PS5 Devs Open Up About 3D Audio And SSD

As we countdown to the release of the PS5, Sony continues to give us more information regarding the new console. After last month’s blog post about haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, this time they’ve chosen to focus on the console itself. The blog post covers two features, the PS5’s SSD as well as the Tempest 3D Audiotech Engine.

SSD On The PS5

The PS5 comes with an SSD, or a Solid State Drive. This enables much faster file-writing, which means less time for you to spend in a loading screen. This is great for games loading in a lot of assets, like an open world game. However, it can also be great for a game where you will be loading back in multiple times per session. This can be for exploration purposes, like in Hitman. Alternatively, you could be doing this because you keep dying in Demon Souls: Remastered.

“As developers [of Demon’s Souls], we are already changing the way we think about the SSD. We see it not just as storage but also memory, utilizing the speed of the SSD to load data at blistering speeds, bringing you straight back into the action to avenge your many deaths.”

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-Gavin Moore, Creative Director, SIE Japan Studio.

On top of that, writing data faster also means writing more data, which means games can include more detailed assets without players having to make a cup of coffee between loading screens. Players can look forward to generous use of this in open world games like the upcoming Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

“Beyond near-instant loading and fast-travel, the SSD and its speed allow us to more quickly load and display more detailed assets. This should lead to the city looking better than ever, and this is just the beginning for our team unlocking those possibilities. It’s a fundamental change that we can’t wait to take more advantage of in the years to come”

-Brian Horton, Creative Director of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Tempest 3D Audiotech Engine

With the Tempest 3D Audiotech Engine, games can more accurately mimic sounds in a 3D space. This would open up more gameplay options, allowing sound cues to be just as important as visual cues in a game.

Naturally, the one genre at the forefront of wanting you to feel like something was creeping up on you would be horror. With the 3D Audio on the PS5, you can spend more time gaming as the life-like audio of Resident Evil: Village keeps you from getting any sleep.

“Audio is a key feature to really push the next-gen experience with PS5. It’s almost as if 3D Audiotech was made specifically with horror games in mind. It used to be that in order to get that spatial audio, players would have to invest a lot of their own time and money. Now, just putting on a headset, they can get a full 3D audio experience.”

-Jun Takeuchi ,Executive Producer, Resident Evil Village

Similar to the SSD, simply having more audio data available is a huge improvement for games across the board. This allows games to layer their audio, providing more variants of tracks for different situations.

“The ability to layer the music even more deeply with dozens of different states reacting to areas and enemy levels make for an environment that’s even more lush and mesmerizing. The players can use these cues to prepare accordingly in the hopes that they might live another day.”

–Julian Maroda , Creative Director and CEO, Norsfell

With these features, the PS5 will have a lot of potential for amazing gameplay experiences. Fast loading times and higher quality assets make this a great leap from previous generations. Will Sony show more details about the PS5 ahead of its launch? We can only wait and find out.

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