Why Helldivers 2 Takes Up So Much Space on PC
Arrowhead Game Studios, the creators behind the popular co-op shooter Helldivers 2, have recently kicked off a new series of technical blogs. These posts aim to give players an in-depth look at the game's development and inner workings. The debut entry, authored by Arrowhead's Technical Director Brendan Armstrong, shed light on a common player concern: why the PC version of Helldivers 2 is significantly larger than its console counterparts.
Currently, Helldivers 2 on PC can take up a hefty 150 gigabytes of storage. This is considerably more than the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions combined, which typically sit around 35–40 gigabytes. Armstrong explained that the primary reason for this size difference is file duplication.
File duplication is a technique often used in game development to reduce loading times, particularly for older storage mediums like traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) and optical discs. By duplicating data, the disk's read head doesn't have to search as far for necessary information, which can be a significant bottleneck for performance. However, this practice is largely unnecessary for games installed on Solid State Drives (SSDs), which is why the console versions of Helldivers 2 don't use it as extensively.
The Challenge of HDD Support
Simply removing these duplicated files isn't an option for Arrowhead, as it would severely impact players still using HDDs. If the duplication were removed, HDD users would experience much longer loading times due to the increased seeking required from the disk's read head. Armstrong noted that this is why some system requirements now list SSDs even as a minimum specification for certain games.
Abandoning HDD support for Helldivers 2 is a difficult decision. Armstrong stated that HDDs are still part of the game's minimum PC system requirements, and the team doesn't have exact data on how many players rely on them. Without this information, it's hard to gauge the impact of removing support. However, based on what Arrowhead describes as "highly unreliable" data, about 12% of Helldivers 2 players still use mechanical hard drives.
Arrowhead's Solutions and Future Plans
Despite the challenges, Arrowhead is actively working on several solutions to reduce the game's footprint, categorized into short, medium, and long-term plans:
- Short-term: Developers have reviewed game files for unused assets and removed them. While this will lead to small improvements in the next patch, players might not notice a significant overall reduction in size because new content will be added, offsetting some of the space saved.
- Mid-term: The team plans to tackle the most problematic duplicated files by combining them into sets of "very common assets." These sets would only load under specific conditions, such as for a particular enemy faction or biome. This approach will unfortunately lead to a slight increase in loading times for mechanical HDD users. Armstrong estimates these load times will remain "under 30 seconds" rather than "several minutes." These changes might also affect RAM usage.
- Long-term: Arrowhead is looking into engine modifications to prevent unnecessary common information from loading into RAM. Following this, they will consider the more risky and hypothetical idea of compressing game data. Partial implementation of the deduplication methods used on consoles is also a possibility. The impact of these long-term solutions on loading times is still uncertain.
Armstrong emphasized that the team takes player concerns seriously, but stressed that there are "no simple solutions." He explained that as long as a significant portion of their PC player base uses HDDs, they must make sacrifices with additional hard drive space to ensure everyone can load into missions in a reasonable amount of time. He acknowledged that they've reached the limit of acceptable duplicated data and now require smarter compromises.
Finally, Armstrong mentioned that while high-quality textures could theoretically be offered as an optional download pack, the Helldivers 2 engine currently doesn't support this. Implementing such an option would be incredibly difficult and resource-intensive, making it a low priority for now.
For players, this means that while immediate, drastic reductions in Helldivers 2's PC file size aren't on the horizon, Arrowhead is committed to a multi-stage process to optimize the game. Future patches will bring gradual improvements, balancing the need for smaller installations with a smooth experience for all players, regardless of their storage hardware.
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