PC update, why 15GB?

[sh3riff]

Patch notes are kinda empty for PC
So what gives, why 15GB update when there was nothing much done?

Did I miss something?

[Szorrin]

Because the files are compressed into .BA2 archives, when even a single file in one of those archives gets changed Steam has to redownload the entire archive.

[socialmediaaddress3]

They likely added some improved textures.
Those take a lot of space.

I already have Luxors HD pack so have no appetite for any of those.
I would like a look at the actual file packet thats being downlaoded.

I'd hate to lose my 60gig of upgraded textures only to be replaced by a lesser upgrade.

[A_O_A]

Originally posted by Szorrin:

Because the files are compressed into .BA2 archives, when even a single file in one of those archives gets changed Steam has to redownload the entire archive.

This. Because Bethesda uses compressed archive packs when Bethesda added the enclave stuff to the base game's .BA2 files you have to now download the entire archive rather then just the specific textures/meshes associated with only the new stuff added.
It's a combination of Bethesda's incompetence and Steams laziness.

[sdack]

They will have optimised much of the game data. It was always suboptimal and the cause for the fps drops downtown. They possibly even made some changes to the internals of the engine for more performance, which could require repacking the data files.

[Firewall The Protogen]

I'm not even able to update the game. And I have enough space to download. I cleared download cache and everything but still won't download.

[Irish Parker]

The 15GB is a 1.5 Mio pages long textfile, which contains the following repeating sentence:

IT STILL WORKS!

[Buffmania]

It's 15gb worth of patch. The install size, at least for me, only increased from 34.84gb to 35.67gb.

[sh3riff]

Originally posted by socialmediaaddress3:

They likely added some improved textures.

Sure, lets talk about what you think, very important .. I actually dont care about conspiracy theories to be honest

[Obsessive Power]

Originally posted by Szorrin:

Because the files are compressed into .BA2 archives, when even a single file in one of those archives gets changed Steam has to redownload the entire archive.

I'll quote you because no one else has. Your explanation does seem to be the most logical reason.

[LittleBlueDuneBuggy]

Originally posted by Obsessive Power:

Originally posted by Szorrin:

Because the files are compressed into .BA2 archives, when even a single file in one of those archives gets changed Steam has to redownload the entire archive.

I'll quote you because no one else has. Your explanation does seem to be the most logical reason.

It is. Ark does something similar when it gets updated.

[Hup]

It's due to the standardized way Steam compresses game files in downloads. I won't just download the individually modded files, you need to download each block of files where something is changed, even if it's only 1 file in 1000.

[x]

Not sure what happened to me, but I installed the game on the 24th. On the 25th it said there was an update (surprise) some 12GB DL or something. When it was over, it went to download another 53GBs of update. But it was working in the end so an extra hour didn't hurt.

[LittleBlueDuneBuggy]

Originally posted by x:

Not sure what happened to me, but I installed the game on the 24th. On the 25th it said there was an update (surprise) some 12GB DL or something. When it was over, it went to download another 53GBs of update. But it was working in the end so an extra hour didn't hurt.

Do you have the official HD texture pack? It's 53g, isn't it?

[x]

Originally posted by LittleBlueDuneBuggy:

Originally posted by x:

Not sure what happened to me, but I installed the game on the 24th. On the 25th it said there was an update (surprise) some 12GB DL or something. When it was over, it went to download another 53GBs of update. But it was working in the end so an extra hour didn't hurt.

Do you have the official HD texture pack? It's 53g, isn't it?

Might have. I just bought the GOTY (I'm coming from playing FO4 on XBOX) and said install all. I haven't check the extras
But when I installed the game, that one didn't install? I don't care, runs just fine.

[sarajiel]

Originally posted by sh3riff:

Originally posted by socialmediaaddress3:

They likely added some improved textures.

Sure, lets talk about what you think, very important .. I actually dont care about conspiracy theories to be honest

According to the timestamps of the newly downloaded files inside the "Fallout 4/Data" folder, the following files, excluding Creation Club, have been updated for me:

DLCRobot - Main.ba2
DLCRobot - Textures.ba2
DLCRobot - Voices_en.ba2
DLCRobot.esm
DLCworkshop01 - Textures.ba2
DLCworkshop01.esm
Fallout4 - Interface.ba2
Fallout4 - Materials.ba2
Fallout4 - Misc.ba2
Fallout4 - Shaders.ba2
Fallout4 - Startup.ba2
Fallout4 - Textures1.ba2
Fallout4 - Textures2.ba2
Fallout4 - Textures3.ba2
Fallout4 - Textures4.ba2
Fallout4 - Textures5.ba2
Fallout4 - Textures6.ba2
Fallout4 - Textures7.ba2
Fallout4 - Textures8.ba2
Fallout4 - Textures9.ba2
Fallout4.esm

Since I'm not really that curious about each and every file that has been changed inside the archives, I didn't run a binary comparison between the old and new files. However, as mentioned before, even if a single file inside the archive has been changed, you'll have to download the whole archive.
From what I've observed so far in game, there hasn't been a major update regarding textures as some may have hoped. The most noticeable updates seem to be for some decals of the weapon debris effects and similar stuff.
Judging from actually looking inside the archives, (install the CK, if you want to do that), it seems that BGS just ran a batch job over their whole set of texture sources and regenerated them in full. E.g. "Fallout4 - Textures8.ba2" are only ground and LOD-related textures for parts of the commonwealth and the Sanctuary Hills world aka the character generator portion of the game.

The Enclave stuff is part of the Creation Club and comes with its own set of plugins and archives. The free CC content is about 1 GB in size and can just be moved out of the data folder for new games, in case you don't want to use it. However, like many CC additions before, BGS did obviously update their master files (.ESMs) to integrate the new content in a more seamless manor into the game.