Update: Wow! We now have video proof of just how much Naughty Dog has improved the loading times in The Last of Us Remastered on PS4. As demonstrated below, it takes just 14 seconds to load a new game, compared to 1 minute 30 seconds previously. That's an absolutely insane difference. Loading a save takes around 14 seconds with the new patch installed, compared to over 2 minutes before.
While the original loading times may seem wild, Naughty Dog has always hidden loading in-game, relying on that initial lengthy load screen when you boot the game. Apparently, the magicians at the studio no longer even need that. It's worth adding that PS5 will probably bring these load times down to a couple of seconds or so. Crazy stuff!
Original Story: Sony is continuing to roll out patches for its biggest PlayStation 4 games, with The Last of Us Remastered (and its standalone The Last of Us: Left Behind expansion) being the latest recipients. Many have assumed that these surprise updates for legacy games are preparing them for the PlayStation 5, but there are actually some noticeable improvements on the manufacturer’s current-gen console here as well.
According to speed runner Anthony Calabrese, the game’s loading times have been dramatically reduced. Here’s what he had to say on Twitter:
It’s unclear what Naughty Dog has optimised here, but you can bank on the loads being virtually non-existent on the PS5 with these kinds of improvements. That’s great news for those of you planning to replay the title, or check it out for the first time as part of the PS Plus Collection.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 46
@Medic_Alert I think Sony's laser-focused on their new games.
@Medic_Alert I wouldn’t be surprised if this info is fed out by the folks who recently got them delivered and digital foundry {whenever they receive theirs}.
I look forward to seeing TLOU2 take advantage of the PS5.
Sony have been dropping PS5 info midweek these past few weeks with the teardown, UI and media apps. So here's hoping that continues with B/C improvements and deep dives into Destruction AllStars and Demon's Souls.
Oh that's nice, I'm planning to play the game again with new game+
@Medic_Alert yeah I wouldnt have minded them being a bit more open like MS; However, the flips side is we pretty much know everything about series x now. Sony's approach can be frustrating at times but its arguable that its keeping the excitement peaked as they seem to drop information at any time without warning. When they do the attention it brings is basically free marketing. Then it repeats and, at this rate, it will probably keep going until launch week.
Frustrating? Absolutely. Pretty effective though.
@Medic_Alert yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they tried charging us again for a native next gen version.
Naughty dog have only gone and patched in an SSD
@Medic_Alert im waiting on those two drives myself while I just seen that 980 pro is available from next Friday 30th so we shall see if sony come out with any information.
If Sony gives us a steady flow of exclusives games like on the PS4 and great free DLC's then PS5 will be another winner!
Still hope a new PSVR gear comes out next year?
@Medic_Alert this is also very true. At least it gives us all something to complain about though eh! Haha
This is cool. I am half way through a play through of remastered, but i might wait till ps5 drops to finish it
@Medic_Alert I think they could still make the launch exciting without playing a perpetual game of hide the ball. Especially since, at this point, can you even order any more PS5s? Do we really need people who have already bought the console to be bursting with excitement to the point of frustration? And if so, why?
I'm going to be a bit of a syinic: maybe the reason many of these games are getting patched is because of compatibility issues they had to address for them to be 100% playable.
Don't forget they did warn that compatible games still can experience issues, they would not has stated that if they had not found bugs on some of their own games.
So... basically this means there was room for much better optimization all along but they didn't care until now? Let's be real, it wasn't a remaster but more like a quick port. Maybe loading time was purposefully made longer (issues along the way when porting from PS3 to PS4?) but it would seem very odd on PS5 with the super fast SSD so they unlocked something.
I moved all my PS4 games to an external SSD for whenever I bother getting a PS5 in the future, I'll have to update this since it's on there. Might even test it out with the SSD + new patch.
Edit: Just tested it out, not sure how much is down to it being on an SSD or how much is down to the patch or a combination of both, but it loaded a level cold from the menu in 6 seconds, as opposed to the usual 30-60+ seconds
@DarkCat Exactly what I'm thinking, like why didn't you reduce the load times since forever... Now who knows if the PS4 can actually output 4K60fps but no let's tell them it can't so they upgrade to the new machine 😆
🤷♂️
Naughty Dog showing us PS5 cant wait a few years. Wait a year, ship the ps5 with big navi for 999$. Id buy one
@Arugula never change, Frigate.
So is there going to be an article about every single game loading quicker? Why not one article reading “PS4 Games Load Quicker on PS5” and leave it at that? We get it, it has an SSD.
@nessisonett Maybe read the article before criticising? These are improvements on a PS4 to the PS4 game! It got patched overnight.
@Medic_Alert There's a separate WD tech press release (not the product line press release) that mentions they worked with Sony to ensure PS5 compatibilty. It will be on the list when Sony publish their list.
@get2sammyb Today I learned I cannot read. I eat my words 😂😂
Might actually go back to this just to remind myself what made me fall in love with these characters. I honestly found it impossible in the new game to like anyone.
@MarcG420 Mmm I see.
Article has been updated, so PS4 is actually capable of even more shorter load times if things keep getting tweaked.
@Boxmonkey Well yeah it's like EVERYONE is just bad in TLOUII it's hard to take sides and I think that's the point of the game. But even in the first I felt Ellie was quite annoying sometimes tbh. I like Abby but you can't REALLY like her cause of the manner she ended our guy. Everyone's damaged goods. Still, graphics and gameplay is up there with the best.
@TheArt on further investigating into it I found the size of the patch was only 500mb and downloading recompressed assets would no doubt be much higher than that I imagine so it seems I was likely too quick to attribute it to kraken+oodle textures. It will be making for some crazy fast load and streaming though.
My bad. This is some impressive stuff whatever the method.
By far the feature I’m most looking forward to. I’ve stopped playing games I’ve bought because the load times were so atrocious. Crash Bandicoot Nsane trilogy anyone?
@Weebleman “fed out by the folks that recently got them”
These speed improvements are for PS4. You not got yours yet?!
That's pretty damn crazy, but I wonder why ND couldn't accomplish this before? Well maybe they could, but just didn't have the budget or Sony didn't think that was necessary.
Don't think I'll ever play the TLOU again, but it'll be pretty cool for newcomers.
Only ever played a bit of the first one tbh. Might as well give it another go if the load times are shortened on ps4, too.
@Dodoo someone wasn't following the conversation properly was they.
Maybe new compression format have been appiled on the game? Maybe new Oodle format? 🤔
Hmm, i haven't got the time to replay it but I might replay it before I play the second one soon (another game to add to my massive games to play on PlayStation then still)
@Wormold Lol are you comparing Rockstar's OPENWORLDS with no load screens when exploring the skies, land and sea to ND's wide linears...
This is extremely odd...
Patching loading times for PS4 makes me wonder why the hell they didn’t implemented the game that way to begin with!
It’s not that the hardware have changed at all... which leads me to think that (SSD aside) this loading times are just an marketing stunt!
@God_of_Nowt How the code optimization can affect the speed of data transfer into ram memory?
@thiagoauler Because TLOU Remastered was made early in the PS4's life and things change on the development side, like improved dev kits, upgraded engine etc.
I wish this patch would have come sooner...just beat the game last weekend and I have no intentions of ever replaying it again.
Planning to start up Left Behind today, and saving Part II for the inevitable PS5 patch/upgrade.
@thejameswhogames and a little crazy that they even went through the trouble as anyone playing it after Nov 12 will likely be playing it on PS5, where the loads times were going to be faster anyway.
@God_of_Nowt Everything you said make sense, but, it didn't answer the question, why they doing this with old game like this? In my opinion, they just preparing the game for PS5 standards.
@AdamNovice Yeah! Fair enough! Being a PS3 remastered, probably they didn’t bothered to fully optimize for PS4... because deadline.
Wow so it's taken Naughty Dog 6 years to figure out how to reduce load times in this game.
This is great news now but they're telling me that I didn't have to sit through all those long load screens on PS4 all these years. Makes me wonder why they didn't have this patch years ago for this or any other PS4 game that has long load times. If it doesn't affect the quality of the game, I wish they did this when PS4 first came out. That would have been great!
See, Sony can apparently update "old" games "nobody wants to play" for the PS5. It's a miracle!
And every once in a while they actually deign to inform us of such things......
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