Baldur’s Gate 3 is currently taking up all the storage space I would give to Bethesda’s sci-fi RPG.
1 TB SSDs are 35-60 dollars.
1 TB HDDs are 22-50 dollars.
2 TB HDDs are 40-65 dollars.
2 TB SDDs are 60-90 dollars.Clearly, price shouldn’t be an issue because one of these drives that give you 10 times the storage is the cost of 1 new release, and the theoretical person who just bought BG3 and Starfield just spent 120 dollars minimum. So theoretical person let’s do some math!
Seems really silly to complain that you ran out of space on your PC. Get another drive. If you’ve filled up your SATA ports, get a PCIe SATA card. If you have all your onboard SATA slots full, plus your PCIe slots are full, plus you’ve upgraded all the drives you could to at least 1 TB, that typically gives you at least 2-4 TB total. BG3 is taking up 150 GB that you reserved for gaming. Uninstall it if you want to play Starfield. If you don’t want to play Starfield that badly then you have your answer.
Clearly, the real answer is that this person needs another drive in their computer. They act like the OS drive is the only thing that could possibly exist in a computer. Worst case, go get a USB 3 drive and toss Starfield on that.
Look at moneybags over here throwing around cash instead of just making space
I mean my biggest recommendation is that you can only really play one game at a time, maybe just download the game you want to play later, later.
It’s a touch trickier to upgrade a laptop, which the writer is talking about.
They are a game reviewer, it’s kinda embarrassing that they don’t hve a decent setup to playtest the games they review.
I’d be inclined to agree but I’m frankly somewhat at a loss from this articles perspective. Why a 256gb boot drive in 2023? I’m only assuming, based on the math. If it were 512GB I’d assume they’d be able to shuffle off more data. If it’s important files you need to access, store them on an external HDD? If they’re a gamer and they know space is an issue, a SSD enclosure is not much more added cost to a 1TB drive and it solves the issue…
Like I said, I understand the intent about game sizes. But people playing BG3 or Starfield on their laptop are going to have other issues on top of storage, since most laptops have a pretty linear upgrade path. If you have the 256gb model the rest of the hardware probably reflects that pricepoint. Like @bandario@lemmy.dbzer0.com said, at a certain point the idea of a game coming preloaded on a USB drive makes sense, but until then the ease for general use of an SSD enclosure makes more sense.
No it’s not, unless they have a MacBook. And even in that case it’s not hard to find an external SSD with a thunderbolt or USB3.2 interface.
There are plenty of PC laptops with drives that aren’t easy to upgrade, it ain’t just MacBooks anymore.
New MacBooks have their memory soldered directly to the main board and don’t have an extra m.2 port. There are very few windows laptops that meet both of those criteria. But like I said, even in those cases you can install games on an external drive.
Is it that hard in the days of solid state NVME drives? You just pop open the hatch and pop them in the slot.
Assuming you have a spare slot (and your laptop is designed in a way to make that swap easy)
deleted by creator
Most laptops come with an empty SATA or NVME drive.
I’m kind of sad about how large games have become and how little goes into optimizing that since “space is cheap”; though it seems people don’t really care about the bandwidth (environmental) cost of downloading that now that everything has gone digital (not that I’m saying physical doesn’t have waste).
I just kind of wish there were alternates, maybe high-res (free) DLC packs or audio localization packs which I feel like were done in the past but never really became a thing. I find myself sticking to indie games that are only hundreds of MBs instead.
I don’t think the article provides any conclusions besides beat games faster to delete them to clear space.
how little goes into optimizing that since “space is cheap”
More and more developers seem to assume everyone else can afford what they consider to be cheap, and feel entitled to gobble up all the resources on other people’s systems as if they aren’t needed for anything else.
And speaking of environmental costs, there’s also the pollution and e-waste generated by constantly pushing people to upgrade their hardware instead of optimizing the software.
As a developer myself, I find it embarrassing and sad.
I’m fully behind the idea that you should be able to opt for not downloading the biggest texture files and 3D assets, if you’re gonna play at low settings, anyway.
But it’s worth noting that “optimizing” the file sizes of high-fidelity games isn’t really possible. You can’t compress textures or 3D assets the same way you might an RGB image. Game textures contain a lot more layers than just color, in modern games they can contain material, depth and specularity maps, just to name a few. And that’s before considering any accompanying bre-baked lighting data that entire levels may come with, which trades in the need to real-time render stuff for doing it in advance and storing how something is supposed to look, and shipping it alongside the game.
None of this can be easily compressed. It has to be retained losslessly, or you risk rendering artefacts.
Also, most game distribution services will send you an AGGRESSIVELY compressed (as in packed as a whole, using great amounts of CPU to pack it smaller without data loss) format, which your PC/console unpacks as it downloads. They too have every reason to save bandwidth.
But even then, you seldom see data savings of more than 10-30%. There just aren’t that many corners to cut.
I’m not a game dev, but from my modding experience it depends on the game.
MOST of the games that have these insane file sizes actually do it to cut down on processing and on load time and reduce pop-in. If a texture or level doesn’t need any decompression, it loads faster. So entirely depends on the asset. So a lot of games do still compress textures. That’s why there’s a discrepancy between the data downloaded in steam and the actual runtime storage requirement.
The 3D models themselves are usually lower space. As is dialog and audio. Though all of those will be mildly compressed probably.
Texture block compression exists, and some of the available algorithms have fairly little impact on rendered visuals.
As you noted, asset scaling also exists in various forms, from mip mapping to audio codecs to alternate asset packs. Imagery intended for 4k and 8k displays is wasteful for people gaming in 1080p, let alone 720p.
The techniques required to cut down on bloat are well known. Some games just aren’t using them, or aren’t using them effectively. There’s definitely room for improvement here.
Absolutely.
But I did want to make the point that there aren’t as many corners to cut as some might think.
And while lossless compression of course exists, better compression is usually also a processing trade-off. You can use more storage and less processing, or use more processing, and less storage.
Compression is not a magic tool that reduces file size for free, its doing math to store some given data using less bits, which then has to be done in reverse to get at the original data.
Space might be cheap, but SSDs are too small for the slot they take up that could’ve had a much bigger HDD, and now graphics cards are so big there’s physically less room for disks and cables too.
I don’t want all SSDs to have room for all the games and nothing else.
My cousin just bought a 2tb nvme for $60, $10 more than a 2tb hdd cost 2 years ago.
But I want 8 TB drives. Or more, when they’re more reliable.
I’d love to play through the Mass Effect remastered collection on my steam deck but it’s ridiculous that it makes you download all 3 games (100+ GB). On the other hand, Halo MCC is actually good about this and lets you download only the games you want to play at the moment
Even through toy have to download them, doesn’t mean you have to keep them. After download ING you can go to the install action path and the delete the other two games you don’t want.
Even old games like CSGO are large in size now… 4K as a free DLC is a good idea!
Whom ever wrote this article is a massive idiot.
Seems like the common vibe in “gaming” articles lately. Low hanging fruit Clickbait slathered in ads and autoplaying videos.
Firefox has a setting to disable autoplaying of videos (default setting is to autoplay muted for some reason). It’s in Settings > Site Permissions > Autoplay.
Yeah, like I picked up an 8TB SSD for like $300 the other day to move shit off of three old platter drives, I still have room to spare. A 1TB is like $60, that’s less than the cost of the game.
I just my kid a 2TB ssd for $60. 1TB can be found under $30 lately.
A 1tb gen 3 nvme is only $35-40 💀
Maybe overseas, but round here 1tb ssds start at around $60-70 and you’ll be lucky to get a 2tb one for less than $150…
My man is trying to install both games on a PlayStation One memory card
deleted by creator
Look at this guy trying to play 2 games.
Shit, I know someone who had to purchase an extra SSD just to dedicate it to Call of Duty.
They’re also playing the games on their laptop for some reason, which is certainly an interesting choice for two of the biggest games of the year.
They might not actually have a choice about playing on a laptop if they normally play on a PS5. Baldur’s Gate isn’t out on PS5 yet and Starfield is Xbox/PC exclusive.
That’s a silly excuse. At roughly $20 / TB, a 150gb game shouldn’t be an issue
Where do you get your hard drives? Cheapest 1tb SSD I can get is $65, and the cheapest 1tb nvme drive is $80.
When was the last time you shopped for an SSD? Cheapest 1TB NVMe are around $35.
deleted by creator
Not in Australia, I can assure. Unless they are buying them second hand on Facebook marketplace
I can get a 2tb m.2 for $70, then put that in one of my ssd converters. Voila $70 2tb ssd.
It does depend on the device though. A desktop PC can easily be upgraded with a new drive, but a laptop it may not be as easy, or in some cases, not possible at all. Could always use an external drive, but those are usually more expensive and quite inconvenient if you move the laptop around.
If somebody can point me in the direction of a $20 1TB NVME for my Steam Deck and a free transfer tool please hmu
For a Steam Deck, you’re looking at $100 for a good SD card, but that’s the price you pay for miniaturization.
For less than 100 USD ($90 - I just checked) there are several well-reviewed 2230 form factor 1 TB NVME drives on Amazon - specifically, the Corsair MP600 Mini, the Teamgroup MP44S, and the Inland TN446. And though I don’t have one of those drives (I have the 2 TB version of the Sabrent Rocket instead) I speak from experience when I say that the install process is straightforward.
Yes, but in this instance laptops that can actually run AAA games are 15" or larger and don’t have everything soldered like ultrabooks etc
like i usually hate the whole, “buy a 2tb ssd, its only like $60” line. like to a lot of people that isn’t something you can just drop casually for a video game (especially on top of the price of the game itself!) but I don’t really think thats the perspective this writer is coming from.
Same. Those comments are coming from a place of privilege.
A lot of people in a first world country can’t afford splurges like that anymore. In third world countries it’s even worse. Because of import fees, scarcity, and price gauging, a $60 SSD can easily become $100+. In some countries that’s over half of the average monthly income
Counterpoint: If not having room for a $70 game because there’s a $60 game already on there (which also isn’t normally a problem for him because his main gaming system is his $500 gaming console) is an issue, then the article is already being written from a position of privilege.
Yup. And with regional pricing, the discrepancy between a game’s price and hardware price is even greater.
For example, BG3 is around 15 dollars in Argentina, but a 2TB SSD is around 130 dollars.
Sounds like you need to finish BG3 before starting Starfield.
No space? Lol, clearly you’ve never played ARK Survival Evolved
isnt that only 400 something GB?
Content behind an anti-blocker wall. How much space does this game take?
PC is about 130 GB I believe.
deleted by creator
My preload is currently sitting at 117GB according to Windows’s move programs list
Get an external SSD if you can’t open the laptop, Modern laptops will have a fast usb c port available (I use mine for VR).
They also talk about playing ToTK on the laptop too…
“Will Tears of the Kingdom take up the space they otherwise would have occupied?”
I know you can emulate but this writer wtf
There was talk about making “steam deck optimized” versions of games that would ditch high resolution assets as they would be pointless on a 720p display. Nothing seems to have materialized.
That said, there are reasons why games are taking more and more space. Game assets cannot be compressed the same way image files intended for humans can. They have to be stored losslessly, or there WILL be rendering artefacts. And a material or texture in a game is composed of a lot more layers than just an RGB image (normal maps, specular maps, material maps, depth maps). And modern game-engines can pre-bake a lot of things that otherwise would have to be rendered in real-time. That pre-baked render data has to be stored, preferably in high resolution to avoid aliasing, and shipped along with all the other game files.
Games aren’t ballooning in size for no reason. Stuff like pre-baking essentially trades storage for the ability to get the same looks for less processing. More data layers in textures and materials allows rendering to take shortcuts in how the appearance of a surface is calculated, etc. etc. etc.
But none of this would prevent the option to not download these resource files for ALL detail levels. If you’re not gonna run a game on ultra textures, you don’t need those files sitting on your drive.
Yea, some kind of custom install would be good. Can’t be hard to program a dialogue before download that’ll select the right assets to install, saving both disk space and bandwidth.
I mean, I can kind of understand why giant RPGS like BG3 and Starfield need to be so large, but it just feels like every game nowadays is going to eat up a huge chunk of your storage no matter what it is. With both console and PC games moving to SSD as the standard storage medium, I’m hoping that developers will actually figure out how to optimize for storage space, but I’m not holding my breath.
Starfield heavily leans on procedural generation. It would be many times bigger if it didn’t. BG3 has something like 170 hours of recorded dialogue. Cutting down means getting of features.
So no, there is no room for optimization here. These games are just going to be that big, period. People just need to accept that they will have to get giant SSDs in the future.
There is most definitely room for improvement. Small example: a lot of games’ downloads nowadays contain all the voicelines in every language in high quality audio files. Pretty much nobody will ever play a game in multiple different languages.
Another one: games come with 4k-textures now. Only a small fraction of players actually use a 4k display. Those textures eat up a lot of space and most players dont get anything out of them.
Just so we’re clear, BG3 has only one language that is voiced: English. Every other language is in subtitles.
Just to cladify, most Digital Stores will only download the language Pack of your system. That’s why when you change the game’s language on Steam it needs to download a patch. It is download the language you selected and deleting the previous one.
I mean 2TB SSDs are cheap now. Let’s be conservative and say your OS and programs take up 500GB. Are people really playing 10+ games simultaneously? I don’t get why people in here are so worked up. I would love for my entire library to fit on my computer locally; would I actually take advantage? Probably not. Just uninstall whatever you haven’t played in awhile. I highly doubt the ONLY game the OOP has installed is BG3.
Honestly I’m much more worried about bullshit fucking Xfinity bandwidth caps than drive space.
Baldurs gate 3 is the vetter game anyway soo… ¯_(ツ)_/¯ my personal plan is to jump on starfield much later when the bugs are fixed and the modding community is matured a little
You dropped these:
\\
I remember when GTA 5 hit PC in 2015 and was around 90 gigs. Seems like we’ve finally hit the point where most AAA games are around its size. How time flies…
Yeah I remember that too. Doom 2016 was like 70 gbs and there were gaming news articles about it. Now 70 is on the low end for AAA.
I recall it boggling my mind that GTAIV was 15GB (two dual layer DVDs basically) now I have copies of movies that large kicking around on my NAS.
