The size of demos these days is INSANE!!

jlc

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OK so a couple of days ago I was able to DL the FEAR demo and I thought at
649 MB it was a damn big demo, but today I found the demo for Dungeon Siege
II and it's is a whopping 1.39 GB!!! For a demo!
http://avault.com/pcrl/dlftp.asp?url=ftp.avault.com/demos/ds2demo.exe&game=ds2

If the demo is this big I wonder how huge this game is going to be. I for
one am really getting tired of games taking 4 or more GB of HD space. I have
400GB of HD space in my rig, but I still have to delete games to make room
for these huge games. Do games really need to be this big, or is it just
sloppy programming?
JLC
 
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JLC wrote:
> OK so a couple of days ago I was able to DL the FEAR demo and I thought at
> 649 MB it was a damn big demo, but today I found the demo for Dungeon Siege
> II and it's is a whopping 1.39 GB!!! For a demo!
> http://avault.com/pcrl/dlftp.asp?url=ftp.avault.com/demos/ds2demo.exe&game=ds2
>
> If the demo is this big I wonder how huge this game is going to be. I for
> one am really getting tired of games taking 4 or more GB of HD space. I have
> 400GB of HD space in my rig, but I still have to delete games to make room
> for these huge games. Do games really need to be this big, or is it just
> sloppy programming?
> JLC
>
>
>

Mostly graphics. High-resolution textures and variety in the graphics
(different locations) take lots of space...
 
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"JLC" <j.jc@nospam.com> wrote in

> today I found the demo for Dungeon Siege II and it's is a whopping 1.39
> GB!!! For a demo!

I was just thinking the same thing when I saw the FEAR demo ... how long
before the 2 CD demo appears.

400GB of HDD and you still have no room? Well if you never uninstall stuff
you're finished with I suppose it would fill up ... all those MP3's and pr0n
..... :)
 
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"JLC" <j.jc@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:_56dnRPWRd_ovWXfRVn-gw@comcast.com...
> Do games really need to be this big, or is it just
> sloppy programming?
> JLC
>
>
>

Neither, really. The demo does not need to be that big, but the reason why
they leave extra data in is more an issue of cost-effectiveness, not
sloppiness. If you are a studio with limited development and QA resources,
then you simply don't have the time or the incentive to properly strip down
a game while ensuring that the requirements are still complete. There are
literally thousands of possible resource files that would have to be
catalogued and searched. Even the final retail version of games typically
ship with extraneous data left in the distro (would you care for some
coffee?).
 
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One Punch Mickey wrote:
> "JLC" <j.jc@nospam.com> wrote in
>
>
>> today I found the demo for Dungeon Siege II and it's is a whopping 1.39
>>GB!!! For a demo!
>
>
> I was just thinking the same thing when I saw the FEAR demo ... how long
> before the 2 CD demo appears.
>
> 400GB of HDD and you still have no room? Well if you never uninstall stuff
> you're finished with I suppose it would fill up ... all those MP3's and pr0n
> .... :)

Well not sure about a 2-CD demo, but there is a 3-CD demo: Dungeon Siege
II (1.5 GB).
 
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The Dungeon Siege 2 demo is certainly the current all-time-big-size holder
...I've seen a pre-release
Beta copy of the whole thing around at 1.6 gigs...
I assume the large size of modern games is an intentional deterrent to
pirate downloaders ..deters me anyways.
luv mouse
@@@@
 
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"JLC" <j.jc@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:_56dnRPWRd_ovWXfRVn-gw@comcast.com...
> OK so a couple of days ago I was able to DL the FEAR demo and I thought at
> 649 MB it was a damn big demo, but today I found the demo for Dungeon
> Siege II and it's is a whopping 1.39 GB!!! For a demo!
> http://avault.com/pcrl/dlftp.asp?url=ftp.avault.com/demos/ds2demo.exe&game=ds2
>
> If the demo is this big I wonder how huge this game is going to be. I for
> one am really getting tired of games taking 4 or more GB of HD space. I
> have 400GB of HD space in my rig, but I still have to delete games to make
> room for these huge games. Do games really need to be this big, or is it
> just sloppy programming?
> JLC
>


Well, thankfully, hard drives are quite affordable. I know what you mean
though...install a few newer games and quite a whack of your free space
disappears. I even had to re-partition my second internal hard drive about
six months ago to accomodate some games!
 
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"Trimble Bracegirdle" <NOspam@spam.not> wrote in message
news:42fabd38_4@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...
> The Dungeon Siege 2 demo is certainly the current all-time-big-size
holder
> ..I've seen a pre-release
> Beta copy of the whole thing around at 1.6 gigs...
> I assume the large size of modern games is an intentional deterrent to
> pirate downloaders ..deters me anyways.

Only 1.6 gigs? Try downloading full dvd rips at 4.x gigs a pop. I remember
350meg tv episodes that I did via 56K dialup. In case you forgot, the
computer can still download if you are asleep. On just about any broadband
connect 1.6 gigs is only a couple of hours.
 
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"john graesser" <graesser@tca.net> wrote in message
news:11fmu1t1kqrbq02@corp.supernews.com...
> In case you forgot, the
> computer can still download if you are asleep.


When I was on dial-up, this actually was one of my favorite tricks. And
since I have a dedicated Internet computer separate from my main computer, I
could connect all night without worries over security.
 
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"Smart Feet" <smartfeet@yourshoes.com> wrote in message
news:WuVJe.50434$B52.7806@tornado.ohiordc.rr.com...
> JLC wrote:
>> OK so a couple of days ago I was able to DL the FEAR demo and I thought
>> at 649 MB it was a damn big demo, but today I found the demo for Dungeon
>> Siege II and it's is a whopping 1.39 GB!!! For a demo!
>> http://avault.com/pcrl/dlftp.asp?url=ftp.avault.com/demos/ds2demo.exe&game=ds2
>>
>> If the demo is this big I wonder how huge this game is going to be. I for
>> one am really getting tired of games taking 4 or more GB of HD space. I
>> have 400GB of HD space in my rig, but I still have to delete games to
>> make room for these huge games. Do games really need to be this big, or
>> is it just sloppy programming?
>> JLC
>>
>>
>>
>
> Mostly graphics. High-resolution textures and variety in the graphics
> (different locations) take lots of space...

Not really true.

Visit: www.theprodukkt.com and downlad the .kkrieger demo. It is, get this,
only 96 KB, not MB, but KB. Play it and you will be mightily impressed. It
has a fully textured 3D environment with a basic 3D shooter game. Granted it
has its issues, but it just goes to show you what can be done with a little
hard work.

I love it when people do stuff like this. It just shows that the big
publishers don't care for creativity, just quantity. God forbid they try to
do something different.

I remember a few years back, a group made a GUI OS that fit on a floppy. It
contained a full mouse/keyboard support, a paint and text program, and a web
browser!!! Unbelievable. They made it look similar to Windows 98
 
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"NightSky 421" <nightsky421@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:11fm8oq2eqh01f8@corp.supernews.com...
> "JLC" <j.jc@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:_56dnRPWRd_ovWXfRVn-gw@comcast.com...
>> OK so a couple of days ago I was able to DL the FEAR demo and I thought
>> at 649 MB it was a damn big demo, but today I found the demo for Dungeon
>> Siege II and it's is a whopping 1.39 GB!!! For a demo!
>> http://avault.com/pcrl/dlftp.asp?url=ftp.avault.com/demos/ds2demo.exe&game=ds2
>>
>> If the demo is this big I wonder how huge this game is going to be. I for
>> one am really getting tired of games taking 4 or more GB of HD space. I
>> have 400GB of HD space in my rig, but I still have to delete games to
>> make room for these huge games. Do games really need to be this big, or
>> is it just sloppy programming?
>> JLC
>>
>
>
> Well, thankfully, hard drives are quite affordable. I know what you mean
> though...install a few newer games and quite a whack of your free space
> disappears. I even had to re-partition my second internal hard drive
> about six months ago to accomodate some games!
>

Yeah, but if you are looking for performance, you are somewhat limited on
space. I have a 74GB Raptor drive that I have my Windows and Games partition
on, and it fills up quickly. But there's no other alternative out there that
has its speed and responsiveness that is bigger than 74GB. I considered a
RAID config, but am hesitant since I had a RAID failure a couple years ago
and it was not fun.
 
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On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 14:43:26 -0400, "HockeyTownUSA" <cyberpilot at gmail
dot com> wrote:

>
>"Smart Feet" <smartfeet@yourshoes.com> wrote in message
>news:WuVJe.50434$B52.7806@tornado.ohiordc.rr.com...
>> JLC wrote:
>>> OK so a couple of days ago I was able to DL the FEAR demo and I thought
>>> at 649 MB it was a damn big demo, but today I found the demo for Dungeon
>>> Siege II and it's is a whopping 1.39 GB!!! For a demo!
>>> http://avault.com/pcrl/dlftp.asp?url=ftp.avault.com/demos/ds2demo.exe&game=ds2
>>>
>>> If the demo is this big I wonder how huge this game is going to be. I for
>>> one am really getting tired of games taking 4 or more GB of HD space. I
>>> have 400GB of HD space in my rig, but I still have to delete games to
>>> make room for these huge games. Do games really need to be this big, or
>>> is it just sloppy programming?
>>> JLC
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Mostly graphics. High-resolution textures and variety in the graphics
>> (different locations) take lots of space...
>
>Not really true.
>
>Visit: www.theprodukkt.com and downlad the .kkrieger demo. It is, get this,
>only 96 KB, not MB, but KB. Play it and you will be mightily impressed. It
>has a fully textured 3D environment with a basic 3D shooter game. Granted it
>has its issues, but it just goes to show you what can be done with a little
>hard work.

Actually, it's not that impressive - what it doesn't have in download size
is made up for in loading time.

While the technology to compress that kind of data is impressive, the game
included with the demo isn't really that great according to modern
standards. There's also some crash bugs nurking, as well as the ability to
got stuck in the world model.

Algorithms like that were popular on the C64 - you don't seem them much
anymore since they are a bit more difficult to write.

>I remember a few years back, a group made a GUI OS that fit on a floppy. It
>contained a full mouse/keyboard support, a paint and text program, and a web
>browser!!! Unbelievable. They made it look similar to Windows 98

That would be QNX - a commercial product being used in embeeded systems.
 
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On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 14:47:52 -0400, "HockeyTownUSA" <cyberpilot at gmail
dot com> wrote:

>
>"NightSky 421" <nightsky421@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
>news:11fm8oq2eqh01f8@corp.supernews.com...
>> "JLC" <j.jc@nospam.com> wrote in message
>> news:_56dnRPWRd_ovWXfRVn-gw@comcast.com...
>>
>> Well, thankfully, hard drives are quite affordable. I know what you mean
>> though...install a few newer games and quite a whack of your free space
>> disappears. I even had to re-partition my second internal hard drive
>> about six months ago to accomodate some games!
>>
>
>Yeah, but if you are looking for performance, you are somewhat limited on
>space. I have a 74GB Raptor drive that I have my Windows and Games partition
>on, and it fills up quickly. But there's no other alternative out there that
>has its speed and responsiveness that is bigger than 74GB. I considered a
>RAID config, but am hesitant since I had a RAID failure a couple years ago
>and it was not fun.

The trick is to use RAID level 3 or better. This requires much more hard
drives (more than what ATA can give you) and is generally more expensive -
however it allows one drive to fail with no ill effects. It may be more
complex to set up, but it is worth it (if you have the drives).

In any case, avoid RAID 0 - it's the most prone to problems as any disk
failure waxes the storage. It's better to maintain independant partitions
on them.
 
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"HockeyTownUSA" <cyberpilot at gmail dot com> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
<snip>
>I remember a few years back, a group made a GUI OS that fit on a floppy. It
>contained a full mouse/keyboard support, a paint and text program, and a web
>browser!!! Unbelievable. They made it look similar to Windows 98

QNX?

Xocyll
--
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