When RAGE releases on PC this month, it's going to take a LOT of hard drive space. Why? The answer, Tim Willits tells us, is megatextures...
When we posted the PC specs of id's upcoming shooter, RAGE, one thing that really caught everyone's attention was the giant 25GB of hard drive space the game requires? What could possibly need that much space, folks wondered. Well, Tim Willits was in town this week, and we got a chance to ask him.
"Oh, that's all megatextures," he told us, after a recent hands on session with the first couple of hours of the game. We were remarking that the game, even on console, is possibly one of the most painterly games we've ever played, and then asked about that 25GB requirement. "All of this," he said, pointing at a soaring rock face, "it's a single texture."
Megatextures are the brainchild of id autuer John Carmack. These are essentialy large, single textures that can be easily streamed over small memory bandwidths. The other advantage is that game designers have control of every pixel, and on large resolution PC monitors, Willits told us hte game is going to look great. "Imagine all this with no jaggies, full HD plus resolution. That's where the 25GB of space comes from!"
Hmm... colour is a little more intrigued by RAGE now... If you're intrigued too, check out this new RAGE trailer, too.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012