Of course an INSTALLER requires that much space. 100GBs to store the installer and 140GBs to unpack the game in the first place. How do you expect an installer to work? It won't shrink itself to nothing as it installs.

The installer and DRM-free, both are pillars for ensuring, you guessed it: "owning what you buy", are the #1 reason to be on GOG. You obviously care about none of that. If you did, you wouldn't have instantly run back to Steam.

Bonus points for taking what I said about "the right track" out of its context: for anyone reading this thread and come here confused: please refer to BrianSim's #4 and my #5. It was about BrianSim emphasizing that without the installer you can't say you own your game, and me commenting saying OP was almost on track to using the installer. But of course OP was too impatient to read that properly, I guess. Or could be strawmanning. Boo.

Interestingly as I checked this from my Linux desktop, they still do have the big blue button for downloading and installing now via Galaxy on Windows games, still just as emphasized for scenarios like these.

The problem then remains how willing GOG wants to finally put an end to all this by introducing Galaxy to Linux users so the "Just Use Galaxy" solution works, so it's not just the non-Galaxy experience that needs to be improved but also the Galaxy one, ironically. Something that seems to happen at a glacial pace.

As far as I understand, one actually needs 3x the installer size if using the same drive, as many people do:
1- the obvious installer itself
2- the temporary unpacked reconstructed files
3- the actual instalation


I agree the installer is very slow, I recently installed Uncharted (120GB) on a very old and slow HDD and it took hours, partially the HDD fault but it could be way more efficient. That said, the only games the installer appear to be slow are with very large games, wich lets be honest, they are very few and not many people play them.

The download speeds are indeed a issue and we can hope GOG will correct them with time.

Minor technical point: It’s the game files, not the installer, that matter. The installer is just a wrapper, an extra layer where something could go wrong. If you could simply get all the game files without the installer, it would be more future-proof.

The installer only adds convenience, something you’re ironically criticizing Rocksu for right now.

To reiterate how my experience with buying and installing BG3 from GOG went.

I downloaded the installer. 100gb, 1 hour. I thought "well fine I can deal with it, but it should be faster with my internet however."

I started installing it. It warned me that my hard drive was running low on space. "Well fine I can uninstall some games I am not currently playing".

40-45 minutes waiting for the installer to finish it was at 50% done. I was getting impatient as I had been looking forward to starting to play the game that day. I wondered if buying it and installing it from Steam would still be faster.

Assuming that installing the remaining 50% of the game would have also taken 40-45 minutes, then yes it was actually faster to quit the installer and get the game from steam.

This is a problem. Note that I was willing to put up with quite a lot before I gave up on getting the game from GOG. In the future if I feel like replaying BG3 again it will be just as painless to install it from Steam in just 30 minutes compared to this nonsense.

Sure there is Heroic Launcher, but how exactly is a customer expected to know about that option when coming to GOG? When buying games from Steam, you don't need to do research on 3rd party software to have a smooth experience.

Don't blame the customer, blame the service.

You know.
The problem is 2% marked share.

Not talking about GoG, talking about Linux.

Steam does put some effort into it because GabN is kinda paranoid of MS throwing out Steam (to be honest, chances are higher MS is selling the gamepass through Steam these days).
And Steam got the money to do so, because they make shitloads of money with a very small company, often enough even feeding on the unpayed work of others (naming steam and mods or game devs doing forum moderation).
Beside that, 2% of the like 70%+ marked share steam got is still something to work with.

For GoG.
2% Linux Users on their already small marked share...
There are many devs who won't release the Steamversion on GoG, because it is more of a vanity project money sink than additional income.

For the Windows users, who are the marked.
Wo are the marked for Steam too (96,55% windows in Jan 2025 Hardware Survey)

GoG got the painless and steam like experience.

The question is, does it worth the money to do so for you too.
The answer is no.

Maybe if Linux finally got its big breakthrough, that has been promised for like 25 years now and is able to get 20% marked share, things would be different.
But the only chance to this to happen is MS stopping doing windows.
And well, even then... Only one Linux Distribution does have a larger share compared to windows 7. And if memory serves, it is the Linux you can find on those Steam Handhelds.

You decided to use a OS, where you always have to search around to make things work.


Btw
You still compare apples and bananas with comparing offline backup installers and Steam client.

Yeah I get that I am creating problems for myself by using Linux. But even if I was on Windows, I would not install GOG Galaxy and want to instead use an offline installer. The main reason to buy from GOG is to have the game DRM free and not tied to a launcher that I need to log in to. This is why I'd very much like to see the offline installer improved. I am willing to solve any issues in getting the game run on Linux (which is not so difficult these days) but the installer itself is designed so horrendously and the download speed is terrible. Again, even if I was on Windows, I'd rather use the offline installer than install GOG Galaxy, I would still run into these issues.

You install Steam, because it is more unpretentious and then talk about that you wouldn't use Galaxy.

Again, the OFFLINE BACKUP Installers can't do most of the things you want.
Because they are intended to work OFFLINE, without downloading from servers and they are seen as personal backups by GoG anyway.

Anytime a Installer needs to download files from a Server while installing, it is DRMed.

Your "solution" in your first post (read your Nr. 2 again) is either the Steamclient or GoG Galaxy or a drmed installer, that is more or less a small client Steamclient/GoGGalaxy, just without the browser interface upfront.
But that is still asking for your account.

The only way to be DRM free is the offline installer.
It is not only for preservation, it is the only way to be fully Independent and and unobserved this way DRM free...

Merely downloading the files for the game in itself is not DRM, otherwise downloading the offline installer would count as DRM as well. I know the current offline backup can't do the things I want, namely provide the game files in a reasonable time and with less cost to hard drive space. It doesn't have to be like this. The downloader installer I suggested would require only authentication in getting the game files, as it does now when downloading the offline installer from the website (you have to be logged in after all). After getting the files it would never require an online connection again to play the game itself. If this is too much hassle for GOG to provide, then why not just give us simple ZIP files that contain the game files? Would be far faster solution than the current offline installers.

In that case you need to authenticate during installation process against a 3rd party, so you can get access to the data during installation.
Means, somebody must allow you to install and somebody can log that you install.
And a 3rd party has to keep the data available for you.

That my friend is DRM.


And yes, if you go for the more strickt definitions of DRM, downloading the offline installers from GoG against authentication can already be seen as DRM.

But I go with it, because installation is wherever, whenever I want without any knowledge of a 3rd party.
That is enough DRM free for me.

Alright. For me it matters more if I can keep the game files and run the game without needing authentication. I would consider that DRM free, if getting the files requires authentication I would not care.

So how the offline installer is now:

1. Log in to GOG
2. Download installer
3. Install game

Pros: Only one authentication step merely to get the files. Can use the installer itself as offline backup. No need for GOG Galaxy
Cons: Slow download. Installer takes extra hard drive space. Installer is god awful slow as it is implemented right now.

How the downloader / online installer would work:

1. Log in to GOG
2. Download installer (doesn't contain game files so size is very small)
3. Install game, requires authentication, the installer then downloads the files uncompressed from GOG similar how Galaxy does it.

Pros: Less hard drive space used. Less time spent getting the game, as installation step is also the download step for the game files themselves. No need for GOG Galaxy
Cons: Requires two authentication steps unless GOG just lets people download this installer without logging in. User is responsible for backing up the game files themselves after install if they want to.

I don't consider either of these as DRM, just different methods of delivering the game files.

I imagine my suggestion should be easily doable as the Heroic Launcher, a 3rd party Open Source program seems to already do what I am suggesting here. It would just additionally eliminate the need to install a 3rd party launcher.

Regardless, biggest issue is slow download speed and the slow installation speed of the current offline installer and its requirement to create temporary files during installation process eating even more hard drive space than is necessary. As pointed out by AB2012's first post, people have tested making their own self extracting zip files that perform far better.

Afaik games you installed with galaxy don't require galaxy running.
So you could use it only for installing and then turning it off, starting the game by the normal executable file.

Same as your "online installer", with even one less login required.

Sure, not available for Linux.
But you are basically asking for a stripped down variant of Galaxy for each single game.

And no, my installation of Cyberpunk wasn't in need of additional 150GB when installing.
So the current installers don't need that much HD space.
Updates can do, but that is simply based on how updates work with huge archive type files.

Even Steam needs some temporary space while downloading and installing...
Every fucking web browser does need temporary space when downloading files from the internet, because the file will be saved to the final place on the hard-drive only when it is fully downloaded and reconstructed from the data that has been downloaded.
Only P2P clients do it in a different way.

My C drive, where all temporary files go usually, got like 40GB free and another SSD I can use for temporal files got like 60GB free. And the 40GB on C where enough to install the 150GB Cyberpunk without any problem from offline installers.
And where it was installed was a very different drive.
So no, you don't need as much temporary space available to install from offline installers.

And I don't ignore things.
That the installer needs space is very much because they are BACKUP installers.
If you don't need BACKUP installers you can use Galaxy or the other client.

I just try to tell you, that you basically talking about GoG Galaxy in some kind of strangely downstriped variant.
Or that thing that is working for Linux.

Because they do very much what you want AND the games don't need them to be active afterwards as far as I know.
Many Steam games might need the Steam client. GoG games to my knowledge do NOT need the Galaxy client to work.

And about download speed.
Steam might have very well buyed into every subnet of every ISP.
GoG has for sure not.
So GoG suffers from peering.

But not everybody wants to fire you up with like 500mbit/s anyway, because it will cost the supplier of the download money too.
Being mad about 150GB taking more than a hour is very much first world problems.

No that is not how downloading files works. The file may have a temporary format or name but it is not in fact downloaded and copied again, requiring more hard drive space.

Also I did not claim you're ignoring things. You misunderstood. I meant it as even if we'd ignore the file storage issue, there is still the issue with slow download speed from GOG and slow install speed form the installer. I guess I should have instead said "still disregarding the issue of...", maybe that had made it more clear.

Yes you already explained that you see my suggestion as a stripped down version of Galaxy. I have nothing to add to that really. You are technically correct.

I don't care if it's called BACKUP installer with full caps lock or not. Before Galaxy, downloading an installer was the main method of getting a game from GOG and I prefer to use that method. However the installer has been proven to be implemented badly. Even after downloading the installer, with all the files in it needed to run the game in it. It takes way too long to install the game. This is still an issue.

Now regarding download speeds. I decided to test out downloading Witcher 3 installer from GOG. It seems the download speed issue has been fixed. Maybe GOG servers were having a bad day when I tried to install BG3?

I am not trying to insult you. No need to get mad.