Ratchet and Clank for PC will be the first with Directstorage 1.2

When launching the Playstation 5, Sony beat the big drum of the console’s speedy SSD drive. Another highlight of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart was when insomnia Creative director Marcus Smith opined that the game’s fast transition between different scenes “would not have been possible without the Playstation 5’s SSD”. For a PC, on the other hand, it seems entirely possible without — there’s a mechanical hard drive listed as a minimum requirement.

In a now-deleted blog post on Steam, Nixxes, who are responsible for porting the game to PC, reveal the upcoming system requirements. For those who are content with the lowest settings possible with 720p and 30fps, you can get by with a regular turntable, although an SSD is recommended. Key to this will also be Microsoft Directstorage, as Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart will be the first game to implement version 1.2 with graphics-acceleration decompression.

Directstorage was originally a storage interface for Xbox, which Microsoft then developed for Windows. So far, only one game – Square Enix’s Forspoken – uses it, but without the graphics-accelerated decompression which was added relatively recently. Among the most popular types of compressed data in games are textures and with the latest update, decompression can be transferred from the processor to the graphics card, for the improvements in load times that the technology promises.

Directstorage also works with older storage devices

This technology was primarily developed to make better use of the bandwidth offered by modern NVME-based SSDs, but it also works with other storage devices. According to Nixxes, the game is also equipped with the so-called Adaptive stream, which makes it possible to adjust the streaming textures according to the available bandwidth. Combined with Directstorage 1.2, it should provide “good streaming” even at higher settings.

However, it is possible that the reason for the low computer requirements is not only software magic. Since then, initial claims about how important the game console’s SSD drive was have proven to be somewhat exaggerated. Several tests, including from Digital FoundryIt has previously been pointed out that the Playstation 5 version of the game can handle slower SSDs than those equipped with the console.

source: the edge