Game takes up too much space: Suggestion to reduce file size

[Amaroq Leareth]

Something I noticed is that Portal 2 can take up a lot of space on the Hard-Drive.
(Last time I installed it, the game was around 11 gigabytes.)

I went into the game's files to see why it was so big, and I saw that every single sound file was an uncompressed PCM (the game has 1.4 gigabytes in music alone.) You can do MUCH better than that, Valve.

In the past, I did experiments with Half-Life Source and learned that the Source engine was in-fact actually capable of recognizing ADPCM files, or more specifically IMA-ADPCM. Now I may not be an audiophile, but I do edit a lot of audio and that requires a good ear and equally good attention to detail.

I converted some of Portal 2's music from regular PCM to ADPCM, and the file size was reduced by around SEVENTY-FIVE percent (give or take), yet I could not hear any compression artifacts.

Please speak with your sound team, and do something about all of that disk space your games are wasting through poor optimization!

[Nick]

Although I concur (If what you state is true, not bothered to verify), I assure you you're not going to get an update posting here. Valve doesn't check posts here to the extent of my knowledge. The best place to report it would probably be GitHub[github.com], but, that's primarily for Portal 2 on Linux (I.E. issues with the port, not global issues). You can note any non-Linux-specific issues are basically ignored[github.com], so, probably isn't worth posting there as you'll just waste their (and your) time.

[TeamSpen210]

I don't know too much about audio files, but there may be a slight reason why they are uncompressed. The Source engine uses two markers embedded in audio files to determine how to loop sounds - this way an engine sound can have a startup noise, but not repeat that segment of the sound file in subsequent replays.

[Neit]

Well the game is too big for the content it holds. Same applies to first Portal game. But I think that chance there will be something done about it is pretty similar to one that you win the lottery.

[Amaroq Leareth]

Originally posted by TeamSpen210:

I don't know too much about audio files, but there may be a slight reason why they are uncompressed. The Source engine uses two markers embedded in audio files to determine how to loop sounds - this way an engine sound can have a startup noise, but not repeat that segment of the sound file in subsequent replays.

Loop points is one of the main reasons that I try presurring people into using sequencer and tracker formats for their games, like what the first Unreal did (very clever use of position jumps there, Alexander Brandon.)

And actually, it is possible to get those loop points you mentioned with other formats through custom metadata, which some recent engine ports of Doom use for Ogg Vorbis files.

However, I still prefer tracker formats above all other formats due to their small size without relying on external soundfonts, and their native looping capability without the use of metadata.

The only reason I suggested the use of ADPCM in the first post is because it would not require major changes to the engine, if any at all.

[jayme]

Originally posted by Amaroq Leareth:

Something I noticed is that Portal 2 can take up a lot of space on the Hard-Drive.
(Last time I installed it, the game was around 11 gigabytes.)

I went into the game's files to see why it was so big, and I saw that every single sound file was an uncompressed PCM (the game has 1.4 gigabytes in music alone.) You can do MUCH better than that, Valve.

In the past, I did experiments with Half-Life Source and learned that the Source engine was in-fact actually capable of recognizing ADPCM files, or more specifically IMA-ADPCM. Now I may not be an audiophile, but I do edit a lot of audio and that requires a good ear and equally good attention to detail.

I converted some of Portal 2's music from regular PCM to ADPCM, and the file size was reduced by around SEVENTY-FIVE percent (give or take), yet I could not hear any compression artifacts.

Please speak with your sound team, and do something about all of that disk space your games are wasting through poor optimization!

can you tell me how to do what you did