News out of the Battlefield 3 preview event in San Francisco is that Battlefield 3 will come on two discs with an optional HD installation choice.  No this doesn’t mean that the game isn’t in HD if you opt not to install the HD installation content.  What this does is help the streaming of high res textures.  So if you want your game to look its best on your console (360 or PS3) then you’ll probably want to install the HD content that comes on disc one.

DICE’s Patrick Liu said to GamerZines, “There’s a voluntary install on the 360 …. I think Rage did it as well, where you can install content to stream higher res textures. We’re pushing that technology to the limit, and compared to our competitors, I would argue that we’re the best looking game.”

To clear that up though, RAGE did not have this separate feature.  One could argue though that the installation on it helps performance in many ways including the streaming of high res textures.  Don’t all games include this in some form or fashion though?  When you install a game to your hard drive it’s supposed to help performance so this isn’t all that weird for DICE to do.

Are you ready to head to the battlefield in a few weeks?