'We're Taking Your Concerns Very Seriously but There Are No Easy Solutions' — Arrowhead Explains Why the Helldivers 2 Installation Size Is So Big on PC

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Studios inactive doesn't person a solution for the shooter's groaning installation size connected PC — but it is moving connected it.

In an update posted to Steam earlier today, Arrowhead's lawman method director, Brendan Armstrong, penned the archetypal successful a bid of posts successful which the engineering squad talks astir the "technical health" of the game, arsenic good arsenic the "technical challenges we're moving through."

Admitting that the installation size "seems to beryllium a blistery taxable close now" — astatine 150GB, Helldivers 2 takes up 3 times the abstraction connected PC than it does connected console — the developer revealed that 1 of the reasons the PC size is truthful overmuch bigger is due to the fact that of information duplication and mechanical hard drives.

"The main contented with a mechanical HDD is question time," Armstrong explained. "An HDD stores information connected a spinning platter, and a carnal limb with a work caput has to determination crossed the platter to find and retrieve data. The clip it takes for this limb to 'seek' oregon determination to the close determination is simply a important show bottleneck.

"Imagine a ample crippled level with assorted objects — trees, rocks, buildings, props. If the information for these objects is scattered each implicit the hard drive, the work caput has to physically leap astir the disk, which adds a batch of clip to the loading process."

This, the manager added, is wherefore Arrowhead deliberately duplicates definite information files similar a communal histrion texture oregon a dependable effect and "place copies of them successful physically adjacent proximity to wherever they would beryllium needed successful the game."

"Much of the information successful the PC mentation of Helldivers 2 is duplicated. The signifier of duplicating information to trim loading times is simply a crippled improvement method that is chiefly utilized to optimize games for older retention media, peculiarly mechanical HDDs and optical discs similar DVDs," the manager explained. "This signifier is mostly unnecessary for games deployed connected Solid State Drives (SSDs) which is wherefore the console versions of Helldivers 2 bash not bash this."

That said, the station admits that with the advent of SSDs — which store information connected flash representation chips that person nary moving parts — question clip is virtually nonexistent, but arsenic agelong arsenic mechanical HDDs are portion of the minimum spec PC requirements, it has to beryllium included. Steam idiosyncratic surveys are "unable to springiness america information connected mechanical HDD usage successful the wide gamer population," but Arrowhead's "best estimates" enactment it astatine astir 12% of each PC gamers.

"Until we tin much accurately find the fig of mechanical HDDs that Helldivers 2 is installed on, it is hard to cognize however galore players volition beryllium impacted by reducing the magnitude of information duplication," the station said. "Even if that fig is small, support successful caput that the load clip for each subordinate dropping into a ngo is determined by the slowest subordinate of the squad."

While Arrowhead grapples with this contented and tries to get amended information connected however galore of their players usage mechanical HDDs, the squad said it's made "some tiny gains successful the adjacent update" by sweeping for unused assets and "obvious problems," but admits we "will not apt announcement them due to the fact that the caller worldly we’ve added volition devour those gains."

In the longer term, the squad volition marque improvements to the motor to guarantee the crippled doesn't discarded RAM loading communal information that isn't needed.

"Beyond that, the remaining enactment is simply a bigger, riskier, much speculative task wherever we use immoderate benignant of compression to the crippled information and perchance replicate immoderate of the de-duplication we bash connected consoles," the station concludes. "We don’t yet cognize if the impacts to load-times could marque these approaches infeasible.

"We’re taking your concerns precise earnestly but determination are nary casual solutions. Until we unrecorded successful a satellite wherever we cognize that astir of our PC players are utilizing SSD drives, sacrificing immoderate other hard thrust abstraction is indispensable to guarantee we’re each capable to load into missions successful a tenable magnitude of time. We’ve intelligibly reached the limits of however overmuch duplicated information is acceptable truthful smarter solutions and compromises are present required. We are precise cautiously weighing up the costs and tradeoffs of the options we have, and we’ll beryllium definite to find a amended equilibrium betwixt loading times and installation size soon."

Vikki Blake is simply a newsman for IGN, arsenic good arsenic a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years acquisition moving with immoderate of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's besides a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her astatine BlueSky.