Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Sport Studios has introduced that the PC model’s set up dimension might be drastically lowered quickly.
In an replace on the sport’s official Steam web page, Arrowhead ‘s deputy technical director Brendan Armstrong defined that the crew had been in a position to scale back the PC model’s set up dimension from round 154 GB to only round 23 GB.
In October, Armstrong posted a prolonged rationalization telling gamers why the PC model makes use of up round 3 times extra cupboard space than the console variations.
Armstrong defined that the primary motive for this was to cater for gamers who nonetheless use mechanical arduous disk drives (HDDs) to play their video games, and the necessity to duplicate content material to enhance loading speeds for them.
As a result of an HDD takes time to bodily learn the information on a disk, some generally used belongings (like tree textures or sound results) are duplicated quite a few occasions within the recreation’s information, to make sure the HDD’s learn head doesn’t must go too far every time it must entry them.
Since all trendy consoles now use strong state drives (SSDs) which haven’t any transferring elements, and since ‘search time’ is nearly prompt consequently, set up dimension is far smaller on the console variations as a result of duplication is now not wanted. The PC model nonetheless wants it, nonetheless, as a result of although many high-end PCs now use SSDs too some gamers nonetheless use an HDD.
In his newest replace, nonetheless, Armstrong has delivered the excellent news that after working with Nixxes – the Dutch studio which specialises in recreation ports – Arrowhead has managed to get the set up dimension down to only 17% of its present dimension, with assessments displaying that mission loading occasions have solely elevated by “just a few seconds” for HDD customers.
“‘Wait a minute,’ I hear you ask – ‘didn’t you simply inform us all that you just duplicate information as a result of the loading occasions on HDDs could possibly be 10 occasions worse?’”, Armstrong wrote. “I’m happy to say that our worst case projections didn’t come to go.
“These loading time projections have been based mostly on trade information – evaluating the loading occasions between SSD and HDD customers the place information duplication was and was not used. Within the worst circumstances, a 5x distinction was reported between situations that used duplication and those who didn’t. We have been being very conservative and doubled that projection once more to account for unknown unknowns.
“Now issues are totally different. We have now actual measurements particular to our recreation as an alternative of trade information. We now know that the true variety of gamers actively taking part in Helldivers 2 on a mechanical HDD was round 11% over the past week.
“We now know that, opposite to most video games, nearly all of the loading time in Helldivers 2 is because of level-generation slightly than asset loading. This degree technology occurs in parallel with loading belongings from the disk and so is the primary figuring out issue of the loading time. We now know that that is true even for customers with mechanical HDDs.”
Whereas Arrowhead isn’t but able to roll out the smaller set up dimension to all Helldivers 2 PC gamers, a public beta is accessible now to anybody seeking to check out the ‘slim’ model and assist give suggestions on how nicely it runs.
“You may be linked to the identical galactic battle as everybody else and be utilizing the identical account you all the time do – so all development, battle contributions and purchases will carry over between the totally different variations,” Armstrong defined.
“You’ll nonetheless have the ability to matchmake and play with all different gamers. It’s also possible to opt-out at any time in case you expertise points. It’s a low-risk strategy to save round 131 GB of area in your drive and assist us lengthen our testing to real-life circumstances.”
As soon as the general public beta confirms that there aren’t any points within the ‘slim’ model, it should roll out to all gamers and turn out to be the default model of the sport. Till that point, Armstrong warns that anybody utilizing mods with the sport could need to follow the full-sized model in case there are points.
