Star Citizen likely to be ~100GB at launch with 14-20GB patches (says wildly speculative blogger)
170 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Disseminate;47305740]I, like many others in southern Canada, have a bandwidth cap of 80 GB/mo at $45/month. It's an extra $2/GB over that to a maximum of $100. This game would cost me not only the game's price, but also the $100 on top of that.[/QUOTE]
How the.... I go through that in a normal week. What the hell.
[QUOTE=Roll_Program;47305673]...again when games started becoming more blu-ray sized. File size can't stagnate for the sake of convenience to those with older computers.[/QUOTE]
People started complaining about this because it started from bad console ports, there were a couple of games that simply had uncompressed audio that took huge amount of space for no reason other than the devs being too lazy since they have Blu-Rays for console.
I personally don't have a problem with game size.
[QUOTE=Roll_Program;47305673]Adding to this, people whined when game file size went from CD size to DVD size, and same again when games started becoming more blu-ray sized. File size can't stagnate for the sake of convenience to those with older computers.
That being said, I haven't added to my computer since 2007.[/QUOTE]
The main issue is that getting a new hard drive/getting more space on your PC is as simple as walking to a tech store and buying parts. Getting new internet, however, is up to the local ISPs and whether they want to fuck you less or not.
The game already needs a super computer to play, this is only fitting.
:v:
I have 107 GB left on my hard drive.
Oh well.
I have a 400GB cap per month, this I see would eat a very good portion of that :(
Imagine using fraps on this, with even more gb being eaten up by avi footage.
[QUOTE=Roll_Program;47305561]USA average is 33.5 Mb/s and 28.2 in EU. On average, people who have put a lot of money into the PCs to play this game would most likely have the ability to afford above average internet.[/QUOTE]
Being rich won't change how fast your connection is, that's totally up to the ISPs available in your location and I hear the US especially suffers with this because of ISP monopolies, although the recent FCC ruling might have changed this.
Nah get fucked, thats stupid
I think I'll be needing another hard drive.
Bandwidth caps should be illegal in 2015
Hmm...
Doable.
50 gigs for a game client is already becoming a norm, 100gb isn't far away.
Besides, 100Gb is probably the installed game client. Installation packages may be smaller. Not by much, but smaller.
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While on that note, what do you guys think release date will be?
I'm thinking somewhere in the early 2017.
if the game's good i'll drop the cash on an SD for it but I'll have to wait and see
[QUOTE=Dr.Critic;47305539]I probably should get something like a terabyte drive anyway but I balked at 100gb.
I thought Max Payne 3 at 30/40gb was insane, but 100gb? That would take almost all day for my computer to download, and I have a relatively good download speed as I understand it. Other than that I guess I can only say I feel sorry for Australians :v:[/QUOTE]
Provided that it goes at full speed it would take me 38 hours and use 1/3 of my cap.
Aren't there other implications with this? If many of the assets in the game have significantly larger file sizes, doesn't that pose problems in other areas? Wouldn't it cause other issues such as HDD read times not being fast enough, or not having enough RAM? Both of those would cause performance issues. Especially on the cheaper 1TB HDDs that were mentioned earlier, their cheaper prices often comes at at a performance cost, usually in read/write times.
Well I presume that's why the split the game into relative independent modules.
[QUOTE=Roll_Program;47305561]Game development shouldn't have to hold back parts of the game to save on file size just because a few people have slow internet, it's 2015.
USA average is 33.5 Mb/s and 28.2 in EU. On average, people who have put a lot of money into the PCs to play this game would most likely have the ability to afford above average internet.
The average person could just leave it downloading overnight and have it ready by the morning.
Rate dumb if you're not part of the target audience and have slow internet.[/QUOTE]
"Hello, my name is Roll_Program and I have no idea how averages work".
Just because we average 33.5Mbps in the US, doesn't mean everyone has access to that. Some places are lucky to get more than 10Mbps, and some are stuck with even shittier than that. Up until Suddenlink started offering 50Mbps speeds for $60 a month (up from 15/2Mbps at the same price, and in my personal experience it rarely reached more than half that), speeds of 5-15Mbps were considered "blazing fast" around here, and then came along Plateau Telecommunications with their Gigabit fiber for $70 a month. How many cities in the US have access to 1Gbps speeds? Not many, I'll tell you that much, and the US is a pretty damn big place.
I agree with the "leave downloading over-night" sentiment but as mentioned, some people are also stuck with data-caps and throttling (which means that even if we had the average speeds you suggest, they wouldn't remain at that speed under certain circumstances. Imagine paying $60+ a month for internet and you have to budget it (ie not use it, remember you're paying that much whether you use it or not) so you don't exceed your cap, just so you can download a few patches for a game). "Well why don't they just go get a different ISP?" In certain places, there AREN'T any other options.
Why don't they go the way of the console and make it optional to play on a Blu-ray? Assuming they got around to releasing those 3-4 layer discs and compatible drives. Are PCs really limited to only having games saved to the harddrive?
[QUOTE=LittleDogX;47306100]Aren't there other implications with this? If many of the assets in the game have significantly larger file sizes, doesn't that pose problems in other areas? Wouldn't it cause other issues such as HDD read times not being fast enough, or not having enough RAM? Both of those would cause performance issues. Especially on the cheaper 1TB HDDs that were mentioned earlier, their cheaper prices often comes at at a performance cost, usually in read/write times.[/QUOTE]
Yes, it's going to be a demanding game. But the aformentioned $50 1tb drives are pretty much as fast as you're going to get outside of 10k rpm+ enterprise drives and such. You can go cheaper than $50 and will run into the issues you were talking about.
[QUOTE=Roll_Program;47305673]Adding to this, people whined when game file size went from CD size to DVD size, and same again when games started becoming more blu-ray sized. File size can't stagnate for the sake of convenience to those with older computers.
That being said, I haven't added to my computer since 2007.[/QUOTE]
I still remember the uproar that happened when it was announced GTA: San Andreas would only come on DVD.
[QUOTE=LittleDogX;47306100]Aren't there other implications with this? If many of the assets in the game have significantly larger file sizes, doesn't that pose problems in other areas? Wouldn't it cause other issues such as HDD read times not being fast enough, or not having enough RAM? Both of those would cause performance issues. Especially on the cheaper 1TB HDDs that were mentioned earlier, their cheaper prices often comes at at a performance cost, usually in read/write times.[/QUOTE]
The ships are up to 9GB of raw uncompressed assets each, but they rely entirely on Cryengine's asset streaming to only load what they need (your client doesn't need to care what's going on deep inside the capital ship you're shooting at from 4km away), and assets are also LOD'd down from the originals.
According to Chris Roberts, a high-end machine of today will be able to run the game 60fps@1080p at launch; i7, 16GB RAM, GTX 980, etc. However, they're designing the game for 4K/8K and VR; you'll need to wait for a year or two for technology to advance to that stage.
Well I'm fucked then.
[QUOTE=Roll_Program;47305561]Game development shouldn't have to hold back parts of the game to save on file size just because a few people have slow internet, it's 2015.
USA average is 33.5 Mb/s and 28.2 in EU. On average, people who have put a lot of money into the PCs to play this game would most likely have the ability to afford above average internet.
The average person could just leave it downloading overnight and have it ready by the morning.
Rate dumb if you're not part of the target audience and have slow internet.[/QUOTE]
How fast is your internet and how much do you pay for it, Mr high-and-mighty?
[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;47306311]The ships are up to 9GB of raw uncompressed assets each, but they rely entirely on Cryengine's asset streaming to only load what they need (your client doesn't need to care what's going on deep inside the capital ship you're shooting at from 4km away), and assets are also LOD'd down from the originals.
According to Chris Roberts, a high-end machine of today will be able to run the game 60fps@1080p at launch; i7, 16GB RAM, GTX 980, etc. However, they're designing the game for 4K/8K and VR; you'll need to wait for a year or two for technology to advance to that stage.[/QUOTE]
I went from a 680 GTX to a 970 recently because I was having issues at 2560x1440 and I can downsample to 3840x2160 in most games on high but now I'm maxing everything out just fine at 40-60 FPS. I have no doubt that the next generation of cards will be doing 4K at 60 stable.
This will take me 160 hours to download
No caps though so hey
[QUOTE=LittleDogX;47306100]Aren't there other implications with this? If many of the assets in the game have significantly larger file sizes, doesn't that pose problems in other areas? Wouldn't it cause other issues such as HDD read times not being fast enough, or not having enough RAM? Both of those would cause performance issues. Especially on the cheaper 1TB HDDs that were mentioned earlier, their cheaper prices often comes at at a performance cost, usually in read/write times.[/QUOTE]
They accounted for this and have the game split between two levels.
The 'client' level, aka your current inhabited cell/server/planet or whatever.
and the 'universe' level, aka everything else happening like players affecting economy or a war going on far away.
The client level is handled by the client, and will render where-ever you are in the fullest fidelity it can.
The universe level is handled by servers off-location, and will simulate the rest of the universe and keep things relatively up to date with a fairly lax tick-rate to keep the data flowing in manageable.
Basically when you fly into solar system X, while you're navigating the jump point (warping) it will grab the data needed from the universe server, then give you the full experience clientside.
Ultimately while the game will be 100 GB you will only ever 'see' or render about 1-2 GB of that at any time, the rest will just be data updating every minute or so with relevent information.
I'm not sorry about the large size Star Citizen is going to be. It's got a lot of content, a CRAZY amount of model and texture detail... I'd gladly set aside 100 gigs for that.
Quick briefing anyone? What's this game about.
[QUOTE=arleitiss;47306471]Quick briefing anyone? What's this game about.[/QUOTE]
Think Star Wars Galaxies, but bigger and better. Space MMO that comes with standalone single player campaign. Dreamed up by the guy who brought us Wing Commander, Privateer, Freelancer, etc. Imagine an MMO space sim where you can walk around your ship, park your ship anywhere in space and go EVA, land on planetary landing zones and walk or drive around... it has a first person shooter mechanic, and best of all, unlike EVE where you have to grind 'skills' everything in Star Citizen is simulated, plays out in real time, and it all depends on how good a pilot or shot you are.
Fuck it, just watch this.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNpiRFP7T2c[/media]
[QUOTE=arleitiss;47306471]Quick briefing anyone? What's this game about.[/QUOTE]
The game's vision is too big to really define quickly, but basically its trying to be an ultimate 'life in space' simulator MMO, allowing players to affect the universe via trading, pirating, discovering new things, and etc.
As said above there are no skills except your own skills as a player, and there is both space and ground content.
Devs will act like game masters in a DnD sort of way and mix things up as well as continuously update the lore with actions from the players, plus they'll even react to the players if they become influential enough.
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