Hold onto your helmets, Helldivers! The PC version of Helldivers 2 has just undergone a massive transformation, shedding a whopping 85% of its installation size! That's right, the game that once demanded a hefty 154GB of your precious hard drive space is now a svelte 23GB. Prepare for a leaner, meaner, and more space-conscious experience.
This incredible feat is thanks to the combined efforts of Arrowhead and Nixxes, who've been hard at work optimizing the game's footprint. The secret? Eliminating duplicated assets.
Initially, the game's size was inflated to ensure faster loading times, particularly for players still using older, mechanical hard drives (HDDs). This involved duplicating assets, making it easier for the game to find the necessary data. But here's where it gets controversial... Modern SSDs, however, operate differently, making asset duplication unnecessary and, frankly, a waste of space.
By removing these redundancies, Arrowhead has achieved a remarkable reduction in size with minimal impact on loading times. According to a recent blog post on Steam, the difference is measured in "seconds at most."
"We now know that, contrary to most games, the majority of the loading time in Helldivers 2 is due to level-generation rather than asset loading," the post reads. "This level generation happens in parallel with loading assets from the disk and so is the main determining factor of the loading time. We now know that this is true even for users with mechanical HDDs."
And this is the part most people miss... This reduced size is available now for players who opt into the "slim version" of the game. The developers are encouraging players to test this new version, as it's a "low-risk way to save ~131GB of space on your drive and help us extend our testing to real-life conditions." You can also switch back to the original version if you encounter any problems.
Once the testing phase is complete and any issues are ironed out, the slim version will become the default for all players. Arrowhead plans to discontinue the legacy version sometime next year, citing the added burden of maintaining both versions.
But wait, there's more! In other news, the Helldivers film has found its director: Justin Lin, who's directed multiple films in the Fast and Furious franchise.
What do you think about this massive size reduction? Are you excited to free up space on your hard drive? Do you think it's a good move to discontinue the legacy version? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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