It will take me 15 hours to install this game...

[SotiCoto]

I wasn't sure I was reading the file size correctly... but apparently it is around 140 gigs... give or take.

Okay, I thought... I don't know if that is normal or not. So I went to check a bunch of other games I have installed. They mostly varied between the 10 gig range and, at the upper reaches, the 60 gig range.
But this game is apparently more than twice the size of the next biggest game I've got on my drive.

What exactly is taking up all that space?
Is it the voice files? Tell me it isn't the voice files. Voice files are so horrifically space-consuming these days that I find myself wondering why text-to-speech technology hasn't advanced faster.
Or is it just that game devs don't figure the size of a game is a factor at all? Like who cares about trying to make games more space-efficient? There is always more space... right?

... Well not in my case. I've had to buy another external drive from Amazon just so I have enough space to back up my video files so I don't have to store them locally so I have more space for games...

And my Internet isn't great... though it isn't like I can do anything about it due to where I live. I just started downloading and it just hit noon. I woke up early today. I won't be able to play the game until tomorrow at the very earliest, assuming I leave the computer on overnight.

I really should have predicted this.

15 hours. Almost 16. Two work days. I could probably afford another Terabyte if I worked an extra 15 hours. Maybe I should spend this time calculating how much I'm paid transcribes directly into data capacity... Maybe if the cost of living weren't utterly debilitating for my entire lifespan, I'd be able to get a better home with better Internet and a better computer besides... but I can't.
This is how I live and how I'll die... paying far too much rent money, living with crappy Internet, waiting for games to download... and uninstalling things to make room for ever enlarging game file sizes....
I might die before this game finishes installing, and I'd be totally okay with that. And everyone would be free of my complaints, so I'm sure they'd be glad of that.


If you've read this far, you now have permission to mock me.

[Big Mad Wolf]

100-200 hours of content for one playthrough and yes pretty much everything got voiced, also a lot of cutscenes.

[lollars]

most of the "AAA" new games having over 100gb it is normal in this day and age

[Ironwu]

Bigger SSD, Faster Internet, Direct Connect Internet (not WIFI). With even a modest PC system it does not take very long at all.

As to the space needed? Well is is a custom crafted world; not procedurally generated. Lots of voice and cut scene conversations for ALL the characters and NPCs. Yes, it is a LOT, but it is truly worth it. :)

[Zygfryd]

Sorry to read that.

But I'd absolutely support the game being half a terabyte, if it had voiced protagonist dialogue and full mocap to go with all dialogue, not just the most important cutscenes.

No reason the game couldn't have multiple download size options, or streaming downloads while you're playing, outside Steam's packaging system. It's all a question of cost and time, and this developer clearly didn't have enough even to QA the game itself before release.

[talemore]

Why not download a movie. Stardust, Abigail, dracula untold, D&D honor amongst thieves, A rough draft, I am dragon

[Wirewing]

There was just an interview I read about this with a game dev. It's the textures my guy. Everyone demanding 4k textures on things they are 60 ft in the sky away from has ruined file size. On top of that, a good deal of the assets in this game are reused from the divinity series and just upscaled which is like adding more and more paint to a wall - it gets 'heavy'.

Edit: I forgot the animations, which also are massively important when you are half a block away and above them at an angle where you can't see them because ceiling textures constantly block them anyway.

[pascal.difolco]

Many recent AAA games are in the 100GB size zone : CP2077, RDR2, TWW3, BG3...
Mostly from graphics assets

If it takes 15hrs to install you defo need a better internet connection, that's the time it took me to download CD-sized games (a few hundreds MEGAbytes) in the 90s with a 33K modem connection lol
Now I can get a 100GB game in around 30min ...

[SotiCoto]

Originally posted by Big Mad Wolf:

100-200 hours of content for one playthrough and yes pretty much everything got voiced, also a lot of cutscenes.

Well, can't really measure in terms of "hours of content". I've played Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen for over 1000 hours and that is currently at 26.6 Gigs... including mods... Monster Hunter Rise is at about 36 Gigs. I can't be sure how much space Skyrim VR takes up since Vortex stores all the raw files for the mods elsewhere, but the game directory itself isn't half this game.

Originally posted by lollars:

most of the "AAA" new games having over 100gb it is normal in this day and age

And that is terrifying.
Not that I really know the difference between "AAA" games and "not-AAA" games any more. The lines have got rather blurred.

Lemme check my newest other game. Elden Ring. 48.3 Gigs. That is fair.

Originally posted by Ironwu:

Bigger SSD, Faster Internet, Direct Connect Internet (not WIFI). With even a modest PC system it does not take very long at all.

I'd call 15 hours a lot. A vast amount. A truly ridiculous amount.
I can't get faster Internet. It IS directly connected (I've got an ethernet hub deliberately so ALL my devices are directly connected where possible). And my PC isn't exactly a potato, though it has a few years under it.

Originally posted by Wirewing:

There was just an interview I read about this with a game dev. It's the textures my guy. Everyone demanding 4k textures on things they are 60 ft in the sky away from has ruined file size. On top of that, a good deal of the assets in this game are reused from the divinity series and just upscaled which is like adding more and more paint to a wall - it gets 'heavy'.

Edit: I forgot the animations, which also are massively important when you are half a block away and above them at an angle where you can't see them because ceiling textures constantly block them anyway.

Okay. That is a little terrifying and utterly ridiculous.
Is there an option to downsize to 2k textures and save space?
I mean I like sharp textures and play a lot of games where the textures are utter garbage (and I immediately notice)... but I'm comfortable in the 2k range. That is what I usually download for Skyrim VR.

[Hawke]

I sympathise and agree that Larian should have packed the high resolution textures (~90GB total) and VA into a separate free DLC.

The poor optimisation is becoming more prevalent as high-speed uncapped Internet access is becoming more accessible for the target audience of AAA titles.

[FDru]

I would imagine voice files being the bulk of the data for this particular game. There's just so much dialogue...

[SotiCoto]

Originally posted by Hawke:

The poor optimisation is becoming more prevalent as high-speed uncapped Internet access is becoming more accessible for the target audience of AAA titles.

I suspect a lot of people in the gaming industry don't realise that not everyone has access to top Internet speeds.
I consider myself privileged in that I could upgrade my computer if I really wanted, but I've never been able to get good Internet in all the decades I've been trying... I've deliberately picked homes time and time again when moving in the past based on where I could theoretically get the best Internet, but it was all lies and misdirection. I'd be promised one thing, get there, and the Internet would be unreliable and utter garbage... and by then I'm locked into a long contract paying 60 to 80% of my wages towards the rent prices to live in a hovel.
All I can say for my current Internet is that it doesn't go down much.... which is more than I could say for my previous 10 homes. BUT I can't push it to go any faster.


Any zoomers feel free to correct me if I'm misusing this term.... but I'm both too old and too Autistic to finesse my way to a better life. It is frankly a miracle I'm able to function independently at all.