Why is there a 50gb update?

[ayo]

I go to update my game because I see one is available. The update is 954mb it gets to 100%, then all of a sudden it says 50 gb update and starts downloading. I already have the game installed, and was on the latest version before this patch. Why did it switch up and make me download this huge update?

[Pig Killer]

no idea myself, I would like to know too

[Sкiткj3ll]

Originally posted by ayo:

I go to update my game because I see one is available. The update is 954mb it gets to 100%, then all of a sudden it says 50 gb update and starts downloading. I already have the game installed, and was on the latest version before this patch. Why did it switch up and make me download this huge update?

Search the forums for "Huge update size" and you'll get your answer. It's been explained a million times. But here's a quick recap; The size is correct. The 900 MB one that is. But the way Steam handles patching is pretty stupid. It needs to unpack the game files in order to replace the files that needs patching, and then repack them again.

Which is why you pretty much need as much free space as the game is in size in order to patch it. And in my experience; sometimes uninstalling the game is actually faster than the patching process depending on your hardware. CPU, RAM and HD mainly.

This happens with ALL larger games that uses heavy compression methods in order to make the game smaller in size. The drawback being this exact situation.

So, yeah... it's not the devs fault. It's Steam. And until they come up with a better patching solution to their platform there's not much we or the devs can do.

All we can do is suck it up and wait. This will most likely happen every time the game recieves a bigger update, so we just have to get used to it.

Also! Here you go; https://steamcommunity.com/app/1144200/eventcomments/4307201629952711088/

Patch notes are almost ALWAYS placed into the Events & Announcements section. Just for future reference.

[♂TheBlasterMaster™✞]

Originally posted by ayo:

I go to update my game because I see one is available. The update is 954mb it gets to 100%, then all of a sudden it says 50 gb update and starts downloading. I already have the game installed, and was on the latest version before this patch. Why did it switch up and make me download this huge update?

Read the update news?

[Smakadin]

what is this absolute nonsese about "every big game on steam updates this way"? utter ♥♥♥♥♥, i have hundreds of huge games and only a handful unpack the entire game for patching.

[𝒞𝒶𝓈𝓊𝒶𝓁 Sinner]

It is not that "every game updates this way." It is that Unreal Engine games update this way. The latest patch is 1Gb which you will download, but it affects 50Gb worth of files, so Steam has to patch over them. Void has split the game into 26~ files to try to not cause this, but when you are touching things about the game across multiple files, this is the only option.

[Sкiткj3ll]

Originally posted by Smakadin:

what is this absolute nonsese about "every big game on steam updates this way"? utter ♥♥♥♥♥, i have hundreds of huge games and only a handful unpack the entire game for patching.

And as the above user stated; Every newer, big game, pretty much, has crossed over to UE5, so... yeah. Quite a few then, and mostly newer ones, if that sounds better? The fact remains. And the explanation as well.

Almost every game I have that crosses the 50GB-size (Warhammer 3, Cyberpunk, TheHunter: COTW, Bannerlord, Generation Zero... etc. etc.) does this. Not all of them, mind you, but MOST of them. I don't really care how many big games YOU have that doesen't do this. That doesen't apply to mine or anyone elses experience. So that's a pretty vapid argument.

It mostly boils down to what hardware you're on. The faster your CPU, RAM and HD and so forth is, the less you will experience this issue. So... congratulations. You have a fast PC I guess. Well, most mortals may not have the luxury to spend a ton of money on a good rig, so that means some of us will have to live with this for a while longer. The sizes and times doesen't really bother me. As long as the game runs smooth, which most of them do. I just need to be patient.

Aaanyway... good night, people.

[catindabox]

A couple of the explanations above above explaining Steam updates and Unreal Engine 4 are essentially correct. We don't have much control over this particular aspect of how the game updates.

To re-iterate on these explanations based on what I understand from checking internally:

Unreal Engine 4 games patch all of a game's files when installing a new update on Steam, meaning small updates still involve patching the full game files. If you see the game taking a long amount of time to update (relative to the download size), then this is because it is patching the core game files. This means it may be a 1gb download and then have to patch ~50gb of game files.

Your question is a common one in general for Unreal Engine based games, and it certainly is a frustrating way that patches are processed, but not something we have much control over unfortunately.

[Carbon]

I will add that with UE4 games, the update method seems to take a toll on performance. If your performance seems worse after an update, uninstall and reinstall. Works a charm for me.

[InvaderGator]

Originally posted by catindabox:

A couple of the explanations above above explaining Steam updates and Unreal Engine 4 are essentially correct. We don't have much control over this particular aspect of how the game updates.

To re-iterate on these explanations based on what I understand from checking internally:

Unreal Engine 4 games patch all of a game's files when installing a new update on Steam, meaning small updates still involve patching the full game files. If you see the game taking a long amount of time to update (relative to the download size), then this is because it is patching the core game files. This means it may be a 1gb download and then have to patch ~50gb of game files.

Your question is a common one in general for Unreal Engine based games, and it certainly is a frustrating way that patches are processed, but not something we have much control over unfortunately.

dude i deadass just thought the dead by daylight devs hated me and made me update the game by whole every time something new was added.

[Cenotaph]

Originally posted by Skitkjell:

Originally posted by ayo:

I go to update my game because I see one is available. The update is 954mb it gets to 100%, then all of a sudden it says 50 gb update and starts downloading. I already have the game installed, and was on the latest version before this patch. Why did it switch up and make me download this huge update?

Search the forums for "Huge update size" and you'll get your answer. It's been explained a million times. But here's a quick recap; The size is correct. The 900 MB one that is. But the way Steam handles patching is pretty stupid. It needs to unpack the game files in order to replace the files that needs patching, and then repack them again.

Which is why you pretty much need as much free space as the game is in size in order to patch it. And in my experience; sometimes uninstalling the game is actually faster than the patching process depending on your hardware. CPU, RAM and HD mainly.

This happens with ALL larger games that uses heavy compression methods in order to make the game smaller in size. The drawback being this exact situation.

So, yeah... it's not the devs fault. It's Steam. And until they come up with a better patching solution to their platform there's not much we or the devs can do.

All we can do is suck it up and wait. This will most likely happen every time the game recieves a bigger update, so we just have to get used to it.

Also! Here you go; https://steamcommunity.com/app/1144200/eventcomments/4307201629952711088/

Patch notes are almost ALWAYS placed into the Events & Announcements section. Just for future reference.

It's not "stupid", what the patching does is replace ONLY the updated files within the game's deployment directory and it will even patch compressed file parts.
The advantage is that you download exactly what has been updated, the downside is it will take time to apply the changes.

[Bigboss PC Faster]

Better to delete and reinstall

[Arc]

Originally posted by 𝒞𝒶𝓈𝓊𝒶𝓁 Sinner:

It is not that "every game updates this way." It is that Unreal Engine games update this way...

The issue of bloated install sizes is not confined to Unreal Engine, it affects most engines using packed files in some way, depending on how the devs update their games, what was touched, how large is each pack of data, etc.
Though, as the UE4/5 is the most popular game engine these days and it has additional peculiarities, it is mentioned on Valve's Steamworks documentation.

Originally posted by 𝒞𝒶𝓈𝓊𝒶𝓁 Sinner:

... but when you are touching things about the game across multiple files, this is the only option.

Pretty much this right here ^

Originally posted by catindabox:

...
Unreal Engine 4 games patch all of a game's files when installing a new update on Steam, meaning small updates still involve patching the full game files. ... This means it may be a 1gb download and then have to patch ~50gb of game files.
...

Note that what you just mentioned is the "bad" scenario ^
As a developer you are suppose to chunk and pad your PAK files, as well as distribute assets within the pak files in a way that will conform to how SteamPipe content delivery operates, preciselly to prevent excessive install size ratios.

Meaning that if you do it right, the difference should not be "full game" all the time anymore (Ready Or Not used to have 2 pak chunks, now it's a dozen or so, yet it virtually always is ~50GB install per update).

The best practices are outtlined in the SDK docummentation:
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/sdk/uploading

Originally posted by catindabox:

... but not something we have much control over unfortunately.

There are ways to work around it, such as not touching Everything Everywhere All at Once (great movie BTW) each update.

But, that would have a drawback of too many updates just to fix specific things grouped together, witholding critical fixes to minimize install time because they do not fit in the group, etc.
That's assuming everything else failed of course.

[Arc]

Originally posted by ayo:

I go to update my game because I see one is available. The update is 954mb it gets to 100%, then all of a sudden it says 50 gb update and starts downloading. I already have the game installed, and was on the latest version before this patch. Why did it switch up and make me download this huge update?

If the Steam failed to download/install an update, in some rare cases, it starts downloading gradually more and more up till it basically downloads the entire game from scratch., as in, the actual "download" stage gets done, then it starts over with more data, etc.

Are you suffering from this issue, or did you misunderstood the difference between "downloading" and "installing" ?