Yeah I actually thought of the same, but I presume using zlib/zip with no compression does almost the same thing... tar is more widely used outside Windows.

I don't know if GOG has really tried to use some kind of compression when collecting the already-compressed chunks together, but at least they wouldn't have to, even when using zlib.

Sure, the wording is poor, might as well be an exaggeration, but at the same time the point made stands, especially during these times. Poor compression is inexcusable. Not everyone has fiber-optic, as a matter of fact many are on metered connection even in the West, which gives headaches when it comes to downloading and managing data cap. Couple that with how the world changed these past years when it comes to the push for almost everything online and you have a recipe for disaster.
Anyway, for further reading...

According to FitGirl, publishers could take a lesson or two on effective compression, so customers don’t have to waste bandwidth.

“Hire just one person, who understands the compression,” is her message to publishers. “And make your games so they could be easily updated with additional patch-files, without full data rebuilding.”

“For example, Unreal Engine supports patching natively. But 99% of developers don’t use it. They just rebuild the whole game all over again and then users in Steam download another 50 GB update. Really, you even have the tools to do it for you, love your users, they PAY for your games!”

What if they are doing this on purpose to kill offline installers???

Everyone is aware that offline installers are an afterthought these days. The push for Galaxy is still strong, I would not be surprised if it will become mandatory rather sooner than later. That's how change comes, gradually testing the market, bringing the customers to a certain line of thought and acceptance. GOG already took steps in this direction and it can't be denied.

How ? by doing something that barely anybody will ever notice or be impacted by... sound definitely like a fool proof plan...

Unlikely. Most users won't notice or care; you download something, you install it, you don't think about the compression algorithm or the fact that it's using the Windows Temp folder to handle decompression.


I know what you mean, but the problem is, when someone uses language like that, I immediately turn off to the point that they're trying to make. Manners cost nothing, and suggesting violence and swearing (even jokingly) don't help when trying to make a point.

I have to admit before I bought an SSD, I was worried about SSD usage and the drive exceeding the number of writes that WD said it could cope with (600TB on a 1TB drive). Having used it for over a year, it's still coming in at 99% of expected life remaining - given that my HDDs usually packed up after 5-7 years of use, I'm not worried any more.

Funny how you mention fitgirl....their installers(or so I hear ;)) for larger games can take up to 3 times the install time to install a game vs other installers for the SAME GAME.....so instead of say 20 minutes to install a big game, it's more like OVER AN HOUR.

For GOG installers and others, i'd rather have a slightly bigger installer(due to less compression) that installs faster over one that's much smaller yet takes ages to install.

My guess is, that the offline installers are by now supposed to be inconvenient. GOG still provides them, because they still have to to not lose too much face, but they really, really want you to use Galaxy. So the offline installer problem may originally have been caused by incompetence. But GOG won't fix the problem, because it is convenient for them that installation via Galaxy works better than via offline installers.

@timppu
“ presume this change of the offline installer format is so that they can automate the creation of the offline installers, directly from the existing Galaxy-downloadable versions”, if that was the case there wouldn’t be so many disparities between galaxy and offline installers. Also would make you question why gog need involvement in offline installers which has been mentioned elsewhere.

Afraid it’s just another one of the many issues. As mentioned in the other thread, FG’s installer was around 30% of the official one, with optional language packs. That becomes essential as games get bigger. Where you could store all games for older systems on a 1tb hdd, now games are gettting huge. Storage space has of course also increased, but not really on parity. You can get 14tb hdds, but if you properly back up then you would need a few of them.

Your other point on install time is pretty irrelevant. Has there ever been an instance whereby your life is in danger if you don’t get game a installed and running immediately? I would rather something take e0mins to install (perhaps whilst I make a cup of tea?) than taking up 3 times the amount of hdds.

In all fairness it’s simply GOG being lazy, something they have been guilty of for years now, across the board on everything bar galaxy. Nothing on this:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/provide_a_full_and_complete_changelogged_download_system
Has been addressed, nothing has been fixed on the site or the forum.

As I said in the other thread, it was once that gog installers were the gold standard, drm free and easy to use.
And what does that matter. If you keep the installers you store it for a long time, and back it up. That is probably 90% of its lifetime. Install is very little time, and even playing it is probably very small. If it’s a cost of storage over time to install then for anyone with more than a couple of hundred games then it’s a non starter. I have 1500 games on gog alone which I have stored, and backed up at least 3 different places, that cost is already huge, taking 20 mins longer to install however is nothing.

Also, dont forget you have to download the things. I note on those sites they are not offering the 1.2 cp2077 patch as it is 30gb+ and takes hours to run. Far better to download the whole thing (30 or 40gb) and install fresh. Makes a mockery of the whole gog process. (And do please bear in mind that I would not waste my bandwidth on anything cp2077 related!).

Yeah, the larger ones can be around 2+ hours to install, and can really slow down the PC if one has a lower spec machine(if not crash it entirely in some cases).

Me? I'll take bigger installers that install quicker any day of the week, tyvm.
(I sometimes DL "backups" of games i've bought on steam/etc, but usually not those compressed ones...especially re: big games)

-

Maybe because some of us want to play right away and not need to wait hours to play?

Some of those versions, for example, take around 2-3 hours compared to a less/non compressed version taking maybe 40 minutes. I have plenty of space(i don't buy every game in sight, of course, which helps) to spare a couple extra GB, so to me (for big games, at the least) i'd rather DL less/non compressed versions, if it means it'll install quicker.

For those days when you only feel like playing every game you have for 2minutes? I tend to play a game end to end and say it’s a short FPS 10 hours, ok well that’s 20% time for install on play time, on an open world, it could be 60hours, that’s 3%. How often do you do that? I perhaps play a game, if I really enjoy it, 2 or 3 times. Would you rather pay for 100gb storage or 30gb? What about if you multiply the cost by a thousand?
That just comes across as “mwwaagh why it nor play right now”, in which case you wouldn’t store them anyway, and would most likely stream them. I have never had a situation where I can’t install some thing the night before, or whilst I have dinner, or go and do something else for a bit. I mean 2 hours on an open world game is probably going from a to b and killing x and y. Storage however is expensive.


Oh, one final thing. Take downloading into account. Say it takes 6h for me to download the 30gb installer, that means it will take 18+h to download the 100gb installer. Even if the bigger installer only takes 1sec to unpack, it still takes 12hours longer to get...

Yeah, even basic features like delta updates or being able to pick only relevant localizations would be nice.

It'd also be nice if GOG updated MojoSetup to the 2020 edition. SEEING AS THEY'VE BEEN FLYING THE 2010 EDITION THIS WHOLE TIME.

Are there any fairly new games with separate installers for different languages? I think it's mostly seen in older games but honestly don't own many new ones so might be wrong. It's maybe nice on one hand but on the other for multilingual users might mean downloading backup two or more times if say they want original and their native version.

As I don't buy that many games(and not many big ones) and have enough space, a few extra GB thankfully isn't an issue.

On slower PCs like mine the installers can sometimes slow one's PC to a crawl...making it hard to do other tasks in the meantime....so having the installer done asap can be a benefit.

Storage is getting cheaper all the time(at least where i'm at, anyways)...I got a 2TB external for 80 bucks.
(Could've gotten a 4GB for 125 but chose not to as was low on cash at the time)