Will X4 benefit from SSD drive?

[Sorkvild]

I mean quicker loading times and maybe an extra fps here and there?

[CBJ]

An SSD drive will almost certainly improve loading times. It probably won't improve the general fps, however. We do have measures in place to ensure that, where possible, file loading that has to happen while the game is running does so on a different thread, but an SSD will also help with cases where that is either not possible, or where, say, temporary graphics are shown until the real ones are ready. In general any benefits of using an SSD will be similar to what they were in XR, so you can already get an idea of the differences you'll be able to expect.

[Sorkvild]

At this moment can you give us information on how much space X4 will take (~), is it going to be a little more than Rebirth or definitely more?

[CBJ]

I have no idea I'm afraid. That is something you find out very late in a project, because things like intro videos, which can be quite large, are often among the last things to be added to the game files.

[Scoob]

SSD's make life better. Period.

I've even given ancient (8+ years old) laptops a new lease of life, making them feel like new (better than new!) from a general user experience perspective.

Since switching to using SSD's in most games the fps isn't higher generally speaking. However the much faster loading times do help with the overall gameplay experience. This depends on how the game works though. Something like Skyrim (for example) where the environment is streamed in (effectively) as the player moves around the open world doesn't see an fps benefit as such, but the "snags" as things are loaded in the background are far less.

My thoughts are that X4 will benefit from an SSD during normal play, as assets will be loaded more speedily. This might be ships models and textures as a new one is encountered during the players travels, through to whole zones as the player traverses gates / highways and the like. Basically there's less chance of snagging (fps drops, random-seeming stutters) as assets are loaded in the background.

The only downside of SSD's is there capacity vs. price when compared to a conventional spinner. I will say also that, for me at least, SSD's are proving far FAR more robust than conventional spinners. I'm approaching 40,000 hours on the drives in this machine, which are in a RAID0 array. I've seen many spinners that have failed entirely before hitting a quarter of that value.

So, in summary, while going from a conventional spinner to an SSD might not improve scores in a Benchmark - such as those built in to many games now - it will improve the gameplay experience overall.

Scoob.

[nalim27]

I have no idea I'm afraid. That is something you find out very late in a project, because things like intro videos, which can be quite large, are often among the last things to be added to the game files.

It will be very cool option to have possibility to install all video files to different drive (for example cheaper, slower but bigger SSD or HDD) and keep game files on fast SSD. Because fast SSD are expensive, and they still be in year when X4 will be launched.

It is commond architecture for game PC today to have fast SSD in M.2 PCI-ex slot as main C: drive with system, and another SSD or HDD (or more of them) as SATA disks. But video file no not need to have fast access tmes from M.2 SSDs.

[Scoob]

It will be very cool option to have possibility to install all video files to different drive (for example cheaper, slower but bigger SSD or HDD) and keep game files on fast SSD. Because fast SSD are expensive, and they still be in year when X4 will be launched.

It is commond architecture for game PC today to have fast SSD in M.2 PCI-ex slot as main C: drive with system, and another SSD or HDD (or more of them) as SATA disks. But video file no not need to have fast access tmes from M.2 SSDs.

I wonder if symbolic links would enable that? It depends how fussy steam gets with users playing around with the game folder. In a future Steam-Free .exe version of the game I'm sure it'd work, but in a DRM-enabled version I'm not sure.

I have a pair of traditional SATA SSD's on my system in RAID0. They're not M.2 Drive fast but they're a fair boost. I can certainly notice the difference between single drive and RAID0 performance when it come to loading times...RAID0 generally takes half the time. An M.2 would be better still.

Early days to be discussing this of course, but I've no doubt X4 will benefit a lot from running on an SSD vs. a spinner, just like many other games do.

Chances are I'll be building a new system before the end of the year. I'm waiting on what Intels Coffee Lake 8 Cores will be like, as well as Turing GPU-wise. Still using a seven year old 2600k at the heart of my system, paired with RAID0 SSD's and a GTX 1070...I still play most things on higher settings and it's *never* my CPU that's the limiting factor...quite amazing really.

Scoob.

[Sorkvild]

Here a test. Games benefit from ssd, shorter loading times and better fluidity during game and sometimes a few extra fps because of that. It mostly matters in games using megatextures, like open world games etc.
I'd also advise using memory sticks in dual channel mode to maximize the benefits.

SSD test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dEsTiOeMQ4
single vs dual channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBmElSVy4U8

On my PC I'm using 256 gig ssd (mlc) drive for windows mostly exclusively and hard drives for media and games. Sometimes I'm loading a games to ssd and I still have 100 gig of free space. SSDs perform better if they have a lot of free room, so keep that in mind and avoid leaving 25% of free space on that disc. it is best if they have at least 50% of free space.

[Lwerewolf]

SSDs perform better if they have a lot of free room, so keep that in mind and avoid leaving 25% of free space on that disc. it is best if they have at least 50% of free space.

Umm.... depends on the SSD's capacity, expected workload and whatnot. 25% free space for... ummm... everyday use cases is on the edge of extreme for smaller (~128GB) drives, let alone bigger units. There's also the fact that some SSDs overprovision anyways.

At any rate, this is extremely off-topic.

On-topic - shouldn't affect gameplay, as mentioned. Loading times, saving games, screenshots, etc - obvious performance improvements. If you want funny reads on how game developers have to get performance out of slow storage, look for any GDC presentation that deals with games running on X360 without a hard drive (and even then, given X360/PS3's very limited RAM).
Examples:
"New Dog, Old Tricks: Running Halo 3 Without a Hard Drive" - Bungie
"How To Go From PC to Cross Platform Development Without Killing Your Studio" - Valve
Luckily, today's consoles have plenty of RAM... PCs even more so

[RayRite]

I mean quicker loading times and maybe an extra fps here and there?

2024 - sorry for necroing. but I guess this will be the first search engine hit for many when they enter "X4 SSD".
I tested it by moving my X4 installation from a hard drive to my SSD.

If there are any differences in the saving and loading times or the initial game loading before picking which save slot to load, my stopwatch could not see them.

Too bad, before testing it I expected the difference to be as stunning as for e.g. Starfield - but no.
I guess I have to live with the "You cannot be serious that the game is autosaving NOW" moments. And getting blasted out of immersion every few minutes.

[Buzz2005]

loading of assets in game no improvement? autosaving every few minutes?

[Nanook]

...
2024 - sorry for necroing. ...

Please don't.