Gears of War: E-Day Addresses Xbox Series S Memory Challenges
- The Coalition utilizes NVMe SSD to enhance memory capacity for Gears of War: E-Day on Xbox Series S.
- A technique to swap data between RAM and SSD effectively increases usable memory.
- Restructuring within Microsoft’s gaming division raises concerns over job security at The Coalition.
As a first-party Xbox title, Gears of War: E-Day faces the challenge of optimizing performance on Xbox consoles, particularly the Series S, which has limited computing power compared to the Series X. Developer The Coalition has implemented an innovative solution to address the memory limitations of the Series S.
Gears of War: E-Day features intricately detailed environments that demand significant system memory, posing a challenge due to the Series S’ 10GB of GDDR6 RAM. To alleviate this, The Coalition has offloaded data onto the console’s high-speed NVMe SSD storage. Digital Foundry reported on this technical advancement, co-developed with Xbox’s Advanced Technology Group.
NVMe SSD drives contain their own RAM modules, allowing them to function as additional memory. Although NVMe is faster than traditional storage, it does not match the speed of RAM. Consequently, The Coalition has utilized the NVMe as a secondary tier of memory. This allows the game engine to stream assets more efficiently by dynamically transferring data as needed—loading it to RAM and returning it to the NVMe when not in use.
According to Digital Foundry, “the benefit is that, in exchange for a couple of gigabytes of storage on the SSD, you can gain about a gigabyte of usable system memory.” The system intelligently selects which data can be moved to the NVMe without severely impacting performance, utilizing “advanced heuristics” to analyze access patterns. Frequently accessed data remains in RAM, while idle data is shifted to the SSD.
The potential for future Xbox titles to leverage similar memory-management technology remains a significant consideration, especially with upcoming large-scale games such as GTA 6 and Fable. Although this method is unique to Gears of War: E-Day, the concept of managing data between slower and faster memory systems is not novel, as evidenced by optimization strategies used in Mac devices. As the current console generation progresses, developers may need to implement creative solutions to meet the demands of AAA titles amid ongoing memory shortages.
Additionally, The Coalition has made further engine enhancements during the development of E-Day, including significant upgrades to technology related to gore and dismemberment, citing concerns that “fans were getting a bit desensitised to the violence in Gears.”
This technological advancement is notable for Xbox, taking place as the company navigates significant restructuring within its gaming division, prompting concerns about potential layoffs among The Coalition staff following the launch of Gears of War: E-Day.
News Courtesy of Eurogamer
