Hacking Regarding SD speed, and the future

[Fondue]

Right now, it seems that the standard SD test is done by watching the Castlevania demo. So if a game runs the Castevania demo, you are good to go.

But is that only at the moment? Could the future possibly hold more intense intros/gameplay? Or does the Castlevania intro put all of the DS's RAM/CPU/whatever to the test. (Thus making it physically impossible for a more brutal SD trial.)

Does that make sense?


So I was wondering if one should go "over the top" with SD speed now (Buy quicker SD cards) in order to avoid future more intense slow down problems.



EDIT: ...and if a Mod/Admin could move this out to the "NDS - Flashing Hardware and Software" forum, it would be appreciated.

 

[Vince989]

I'd like to give you a definitive answer for SD speed, but I can't, as I don't really know myself either...

And the reason for the Castlevania intro test is actually quite simple, it is the part that most cards struggle the most with, so it has been accepted as the current "standard" for speed tests for that reason, while Metroid Prime Hunters' movies (for instance) run well on all cards it seems...

*Move done*

- Vince989

 

[FifthE1ement]

The Castlevania test just stresses flashcart memory access times as it requires data to be accesses much faster than any game or information on the DS. Games like Animal Crossing and Tony Hawk can stress a flashcarts memory speed also but more along the lines of read, write and access times all together.

I think that the new codec technology for movies on the DS will keep the Castlevania test as the number one access time test as the new codec’s allow for data to be transferred less frequently so that the DS cart counterparts can be higher in size with slower transfer speeds and access times. The Castlevania intro movie was made with such a shoddy video codec which requires a lot of memory bandwidth and a very fast DS gamecart. All new DS games are using newer memory bandwidth technology and video codes so the problem in Castlevania will never happen again.

The new 1024Mbits DS game cart access speeds and transfer times are slow as hell and the data needs to be streamed in a manner in which lag and slowdown will not appear or interfere with the gameplay. Thus new techniques for managing memory appear all the time and these new movie codec’s are such examples. Technology gets better everyday as does ways to manage it, just look at Mario Hoop’s graphics for one!

FifthE1ement

 

[Fondue]

That is good to hear. While I do want the DS to be capable of as high of transfer speeds as possible, I do not want to be lagging because of my additional hardware. (SD cards, etc.)

Hope my hardware does not become outdated. I was assuming that the ds is capable of x transfer speed, and was hoping that my hardware setup was capable of x+1. (That way I would never have to worry about hardware upgrades.)


P.S. Thanks for the move Vince989.