Pre-loading coming to Xbox One

[heavensdevil]

Well, I think it's about time that re-loading is offered to those that pre-order games digitally. This feature should have been on since launch but it's not too late since the PS4 only started it a while ago.

Pre-Loading Announced at Gamescom

I think it's a neat feature as I slowly move on to digital this generation.

 

[Hype Leafie]

awesome beans news

 

[sc_shark]

iirc it went live today with preloading destiny... i pre ordered destiny(digital) on xbox one at gamestop.. unfortunatly it wont be a full pre load where your just waiting on a code to unlock access... i will still have to download the whole game once i get it...

i did go digital and will be getting the expansion pack(35 dollars) at the same time... i am about to order a 3-4tb external hd for my xb1 and all the games i have.. i am fast approaching 12-15 games and will probably be in the 20 game range with ea access and games with gold come January... and rumor has it the external hd's make the xb1 faster with loading and performance..

 

[Journey]

and rumor has it the external hd's make the xb1 faster with loading and performance..

External hard drives are supposed to make the One run faster? Hmm.. I might have to go ahead and buy one then. I still have a good bit of space on the internal drive but I am all about anything that'll make it run faster or perform better.

 

[sc_shark]

quite a few side by side loadtimes were done.. forza5 was one of the bigger ones.. where load times between tracks and such would range 10 seconds better iirc..

basically the internal hd is ok.. but the better external hd's western digital being one of them uses a hybrid sshd that offers load and unload speeds that are much faster than a normal sata 2.5 hard drive(which is what xb1 has internally) that paired with the 3.0usb go a long way.. also think once all apps,games ect ect are offloaded its basically like having a hard ddrive dedicated to supporting the user interface and operating system..

your real 2 options are
usb powered external they go to 2tb again the western digital has best reviews of performance its about 100bux on ebay
Western Digital Elements Portable 2TB External 5400RPM (WDBU6Y0020BBK-NESN) HDD for sale online | eBay

your next option is going up to 4tb again the western digital is the best performer for the price.. and thats a consumer reportthing not me. ebay is about 150 for a new one.(externally powered)
Western Digital My Book 4TB, External, 3.5inch (WDBFJK0040HBK-NESN) Hard Drive for sale online | eBay

only problem i have so far is when dnla/media stuff is avaliable the external hd is formated for xb1 and am not sure how i would save media files and the xb1 data stuff since.. its not like you can partition the hd..
my next problem is having enough space for the plugs.. my power bar is about full not sure i could get the external power for the bigger external hd..

 

[ReDGuNNeR]

If you have the money then an external drive is a neat purchase but ten seconds is a minor inconvenience and not a nuisance, in my opinion. I guess those load times all add up but when you are playing on multiplayer any game will wait for all players to load up all the assets before spitting them into the game so it's a moot point.

To answer the original topic I am glad pre-loading is being added because it's just so much nicer than unlocking the game at 12:01 AM or whatnot when everyone else is trying to load the darn thing. This will help alleviate some server issues

 

[Journey]

I can see where you might think it's not worth it to buy the external hard drive just to make something 10 seconds faster, Redgunner, but I know that I will wind up needing additional space in the end anyways, so the speed boost is like the icing on the cake for me. It's a reason to go ahead and buy before I need the additional space. That gives me time to shop around and find the best deal.

 

[SeanM]

so anyone wanna tell me what exact "pre-loading" is? I've never heard of it before now...

 

[sc_shark]

basically its like pre ordering digitally.... only it allows you to pre download game on system so you dont have to wait to install or upload to console from server.. it should elevate allot of server stress in theory when games launch.. like destiny is launching at sept9 at midnight.. the game will get unlocked at 12:00 digitally and you can play.. no need to go to gamestop or anything.

 

[sc_shark]

so my imoressions of the external hd after a few weeks..

its been a month or so now... i purchased a buffalo drivestation 3tb usb 3.0 external hard drive

where i got mine.. i payed 109 shipped... 3tb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822165295


so the install went easy.. hook up usb and it recognized it right away. whati didn't read is it first set it up for media player support..
after realizing it didnt actually do the format thing to xbox one i went into storage and it prompted me or found the storage device and the format took all of 5 seconds...

next step was transferring my games over to hard drive.. yea this was semi time consuming and combersume.. xbox/microsoft has not really thought this thru fully...
basically you have to move every game and its content and prompt it to..

you hit the 3 bar thing next to home...
manage game
storage/move

you have to do this for each game... and it also individulizes each content added... so if you have expansion packs or data it dumps it all into queu... needless to say i got a little over welmed and frustrated seeing all that in queue

past that i dont recommend dumping it all in queue at one time.. do it game by game.. when it has that much in queue the operating system likes to lagg.. once i realized what was happening i stopped trying to push games thru(first 2-3) and would watch netflix and check in on transfer... if you have a few in your network/internet is very vvery slow.. or mine was... wouldnt load am ovie from netfix... might have been a fluke but idk was to convenient..

worthy mention... i had roughly 12-14 games to transfer... it wasnt quick... especially with some early release games in the 28-40g range...

so on to performance..
i do play power star golf.. i mention this because this is a game i have seen the benifits and a few issues...

so far its the only game i have either had a hiccupq or seen the benefit.. i will say with 12 games and roughly 70% of my on board hard drive my load times on this game were slower... if i only had 1 or 2 it may have been faster.. but with the hd it did load faster while in game... the loading times for matches was/is faster.. however since i installed the hd the playing is choppy... not affecting my swing but rather the video feed.. i make m shot but the actual footage will skip for a second.. its an every swing thing not a isolated incident.. dosnt effect game play but is odd... if it paused in mid swing or something id be pissed... i had one hang up where it showed me swinging club but i never hit the button and it never resisted so it just dumped me back at the swing motion thing..

forza5 solo or non multiplayer matches seem to be faster as well... in loading.. i never stop watched it but its a bit quicker..

from a few articles and posts from microsoft they are working on a system that uses the ram of the cpu and the external hd to boost performance in multilayer games.. as right now the data has to stream thru the xb1... this plays into the coud computing as well.. the specific mention was in relation to watch dogs with the whole hacking and such.. where you join in a game and all that... but would transfer over to all multiplaer games that use cloud computing and such..

i do have 2 weeks of destiny play on my external and have not had an issue and i have a ton of hours logged...

i wil say the external is quiet i have mine stood up about 3 feet from my xb1 behind my tv... its out of sight and in open air.. it dosn tget hot or anything but you can feel the fans moving air... i had debated sticking a small fan back their and getting more air movment to keep my xb1 and hd cooler... with all the 12+hr stints of destiny i have felt my console and itsbeen quite warm... not alarming but id like to help the situation as much as possible... on a note.. i did pull 800gb-1.2tb of data in a 6hr period thru my xb1... i had to restat/hard reset my xb1 and netowrk... thats a ton of data moved and i could see it getting bit hot lol..

even with aa access every games with gold and a few xbox id games .. im roughly at 22 games with the next games with gold in a few hours... and im at 5.9% of my hd used out of a 3tb... i think it will get me thru the next few years no problem..

so i do recommend the external i have.. my cousin has a 1tb western digital and it feels exactly the same as far as performance goes.. i see no real issues ike some have had.. and i was worried about it as i have never herdo f the hd i have... a few have mentioned issues of dropping connection with external on a few less known names but 0 issues to date at roughly 3 weeks..
i got my review from
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-external-desktop-hard-drive/