this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2026
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Imagine how much more game you could fit on a hard drive if character models didn't have billions of triangles
Model vertex count has a negligible influence on size. Model data is small (provided the textures aren't baked in), and modern GPUs can render ten thousand separately animated instances of the same base model simultaneously when using the right techniques.
It's the insanely high-resolution textures and audio that bloat install size. That and including the same files many times to reduce HDD seek time, but that's finally becoming less common as SSDs take over (or at least it was until the current component shortage).
I miss when HD texture packs were separate downloads. If I'm only running a game in 1080p, downloading a hundred gigabytes of 8k textures I'll never use is a colossal waste of bandwidth and disk space.
I remember being appalled when Titanfall 1 had a separate 80 GB download just for the audio because they couldn't be bothered to compress it. Audio compression has been largely a solved problem for 20 years now, even if the result is somewhat lossy.
I kinda wonder if there's a visible difference between native 1080p textures and those that are downscaled from a higher resolution. I imagine there isn't, but I am curious about it.
Massively depends on where the texture is used. If it's for a main character that gets closeups, body and especially detailed textures can be massive and can add up fast even when compressed. Little low contrast details can definitely work fine and go unnoticed next to super hifi textures while being small themselves, though so many just make everything hifi. Bleh.
I miss when games went for lowfi art instead of the modern deluge of AAA pseudo-cinema 100G+ games or friendslop with the art direction of a two day game jam... (obviously there are outliers, but the industry trends are disappointing lately)