Why are patches / updates so big?
Why are patches / updates so big? It feels like the game is being redownloaded every update
-
The launcher shows the full size of the game when updating. As it checks over existing files when updating and only downloads the new changed content.
-
Typically updates that involve things like new meshes, textures etc are larger since those file changes take up a lot more data.
-
Assets are frequently bundled and located in precise ways to improve load times or otherwise optimize performance. This means that if a little detail of a level changes it may be in the middle of a bigger block of stuff.
"The file size of an update is not evidence of the amount of carelessness or mistakes made in original releases. You can have a massive bug fixed in 2 kilobytes, or 15 gigabytes of small quality of life fixes." - Rami Ismail