Notices by roka (roka@pl.smuglo.li), page 41

>While the lack of oversight is a major contributor to game install sizes, Harris suggests the current situation of monster games is partly a generational and locational problem. While older developers have a pedigree of working on systems which had to be constrained by the likes of compact physical media, younger developers don’t understand those limitations.

>“Even consoles have huge hard drives now,” he pointed out. “They have forgotten how to develop smaller assets.”

>There’s also a disconnect between developers and their audience. “Games are developed in big cities, by young people in tech-hubs where the studio has fiber, everyone has fiber, and the idea of download size mattering is laughable,” Harris said. “It’s not a concern they can identify with in any way. Plus, there are still some idiots who mock a game for being a small download size. Yes, that actually happens.”

>This, he claims, leads to complacency and wastefulness, something that just wasn’t possible when developers were worried about cramming an entire game into a few megabytes of space on a cartridge or disc.

>“That means leaving sound as Wav files instead of (way smaller) OGG files, using HD textures even for tiny elements that are never seen at full size…” lamented Harris. “[They also] leave mip-maps on when they won’t be used, always use 32-bit color when some textures are greyscale, and even ship audio for 10 different languages to everyone, regardless of region.”

>“There is just not that automatic background process that occurred in the heads of older developers like me,” he said. “It’s a lost art.”

Yes w

Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/why-are-video-games-so-big/