Steam Games Question

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Zepondrax Mar 15 @ 7:08am

So I was wondering why don't steam compress games so their smaller to download? I've seen websites like Fitgirl where they seem to compress the games so their smaller example they compress a game from 8-9gb to 4.5gb .... So why don't steam compress rather than leave it bloated for the download?

Would be better to download games at compression than bloated I think.

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Showing 1-15 of 20 comments

TGC> The Games Collector Mar 15 @ 7:12am

I think they actually do compress games before download.

Games these days simply really are thát bloated.

Also compression only goes so far... It's not like file sizes can always be halved with it.

CJM Mar 15 @ 7:30am

Originally posted by TGC> The Games Collector:
Also compression only goes so far... It's not like file sizes can always be halved with it.

There are algorithms that can compress by half, or even more.

Unfortunately, these methods of compression are highly computational, and therefore significantly affect performance in a negative way.

There is perhaps benefit to some minor compression with small computational footprint, that can allow more data to travel quickly over a data bus like PCI-Express.

Otherwise you're trading download bandwidth for compute bandwidth. There might not be a significant difference in time at the end, just whether the burden disproportionately affects your entire household or just you. With Gigabit availability seeming to outpace the typical bandwidth of an individual device, the impact may not even affect other members of your household.

Another consideration is that higher levels of compression are more prone to corruption, and are generally considered to be an unsafe storage method. A single bit lost under uncompressed status might not ever be noticed, while a single bit lost under excessive compression might render the entire file lost.

There is perhaps YouTube's consideration towards video optimization as an industry leader.

Bjørn Mar 15 @ 7:59am

They are usually compressed. The download size is often much smaller than the used disk space after installation, and compared to what it says under 'required disk space', for example.

Other than that, what CJM said

Compression techniques are constantly improving, although I guess there is a limit. When I went to university our lecturer was currently working on a doctorate's in data compression, and that was in 1999.

Schamyl006 Mar 15 @ 3:43pm

It is the game's developers job to do that. Deep Rock Galactic for example, is massive yet only sizes a few gigabytes.

Zepondrax Mar 15 @ 6:41pm

Well from what I saw on FITGIRL they half it, i remember some of them being 8gn down to 3 or 4GB I was wondering if steam do compress them or not

Originally posted by TGC> The Games Collector:
I think they actually do compress games before download.

Games these days simply really are thát bloated.

Also compression only goes so far... It's not like file sizes can always be halved with it.

Zepondrax Mar 15 @ 6:42pm

So Steam do compress the games? I have seen it sometimes when downloading it the two are different sizes where the download an size on disk is different

Originally posted by Bjørn:
They are usually compressed. The download size is often much smaller than the used disk space after installation, and compared to what it says under 'required disk space', for example.

Other than that, what CJM said :rufussmile:

Compression techniques are constantly improving, although I guess there is a limit. When I went to university our lecturer was currently working on a doctorate's in data compression, and that was in 1999.

Zepondrax Mar 15 @ 6:43pm

I guess it would be the developer who compresses before upload to steam, i guess if they dont then its full bloated

Originally posted by Schamyl006:
It is the game's developers job to do that. Deep Rock Galactic for example, is massive yet only sizes a few gigabytes.

Bernard The Gurnard Mar 15 @ 6:45pm

Compress or not?

Either way you get hit with the same stick.

Zepondrax Mar 16 @ 7:57pm

Well if it was compressed it would be smaller on your hard drive

Originally posted by Bernard The Gurnard:
Compress or not?

Either way you get hit with the same stick.

Crashed Mar 16 @ 8:26pm

The site you describe is violating the copyrights of the game developers they target.

Valve only distributes games in the exact format that the developers provide to their servers. They do use compression to reduce bandwidth usage, but it is a lossless algorithm that is unpacked into the game's original format.

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