Where is the BLU-RAY computer games and BLU-RAY computer educational software?

[HDTV1080P]

Back in 1997 when the DVD format was launched in the United States I remember that in 1998 I was able to purchase a computer DVD-ROM kit for around $500 that came with one or two bonus DVD-ROM discs. One was a computer game on DVD-ROM while the other disc was a educational DVD-ROM.
I currently own a 5X Pioneer BLU-RAY ROM drive that I purchased for around $139, does anyone make any computer software on the BLU-RAY format yet? Yes there is plenty of movies to watch and if one owns a PS3 there is plenty of games to play. Is there any plans to release BLU-RAY computer software or computer games on BLU-RAY?

[mjbethancourt]

I think the (third party i.e. 'not sony') game-authoring software fell behind blu-ray spec, but they should be popping up by now, shouldn't they?

[dadkins]

Computer games are all in the DVD/2DVD size currently.
Sure, the developers can put the games on a BD, but at this point there is no real reason to.

Just got a new game today - 3.39GB. Be kind of a waste of a BD, no?

[CAB]

I'm guessing when BD players are standard issue in systems for about 5 years, games and software will be distributed on BD.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by dadkins

Computer games are all in the DVD/2DVD size currently.
Sure, the developers can put the games on a BD, but at this point there is no real reason to.

Just got a new game today - 3.39GB. Be kind of a waste of a BD, no?

Bingo!

When DVD launched, the CD-ROM capacity was already showing its age. I remember several games that shipped on many CDs (Phantasmagoria shipped on 7! Many others shipped on 4-5). FMV and pre-rendered "3d" were both big at the time and took up a lot more space... so using DVD for games early on made a lot of sense.

How may games today ship on even 2 DVDs? Not many. And with most PC games rendering everything within the game engine, there's not a lot of reason to expect them to grow considerably anytime soon. Unless you are making a game using all the available satellite data from Google Earth or something, there's only so many different textures, audio samples, etc, that you'll need for even a rather lengthy game. Now, console gaming is a completely different matter (you're not installing the entire game to the hard drive, and often data has to be streamed when necessary from the disc), but, for the PC, there's just not any point.

Also, because Blu-ray drives launched as recorders (as opposed to readers as DVD-ROM and CD-ROM did) the first models were very expensive. Now that readers and combo drives are on the market, BD-ROM penetration is increasing more rapidly, but drives are still only found in a very small number of PCs in use.

[arush5268d]

I have never heard of the BLU-RAY format...but I'm very aware of the Blu-ray format.

I'm also not aware of any games that would require a 25gb BD. Also - since so few home computers have a Blu-ray drive....there wouldn't be a whole lot of point in producing a game that requires a Blu-ray drive.

[HDTV1080P]

The PS3 has all of its games on single layer BLU-RAY discs and some of them take up more then 8.5GB of space. We need more games with HD quality. Computer games with HD quality would require higher storage capacity. I guess BLU-RAY is a liitle ahead of its time.

[CAB]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

The PS3 has all of its games on single layer BLU-RAY discs and some of them take up more then 8.5GB of space. We need more games with HD quality. Computer games with HD quality would require higher storage capacity. I guess BLU-RAY is a liitle ahead of its time.

PCs install them on the hard drive and never pull content from the optical. My laptop comes with 3.5x the storage of the PS3. PC's also render at 2560 x 1600 x 24bit color with 4x AA.

[arush5268d]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

The PS3 has all of its games on single layer BLU-RAY discs and some of them take up more then 8.5GB of space. We need more games with HD quality. Computer games with HD quality would require higher storage capacity. I guess BLU-RAY is a liitle ahead of its time.

Seriously though....it's not BLU-RAY....it's "Blu-ray"

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

The PS3 has all of its games on single layer BLU-RAY discs and some of them take up more then 8.5GB of space. We need more games with HD quality. Computer games with HD quality would require higher storage capacity. I guess BLU-RAY is a liitle ahead of its time.

I kind of said this above, but there's a HUGE difference between the amount of space required for a game designed for a console (and designed to be run directly from disc) and a game designed for a computer (and designed to be installed to a hard disc). Games that you plan to install use more compressed assets that get decompressed during installation. Running a game from a disc requires the assets to be stored either uncompressed on disc or using a form of compression that can be decompressed extremely quickly and with little CPU usage when its needed. So, you need more space on the console for assets.

Also (and usually more importantly to the PS3) due to the HUGE speed difference between reading from a hard disc and reading from the optical drive, many assets are included multiple times on the disc to allow for easier data-streaming and lower access times (both things you don't need on games installed to a hard disc)

If you are rendering everything within the game engine (as many PC games do) there's no reason for games on the PC to require anywhere near 25GB of space on the install media. If you wanted to do a game with a lot of 1080p pre-rendered cutscenes on a PC game, then I suppose you could waste enough space to make Blu-ray useful there, but I don't think that's any developers goal. That doesn't make the PC game "not HD" -- in the vast majority of cases, recent PC games can support far higher resolutions than their console counterparts. The storage space requirements are just completely different, and you can't assume that a 15GB PS3 game title would require anywhere near that if it was designed to run be installed and then run off a hard drive.

[mjbethancourt]

Originally Posted by CAB

PCs install them on the hard drive and never pull content from the optical. My laptop comes with 3.5x the storage of the PS3. PC's also render at 2560 x 1600 x 24bit color with 4x AA.

That's a very good point: PC games already have better than 1080p graphics (and have been that way for more than a decade), and they can accomplish what they need to by putting it all on multiple DVDs that get installed to the hard drive... hell, I had 1600x1200 gaming ten years ago that was installed off of CD's. I guess it will be a while before we see PC games on blu-ray.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by CAB

PCs install them on the hard drive and never pull content from the optical. My laptop comes with 3.5x the storage of the PS3. PC's also render at 2560 x 1600 x 24bit color with 4x AA.

+100! You hit the nail on the head !!!!

[prerich]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

The PS3 has all of its games on single layer BLU-RAY discs and some of them take up more then 8.5GB of space. We need more games with HD quality. Computer games with HD quality would require higher storage capacity. I guess BLU-RAY is a liitle ahead of its time.

Excuse me...although I didn't like the Transformers movie, I did buy the pc game...and I play it at 1920x1080p 60hz refresh rate (I can increase the refresh rate beyond that too)!!! HD quality for games has been here in PC land for a long while. Go to Nvidia's site and read up on Xtreme HD (gaming beyond 1080p),it's hear and its now, BD is not ahead of the game...PC is.

[david2189]

theres no need for bd in pc games/software

[HDTV1080P]

Over the years PC games keep improving in quality and require more data space. Even with data compression sometime in the future game companies will start using single layer and dual layer BLU-RAY discs when a dual layer DVD no longer can hold the entire game. One day BLU-RAY computer drives will be standard just like DVD drives are standard in all computers today. It may take 5 or more years before games are 25GB or 50GB in size. Many PC games are now on DVD-ROM instead of CD-ROM since it is easier for consumers to load from one disc onto the hard drive. Same thing will happen when BLU-RAY goes mainstream with PC drives.

[supersix4]

dvd didn't just become standard for games they didn't get big till the 2000's give it time they will come

[prerich]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

Over the years PC games keep improving in quality and require more data space. Even with data compression sometime in the future game companies will start using single layer and dual layer BLU-RAY discs when a dual layer DVD no longer can hold the entire game. One day BLU-RAY computer drives will be standard just like DVD drives are standard in all computers today. It may take 5 or more years before games are 25GB or 50GB in size. Many PC games are now on DVD-ROM instead of CD-ROM since it is easier for consumers to load from one disc onto the hard drive. Same thing will happen when BLU-RAY goes mainstream with PC drives.

In light of this post can you elaborate on your previous post to quote:

"The PS3 has all of its games on single layer BLU-RAY discs and some of them take up more then 8.5GB of space. We need more games with HD quality. Computer games with HD quality would require higher storage capacity. I guess BLU-RAY is a liitle ahead of its time."

Computer games already have HD and above quality...on DVD. Even with movies WMV-HD did 1080p before BD or HD-DVD. I don't understand your statement - help me out a little and educate me

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by prerich

In light of this post can you elaborate on your previous post to quote:

"The PS3 has all of its games on single layer BLU-RAY discs and some of them take up more then 8.5GB of space. We need more games with HD quality. Computer games with HD quality would require higher storage capacity. I guess BLU-RAY is a liitle ahead of its time."

Computer games already have HD and above quality...on DVD. Even with movies WMV-HD did 1080p before BD or HD-DVD. I don't understand your statement - help me out a little and educate me

I was referring to games can be improved since BLU-RAY movies have a high bit rate for video and audio when using MPEG-4/AVC or VC-1 at higher bit rates. As computer HD games improve in quality and screen sizes get bigger the game quality can also improve. For example BLU-RAY 1080P looks a lot better then HD 1080I cable or satellite movies do to the fact that BLU-RAY encoding was taken from 4K master scans for some movies along with super high bit rates for MPEG-4/AVC with DTS-HD master audio was placed on a 50GB disc. HD video games sound and video can look better with BLU-RAY since the source material would be encoded at higher bit rates then it currently is. I really doubt any video games use an average of 28Mbits on the screen for its HD video. It would also be great to have 7.1 PCM or DTS-HD Master audio for video games one day. BLU-RAY has the storage capacity when videogames start becoming better quality. Resoultion is only part of what makes a good picture.

[BozQ]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

I was referring to games can be improved since BLU-RAY movies have a high bit rate for video and audio when using MPEG-4/AVC or VC-1 at higher bit rates. As computer HD games improve in quality and screen sizes get bigger the game quality can also improve. For example BLU-RAY 1080P looks a lot better then HD 1080I cable or satellite movies do to the fact that BLU-RAY encoding was taken from 4K master scans for some movies along with super high bit rates for MPEG-4/AVC with DTS-HD master audio was placed on a 50GB disc. HD video games sound and video can look better with BLU-RAY since the source material would be encoded at higher bit rates then it currently is. I really doubt any video games use an average of 28Mbits on the screen for its HD video. It would also be great to have 7.1 PCM or DTS-HD Master audio for video games one day. BLU-RAY has the storage capacity when videogames start becoming better quality. Resoultion is only part of what makes a good picture.

What is this rubbish?
7.1 surround gaming is possible right now without Blu-ray. And it was possible even way before Dolby Digital and DTS even thought of the word Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD. Lossless audio has been around for so many years before even those two came up.
MPEG-4/AVC or VC-1 video playback for game FMVs are totally possible with DVD-ROM drives if the developers want to.

The fact is, it's not neccessary and the cost of upgrading is not sensible for both consumers and developers at this moment.

Game developers will be shooting themselves in the head if they released a game in Blu-ray format and nobody can play it.

You've probably been suckered by Sony's stupid marketing scheme that having a Blu-ray disc is the only option for 'Better' HD gaming on the PS3.
Here's the FACT: They lied.

It takes a LOT more than just the storage medium to create a HD gaming experience. CPU, RAM, Graphics Processing Unit, Sound Processing, etc.
Blu-ray, like DVD-ROM, is just a storage medium.

It would have been totally possible to add in MPEG-4/AVC and VC-1 decoding into a DVD player to playback 720p HD. But alas, the industry has decided to go into 1080p, which a DVD will not be enough to provide the storage space.

[cjb110]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

HD video games sound and video can look better with BLU-RAY since the source material would be encoded at higher bit rates then it currently is.

I think you've got very confused between a film and a game! Games don't have 'bit rates', nor do they need more space for 'HD'.

Hell even, an old game like Quake released in '96 can run and was running at > than 'HD' resolutions long before blu-ray came along.

On a PC where a 24" monitor runs at 1920x1200 (higher than 1080p), most games from that last 4 years will run at that res.

On consoles the issue isn't about res (they don't have as much grunt as a modern pc, but they can easily handled 1080p), but the fact that installation is 'frowned' upon...you want to shove the disk in and play, not wait 20+mins.