Steam takes too much disk space when downloading games

[MandarinSmell]

So I was trying to download GTA V to play GTAO today. I had 130GB left on my storage space, and Steam said I need about 95GB storage space to install GTA V. I think it's "final size" when it finished installing, but I just made it start downloading.

After 1 hour, it downloaded 32GB so far, and my storage has now 10GB left. I mean, even though we double the size of downloaded files (32 * 2 = 64 GB), it still doesn't fill those 56 GB which are being used when downloading.

Why does downloading take ridiculously high disk space? Do I have to prepare doubled size of disk when downloading than it requires? Like, I need 190 GB of disk space since it required 95 GB of disk space?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

The game needs space to decompress the compressed download files to install, yes. Usually about 2x the game size.

You get back the space the process uses afterwards.

[MandarinSmell]

That's sad, I think decompressing and downloading could be done simultaneously, downloading "chunks" of compressed files, and decompress chunks in another thread.

I don't think we have to download full compressed file, and decompress them all in one. This will be inefficient for managing disk space like this case. I guess emptying my disk is the only solution for now. Thanks for the answer

[ReBoot]

What you suggest makes for worse compression and internet bandwidth is more limited than disk bandwidth for every gamer out there, with many having limited traffic. And if you do, sub-par compression is an actual issue.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Some games already do it in chunks. But the required space is still needed.

[Mihai_89]

Yeah games in 2021 have like gigantic disk space requirements.

I'm using a 2TB HDD and still not enough it seems.

[MandarinSmell]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

What you suggest makes for worse compression and internet bandwidth is more limited than disk bandwidth for every gamer out there, with many having limited traffic. And if you do, sub-par compression is an actual issue.

Isn't it ridiculous that I need literally 190GB to install one game? I know GTA V is huge game, and I also know game these days (GTA V isn't recent game though) getting bigger and bigger, but man, this went too far imo.

I won't say much thing since I'm not professional at this stuffs, but does implementing chunk downloading bring that much disadvantages, so I have to prepare about 200GB while actual game size is 95 GB? Even though compression can't be done efficiently, how much affects will this bring? For example, if what we have to download is size of A, then if we implement chunk downloading how large will it become than "A" (ex. 1.5 * A, or 2 * A). and time too, if currently time costs "B", how longer will it be?

I'm just wanting to know how bad chunk downloading will make things. If result is subtle, ig it's not that bad to implement it for users who have limits of disk space like me. I'm using laptop and having only 512 GB full disk space, so yeah

[WZNGT]

As far as I know, Rockstar didn't even bother with cleaning up redundant assets. Even back in 2016 when there were only a few update patches, they sometimes update a vehicle model but won't override the old one and just leave that in the files instead (like the patches are independent of each other). I noticed that when I was installing custom car mods, always have to find the latest files of a certain default car to replace, if I replace the older files that have been updated the modded car won't show up in game.

After all these years who knows how much unused files have been dumped in the game that are eating up people's desk space... the game went from like 70GB to 110 today.

[Blupanda]

Sometimes in order to download games, you may need to have some additional space (on top of the bare minimum needed for the game). This is mainly because of various things such as compression, room for save files as well as future updates for the game. I’m not savvy enough to know the exact reasons, but that’s the general idea behind it.

[bandit.gg goat]

I am trying to download a game that is 89 gb i have 120gb free space but after a while the download stops and my drive has no more left space any help pls?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by chair:

I am trying to download a game that is 89 gb i have 120gb free space but after a while the download stops and my drive has no more left space any help pls?

It will require at least 2x the space the game requires to download, decompress and install.

[76561199468144772]

Originally posted by MandarinSmell:

So I was trying to download GTA V to play GTAO today. I had 130GB left on my storage space, and Steam said I need about 95GB storage space to install GTA V. I think it's "final size" when it finished installing, but I just made it start downloading.

After 1 hour, it downloaded 32GB so far, and my storage has now 10GB left. I mean, even though we double the size of downloaded files (32 * 2 = 64 GB), it still doesn't fill those 56 GB which are being used when downloading.

Why does downloading take ridiculously high disk space? Do I have to prepare doubled size of disk when downloading than it requires? Like, I need 190 GB of disk space since it required 95 GB of disk space?

[76561199468144772]

Originally posted by oiopw:

Originally posted by MandarinSmell:

So I was trying to download GTA V to play GTAO today. I had 130GB left on my storage space, and Steam said I need about 95GB storage space to install GTA V. I think it's "final size" when it finished installing, but I just made it start downloading.

After 1 hour, it downloaded 32GB so far, and my storage has now 10GB left. I mean, even though we double the size of downloaded files (32 * 2 = 64 GB), it still doesn't fill those 56 GB which are being used when downloading.

Why does downloading take ridiculously high disk space? Do I have to prepare doubled size of disk when downloading than it requires? Like, I need 190 GB of disk space since it required 95 GB of disk space?