CD Bootable games for PC

[Rastalovich]

How much of a speed hike can u imagine ?

Don`t think it`s practical ? Well if u think that `kids in a bedroom` can hardcode demos that can exploit gfxcards, soundcards - why can`t developers manage this ?

Forget their issues with OSs - they don`t need an OS to run, the backbones will be of their own making.

U wanna play a game, u slip in u`r cd and boot to it. Granted with some storage space pre-allocated, prehaps a partition that u specifically name.

They don`t need to hardcode anything, that`d be asking too much, they can of course 3gl and compile or assemble their stuff.

They would, in part, use a pc like a console.

Biggest problem being drivers ? Major problem prehaps, unless that partition u dedicate hosts a folder that would contain all the drivers u require - which of course u can manipulated via either a web based front end, or a regular OS.

 

[equk]

How much of a speed hike can u imagine ?

Don`t think it`s practical ? Well if u think that `kids in a bedroom` can hardcode demos that can exploit gfxcards, soundcards - why can`t developers manage this ?

Forget their issues with OSs - they don`t need an OS to run, the backbones will be of their own making.

U wanna play a game, u slip in u`r cd and boot to it. Granted with some storage space pre-allocated, prehaps a partition that u specifically name.

They don`t need to hardcode anything, that`d be asking too much, they can of course 3gl and compile or assemble their stuff.

They would, in part, use a pc like a console.

Biggest problem being drivers ? Major problem prehaps, unless that partition u dedicate hosts a folder that would contain all the drivers u require - which of course u can manipulated via either a web based front end, or a regular OS.

Would probably be quite fast.

Reminds me of the old gentoo UT2k4 64bit livecd's a really scaled down version of linux with 64bit support, resulting in a faster experience.

 

[FarFarAway]

Drive access and spinning up time would also be a problem as games are pretty intense

 

[Rastalovich]

Yeah, unless u can take a hint from the likes of the newer consoles and transfer the CD/DVD to the harddrive (that u`ve previously allocated to the venture). Bearing in mind, as a pc user, u can install a 300g hard drive for way less than £100.

I think there are countless stepping stones and obsticles, but I bet the vast majority have a real simple solution when u think deeply about them.

 

[nathan]

it would be too much work for the developers, they depend on so much of the stuff in a OS just to make the game work (various API's etc). By the time they have coded and included all of the bit and bobs an OS would provide, it would nearly be the same speed as using the OS with games.

just my 2p

 

[Sticky Mick]

This is the sort of thing I've been bangin on about for the past 3-4 years.

The Amiga used to be able to do it pretty well, because the core of the O/S was held on a ROM chip. The theory being:-

Power up yer PC, put the game CD in the drive and re-boot. The game boots and only pulls what it needs from the O/S, video drivers, mouse/keyboard controls preferences (these could be stored on the HD from the first time the game is run). No anti-virus running in the background, no unnecessary processes dragging it down.

I think it's a viable proposition and the speed boost would be pretty dramatic.

 

[Toxcity]

It would turn your PC into a console.

Ever played Oblivion on Xbox360.. Longest loading times ever.. Then you play it on PC and its halfed!

 

[Rastalovich]

U put the cd in when u want to play from it - with the advantage of playing with no overheads.

U wanna use windo$e, just take the cd out and boot as u normally would.

There would have to be a transfer to hard drive with these games. games are getting stoopid big these days and dvd players just aren`t cutting it.

 

[nathan]

This is the sort of thing I've been bangin on about for the past 3-4 years.

The Amiga used to be able to do it pretty well, because the core of the O/S was held on a ROM chip. The theory being:-

Power up yer PC, put the game CD in the drive and re-boot. The game boots and only pulls what it needs from the O/S, video drivers, mouse/keyboard controls preferences (these could be stored on the HD from the first time the game is run). No anti-virus running in the background, no unnecessary processes dragging it down.

I think it's a viable proposition and the speed boost would be pretty dramatic.

from todays standard of games you would of "pulled" off every aspect of the os and saved no resources what so ever!

EDIT: England won a game of rugby, WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO, bout time!!!!!

 

[Toxcity]

I say you just install onto the Harddrive as normal.

Then boot from the drive, like choosing different OS.

A List of games comes up saying whats on the HD and you just choose!

 

[Rastalovich]

from todays standard of games you would of "pulled" off every aspect of the os and saved no resources what so ever!

EDIT: England won a game of rugby, WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO, bout time!!!!!

U gotta be kidding nathan, it`s like looking at code in machine language as opposed to compiled 3/4gl.

It`s sort of akin to thinking how dos programs work. If u want to handle something in dos, u lookup the sys for it (in most cases), that turns out to be a size of a 100 or a couple of 100k - and just does the job it`s asked, nothing more - no hooks, nothing fancy, just does it. Download the win/mac drivers for the same thing and they`re 10s of meg, full of compliance and overheads.

Same thing for the gfx & sound, sound is the easiest, gfx are a tad trickier as they have more bells & whistles, but if some kid in a bedroom can code one hard - an established gaming company worth it`s salt should be able to.

Thinking hard about it tho - no game company would do this these days, as the interest is more about getting the product on the shelf and gettin the £ in. The games industry is nothing like it used to be.

 

[FarFarAway]

The games industry used to be a few blokes sitting in darkened rooms fiddling with compilers and code trying to get a pixel or so to move to the other side of the screen.

I don't think you could fit the whole hardware instruction set for graphics/physics acceleration onto a CD and load it fast enough from a disc drive for the game to be playable

 

[Rastalovich]

It wasn`t that simplistic, some1 in their home would be able to do that

I`d be more inclined, as mentioned above, to have the engines and drivers required managable from another OS, installable from an initial install and maintained via access to u`r regular OS. Beit Win/Mac. Updates and what-have-u can be easily applied.

The only things on the cd or dvd would be game code, which u can transfer to u`r already prepped drive-space.

Loading from the cd then would be just booting.

 

[nathan]

so are we at a slimmed down os?

 

[FarFarAway]

so are we at a slimmed down os?

Sounds like a games console to me tbh

 

[Toxcity]

Yep sound just like the Xbox 360..

 

[Sticky Mick]

But when you've finished with your X-Box the best you can do is switch it off and go to bed. But with a PC, shut the game down, re-boot and go do some spiffing art-work in PSP or 3DStudio Max. No need to cut down the O/S.

Anyone remember the Amiga Demo Scene? Man there was some cool demos. And all these kids were doing is hard coding "Bangin the metal" as they called it. They were shifting hi-res images (1024x768) and fully textured 3D objects about the screen at rates in excess 100fps. All on a measley 14Mhz CPU.

 

[Rastalovich]

Yep sound just like the Xbox 360..

hmmm, gonna go use my nephews 360 and see if it even lets me transfer my holiday dv onto dvd.

I`m not going to explain the difference between a pc and a console, that may well be patronizing.

I still got aload of the Amiga demos and intros I`ve written on disk.

If meh Amiga isn`t setup by the time my c2d arrives, I`m gonna give myself some punishment! Was thinking of getting a Mac for the net, but I don`t think theres much point whilst I`ve got a machine that can be a Mac or a Linux ppc.

 

[PP Mguire]

I don't think you could fit the whole hardware instruction set for graphics/physics acceleration onto a CD and load it fast enough from a disc drive for the game to be playable

Quick to forget we have imaging programs these days? You could rip the disk to the HD via Windows on the other partition or w/e and do it that way. To me though, just sounds like your trying to bring DOS back. Mmmmmmm the simplicity of DOS. *Runs and makes DOS machine for old DOS games*

 

[Rastalovich]

Urrgggshhhsasffffff!!!!!!

Not MSDo$e 8.3 >.<

lol