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Holy crap at Wii U Game Update size.

Ranger X

Member
I would rather have them be optional and allowed to download them as I join a session that requires it. Instead of being forced to download them all in the initial install.

That would probably make the loading longer though -- and they were already long enough. There would always be a player downloading shit and people waiting for them. Terrible idea I tell you.

The game should have been made so it crams it all up in RAM and nobody needs to download anything when you don't own the content but then again, I'm sure they went away from this solution for a reason. The game is probably very ram extensive already.
 

Kilrathi

Member
All those posting PS3 games, obviously haven't tried The Eye of Judgment. :p
It downloads over 3GB, across over 2,500 files..and installs them individually too.

And of course, you can't do anything else while waiting.

DC Universe Online's patch is like 15GB, but is an online game.
Recalls EOJ sets 2 and 3 expansion packs download where not only you had to buy the booster packs but also had to buy a key to use cards in the game (15 bucks each ontop of the buying the cards). It was the reason why I stop playing the game it also didn't help that set 2 and 3 were a pain to find.

DCUO patching at launch did suck too because the disc was pretty much just the launcher for the game the rest had to be downloaded.

Age of Conan Early access download wasn't fun either 28gb download
 

AzaK

Member
When I first updated each game, I assumed that Nintendo's server are just slow at uploading and that the Wii U was just slow at installing. Turns out the files was just big. I was just browsing through the System memory and found out that the Update Data for each game is kinda large.

Update data size for each game:
Nintendoland 221MB
ZombiU 18MB
NSMBU 29MB

XBOX360 title updates are a few MB in sizes, while PS3 game updates are usually under 10MB right?

edit: The video streaming apps are also fairly large, they are between 35-45MB each.

I hope you bought a premium model, cause you're gonna need that storage :)
 

Gummb

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about Rayman Legends Wii U.
It's a good thing you can play the game while the patch is downloading.

Is this really a problem? :\
 

Valnen

Member
People really should stop bitching about this, the more people do the more companies like Microsoft implement retarded policies regarding patches.
 
People really should stop bitching about this, the more people do the more companies like Microsoft implement retarded policies regarding patches.

Speak for yourself, I don't mind DLC when there's new content for a game, but patches shouldn't be hundreds of megabyte affairs.

I don't get to play very often these days, so having to sit through hours of downloads before I can start doesn't really work for me.
 
Speak for yourself, I don't mind DLC when there's new content for a game, but patches shouldn't be hundreds of megabyte affairs.

I don't get to play very often these days, so having to sit through hours of downloads before I can start doesn't really work for me.

Patches are the size they need to be. They exist to improve your game. You start putting restrictions on patches you end up getting fixes in paid DLCs and content that otherwise would be free. Or simply not bother at all


And the same goes for the ridiculous certification process/fees.
 
I don't buy that, not even slightly (size). The main issue with Microsoft's solution is that it's far too restrictive in terms of number of patches.

The only reason you'd be patching multiple gigabytes of data (again, not talking about new content) is if you fucked up all your textures or audio files. Code patches can be big, but generally no-where near that big, especially with differential patching.

Edit - Ahh, you stealth edited to put it a slightly different way. You see adding content as patching, I don't. Patching is for bugfixes, DLC (free ideally) is for content.
 

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
I don't really get why people bitch about patches. I for one am pretty content with Nintendo's neverending stream of updates, with all the bugs they need to fix
 
WiiU probably doesn't have incremental updates like Microsoft does with the 360. I think people don't understand why its generally smaller for the 360. It's because you can send only the files where there are changes (generally speaking). So if your game update is through 3 files that changes, you send only those 3 files, hence why sometimes an update on Xbox is extremely small. On PS3 (and apparently WiiU), there isn't incremental updates. You need to send both your data and a new executable file. And executable files can be big! With that mode of doing updates (which is alot easier on the software side) the update size can be anything really.

We just have to remember that Microsoft is a software company, so they have been doing this kind of stuff forever. Look at Windows or any software application they have made for an example. They already have a codebase set up for this kind of updating so its as simple as Dragging then Dropping the library's they use into the codebase for the OS.
 
I don't buy that, not even slightly (size). The main issue with Microsoft's solution is that it's far too restrictive in terms of number of patches.

The only reason you'd be patching multiple gigabytes of data (again, not talking about new content) is if you fucked up all your textures or audio files. Code patches can be big, but generally no-where near that big, especially with differential patching.

Edit - Ahh, you stealth edited to put it a slightly different way. You see adding content as patching, I don't. Patching is for bugfixes, DLC (free ideally) is for content.

Just see the amount of content that GT5 got through patches... Hell, it got everything through patches, free content and even paid DLC is downloaded through patches. And its over 3GB.
Content delivered through patches really is nothing new. The difference is that these policies are a way to force new content to be delivered as DLC, and charging for it.

And saying patches are generally small is a ridiculous statement, yes, developers can be incompetent and make patches bigger then they should be, but that is a VERY small percentages of cases, and if you look at PC gaming for example this is pretty standard, and yes, it's differential patching.
 

NeoUltima

Member
I downloaded Payday The Heist off PSN and was greeted with a 3gb+ patch.

And because updates cannot be background downloaded or paused, I will never be playing the game.
 

Medalion

Banned
Wasn't there word that another big update is coming for the system tomorrow or sometime this weekend to fix the crashing/freezing issues some Wii-U users have had?
 
And saying patches are generally small is a ridiculous statement, yes, developers can be incompetent and make patches bigger then they should be, but that is a VERY small percentages of cases, and if you look at PC gaming for example this is pretty standard, and yes, it's differential patching.

What on earth are you on about, patches are generally small, on the PC especially.

I've never experienced anything on the PC like GT5. It's utterly ridiculous and it has basically meant I wont be going back to the game unless I was to get something like PS+.

(and no, I can't just turn on the game to update in advance of when I'm playing, I generally have no idea when I will have a chance to play anything)
 
What on earth are you on about, patches are generally small, on the PC especially.

I've never experienced anything on the PC like GT5. It's utterly ridiculous and it has basically meant I wont be going back to the game.

Again, GT5 delivers all the content through the patches. Is the only way they can assure you don't race against invisible cars online even if you haven't bought them... Not to mention all the free stuff that was added.

And what exactly is your definition of small?
 
Under 100mb, and frankly when it comes to GT5 there would be absolutely nothing stopping them using generic models if you don't have them. It certainly didn't stop them with interiors.
 
I've never experienced anything on the PC like GT5.

Company of Heroes prevents user-base fragmentation in multiplayer by delivering all content from expansion packs to people who don't own them, so they can still play with the new units, and if they later purchase the expansion they just insert the CD-Key to unlock the expansion content themselves. When the most recent expansion came out, they threw a 10 gig patch into the wild for everybody who wanted to keep playing online.

It's more good than it is bad.
 
Well it didn't did it... also, Forza seems to manage it without burying me in multigigabyte patches so it can't be that there's no way around it.

Actually, I've not opened Steam for a while, let's have a look...
 

Medalion

Banned
PS3 has had a lot of updates, big ones too, but I never recall any of them requiring almost an hour to download/install
 

CronoShot

Member
Those are surprisingly small patches for how long they took to download and update.

Also, as others have said, PS3 is by far the worst console offender.
 
Well it didn't did it... also, Forza seems to manage it without burying me in multigigabyte patches so it can't be that there's no way around it.

Actually, I've not opened Steam for a while, let's have a look...

Are you REALLY comparing interiors from standard legacy cars, which by the way, are in NO way generic models, each one of them is unique, they're simply not textured, that never had cockpits to begin with, to having a generic car to the entire car? Each car has it's own dimension, properties, etc... It's impossible.
 

cand

Member
tumblr_m6lvfkTs471qczwwo.gif
 
Steam updated, 5 games with updates, took under two minutes. Nothing from before 2010 in there.

I guess maybe my PC exists in a different dimension which allows magical small, fast patches. /shrug

Edit - @MM: So how does Forza do it? There's been a ridiculous number of new cars and patches take hardly any time at all. As for needing the cars, why not grab them when you're in a room waiting for the race rather than forcing them in beforehand? It's exactly the sort of thing which could be done piecemeal or in the background.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Microsoft has rules about patch size, but if you're a big enough publisher and/or willing to pay a fee, you can go over.

This might be the case, but it doesn't seem like the logical explanation for the size differential--patches that do identical things for multiplatform games are smaller on 360, implying an actual technical difference in the patching system.

Wasn't there word that another big update is coming for the system tomorrow or sometime this weekend to fix the crashing/freezing issues some Wii-U users have had?

someone on reddit said that a random nintendo tech support person said that there'd be an update "next week" without specifying when. Not exactly written in stone stuff :p
 
Steam updated, 5 games with updates, took under two minutes. Nothing from before 2010 in there.

I guess maybe my PC exists in a different dimension which allows magical small, fast patches. /shrug

Your anecdotal evidence means nothing. I don't know what you updated, what version it already was, what's your ISP speed, etc etc etc


Examples:

Arma 2 700MB+:
http://www.patches-scrolls.de/armed_assault_2_operation_arrowhead.php

Sims 3 1Gb+:
http://www.patches-scrolls.de/sims3.php

Magic 6 500MB+:
http://www.patches-scrolls.de/heroes_of_might_and_magic6.php


Just 3 examples, out of ALOT.
 
This might be the case, but it doesn't seem like the logical explanation for the size differential--patches that do identical things for multiplatform games are smaller on 360, implying an actual technical difference in the patching system.
one thing might be that the gamee qre smaller already. some ps3 games are already 35gb in size and even multiplat games have a different comprewsion and size. that may or may not account for ps3s patch size problem.
 

Jaxter09

Member
My Steam randomly decides it needs to automatically re-download entire games. It only seems to do it on 10+gb games too. That is fun when you have an 8gb monthly quota.
 

Oppo

Member
This might be the case, but it doesn't seem like the logical explanation for the size differential--patches that do identical things for multiplatform games are smaller on 360, implying an actual technical difference in the patching system.

I believe on 360 it is 4 MB. Which is why it always goes really quick. And yes I think it is different in implementation. You could see some of the differences with the way they rolled out those Burnout Paradise updates on both platforms. PS3 directly patched in from the game and was sizeable. 360 had a title update and then a weird separate "content pack" that could exceed the patch limit. Not sure if its different now.

Also PS3 used to literally have to do a 1-for-1 replacement on many things but that seems to have improved in the last year, maybe my imagination. Or more likely just PS+ doing stuff at 4am that I don't see.
 

Ranger X

Member
We just have to remember that Microsoft is a software company, so they have been doing this kind of stuff forever. Look at Windows or any software application they have made for an example. They already have a codebase set up for this kind of updating so its as simple as Dragging then Dropping the library's they use into the codebase for the OS.

Exactly, software development experience pays. Now if only Microsoft would improve in hardware I would be happy. I might not feel like waiting through 4 generations of their next machine like I did with the 360.
 

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
DCUO patching at launch did suck too because the disc was pretty much just the launcher for the game the rest had to be downloaded.
IIRC, while the launcher said it was downloading files it was actually just installing files from the disc. The disc install was something like ~12GB's and the actual day 1 patch was ~2GB's.
 

Emitan

Member
I downloaded Payday The Heist off PSN and was greeted with a 3gb+ patch.

And because updates cannot be background downloaded or paused, I will never be playing the game.

Unless you are playing your PS3 24/7 you can just download it when you aren't playing.
 

FyreWulff

Member
How does Xbox have such teeny patches? They're great.

Developers were limited to no more than 4MB of patch data because of launch Cores tiny memory cards. To also keep the patches from eating up those small cards, they delete themselves after playing a few games automatically. This was a hard limit of the system. Some developers got around it by putting data for a patch in their free DLC and then putting the bits that loaded it up in the 4MB patch.

As of the latest XDK, you can now have bigger patches that also permanently install themselves. Rock Band 3 was the first game to have this, and it's patch currently sits around 35MB. The biggest use of this was the Gears 3 beta, where the initial beta download was just essentially a bootstrap environment. They actually released the beta as a TU to the bootstrap of about 600MB.

So if you were on 360, you were essentially forced to learn how to make your game engine patches deterministic (aka delta patching) to fit in the tiny space allotted. On PS3 where there was never a limitation because HARD DRIVES FOR EVERYONE, some developers got lazy and just essentially re-issue the entire fucking game as the patch.

Anyway, this means that not only is Nintendo letting patches be mostly cost-free, they're also not limiting the size.

Either way, the era of tiny 4MB patches doesn't have much life left in it, and for the better.
 
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