Why are DCS updates so large???

[mikegross5691]

Hello,

First of all I would like to thank the developers for consistently updating the game, but why on earth are your updates always in the gigabytes, I mean the lastest one was like 16GBs, and although we apopreciate the updates aren't they a little large???

Many of us do not have the hard space for these kind of updates, not to mention these updates mess with a lot of great mods. And so prehaps we should go with smaller updates, instead of always rewriting the game.

I would think that the major updates would be coming to an end, as DCS is several years old now, and the core game should remain the same.

Idk, but I am sure I am not the only one to to voice these concerns, anyway let us hope that the latest update will be one of the final major updates.

Cheers!

[EagleLeader]

I'm no expert but I have been casually playing DCS for about 4 years now. From what I gather DCS is an ever evolving game. Meaning it always updates the core and assets to match the latest technology. For instance they recently reworked the core for FSR, DLSS, and Hyperthreading.

I originally started with what was considered a mid range gaming rig that met the system requirements 4 years ago and now the new system requirements exceed my system. I went from smooth gameplay to laggy but passable gameplay.

Is it a pain? Absolutely. However in the world of flight sims it is the status quo for any serious flight sim. Couple that with a game that is always evolving to match the latest technology and that means you are forced to upgrade your PC by their schedule. It isn't officially announced yet but I saw a developer Q&A where they are working on a worldwide map like the Microsoft Flight Simulator and if we plan on doing that we will have to be prepared to get massive hard drives. But that's not announced as they aren't sure if they will definitely be doing that. I think Microsoft Flight Simulator is still more demanding than DCS and there are negative reviews there with people who have the specs but the initial download takes them more than 24 hrs because Microsoft refuses to allow Steam to host.

[startrekmike]

Originally posted by mikegross5691:

Hello,

First of all I would like to thank the developers for consistently updating the game, but why on earth are your updates always in the gigabytes, I mean the lastest one was like 16GBs, and although we apopreciate the updates aren't they a little large???

Many of us do not have the hard space for these kind of updates, not to mention these updates mess with a lot of great mods. And so prehaps we should go with smaller updates, instead of always rewriting the game.

I would think that the major updates would be coming to an end, as DCS is several years old now, and the core game should remain the same.

Idk, but I am sure I am not the only one to to voice these concerns, anyway let us hope that the latest update will be one of the final major updates.

Cheers!

The update sizes are appropriate considering the size and scope of DCS as a whole. Pretty much every game these days is getting into the 100+ gig install size range and as such, it is only logical that update sizes will get larger as well. All things considered, many of DCS's updates are actually pretty modest in overall size even if they might seem large to you personally.

As far as hoping for no more updates. Well. That is just silly. I am sorry to be blunt but there is no way to sugarcoat this. DCS is a ever-evolving piece of software that consistently gets new aircraft modules and maps. Why on Earth would you think that they would just stop updating even newly released content just because you personally don't like the size of the updates? If the next update were to be the last, a lot of people (far more than your alleged number that don't like updates) would be justifiably really angry because content they have purchased isn't complete.

Honestly? A 16 gig update is nothing in this day and age and it has been that way for a while.

[Insônia]

Textures, models, and terrain take up the majority of the space. >80%

Adding content:
aircraft livervies/texture took about 5~20Gigs per plane, when a new aircraft released, there will be another 5~20Gigs add to the core game.

All player and AI share same DCS "World", even if you dont buy new DLCs, you will have those add to the core game so they can be functional and see in missions and servers as AI or multiplayer slots.

Patching content:
Inb4 The DCS asset wasn't "archived." There were many times more files than in the current version, but each file is tiny,  the update wasn't large. However, small files and fragmented assets cost significant overhead in the operating system, HDD, and even SSD. the system and game run more slowly.
They archive and compressed smaller files into a larger archive file, load them all together into memory. Reduce I/O overhead , improve responsiveness. The trade-off is that even tiny changes requiring replacing the entire archive. Today, the majority of the world has increased Internet infrastructure and speed. So it's a reasonable trade-off.

[Kagetora]

Also remember, some, if not most, of the updated things are being overwritten. It might be a 16GB update but might only be taking up a small amount of 'new' space.