23rd June 2004, 3:47 PM
Compression means it has to be decompressed. Decompression takes clock cycles. Even assuming they managed loss-less sound compression (possible, such as in a zip file, but not very efficient), they would still need to store that data somewhere in the memory, in a buffer. Even if it's just a little at a time, they would still end up with having to decompress ahead to keep up with the track. The question is this, could they manage to do decompressing fast enough that they could always have it keep up with the playback of the sound itself? Yes, they are only emulating NES games when doing this, but considering that even decompressing a decent sized zip file on a current gen computer takes a few seconds, it's hardly something that would be "instant". Yes, it could be done I think, but it would have been a lot of work for what to them must have seemed like small payoff.
Developer sympathizing mode over:
Which translates to them basically being too cheap and lazy to go the extra mile to make the GCN version as good as the PS2 version.
DVD size disks as of late have really been doing a great job of being "just fine". I have yet to see a single multi-DVD game. Maybe that's just because they manage to get everything crammed in "just right" to fit, but honestly I think that a DVD is more than enough for pretty much any game a developer could put together at this point. At this point being the key word, because I think if given more space to work with, they'd take advantage... maybe... I dunno.
Developer sympathizing mode over:
Which translates to them basically being too cheap and lazy to go the extra mile to make the GCN version as good as the PS2 version.
DVD size disks as of late have really been doing a great job of being "just fine". I have yet to see a single multi-DVD game. Maybe that's just because they manage to get everything crammed in "just right" to fit, but honestly I think that a DVD is more than enough for pretty much any game a developer could put together at this point. At this point being the key word, because I think if given more space to work with, they'd take advantage... maybe... I dunno.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)