How come PC gaming doesn't often use Blu Ray if at all for gaming?

Something I notice since gaming PCs are the top benchmarks for gaming- wouldn't it make sense to use a higher capacity disc to get more gaming content- game editors, higher video qauality, uncompressed sound?

aren't there PC games that come out on multiple discs?

Disc are so last generation 8). [spoiler] I kid :P [/spoiler]

aren't there PC games that come out on multiple discs?

AdmiralBison

Yes, but not every PC has a blu-ray drive and digital distribution is such a large portion of the market that spending money on licensing Blu-ray isn't worth the extra cost for publishers.

It's no longer need due to the rise of Digital Distribution. NerubianWeaver

so Digital Content is the major format for PCs or still dvds?

[QUOTE="NerubianWeaver"]It's no longer need due to the rise of Digital Distribution. AdmiralBison

so Digital Content is the major format for PCs or still dvds?

Digital Distribution along with the fact that many game installations easily fit in a single/two DVDs.

aren't there PC games that come out on multiple discs?

AdmiralBison

I am so glad DD has done so well on pc. I buy all of my games on Steam now and the only game I still have on disc is Oblivion. This may sound strange but I have thought about buying a second copy on Steam so I don't have to put the disc in when I want to play it. You might say that I'm just lazy. And you'd be right. :P

I am so glad DD has done so well on pc. I buy all of my games on Steam now and the only game I still have on disc is Oblivion. This may sound strange but I have thought about buying a second copy on Steam so I don't have to put the disc in when I want to play it. You might say that I'm just lazy. And you'd be right. :P

ShyGuy0504

no that makes sense- I have 2 copies of StarCraft- 1 dvd, the other I got from Bioware and I use thatas a back up.

Why spend extra money on a format that's not needed or even the standard for that matter?

Wrong. The "game" part of a video game is tiny compared to the audio and video aspect. Crysis 1 had the best graphics and included an editor yet it was only 6 GB. Audio is not noticeable on most games unless you have a decent setup. And videos, well, how much of a game is cutscene?ocstew

depends on the game maybe.

Don't a lot of Bioware games typically have big videos (WarCraft did anyway), what if you are using a 7.1 sound set up with your PC? Wouldn't sound quality stand to benefit froma higher capacity disc? dvd vs Blu-Ray

Something I notice since gaming PCs are the top benchmarks for gaming- wouldn't it make sense to use a higher capacity disc to get more gaming content- game editors, higher video qauality, uncompressed sound

AdmiralBison

Because we've had hard drives since the very beginning and we don't load from the disc :|

Why spend extra money on a format that's not needed or even the standard for that matter?

mitu123

trying to see the benefits of Blu Ray in gaming and I was thinking PC would be the bestto use it to it's full potential.

However it seems irrelevant at this point I think.

I have 2 PCs with BluRay player and burner drives and frankly I've never used them to watch movies and play games with.

games I get are either dvd or DD and all other media is digital.

Outside of the odd back up discs I find it strange a few PCs have Blu Ray.

The best thing I can think for Blu Ray use onPC is 3D, but I don't think it requires Blu Ray for that.

[QUOTE="ocstew"]Wrong. The "game" part of a video game is tiny compared to the audio and video aspect. Crysis 1 had the best graphics and included an editor yet it was only 6 GB. Audio is not noticeable on most games unless you have a decent setup. And videos, well, how much of a game is cutscene?AdmiralBison

depends on the game maybe.

Don't a lot of Bioware games typically have big videos (WarCraft did anyway), what if you are using a 7.1 sound set up with your PC? Wouldn't sound quality stand to benefit froma higher capacity disc? dvd vs Blu-Ray

Even if PC games have to be split onto multiple DVD's, it's not a major issue as the games are fully installed onto your hard drive. You only need to have one(if there's DRM) - or no disc in to play the game, there's no disc-switching. The problem arises when you end up with installs that require a ridiculous amount of discs... One example is UT2004 which was 6 CD's and super irratating to install :P

[QUOTE="ocstew"]Wrong. The "game" part of a video game is tiny compared to the audio and video aspect. Crysis 1 had the best graphics and included an editor yet it was only 6 GB. Audio is not noticeable on most games unless you have a decent setup. And videos, well, how much of a game is cutscene?AdmiralBison

depends on the game maybe.

Don't a lot of Bioware games typically have big videos (WarCraft did anyway), what if you are using a 7.1 sound set up with your PC? Wouldn't sound quality stand to benefit froma higher capacity disc? dvd vs Blu-Ray

Installed onto the hard drive. Not every game on PS3 has loseless sound. Majority settles for compressed 5.1 because most people don't even have the proper equipment to even hear the difference (And no you aren't going to hear it on your $300 HTiB.)

And because pure, unlossy sound takes up way too much space to cater to a small number of people. Starcraft 2, most of it's cutscenes are rendered in-game. The reason say, MGS4 took up so much space is because they couldn't render it in real-time at 1080p. Same with FF. We can.

[QUOTE="AdmiralBison"]

aren't there PC games that come out on multiple discs?

Phoenix534

Yes, but not every PC has a blu-ray drive and digital distribution is such a large portion of the market that spending money on licensing Blu-ray isn't worth the extra cost for publishers.

This. COnsoles make formats proprietary and everyone who owns the console has it, so Blu-Ray is a good idea. But PC really just doesnt need it with the rise of Digital Distribution.

[QUOTE="AdmiralBison"]

Something I notice since gaming PCs are the top benchmarks for gaming- wouldn't it make sense to use a higher capacity disc to get more gaming content- game editors, higher video qauality, uncompressed sound

ChubbyGuy40

Because we've had hard drives since the very beginning and we don't load from the disc :|

I know about installs and loading from the HD I have been playig pc games for over 20 years- I'm just thinking it could be more convenient some how to have everything on the one disk- it just seems the costs far out weigh the supposed advantages of Blu Ray.

It's weird with Blu Ray being a big deal in other sectors like game consoles, home video players and is synoymous with 3D that it seems in-conspicuously quiet on the PC Market. It's a like a 5th wheel for PCs.

which comes to my next question- whats the point of Blu Ray drives on PCs?

Even if PC games have to be split onto multiple DVD's, it's not a major issue as the games are fully installed onto your hard drive. You only need to have one(if there's DRM) - or no disc in to play the game, there's no disc-switching. The problem arises when you end up with installs that require a ridiculous amount of discs... One example is UT2004 which was 6 CD's and super irratating to install :P

scottahuch

those are exceptions to the rule though- Myself personally I havn't come across that many discs for 1 game.

[QUOTE="AdmiralBison"]

[QUOTE="ocstew"]Wrong. The "game" part of a video game is tiny compared to the audio and video aspect. Crysis 1 had the best graphics and included an editor yet it was only 6 GB. Audio is not noticeable on most games unless you have a decent setup. And videos, well, how much of a game is cutscene?ChubbyGuy40

depends on the game maybe.

Don't a lot of Bioware games typically have big videos (WarCraft did anyway), what if you are using a 7.1 sound set up with your PC? Wouldn't sound quality stand to benefit froma higher capacity disc? dvd vs Blu-Ray

Installed onto the hard drive. Not every game on PS3 has loseless sound. Majority settles for compressed 5.1 because most people don't even have the proper equipment to even hear the difference (And no you aren't going to hear it on your $300 HTiB.)

And because pure, unlossy sound takes up way too much space to cater to a small number of people. Starcraft 2, most of it's cutscenes are rendered in-game. The reason say, MGS4 took up so much space is because they couldn't render it in real-time at 1080p. Same with FF. We can.

I have a Panasonix VSX 1020 7.1 sound system btw, but I havn't hooked that up to my pc........yet. I was hoping Blur Ray PC gaming could take advantage of that at least.

aren't there PC games that come out on multiple discs?

AdmiralBison

Waste of resources.

Not a lot of PC games require you to have the disc in the tray in order to play, not to mention digital distribution is on the rise.

Gaming from your harddrive>disc based gamingforthelulzzz

seems to me PC does better with DD after all, and see little benefit to disc based games regardless of the capacity of the disc.

not enough people use blu ray players on their pc's to justify spending so much more money for something that doesnt even matter. if you're too lazy to swap a disc or two during installation, something is extremely wrong. [QUOTE="AdmiralBison"]

aren't there PC games that come out on multiple discs?

yellosnolvr

I would put this in my sig if there were room.

not enough people use blu ray players on their pc's to justify spending so much more money for something that doesnt even matter. if you're too lazy to swap a disc or two during installation, something is extremely wrong. [QUOTE="AdmiralBison"]

aren't there PC games that come out on multiple discs?

yellosnolvr

that was never the problem.

The problem is Blu Rays relevance on PC and I'm trying to find its justification for it on PCs. There are some new PCs with Blu Ray drives (I have 2 myself) but they seem like nice to haves.

[QUOTE="forthelulzzz"]Gaming from your harddrive>disc based gamingAdmiralBison

seems to me PC does better with DD after all, and see little benefit to disc based games regardless of the capacity of the disc.

I know about installs and loading from the HD I have been playig pc games for over 20 years- I'm just thinking it could be more convenient some how to have everything on the one disk- it just seems the costs far out weigh the supposed advantages of Blu Ray.

It's weird with Blu Ray being a big deal in other sectors like game consoles, home video players and is synoymous with 3D that it seems in-conspicuously quiet on the PC Market. It's a like a 5th wheel for PCs.

which comes to my next question- whats the point of Blu Ray drives on PCs?

AdmiralBison

Everything does come on one disc. The amount of people who have blu-ray players in their PC, is a miniscule amount. There's no benefit at all by using Blu-Rays.

That's because we've never needed it. Consoles (PS3 mainly,) needed it because they stored a bunch of pre-rendered HD screens and some games had loseless sound. Also Sony is a BIG part of Blu-Ray, so that's why they ended up using it.

To play movies on your HTPC? :|

that was never the problem.

The problem is Blu Rays relevance on PC and I'm trying to find its justification for it on PCs. There are some new PCs with Blu Ray drives (I have 2 myself) but they seem like nice to haves.

AdmiralBison

To watch Blu-Ray movies. Is it that hard to figure out?

[QUOTE="AdmiralBison"]

that was never the problem.

The problem is Blu Rays relevance on PC and I'm trying to find its justification for it on PCs. There are some new PCs with Blu Ray drives (I have 2 myself) but they seem like nice to haves.

ChubbyGuy40

To watch Blu-Ray movies. Is it that hard to figure out?

I can see the you can use it to watch Blu Rays

How many here actually watch Blu Rays more then D Videos on their PC?

I don't that's why alluded it to being just a nice to have

I can see the you can use it to watch Blu Rays

How many here actually watch Blu Rays more then D Videos on their PC?

I don't that's why alluded it to being just a nice to have

AdmiralBison

In my next PC build I will. It doesn't matter how many uses them, but the fact that they do. There is no other reason for using them on PC.

[QUOTE="AdmiralBison"]

I can see the you can use it to watch Blu Rays

How many here actually watch Blu Rays more then D Videos on their PC?

I don't that's why alluded it to being just a nice to have

ChubbyGuy40

In my next PC build I will. It doesn't matter how many uses them, but the fact that they do. There is no other reason for using them on PC.

In your next PC build you will what? incorporate a Blu Ray drive? I assume

I'm not being retentive I just want to know we're clear on this part.

In your next PC build you will what? incorporate a Blu Ray drive? I assume

I'm not being retentive I just want to know we're clear on this part.

AdmiralBison

Yeah that's it. That's because I'm going to be using my PC a lot more than PS3, and the PS3 won't be around much longer with the next gen starting next year.

[QUOTE="AdmiralBison"]

In your next PC build you will what? incorporate a Blu Ray drive? I assume

I'm not being retentive I just want to know we're clear on this part.

ChubbyGuy40

Yeah that's it. That's because I'm going to be using my PC a lot more than PS3, and the PS3 won't be around much longer with the next gen starting next year.

that would make sense because you would watch or will be watchingmore Blu Ray movies on your PC then your PS3 right?

that would make sense because you would watch or will be watchingmore Blu Ray movies on your PC then your PS3 right?

AdmiralBison

I don't watch movies all that much anymore anyway, but any movie or series I do buy I now buy in Blu-Ray.

PC does not have to take into account old systems with 20 Gb or no hard drive at all.

PC devs list HD requirements - so you know if you have enough to do a full install or not. Then you only need one play disk.

Oh, and probably 2-3 DVDs is cheaper than one Blu-Ray.

1. You install everything on PC. This makes the size of the media rather irrelevant save for production cost. 2. Blu-ray drive penetration on PC is still low. As such you can't depend on it. 3. Games are still hovering at the 1/.2 DVD range in size. If you think back to the very early PS2 era, when DVD was just taking off, PC games then too rarely came on DVD even when they were WAY beyond the size of CD (still remember baldur's gate on I believe it was 6 CDs, or maybe it was 8). Almost everything was still on CD and the few that weren't gave both options. Then DVD took off, and also due to PS2 and Xbox being DVD systems, games started to use DVD sizes much more, and PC finally switched over. We haven't quite hit tipping point for PC to switch yet. I'd guess mid way through next gen you'll start seeing it. DerekLoffin

that may depend on the success of Blu Ray- as DVD was a noticeable upgrade over cds.

Also DVDs didn't have to contend with an alternative format as strong as Digital content.

It's not longer just consoles pace that Blu Ray has to win over to be a success like DVDbut also digital streaming, digital distributors on the mobile and tablet market andset top boxes.

going by most of the answers here I don't see Blu Ray taking off on PC like DVD did.

http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/9/22/microsoft-predicts-blu-rays-demise/

http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/9/20/game-downloads-exceed-physical-sales/

Blu-Ray is *by far* the most superior consumer format to watch movies right now, but for games it's a little ahead of it's time (i.e. PS3 does't have the power to take advantage of the max textures that blu-ray capacity would allow). For non-game software it's almost entirely unceccessary.I doubt it ever takes off on PC even for gaming, just look at how small the PC software section is in most stores these days anyway.

i use a blu ray drive in my pc, but only for blu ray movies.

i download most games on steam, so no point.

...just look at how small the PC software section is in most stores these days anyway.

2Chalupas

That's due to a massive move to DD... One of the reasons Blu-Ray would be unnecessary, along with the fact that everything is installed to the hard drive on PC, and isn't run from the disk.

If a game comes in multiple disks, you just install the data on all of them to you hard drive, then use disk 1 only forever till the end. A lot of the times you wont even need the disks afterward, or just use DD.