Game Developer Suggests File Sizes Could “Skyrocket” with Unreal Engine 5

[Tsing]

Image: Epic Games



Are you ready for even bigger games? In a recent interview (via Wccftech) regarding Epic Games’s well-received Unreal Engine 5, Kitatus and Friends CEO/Lead Programmer Ryan Shah expressed his belief that next-generation titles will be even more massive due to the technology and fidelity that UE5 grants developers.



“It looks absolutely fantastic,” Shah begins, praising the engine. “Especially the Nanite system for a start, I had to scoop my jaw up off the floor after that.” But then he goes into the double-edged nature of the new toolset.



“It takes a lot of the headache out of asset creation, but at the same time, it starts to raise more concerns,” Shah warned. “And one of the examples is Call of Duty: Warzone at the minute...

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[Nanobot]

That $40k 100TB SSD....hmmm

 

[Burticus]

Do these people know that COD:MW is already like 100gb? GTA V is 88gb on my PC and that game is years old.

Exactly what does one mean by "skyrocket" that hasn't happened already? I remember when games fit on 1 dvd or a couple of cd's and it wasn't that long ago.

 

[LeRoy_Blanchard]

Do these people know that COD:MW is already like 100gb? GTA V is 88gb on my PC and that game is years old.

Exactly what does one mean by "skyrocket" that hasn't happened already? I remember when games fit on 1 dvd or a couple of cd's and it wasn't that long ago.

Well seeing as how they mentioned COD:MW in the article I'd say yes, they're aware.

 

[Grimlakin]

Yea I think I'm gonna need to find a good deal on a 4tb game library SSD. But for now a 100 dollar NVME 1 TB will have to do.

 

[Uvilla]

Just how much is fluff and laziness again?

 

[Dan_D]

Destiny is over 100GB as it is. Breakpoint is 62GB, Wildlands is 80GB, COD:MW (the new one) is over 100GB if I am not mistaken. Hell, my ME3 directory with all the mods installed is as large as a modern game at around 60GB+.

Just how much is fluff and laziness again?

Very little in terms of raw file sizes. Nicer looking textures cost a lot in terms of disk space.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

A quick tour of some other games I've rotated on a 1 TB SSD shows how we've been getting in the 60-120 GB range for some time now.
Metro Exodus(2019)-77.7 GB
RDR2(2019)-115 GB
Death Stranding(2020)-63.7 GB
Doom(2016)-68.6 GB
Monster Hunter World(2017)-93 GB
Battlefield 1(2016)-81.6 GB

Before that, I heard many people complaining about the 40-50+ GB ones like these had
Star Wars Battlefront(2015)-52.26 GB
The Witcher 3(2015)-43 GB
Control(2019)-42.9 GB
Shadow Of Mordor(2014)-53.8 GB
Mass Effect Andromeda(2017)-48.5 GB

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Speaking of the 'old days' I remember being grumpy when Ultima III and IV needed something like four or five 5 1/4" floppies and having to switch them out all the time while playing. It was a huge step forward at the time when I got a double-sided drive and able to copy them to double-sided disks. I also remember going through similar hoops with Out of This World and 3.5" discs on my Tandy 1000ex. Larger file installs are not as annoying as having to swap out a handful of discs during gameplay. Wing Commander III & IV was like that on the PSone. Three to Four CD-Roms to accommodate all those FMV's.

 

[Dan_D]

A quick tour of some other games I've rotated on a 1 TB SSD shows how we've been getting in the 60-120 GB range for some time now.
Metro Exodus(2019)-77.7 GB
RDR2(2019)-115 GB
Death Stranding(2020)-63.7 GB
Doom(2016)-68.6 GB
Monster Hunter World(2017)-93 GB
Battlefield 1(2016)-81.6 GB

Before that, I heard many people complaining about the 40-50+ GB ones like these had
Star Wars Battlefront(2015)-52.26 GB
The Witcher 3(2015)-43 GB
Control(2019)-42.9 GB
Shadow Of Mordor(2014)-53.8 GB
Mass Effect Andromeda(2017)-48.5 GB

It's like games went from being 20-25GB to 50GB and then from 50GB to over 100GB almost overnight at each step. Games skyrocketing in size again wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

It's like games went from being 20-25GB to 50GB and then from 50GB to over 100GB almost overnight at each step. Games skyrocketing in size again wouldn't surprise me at all.

Yep, I noticed that too when I was putting that list together. I definitely noticed a kind of doubling-up effect or at the very least an increase around 25 GB, every three to five years. From 2010 to 2015 we saw many 20-30 GB sizes and then before that, it wasn't uncommon for 7-10 GB ones.

 

[David_Schroth]

Yep, I noticed that too when I was putting that list together. I definitely noticed a kind of doubling-up effect or at the very least an increase around 25 GB, every three to five years. From 2010 to 2015 we saw many 20-30 GB sizes and then before that, it wasn't uncommon for 7-10 GB ones.

Interesting how many of those leaps correspond with the physical disk capabilities of consoles of each era.

 

[Eduardo_Domingot]

They really need to get SSD cost down in order to allow this to happen without mass complaint.
I do not see that happening, I do see a new meme about disk size and game installs coming about.

 

[SeymourGore]

Feel bad about the guys out there with data caps. When I was stationed up north (2014-2017), the 250-300 GB monthly data cap was a constant struggle.

It also feels like this is an area where Gamestop/Electronics Boutique could find a potential market. Have a high-speed method/service for customers to download their purchased software to an external HDD for installation on their home console. Even if it's a system where they drop the HDD off and then pick it up a couple of hours later when its ready.

 

[Dan_D]

Interesting how many of those leaps correspond with the physical disk capabilities of consoles of each era.

Textures are one of things responsible for that. Now that we have so many enormous open world games and the textures improve every few years as the consoles improve, you end up with double the file sizes of the previous generation. it's not all texture sizes, but anyone who has ever texture modded a game will tell you, that's potentially the biggest cause of it.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Interesting how many of those leaps correspond with the physical disk capabilities of consoles of each era.

Hadn't noticed that. I haven't had a console since PS2 and back then storage was only just barely an option.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Feel bad about the guys out there with data caps. When I was stationed up north (2014-2017), the 250-300 GB monthly data cap was a constant struggle.

It also feels like this is an area where Gamestop/Electronics Boutique could find a potential market. Have a high-speed method/service for customers to download their purchased software to an external HDD for installation on their home console. Even if it's a system where they drop the HDD off and then pick it up a couple of hours later when its ready.

I kind of remember something like that was on the table. Seems like they dropped the ball but some entrepreneur could potentially fill that void. My suggestion would be to set up an office next to a Comcast CO.

 

[Armenius]

Textures are one of things responsible for that. Now that we have so many enormous open world games and the textures improve every few years as the consoles improve, you end up with double the file sizes of the previous generation. it's not all texture sizes, but anyone who has ever texture modded a game will tell you, that's potentially the biggest cause of it.

Don't forget audio. For some reason developers are concerned about the performance hit decoding compressed audio has these days while it was not a concern 20 years ago. You also have games now including files for multiple languages, even when a tiny minority of a given country speaks it.

Hadn't noticed that. I haven't had a console since PS2 and back then storage was only just barely an option.

2000-2006 games were definitely in the 2-10GB range, reflecting the introduction of DVD on consoles. Most games on PS2 were on single-layer DVD, which were 4.7GB in capacity. Dual-layer DVD came into common use with the Xbox 360, while Blu-ray on PS3 pushed games to the 20GB range. A hard drive came to the PS2 specifically for Final Fantasy XI in the US, if memory serves. It was part of the network adapter. Some games were made to take advantage of the hard drive if present, but FFXI was the only game to require it.