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[RedSwirl]

Despite the fact that the downloader is saying yes it is, apparently it's 20gigs masquerading as 50 gigs.

Which is WTF Origin/Respawn/EA/world.

Oh, well that's better if it's 20GB that simply unpacks to 50GB. On PC HDD space isn't really a problem since 1TB HDDs aren't extremely expensive. The problem is downloading all that shit. Even 20GB is probably pushing it for some people.

Are there other games that behave like this?

 

[thefil]

I'm amazed at the witch hunting going on in here. First, the download is 20GB and not 50GB, which is comparable to many modern games. Yes, it is stupid that Origin displays the uncompressed size in the downloader, but that's on Origin. It would be a nice feature to selectively download languages, but it's not such a huge, natural, expected thing that Respawn should be fucked over it.

They made a choice between running on Core 2 Duos and taking 50GB hard drive space. You may be a conspiracy theorist about it not requiring processing power to handle the audio, but if you play Titanfall (and I do on motherboard sound) you will know that there are hundreds of samples playing at the same time, all being manipulated in real-time based on their position, whether they are going through buildings or other materials, and so on. Some of it is for flavor, some is useful audio cues in-game.

So there were two options: they could require 50GB (a small amount in 2014 terms) or an i3 processor. For the person missing the former, it's a ~$100 upgrade to their machine to be able to play Titanfall. For the person missing the latter, they need a new mobo and CPU - $200+. Furthermore, there are a lot more people using old Core 2 Duo machines than there are who have both discrete graphics and a <256GB SDD as their only drive.

 

[low-G]

Because it fits real nice on physical media. That is the only reason.

 

[TheSeks]

I'm amazed at the witch hunting going on in here. First, the download is 20GB and not 50GB, which is comparable to many modern games. Yes, it is stupid that Origin displays the uncompressed size in the downloader, but that's on Origin. It would be a nice feature to selectively download languages, but it's not such a huge, natural, expected thing that Respawn should be fucked over it.

They made a choice between running on Core 2 Duos and taking 50GB hard drive space. You may be a conspiracy theorist about it not requiring processing power to handle the audio, but if you play Titanfall (and I do on motherboard sound) you will know that there are hundreds of samples playing at the same time, all being manipulated in real-time based on their position, whether they are going through buildings or other materials, and so on. Some of it is for flavor, some is useful audio cues in-game.

So there were two options: they could require 50GB (a small amount in 2014 terms) or an i3 processor. For the person missing the former, it's a ~$100 upgrade to their machine to be able to play Titanfall. For the person missing the latter, they need a new mobo and CPU - $200+. Furthermore, there are a lot more people using old Core 2 Duo machines than there are who have both discrete graphics and a <256GB SDD as their only drive.

That doesn't explain the other language files that you don't need at all.

 

[thefil]

That doesn't explain the other language files that you don't need at all.

I mentioned that in the first paragraph. It is a nice feature, and worth mentioning as an improvement. If this conversation was just about the other language files (and was less virulent) it would be totally cool.

 

[jWILL253]

You keep repeating this stuff like it's true or applies to Titanfall - it is not and/or does not.

Uncompressed audio was the right call. Decompression on CPU has a non-trivial cost, the game has a ridiculously deep & active soundscape, and this lets a lot more people play the game reliably.

So, ny questions to you are these:

1. Did you guys over at Respawn not consider that most PC's these days have dedicated sound cards for reducing the CPU hit that comes with rendering and decoding uncompressed audio?

2. Why not give us the option of choosing the language of the audio before we download? If the majority of your customers are English-speaking Americans, then there is no point in giving us to download uncompressed audio in languages we don't even speak.

3. Why didn't you guys consider the current state of internet service in America, which is all about its caps and throttling? Because 50 GB is WAY over the cap for a whole lot of people who otherwise would want to play your game. Also, hard drive space doesn't grow on trees, and neither does the money to buy bigger drives.

By the way, if you choose to answer this, the "Titanfall has a vast soundscape" answer you have earlier is not an acceptable response. As noted by ThoseDeafMutes earlier, only certain people will notice or care about that kind of thing - and, truth be told, Titanfall isn't breaking new ground on sound design and engineering. But even with that aside, it makes no sense to force that on your customers only because "Titanfall haz best shootbang sounds!"

Apologizing rant.

And throughout all of that, you failed to address the concern: Why should this matter to those of us with data caps?

 

[JohnGrimm]

Uncompressed audio because the game wasn't next-gen enough compared to other releases.

 

[Gestault]

So, ny questions to you are these:

1. Did you guys over at Respawn not consider that most PC's these days have dedicated sound cards for reducing the CPU hit that comes with rendering and decoding uncompressed audio?

2. Why not give us the option of choosing the language of the audio before we download? If the majority of your customers are English-speaking Americans, then there is no point in giving us to download uncompressed audio in languages we don't even speak.

3. Why didn't you guys consider the current state of internet service in America, which is all about its caps and throttling? Because 50 GB is WAY over the cap for a whole lot of people who otherwise would want to play your game. Also, hard drive space doesn't grow on trees, and neither does the money to buy bigger drives.

By the way, if you choose to answer this, the "Titanfall has a vast soundscape" answer you have earlier is not an acceptable response. As noted by ThoseDeafMutes earlier, only certain people will notice or care about that kind of thing - and, truth be told, Titanfall isn't breaking new ground on sound design and engineering. But even with that aside, it makes no sense to force that on your customers only because "Titanfall haz best shootbang sounds!"

On point 1, you have to design for a reasonable expectation of the low bar. It's entirely possible their design roadmap took into account extremely low-end system (including consoles) early on. On point 2, you're absolutely right. On point 3, it's a 20 gb download which decompresses to a 50 gb install. Huge in my book, but many games are at that point already.

Re: your last comment rejecting the idea that the audio design necessitated their choices: saying the designer has no right to give that explanation is almost crudely misplaced. That's not saying to say audiences have to agree with the results, but saying the explanation is invalid is preposterous.

And throughout all of that, you failed to address the concern: Why should this matter to those of us with data caps?

I would like to point out the double standard you've presented where you discard the concerns of those without dedicated audio cards (which is what theoretically justifies the decompressed audio for performance) then gripe about the standard that the download size is unacceptable because some people have data caps.

 

[Felix Lighter]

What is so uniquely intense about Titanfall that requires the uncompressed audio is what has people scratching their heads. AI is handled server side. There is a limited player count. There's no dynamic environmental elements like destruction. I admit that I'm no audiophile but with my time with the beta, I didn't notice anything particularly special about the sound design. From someone outside of the actual development team just looking at the final product, it's hard to see why this game in particular needed to offload the audio decompression from the CPU at the cost of such a ridiculous amount of storage.

 

[RedSwirl]

I certainly hope more games take advantage of this "unpacking" thing so your initial download is much smaller than the actual size of the game. That and I hope more games let you download select languages. So far I've only heard of the Witcher games doing the latter on GOG.

 

[Quicksilver4648]

I was about to download Titanfall through that new 48 hour EA offer, since the last time I played it was during the public Beta, but once I saw a 50GB download I cancelled that plan. I don't have the fastest internet in the world and it would probably end up taking me 48 hours just download the thing!

 

[Armaros]

Uncompressed audio because the game wasn't next-gen enough compared to other releases.

And wanted to have an install directory as large or larger then most MMO installations.

 

[wsoxfan1214]

Wouldn't it being crap be enough?

opinions.

 

[Solaire of Astora]

I would like to point out the double standard you've presented where you discard the concerns of those without dedicated audio cards (which is what theoretically justifies the decompressed audio for performance) then gripe about the standard that the download size is unacceptable because some people have data caps.

While I agree that it was a bit of a double standard, why not allow users to select a language and then download uncompressed audio for that language only? Best of both worlds, no?

 

[Head.spawn]

Damn, all that salt on the first page, lol.

That's a bad look.

 

[Gestault]

While I agree that it was a bit of a double standard, why not allow users to select a language and then download uncompressed audio for that language only? Best of both worlds, no?

That was precisely what I wrote in that post, no?

 

[lights]

Wouldn't it being crap be enough?

Titanfall is a great game.

 

[Yoda]

It's a move to "hinder pirates". I guarantee you that being online-only was more than enough but it goes to show you that doesn't stop the corporate culture @ EA regardless. Oddly enough this is just another form of anti-piracy (that doesn't work) and punishes paying consumers (who have bandwidth caps).

 

[PinkCrayon]

Uncompressed audio.

 

[Solaire of Astora]

That was precisely what I wrote in that post, no?

No. You just pointed out the double standard.

 

[LQX]

More than anything it is the 50GB that almost prevented me from downloading it or really thinking about getting it on PC. I have a 256GB SSD and had to delete a few things I would have rather not. This one game prevents me from installing probably 10 other games....that is not good.

 

[rpmurphy]

To hinder pirates.

I am pretty sure though that pirates know how to compress and decompress files.

 

[see5harp]

Anti piracy. It's idiotic for both PC and console games to require a full installation for multiple languages. I am never going to play this game in polish or German fix yo shit.

 

[danielcw]

This reminds me of the Mega Man NES collection released on GameCube. The games were emulated, but the music was uncompressed recordings of the original midi. We figured this out because eventually the music would fade out and start over rather than looping, so I ripped the disk and found the massive audio files (over a gig for audio that would have originally been a few kilobytes each). It filled the whole GameCube Optical Disk. Not that big of a deal since it was only on a disk and not installed, but probably done because they didn't feel like making an NES audio emulator for GameCube.

Those Mega Man games were based on the PS1 versions, which featured some gameplay extras and CD audio.

1. Did you guys over at Respawn not consider that most PC's these days have dedicated sound cards for reducing the CPU hit that comes with rendering and decoding uncompressed audio?

[...]

3. Why didn't you guys consider the current state of internet service in America, which is all about its caps and throttling? Because 50 GB is WAY over the cap for a whole lot of people who otherwise would want to play your game. Also, hard drive space doesn't grow on trees, and neither does the money to buy bigger drives.

1: I don't see what your point is,. The audio is decompressed, before it gets to a soundcard. So they do exactly what you seem to imply, use the soundcard
(besides issues with their chosen audio API and the windows kernel chewing on the sound)

3: it is less than 25GB download

I was about to download Titanfall through that new 48 hour EA offer, since the last time I played it was during the public Beta, but once I saw a 50GB download I cancelled that plan. I don't have the fastest internet in the world and it would probably end up taking me 48 hours just download the thing!

I believe the 48hrs begin, when you first launch the game

 

[Prime crotch]

You keep repeating this stuff like it's true or applies to Titanfall - it is not and/or does not.

Uncompressed audio was the right call. Decompression on CPU has a non-trivial cost, the game has a ridiculously deep & active soundscape, and this lets a lot more people play the game reliably.

An install option for language audio toggle would have been dope though
more than the download, my issue is with space taken, I already have too many steam games that i dont play taking space already

 

[VisceralBowl]

I'm amazed at the witch hunting going on in here. First, the download is 20GB and not 50GB, which is comparable to many modern games. Yes, it is stupid that Origin displays the uncompressed size in the downloader, but that's on Origin. It would be a nice feature to selectively download languages, but it's not such a huge, natural, expected thing that Respawn should be fucked over it.

They made a choice between running on Core 2 Duos and taking 50GB hard drive space. You may be a conspiracy theorist about it not requiring processing power to handle the audio, but if you play Titanfall (and I do on motherboard sound) you will know that there are hundreds of samples playing at the same time, all being manipulated in real-time based on their position, whether they are going through buildings or other materials, and so on. Some of it is for flavor, some is useful audio cues in-game.

So there were two options: they could require 50GB (a small amount in 2014 terms) or an i3 processor. For the person missing the former, it's a ~$100 upgrade to their machine to be able to play Titanfall. For the person missing the latter, they need a new mobo and CPU - $200+. Furthermore, there are a lot more people using old Core 2 Duo machines than there are who have both discrete graphics and a <256GB SDD as their only drive.

This. Games are also going to be getting bigger and bigger over the next couple of years.

 

[Gestault]

No. You just pointed out the double standard.

With respect, if you're going to bother responding to say what I did or didn't say, I'd appreciate if you could read the post. In my post I said this:

On point 2, [that person is] absolutely right.

Which was in response to the following quoted text:

2. Why not give us the option of choosing the language of the audio before we download? If the majority of your customers are English-speaking Americans, then there is no point in giving us to download uncompressed audio in languages we don't even speak.