Don't forget that:
a) you current monitor is probably bigger than the one you had when games were small
b) resolutions are now higher than when games were small
c) level of depth is now higher than when games were small
d) probably more stuff being a real model rather than a bumpy texture on a flat surface - I dunno tho, 3d is not my thing -
e) cutscenes are of DVD quality now
Everything grows, just look at the size of your current OS, compared to DOS6.
Retro systems also have fairly large games while still being small, only like 3..6 double sided disks orso, but:
- indexed color gfx, if it's 16 colors max then you can store 2 pixels in 1 byte
- lowres screens, like 320x160 or 256x192
- some games even have patternmodes, which could store 8x8 pixels in 16 bytes memory
- music is usually not sample based, but FM-based, or any other chip like the PSG or SID
- cutscenes used to be slideshows
So, all-in I'm not surprised today's stuff is big. In ten years time, a game could perhaps be 50Gb. Tho I do believe sooner or later there's going to be a limit somehow. Because at a certain point your eyes and ears can't distinguish any more details anymore. For the same reason, we still have 24bit color.. who needs 36bit anyway? Resolution: at a certain point monitors won't get bigger, meaning that the resolutions will match the smallest possible dot on the screen. Music formats aren't relevant.. that's just going to be streaming, perhaps multiple streams at the same time could be the norm for the future. Etc.
a) you current monitor is probably bigger than the one you had when games were small
b) resolutions are now higher than when games were small
c) level of depth is now higher than when games were small
d) probably more stuff being a real model rather than a bumpy texture on a flat surface - I dunno tho, 3d is not my thing -
e) cutscenes are of DVD quality now
Everything grows, just look at the size of your current OS, compared to DOS6.
Retro systems also have fairly large games while still being small, only like 3..6 double sided disks orso, but:
- indexed color gfx, if it's 16 colors max then you can store 2 pixels in 1 byte
- lowres screens, like 320x160 or 256x192
- some games even have patternmodes, which could store 8x8 pixels in 16 bytes memory
- music is usually not sample based, but FM-based, or any other chip like the PSG or SID
- cutscenes used to be slideshows
So, all-in I'm not surprised today's stuff is big. In ten years time, a game could perhaps be 50Gb. Tho I do believe sooner or later there's going to be a limit somehow. Because at a certain point your eyes and ears can't distinguish any more details anymore. For the same reason, we still have 24bit color.. who needs 36bit anyway? Resolution: at a certain point monitors won't get bigger, meaning that the resolutions will match the smallest possible dot on the screen. Music formats aren't relevant.. that's just going to be streaming, perhaps multiple streams at the same time could be the norm for the future. Etc.