PS5: Sony patent shows how loading times can be reduced

PS5 news are still warming up the gaming world. Sony patented a special system that allows other zones of the game to be loaded in advance by monitoring the player’s position. The software could be part of PlayStation 5.

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PS5: Sony patent shows how loading times can be reduced

On 16 April, Sony unveiled the first details of the PlayStation 5 and stated that it would integrate an ultra-fast storage system to significantly reduce loading times. In addition to the speeds of the SSD, whose specific characteristics are still unknown, the company also patented a system that eliminated load screens in some games.

IGN discovered patent, called “System and procedures for dynamically loading video game software for a smoother gaming experience”, describes a technique capable of monitoring the player’s position in an environment and determining which are the next zones to load. When the user arrives or approaches these areas, the system pre-loads them, eliminating the possibility of interruption.

This software would be ideal for improving the performance of an Open World game, one of the most popular genres of recent years. It is also important to make it clear that the above system would only work in titles that provide an uninterrupted experience rather than in titles that require a loading screen to get to a mission or level set in another scenario.

However, no one should be surprised if the patent becomes a reality, as Sony is driving reduced loading times as one of the key features of its new console, a path that Microsoft has also taken with Project Scarlett.

In fact, Sony has already shown in the video a comparison between the loading times of PS4 and PS5 and the difference was surprisingly small. Spider-Man took 8.1 seconds on the PlayStation 4, while the next generation hardware did so in just 0.8 seconds. We need to know more about the console before it is released in the last quarter of 2020.