Why Titanfall's Install Requires 48 GB: Uncompressed Audio

[exfileme]

Titanfall has finally landed, and eats up around 48 GB of HDD space.

Why Titanfall's Install Requires 48 GB: Uncompressed Audio : Read more

 

[warezme]

That's nothing, Skyrim Online beta won't even install if you C: drive doesn't have at least 60GB free space. The files are over 50GB.

 

[burkhartmj]

I find it a problem that these guys are okay with their game being larger than the amount of free space on a 64GB SSD [probably the most common size in use] with nothing but Windows installed. Even on my 256GB SSD I can't say I'm fine with a single game taking up a 5th of that just for audio.

 

[Shin-san]

That's weird. I have had dual-core machines in the past, and compressed audio hardly ever taxed the CPU. Then again, some people might appreciate the uncompressed audio

 

[mauller07]

Should have used Flac instead of LPCM Wav.

 

[salgado18]

Why not uncompress on level loading? Why not let the user decide if they want to uncompress at all? Or even let the user choose to decompress at reduced quality? Why not leave it compressed, but make an option to uncompress all audio in the options (or external config program, if there is one)? If the game downloads the assets from a patcher (like most online games do), why not let the user choose if he wants high-quality audio, or lower quality to reduce download and install size? So many options when, I think, at the current tech, many people don't have HD at least of 1TB or have an SSD of at most 256GB.

 

[takeshi7]

They should have at least added the option to install compressed files to save disk space. 35GB just for audio is ridiculous.

 

[rmpumper]

This alone is a reason not to buy the game.

 

[segio526]

Should have used Flac instead of LPCM Wav.

FLAC still needs to decompressed, it's basically a zipped wav which is why it's smaller yet lossless. It should be more taxing on a CPU than MP3.

 

[CraigN]

For the cost of the game, you could buy a 1TB hard drive and install it fairly easily.Yes, I realize some people's budgets are constrained, but it's not like this information hasn't been out for a couple weeks now

 

[kenh536]

This makes me sad... I hope more games don't do this. It would take literally 4-5 days straight downloading just to get one game on my connection. Ridiculous.

 

[Traciatim]

Why not tell people they can compress the game audio files using NTFS compression and have them take up less space if they want to? Better yet... find the offending files in the install and make it a guide. It would probably make it take half the space and most modern CPUs are so fast that the decompression wouldn't even be noticed in game performance.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

Why not uncompress on level loading? Why not let the user decide if they want to uncompress at all? Or even let the user choose to decompress at reduced quality? ....

Quality control. The way game studios do things now is make every change to the games until the very last minute. Every little and seemingly easy change has to undergo strict quality control and testing. Unfortunately, the installation process is almost always put last which means they don't get alot of time to sort it out. They made a calculated decision to just make the game easier to play on lower end systems and didn't give themselves enough time to test multiple install methods. A shame it works this way really, but not unusual in the least.

 

[burkhartmj]

For the cost of the game, you could buy a 1TB hard drive and install it fairly easily.Yes, I realize some people's budgets are constrained, but it's not like this information hasn't been out for a couple weeks now

This is an application we're talking about here. Unless the install process is incredibly robust, it's going to install the audio files with the rest of the system files for the game. If you're relying on an SSD for system files, the 40GB of uncompressed audio are going there whether you like it or not. Until 512GB and 1TB SSD's are affordable, this game size is outright absurd.

At least other games like Skyrim and Crysis let you choose if you want the game to have a particularly large footprint by breaking out things like high texture packs into separate optional files. Even then, you're still talking around 15-20GB vs 50GB.

 

[JOSHSKORN]

I wonder if it's 48 GB on all PCs or just lower end ones.

 

[Deleted member 1353997]

Should have used Flac instead of LPCM Wav.

If you read the article, you'd know the uncompressed audio isn't meant to increase audio quality, but to decrease decompression overhead.

In any case, this is stupid. They could've made it an option, where people can "store decompressed audio for better performance", rather than force over 3 times the necessary space onto everybody.

 

[Optimus_Toaster]

It's not that bad, HDD space isn't exactly costly anymore and if you want the game on an SSD you can junction the 35GB of audio onto a HDD and leave the rest of the game files on an SSD.Finally the audio is super compressed when you download the game so you don't have to download 50GB.

 

[whimseh]

But.. you shouldn't even have Titanfall if you have a toaster PC.

 

[Au_equus]

I wonder if it's 48 GB on all PCs or just lower end ones.

all of them.

 

[nebun]

such stupidity...if you can't afford to purchase a gamming rig or build one then you don't deserve to play the game....like it or not, it's the truth.....anyone can build a decent gaming machine these days.

 

[Martell1977]

How difficult is it to make a smarter install package? I mean, seriously, just have the installer check the system, dual core = install package A, 3+ core = install package B. If I can run a script on systemrequirementslab.com, to see if I meet the requirements, why not have an installer that gets the same info and use it intelligently. I'm sure this isn't the only game that will have this issue.

 

[archipelago33]

conspiracy theory - did the developer get paid a small 'fee' by hdd makers ?

 

[skit75]

Did you really think AAA titles were going to get smaller in size? What ever gave you that idea? Be it audio or texture maps, this is the future. I will add it is difficult to believe that even a 1.8-2.0GHz dual core CPU would have issues decompressing audio on the fly while rendering low quality images with a mediocre GPU. These lower end machines will all likely have higher capacity HDDs still, so space was not a main issue for these machines. The kids just getting by with a 64GB or 128GB SSD on the other hand, are finally having to chose which two games they want on their "gaming PC", hahah

 

[somebodyspecial]

If you have two drives just create a junction point for the audio portion of the install (so main data on SSD and the rest on HD). Learn how to actually use windows I think they've been around since win2k in some form or another. Not that I'd support a game with DRM, but why whine about the size? Either you want play or you don't If it lands on gog maybe they'll get my money, otherwise don't hold your breath MS.

 

[archipelago33]

conspiracy theory - did the developer get paid a small 'fee' by hdd makers ?