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Why Do PCs Need To Install Games, While Consoles Don't?

Adam8281

Adam8281

Platinum Member
Why do you have to install a game on a PC, whereas with a console, you just pop the disk in and it's good to go?

I mean, a high-end PC's components - Dual or Quad Core, 4-8 GB Ram, blazing new graphics card - probably are better than the components in an Xbox 360. So why can't a PC play a game without having to first install it?

My best guess is that it has to do with the fact that code written for console games is specifically optimized for the hardware components which the programmer knows are in the console. A PC game, on the other hand, has to be able to play on a whole host of hardware, since some players will have AMD CPUs, some Intel, etc. Is the need for installation on PCs a result of the game code not being perfectly optimized for one configuration, like in a console?
 
Ever used a console? As far as I know the dvd is constantly spinning. This isn't the case when you play a game on the PC. Besides, when you download a game, and play it using Steam, there's no DVD. Ease of use I suppose, to bad to many frigging games need the DVD when you play, just to check if it's the real deal. I think this would be the case with consoles as well, but HDD's aren't necesary ( or at least a BIG HDD ) for consoles, and thus they leave HDD's out, saving a lot of money.
 
Console works with the set of hardware that are in few models os the consol.

In a PC the hardware is very diverse.

As a result the embedded drivers work on the console as is, on a pc the correct one has to be install.

Some part of the Game support is embedded in the console.

You can not expect manufacturer of PC to embed in hardware support to every game that is out there and have pre-congintion about what would be developed in the future.
 
I suppose you could set up you PC to emulate a console-like experience. Use a Media Center type interface for Windows, where you can select the game to play. Have a game designed to run on DVD automaticaly with Auto Play. All of this would require setting up ahead of time though.
I know some smaller or old school games did play strait from the CD/DVD when you put it in.
 
Games installed on a hard drive can load more data to RAM in less time, and can be patched. These are significant advantages.

Concerns about drivers are largely irrelevant. The operating system in a PC provides drivers. Virtually all games use either DirectX or OpenGL, APIs that abstract away most hardware details. PC games that include features that require specfic video cards (such as high-dynamic-range tricks) generally have a checkbox to enable/disable the feature, not an entire separate exectuable. AFAIK, chunks of code dependent processor instruction-set extensions (such as SSE) are normally enabled/disabled automatically based on a check at runtime.

The most compelling technical (vs. performance) reason to install a game to the hard drive is probably that you can then write entries to the Windows registry.

Cliff's: PC games are installed to a hard drive mostly because it improves performance.
 
Originally posted by: Adam8281
Why do you have to install a game on a PC, whereas with a console, you just pop the disk in and it's good to go?
Click to expand...
Because hard drives have been standard equipment on the consumer PC for nearly 20 years, while consoles have optionally featured hard drives for three or four years at most. PCs have been standardized around hard disk loading of applications (i.e. staging) for 20 years. Consoles have not.

You're viewing it as though today's developers ask the question 'to stage or not to stage' onto the hard drive before they start development on every game title, basing the decision on contemporary resource factors. That decision was made 20+ years ago and there would be little point in revisiting it.
 
So that we don't need discs in drives to be able to play many games, we can have reduced loading times, and higher quality data.
 
Originally posted by: JackMDS

Some part of the Game support is embedded in the console.
Click to expand...

Huh? you mean to say that XBox and PS3 hardware has game code for games released today already embedded? How did the game developers manage that, do they have a time machine to go back to the past and embed the code? 😛
 
Their is a propriety interface code that is part of the game Boxes and Not specific to the Game Thematic Plot.
 
1. There's no guarantee every PC has a sufficiently fast disk drive to stream. Though most should be fast enough now to match the console experiences, though maybe not laptop drives. Breaking up data by load points the old fasioned way really limits world size.
2. Because it's just standard to install things. There's no technical reason games couldn't be run from the disk, and I think Halo 2 PC even supports this option. Honestly, since most games require the disk in the drive anyway, I think it should be an option on more games.
 
A lot is to do with ensuring that a PC system can run the game software.

There have been a whole host of different technologies that games use in order to provide the desired experience- various versions of Direct X, various audio layers, open GL, other OS components, etc.

In a console, the OS is standard - there has traditionally been no updates, no patches, nada. Your game has to work with the technology built into the console.

WIth PCs, there is the ability to update the technology - a new direct X technology, new audio technology, etc. and games are able to take advantage of this immediately - they just need to make sure that the PC is ready to take them. So the install process, helps to update the PC's OS, to include the necessary tech.
 
Originally posted by: JackMDS
Their is a propriety interface code that is part of the game Boxes and Not specific to the Game Thematic Plot.
Click to expand...

And DirectX isn't the exact same thing? I do not think that has anything to do with why console games are not usually installed.
 
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