My disc storage space consumption is getting a little much...

[ingosupercute]

... I currently have to use 156GB of space to keep the game functional in the way I want to play it.

49,9GB is the size of my steamapps folder for Skyrim including all the mods.

And additional 49,9GB is the size of the copy of my Skyrim folder I made before the update... and it saved my bacon twice already when I got caught by the game update thanks to my own stupidity in combination with Steam's insufficient selection of control over my virtual property.

And then the my Vortex folder in the hidden "default" folder under PC user data consumes another 56,2GB of space. Found it by pure chance when I was wondering why my user data was so large but I didn't see any folder causing it. I assume (without knowing) it is thanks to this folder that I can just whipe my updated Skyrim folder, throw the backup copy in, and redeploy mods even when I installed new things after 11.11.

Either way I feel like the storage consumption just to keep this game running in a way I prefer, is being a little exzessive. Thankfully I barely got anything else on this PC so I can afford to do whatever. It just bugs me that of the 240GB I'm currently using 156 goes solely to Skyrim. How much disc space do you guys sacrifice for playing Skyrim? I'm curious now.

[matt]

Well, the game directory itself takes up 68GB on my system, which is probably mostly 4k textures. If you've got the game installed to an SSD, you can move the unimportant stuff (backups, downloaded archives) to a slower mechanical drive. At the very least, you could probably compress that backup directory.

[Coffee]

I just have skyrim and AE and it doesn't take nearly as much. Dunno what you expect bethesda to do to make unofficial free mods smaller? They made the paid ones a decent size, but they have little (only if its illegal content) control over what some random person puts in their mod. Most mods aren't even optimized at all for size or stability.

[ingosupercute]

Originally posted by matt:

Well, the game directory itself takes up 68GB on my system, which is probably mostly 4k textures. If you've got the game installed to an SSD, you can move the unimportant stuff (backups, downloaded archives) to a slower mechanical drive. At the very least, you could probably compress that backup directory.

I only have one pci-e SSD, it has 930GB of space in total so there is plenty left. Yeah 4k textures take a lot, I'm playing natively in 4k but don't use a lot of those. I have that one mod that adjusts robes more to their wearer in 4k and it's pretty big. 4k skin textures for females too. I'm not really too bothered with the updated SE environment so I only got better rocks, water and weather as well as a bit more grass. But no 4k trees, objects, houses and so on. The rest is mostly from large story stuff and smaller things adding up. I don't actually know how to compress things - sad but true. And if I knew I would probably be too lazy to de-compress it all the time. Don't judge, hehe.

Originally posted by Neferata:

I just have skyrim and AE and it doesn't take nearly as much. Dunno what you expect bethesda to do to make unofficial free mods smaller? They made the paid ones a decent size, but they have little (only if its illegal content) control over what some random person puts in their mod. Most mods aren't even optimized at all for size or stability.

You did not understand correctly what I was saying. I was saying I had to use more space than I should, because of the way this update is being forced upon us and keeps trying to re-initiate no matter your Steam settings. Not even setting permissions to read only can prevent the auto update when you are online at the time frame that you have to limit Steam to for downloads, because thanks to entering through skse Steam assumes the game wasn't running or something. I mean obviously it's running, but with my settings to not download anything while playing a game it shouldn't download in the background - yet it does.

I think we also have to diversify your statement of most mods not being optimized. If we define most by the abundant number of smaller modders making things that do not have a lot of downloads, then you are probably right. However if by most we assume the mods that the majority of players are actually running, then your statement would be false because the really big ones usually had a lot of care, testing and updating with corrections over a long period of time. Those are really stable. About the size yeah well if you want better textures you can't really make them any smaller. I feel like you are correct with other things though.

[Liquid Inc]

Originally posted by ingosupercute:

You did not understand correctly what I was saying. I was saying I had to use more space than I should, because of the way this update is being forced upon us and keeps trying to re-initiate no matter your Steam settings. Not even setting permissions to read only can prevent the auto update when you are online at the time frame that you have to limit Steam to for downloads, because thanks to entering through skse Steam assumes the game wasn't running or something.

Technically, only the original Skyrim folder in "Steam" is beth's concern - The rest is all down to you personally, and how you want to use Skyrim. You don't have to play with mods, use vortex (which is 100% nothing to do with beth at all) or have a backup folder either....

You are neither forced by bethesda (or anyone but yourself) to use up 150Gb on Skyrim - You could delete all those mods and play beth's game as it was "intended" (I use this word loosely, as it can be argued beth is happy for people to mod)

Logging into steam with the correct update settings (checked regularly ofcourse) and then running skse as everyone should won't start the update...
I doubt ill update until im done with my playthrough, though at the current rate, that will be far into the future.


Not entirely sure what you expected with this topic/thread tbh.. i read it the same as Neferata did, and im still of the assumption this is a really terrible flounce....

[ingosupercute]

Originally posted by Liquid Inc:

Technically, only the original Skyrim folder in "Steam" is beth's concern - The rest is all down to you personally, and how you want to use Skyrim. You don't have to play with mods, use vortex (which is 100% nothing to do with beth at all) or have a backup folder either....

You are neither forced by bethesda (or anyone but yourself) to use up 150Gb on Skyrim - You could delete all those mods and play beth's game as it was "intended" (I use this word loosely, as it can be argued beth is happy for people to mod)

Logging into steam with the correct update settings (checked regularly ofcourse) and then running skse as everyone should won't start the update...
I doubt ill update until im done with my playthrough, though at the current rate, that will be far into the future.

Yeah true, but I have to keep an additional copy of the folder now because against your claim it is not down to my personal use. My personal freedom is being cut there. One should be able to say no thank you I want to remain on an older version and don't ask me again.

Yeah should not start it, but does it anyway for me. I can only avoid getting the update by setting a time window of one hour per day where I'm not online. It did not help to set to only update when running, it did not help to disable background downloads while a game is being played, it did not help to set the Steam application settings folder (idk the true name, I just followed a tutorial) to read only. It's good for you that yours has not attempted to download yet -but don't assume it went as smooth for everyone.

Ehhh I stopped expecting things from Steam forum topics. I wanted to know how large everyone's Skyrim folders are and if you kept any backups.