How much of a game is actually stored on the disc now?

[AngelaHornung]

So I'm a huge fan of physical media, I even collect game discs for PC games, not just consoles, however an interesting question came to mind. So the idea behind having a physical disc at least for me is in the case that the online purchasing of the media is to ever go offline, I still have a physical copy I can install from. When installing Jedi Survivor on my Xbox Series X you can see in the attachment below that is claims just under 3GB on the disk were taken and the remainder was being downloaded. I might just be dumb or never paid attention to it until now, but with game sizes getting huge due to graphical increases, are companies no longer storing the entirety of a game on the disc itself? Has the disc become a type of download code? I certainly hope the entirety of the base game is on the disc for the sake of preservation, but it's not looking like it. Plus I don't know of any discs that can store 100s of GB. Took a cruise through Reddit and came across this discussion 

It would seem to suggest that discs are just download codes effectively and the only real plus side of them is to have that giant cool looking wall of just endless plastic and discs that you can awe at. Personally I'll keep buying physical for the principle and the awe affect, but I'm certainly concerned about the possibilities of personal preservation endeavors due to this idea. 

 

Also, I attached a photo of my console set up if you guys are interested. It isn't perfect, but it works pretty well, plus I have a power strip hooking all the consoles up, so I turn the power strip off whenever I'm not playing. I do this for electrical and fire safety reasons as I have a lot of older consoles that I don't trust being hooked up with power without my super vision. 

IMG_4434.HEIC IMG_4435.HEIC

[Eigenvektor]

Quote

Has the disc become a type of download code?

In many cases, yes. As you said, modern games are huge and generally not provided on a Blu-ray disk to save cost. A lot of games receive a day one patch anyway, so most of the stuff on disk would likely be "wasted".

Let me convert the images into a format that is more compatible with the forum and most computers (that are not macOS):

Spoiler

 

[OhioYJ]

4 minutes ago, AngelaHornung said:

Also, I attached a photo of my console set up if you guys are interested. 

You attached a "proprietary" Apple format. (Ok so that's not true, but it's really the only place you see them coming from....).  HEIC "images" are not that friendly for people to open. If you are going to use that format on your phone, XNConvert is a handy tool to convert images in bulk to a format that is more compatible for all devices. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

18 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

You attached a "proprietary" Apple format. (Ok so that's not true, but it's really the only place you see them coming from....).  HEIC "images" are not that friendly for people to open. If you are going to use that format on your phone, XNConvert is a handy tool to convert images in bulk to a format that is more compatible for all devices. 

HEIC images are the devil.  They claim they are comparable to JPEG at smaller file sizes but they actually kill the colours.  Compared side by side they lack contrast and look washed out in comparison.

 

I think its a bit of a cheat because smartphone cameras also exhibit the same issue due to the tiny cameras, so people can't really tell the difference on a tiny screen but I can usually spot a DSLR vs top-end Smartphone from a mile away on a good screen, unless some crazy person saves a DSLR photo to HEIC of course.

 

I actually have family members who send me photos taken from their iPhone and I always wondered why the colours looked terrible.  As they sent over WhatsApp no doubt it converted them to JPEG so hid the root of the evil from me.

[AngelaHornung]

36 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

In many cases, yes. As you said, modern games are huge and generally not provided on a Blu-ray disk to save cost. A lot of games receive a day one patch anyway, so most of the stuff on disk would likely be "wasted".

Let me convert the images into a format that is more compatible with the forum and most computers (that are not macOS):

  Hide contents

 

Sorry I'm one of those disgraceful Apple people! XD

[OhioYJ]

1 hour ago, AngelaHornung said:

Sorry I'm one of those disgraceful Apple people! XD

Jpg is an option, you don't have to use HEIC. Only a suggestion though, as mentioned there are downsides to using HEIC IMHO.

[AngelaHornung]

19 hours ago, OhioYJ said:

Jpg is an option, you don't have to use HEIC. Only a suggestion though, as mentioned there are downsides to using HEIC IMHO.

Can I change the default image format? This has been a complaint I've had against Apple for a while now. 

[demonix00]

On 3/5/2024 at 6:23 PM, AngelaHornung said:

 Plus I don't know of any discs that can store 100s of GB.

There are ways to fit large amounts of data onto a standard dual layer blu-ray disc with my case in point being final fantasy 7 remake on the PS4 which while having 2 discs, one is the data disc (containing the entire 100GB game compressed into about 50GB) while the second is required to play the game once it has been installed.

 

On the xbox side it is a bit different since games that are for both the xbox one and xbox series x would if there isn't enough space on the disc for both versions put the lowest common denominator on the disc so that once installed on a series x would trigger the download of the series enhanced version.

 

This example is likely EA being cheap in not providing the whole game as they would have to include at least two discs.

[da na]

On 3/6/2024 at 9:43 AM, AngelaHornung said:

Can I change the default image format? This has been a complaint I've had against Apple for a while now. 

You can, it's in IOS settings

Camera > Formats menu.