Why so big?

[Apekatt]

Genuine question: Why is this game so big? Why does it require so many Gigs? Not only that but along with certain dlcs, those are also quite big.

[King Doom]

Really badly optimised, plus I've seen a few claims that it was done deliberately because the people in charge had no idea how video games really work and are convinced BIGGER = MORE BETTER.

[VulcanTourist]

Originally posted by King Doom:

Really badly optimised, plus I've seen a few claims that it was done deliberately because the people in charge had no idea how video games really work and are convinced BIGGER = MORE BETTER.

Do you even know what "optimized" means in terms of programming? It's the maps and the content in them that occupies all the space - DATA essentially, not instructions. Some of the maps individually are larger in size than most other games; for the complete game with my added mods occupies 375GB, and I have no other game even remotely challenging that. While that certainly is surprising and curious, it has nothing at all to do with optimization.

I haven't yet modded the game directly myself, but if I had then I would understand the content and structure of those maps and would then be able to answer the question factually. You've also never modded the game content but will happily substitute misinformation as a stand-in for those missing facts.

Your second claim is true QAnon quality nonsense. Why are you so desperate to criticize the developers that you have to fabricate nonsense to do it?

[Sgt Griss]

Originally posted by Lourdess Apekatt:

Genuine question: Why is this game so big? Why does it require so many Gigs? Not only that but along with certain dlcs, those are also quite big.

Go play any survival game with large map modding capability like Ark, Arma 3, DayZ etc. They all have massive map files because the maps are huge. Ark is more bloated but they are very similar. Sandbox games are much worse for bloat than other games due to how the game functions with demolishable terrain and what not also the maps they use do not typically share a lot of assets so they cannot pull from other game files to populate the map so it causes even more bloat.

[Veeshan]

The maps aren't procedurally generated (on the fly) and so have to reside on the HD. With Ark's map size and fidelity it means huge data files. Although sure they no doubt *could* have been reduced more, Ark wasn't a triple A effort filing patents on new ways to compress geometry or anything.

[Veeshan]

Originally posted by Sgt Griss:

Originally posted by Lourdess Apekatt:

Genuine question: Why is this game so big? Why does it require so many Gigs? Not only that but along with certain dlcs, those are also quite big.

Go play any survival game with large map modding capability like Ark, Arma 3, DayZ etc. They all have massive map files because the maps are huge. Ark is more bloated but they are very similar. Sandbox games are much worse for bloat than other games due to how the game functions with demolishable terrain and what not also the maps they use do not typically share a lot of assets so they cannot pull from other game files to populate the map so it causes even more bloat.

Quick correction, deformable terrain is actually usually a determining factor for *smaller* map file sizes since deformable terrain and pcg terrain are often paired (aka Minecraft, Terraria, etc).

Basically if you're gonna recalculate terrain on demand you may as well calculate it ALL on demand, since you're already implementing the algorithms for creating nav meshes, lightmaps, on the fly as well.

[Dracon]

TL;DR: This game has a LOT going on all at once on any given map and that requires assets that take up a LOT of data.
Compared to a game where everything happens in your immediate sphere of playing around your character.

In Ark, while you're building your little straw hut house on one end of the map, on another some T-Rex is roflstomping some poor sap between its toes like some foot fetish.

[Sgt Griss]

Originally posted by Veeshan:

Originally posted by Sgt Griss:

Go play any survival game with large map modding capability like Ark, Arma 3, DayZ etc. They all have massive map files because the maps are huge. Ark is more bloated but they are very similar. Sandbox games are much worse for bloat than other games due to how the game functions with demolishable terrain and what not also the maps they use do not typically share a lot of assets so they cannot pull from other game files to populate the map so it causes even more bloat.

Quick correction, deformable terrain is actually usually a determining factor for *smaller* map file sizes since deformable terrain and pcg terrain are often paired (aka Minecraft, Terraria, etc).

Basically if you're gonna recalculate terrain on demand you may as well calculate it ALL on demand, since you're already implementing the algorithms for creating nav meshes, lightmaps, on the fly as well.

Ark doesn't have deformable terrain it has destroyable assets but you cannot deform the terrain. they are 2 totally different things.

[VulcanTourist]

Oh, I *WISH* the terrain was deformable!

[Veeshan]

Originally posted by Sgt Griss:

Ark doesn't have deformable terrain it has destroyable assets but you cannot deform the terrain. they are 2 totally different things.

Correct.

[🦊 Hermit]

Just to clarify another point: The whole map is not simulated in realtime unless you specifically enable it to be so. Action does only happen in a small area loaded in around the player, and when a player goes out of range, everything in that area goes into stasis, and will not move again until another player re-enters the area.

If many players are in the world at once, moving around and doing things all across the map, then large sections of it may be loaded in at any one time. But if only one person is playing, then only things in their immediate vicinity will be moving, and things across the other side of the map will be frozen until the player gets close and they are loaded in.