubt it these days. Last numbers that I saw 5+ years ago showed something like 85% of Xbox 360's and Playstation 3's were connected and it's only grown since then. And you obviously don't need a paid Playstation Plus subscription to receive patches and such.


Microsoft in fact planned an online mandate for the Xbox One, as I'm sure you well remember thanks to all the controversy that forced them to reconsider their anti-consumer stances on a variety of issues. You could only go something like 24 hours offline without checking back in with Redmond.

I know single player games have patches all the time, but I can't think of one game that had absolutely zero online connectivity and required an internet connection to play it.

I sure can.