Here's a new level of ineptitude. GOW 4 is an 80GB download.

[you2]

But only 2 1/2 blu rays

More like 17 DVD's - most physical DVD media is single sided.

 

[sxr7171]

The problem with physical media is that we've already seen how some games preloaded seem to have a huge zero day update. Some games have even re-downloaded the whole game on zero day. We've also heard how some games even with the physical disc ignore the data and just download the whole game since it was updated by the devs.

In my view that's another level of ineptitude. I know games are always in a state of flux and release dates are marketing driven. But do we not understand the concept of delta updates? Can't some of the files be kept? Can't the files themselves be patched with only changes? In a world where torrents can be downloaded in dozens of pieces per file from different servers and the file reconstituted, why can't this be done?

I know this takes CPU power but that's cheap and in abundance. Citing that is a poor excuse for not implementing more advanced ways of updating games while conserving the one thing that is scarce for most people - bandwidth.

Also while Steam and Uplay actually will let you play before the whole download is finished that would seem to be a pipe dream for the largest supplier of desktop operating systems in the world. Must be too hard to accomplish what little game companies do routinely.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

You got a 200Mb connection? Must be nice, the national average is 25Mb/sec.

Yeah, Virgin Media do 200mbit over FTTC with a high quality coax last mile and they're pretty aggressive with speed updates

Hogwash.

I went from something like ADSL2+ being the max speed in an inner city at about 3mbit in 2008 (ish) to 200mbit, so that's like a 100 fold increase in bandwidth which has pushed an 80Gb download from what would have taken 60 hours at line speed to like 53 mins.

The same can't be said for CPU for compression in the same time frame, unpacking compressed data takes time and if you're trying to distribute the fastest to customers and they can download 80Gb in 50 mins, there's no sense in compressing that release say down to an example of 50Gb but it then taking 3-4 hours to uncompress. Because the total time is a lot longer.

There is no reason to have uncompressed data at all.
There is such a thing known as native GPU texture compression that is of the optimal format that the GPU needs, and that works very well, and doesn't need the CPU to uncompress anything.

Well, unpacking compressed data takes time, so it's a time/memory trade off, the size is reduced but at the cost of time to unpack. I'm talking about the size and compression of the entire game install, and not specifically native texture compression or anything like that.

1TB SSDs can be had for just over $300 now (Samsung 850 EVO 1TB ~ $313 on Newegg) but even then, SSDs are not a standing requirement for gaming. They are definitely life changing devices and improve load times considerably, but they aren't necessary.

Yeah you want an SSD for your primary/OS drive so system files are fast and the OS is responsive and you can install reasonable sized apps and games there if you want, but then use large/cheap HDDs for mass media storage and things like large games. I have an old 120Gb SSD from ages ago and then like 16Tb of HDD space, 80Gb isn't much in the HDD world, and games tend to get pretty minor boosts in loading times from SSDs since a lot of the load time is processing and not data transfer.

 

[sxr7171]

I would love for this thread to get buried. But time and again this terrible system shows it's colors.

So it downloaded close to 70GB and for some unexplained reason it started over yesterday.

Ok fine. It started again and downloaded probably another 50GB.

Then I just came home from work and it says 3.54MB of 73.33GB.

So it has restarted this download for the 3rd time.

80GB isn't a huge deal in this day and age. But if it keeps restarting like this every day then it will be the never ending download. It may never download at this rate.

I can't really think of any kind words for this stupid Windows store and its download manager from the 90s.

 

[KMFJD]

I would love for this thread to get buried. But time and again this terrible system shows it's colors.

So it downloaded close to 70GB and for some unexplained reason it started over yesterday.

Ok fine. It started again and downloaded probably another 50GB.

Then I just came home from work and it says 3.54MB of 73.33GB.

So it has restarted this download for the 3rd time.

80GB isn't a huge deal in this day and age. But if it keeps restarting like this every day then it will be the never ending download. It may never download at this rate.

I can't really think of any kind words for this stupid Windows store and its download manager from the 90s.

Square Enix has the exact same issue with their launcher/patcher for Final Fantasy 14

 

[sxr7171]

Square Enix has the exact same issue with their launcher/patcher for Final Fantasy 14

I have a hard time thinking this is rocket science to get right.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Wow, if you had a data cap you'd start to be close to it with all the restarting.

 

[cmdrdredd]

The problem with physical media is that we've already seen how some games preloaded seem to have a huge zero day update. Some games have even re-downloaded the whole game on zero day. We've also heard how some games even with the physical disc ignore the data and just download the whole game since it was updated by the devs.

I remember the release of Metal Gear Solid the Phantom Pain and how the physical disk came with a steam installer and nothing else. Literally they told you to install steam, make an account, put in the code they give you, and download it. Physical games on the PC are about dead.

 

[sxr7171]

Wow, if you had a data cap you'd start to be close to it with all the restarting.

It's funny you mention that. Just today Comcast announced 1024GB monthly limits. I was going post about that here.

So while its understandable that games get bigger our ISPs are going to cap us based on what 99% of people today stay under.

 

[XavierMace]

I would love for this thread to get buried. But time and again this terrible system shows it's colors.

So it downloaded close to 70GB and for some unexplained reason it started over yesterday.

Ok fine. It started again and downloaded probably another 50GB.

Then I just came home from work and it says 3.54MB of 73.33GB.

So it has restarted this download for the 3rd time.

80GB isn't a huge deal in this day and age. But if it keeps restarting like this every day then it will be the never ending download. It may never download at this rate.

I can't really think of any kind words for this stupid Windows store and its download manager from the 90s.

You may want to consider the issue is on your side. My Forza Horizon 3 downloads on both my PC and Xbox are long done with no issues.

 

[sxr7171]

Ok so now it says error and the error code is:

0x80D0000a, in case I need it. Ha ha.

 

[cmdrdredd]

It's funny you mention that. Just today Comcast announced 1024GB monthly limits. I was going post about that here.

So while its understandable that games get bigger our ISPs are going to cap us based on what 99% of people today stay under.

Well, I pay a bit extra for Comcast to turn off my data cap. It was $30 a month now it's $40 I think. I have their 150Mbps service which regularly goes up to near 200. If I didn't pay for unlimited data use I'd be screwed as I regularly blow through 2TB of data on my network. I ditched Cable TV and stream almost everything.

 

[sxr7171]

You may want to consider the issue is on your side. My Forza Horizon 3 downloads on both my PC and Xbox are long done with no issues.

I finally got Forza Horizon 3 after some drama. But this is crazy. Anyway if you google it I'm not the only one.

That error code above requires I delete everything in the software distribution folder and start over apparently.

I ask myself why this doesn't happen on steam or Uplay or origin.

 

[sxr7171]

Well, I pay a bit extra for Comcast to turn off my data cap. It was $30 a month now it's $40 I think. I have their 150Mbps service which regularly goes up to near 200. If I didn't pay for unlimited data use I'd be screwed as I regularly blow through 2TB of data on my network. I ditched Cable TV and stream almost everything.

These data caps are new in my area. I hope I can pay to turn it off.

What I read is that they'll let you exceed it twice in 12 months. After that it's $10/50GB. Which is ridiculous. Up to $200 maximum a month.

I got rid of cable years ago too. I think only people who watch sports need cable anymore.

I will concede Comcast always exceeds their promised speed. $40 for 150mbps is very good. I have advertised 80mbps for $60 and that's after I called and threatened to cancel. Otherwise it's $90 something without TV.

 

[sxr7171]

Just an update after doing a "file autopsy". The store says now 2.23GB out of 76GB downloaded.

I have a folder in software distribution that is 76GB big. I have another folder in the apps folder that is related to this game by codename of 17GB. Another folder that is 5GB. There is a 4MB file called "pieces hashes".

So there is there is about 100GB of data on my hard drive related to this game and it wants to download another 74GB?

The Windows store's ways are very mysterious. And very dumb.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Meh, i pay about $75 usd a month for unlimied gigabit fiber so doesn't worry me much. As long as the game looks like it should be that size (as in, excellent textures)

 

[sweenish]

I finally got Forza Horizon 3 after some drama. But this is crazy. Anyway if you google it I'm not the only one.

That error code above requires I delete everything in the software distribution folder and start over apparently.

I ask myself why this doesn't happen on steam or Uplay or origin.

Like when even the tiniest patch on Steam used to require the whole game be downloaded again? That was only fixed a few years ago.

I mean, a new platform competing with established entities will always have an uphill battle, but let's not pretend that Steam had it right when that change is still in their relatively fresh history.

 

[steelodon]

You read the title and you know it's not a happy one.

I just checked the preload and it's 80GB. Is there no such thing as compression in the world? Does this really need 80GB of space? The words I want to use to describe that company I can't write here. True joke of a company and the people who come up with such ideas. Really? Not one person thought 80GB is pushing it? That's when that store actually works. If it does the usual getting to 90% and failing you will run through some ISP monthly limits just attempting to get this to work.

That company will always be a joke. No matter how much they try to convince you they are changing they will always be a joke. It is truly the destiny of that organization.

Well at least you get the preload of the game. I get an error stating 'Something Happened on Our End'

 

[sxr7171]

Well at least you get the preload of the game. I get an error stating 'Something Happened on Our End'

Actually I didn't. It's still trying to download 74GB. Since this system is a black box you can't just click on the .exe and start the game even if all of it is downloaded. It must download as much as it wants until the store recognizes it's all there and sorted out even if it means it will download triple the required data.

I got Forza to work, but not this.

 

[sxr7171]

Like when even the tiniest patch on Steam used to require the whole game be downloaded again? That was only fixed a few years ago.

I mean, a new platform competing with established entities will always have an uphill battle, but let's not pretend that Steam had it right when that change is still in their relatively fresh history.

Years is a long time. When Steam was like that games were trivial in size. An annoyance sure because our connections were slower. But Valve is smaller company and they got it right over time. Origin too was bad at first but they are perfectly okay now. Same with Uplay. Patches also were not every week like they are today. Maybe you'd play for a month or two and have to download all of 5GB at most back then.

This is microsoft we're talking about here. They always enter late and screw at up that. See: Zune, Windows Phone etc. That store is meant for trinkets at best. How do they distribute entire OS downloads and not get this right? How do they even make an OS if they can't get simple downloads right? This crap company has no excuses.

 

[cmdrdredd]

These data caps are new in my area. I hope I can pay to turn it off.

What I read is that they'll let you exceed it twice in 12 months. After that it's $10/50GB. Which is ridiculous. Up to $200 maximum a month.

I got rid of cable years ago too. I think only people who watch sports need cable anymore.

I will concede Comcast always exceeds their promised speed. $40 for 150mbps is very good. I have advertised 80mbps for $60 and that's after I called and threatened to cancel. Otherwise it's $90 something without TV.

They don't advertise about dropping the cap from your connection, you have to ask them. It took me 4 calls to finally get the right person on the line who could do something about it.

 

[you2]

Thankfully the state I live in doesn't have a cap but when I read about it I checked how much traffic I was using and it was only in the 100GB range for the past 12 months so for myself the cap is a non-issue so far. I was actually a little surprise hwo little I used given how large some of the game downloads have become (such as Doom); but I don't do a lot of streaming (yet). To be honest I suspect that coach p. who live off of streaming will have the hardest time with the new caps.

 

[sxr7171]

They don't advertise about dropping the cap from your connection, you have to ask them. It took me 4 calls to finally get the right person on the line who could do something about it.

I guess I'll have to call them. Maybe retention will be able to drop it.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

It's funny you mention that. Just today Comcast announced 1024GB monthly limits. I was going post about that here.

So while its understandable that games get bigger our ISPs are going to cap us based on what 99% of people today stay under.

Ugh. I got that email too.

And WTF are the overage charges about? +$50/month extra for unlimited, but $15 per 50GB over? Christ.

If I need to download my crashplan backup, I'll have to steal wifi.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Ugh. I got that email too.

And WTF are the overage charges about? +$50/month extra for unlimited, but $15 per 50GB over? Christ.

If I need to download my crashplan backup, I'll have to steal wifi.

That's why I paid for unlimited. There are months where I use well over 1TB of data. Sometimes almost 2TB. It depends on how much I stream 4k movies and shows and how many games release that I download.