There are some "luxuries" in that allocation - 3.24GB of behind-the-scenes movies, 7GB of foreign language audio, and 10GB of 3D movies (pre-rendered cut-scenes are stored both in 2D and 3D versions) but by our reckoning there's at least 16GB of core game data being used in this game - and even then, Naughty Dog is employing compression on top of that, so the real size of these assets easily moves north of 20GB - not including pre-rendered movies. All of this is driven by executable code just 18MB in size.
The compression element is interesting. There is no mandatory install with Uncharted 3, everything is being streamed in and unpacked in the background, with an enviable level of efficiency - you can even skip cut-scene movies and the next level is always there waiting for you. Our feeling is that while Naughty Dog could have probably fit everything on the Blu-ray without compression, the system employed lightens the load on the drive. The developer did the same in the previous Uncharted titles, but it's clearly been taken to a whole new level for the third outing. Even bespoke animations are spooled in from disc.
"Just as a simple 'for instance' we have idle animations in Uncharted 3 that are over 12 minutes now," Naughty Dog's Lemarchand tells us.
"We can stream them, we don't need lots of memory, we just need the disc access time and there are lots of long, complex animations that we can stream in. We also just put in a lot of extra polish onto Drake and other characters. He'll reach out and touch walls as he passes them, which is something that we tried not to overdo but it does further the naturalistic look his animation has and sell him as a real human being as you steer him through the environments."
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