Loading Scenes and Music from CD-ROM
While working on scene loading in Polygon Engine, CD-ROM access was one of the clearest differences from development for a current desktop computer. The disc provides much more storage than PS1 RAM, but data must be read and prepared before the game can use it. Drive speed and file placement both affect that time.
This also affects game transitions. Before entering another area, I need to decide which assets will be loaded, what appears during the wait, and what happens to the music. Implementing that flow meant considering data loading and disc playback together.