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[TKGP]

Code doesn't take up much space, resources do. Even if you have ten thousand goblins standing in a field, the save data just needs to know all their coordinates and conditions, and you only need to store one goblin texture/model to display them with, or a set of textures for separate body types and all that (along with smaller textures for scars, stumps and so on). Assuming the actual game mechanics stayed the same save size wouldn't really need to change, and then you just have to draw textures and make models for every tile type, item, creature, whatever else. I'm not saying it wouldn't be a fairly monumental undertaking given the sheer amount of detail in DF, but it's by no means undo-able.
The bigger concern would be writing a proper engine to handle all of our nonsense, but storage-wise machine code is pretty trivial.

Have you paid attention to how much is abstracted that couldn't be if we had Skyrim graphics? The location, shape, and orientation of scars; the position of scars; the way a dwarf holds a crossbow when missing three fingers; how one wrestles with one's left lower leg; and much, much more. Oh, sure, a crappy job could be done easily, but when has Toady been content with a crappy job?

The question of the thread was file size, not executable complexity. I agree completely that writing an engine to render DF's many convolutions in anything approximating real time would be implausible at the very best, but I'd like to stress that no matter how much code you write, storage space will not be an issue. A billion characters of raw text doesn't even fill a single GB. Code complication might scale pretty arbitrarily to detail, but plain old textures do not, and that's where the real bulk comes from. It's not as if you need a separate image resource for every possible creature state.
Large? Yes. Store-able on a typical modern HDD? I don't see why not.

[oven_baked]

Bout the size of Skyrim. It has it's graphics.

If it had the same level graphical fidelity then it would be massive. Due to graphics for all the rocks, the system for modeling statues, engravings, artifacts and all the other unique markings on objects. Then it would be massive.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Okay, a few things about that simulation derail: A simulation of our universe wouldn't necessarily be infinite, in fact, it probably wouldn't have infinite computing power. In all likelyhood, if we're living in a simulation (which is still a huge if), there's arbitrary boundaries and failsafes that we haven't hit/triggered yet. Or maybe we have, and it crashed the universe, prompting God/whoever to hotfix the issue and restore to a recent backup.

Two examples of physical phenomena that could possibly be some of said boundaries are black holes' apparent destruction of information and the apparent upper limit of energy a particle can have, which could also exist to stop us from perturbing the false vacuum and destroying the universe, if the hypothetical simulated universe does indeed exist in a false vacuum.

Hey, it would also explain the dark matter! We're just an older version running on someone's computer because they like us too much to upgrade to the version which fixes that darn accelerating expansion bug...To the place you apply for a Nobel prize to!
(Just kidding.)

Bout the size of Skyrim. It has it's graphics.

If it had the same level graphical fidelity then it would be massive. Due to graphics for all the rocks, the system for modeling statues, engravings, artifacts and all the other unique markings on objects. Then it would be massive.

Would Toady code it any other way?

[Orange Wizard]

Bout the size of Skyrim. It has it's graphics.

If it had the same level graphical fidelity then it would be massive. Due to graphics for all the rocks, the system for modeling statues, engravings, artifacts and all the other unique markings on objects. Then it would be massive.

Would Toady code it any other way?
[/quote]
Yes. He'd add procedurally generated graphic styles.

[EDIT]: Gah, I hate that [/quote] thing.

[TempAcc]

Due to the relation between coding and graphics, which has already been explained, it wouldn't be much larger then skyrim itself. It wouldn't take a non existing computer to handle it, either. Today's most powerful GPUs could proably handle DF's current cities and the amount of detail that goes into every character. Present day's high end gaming computers would likely handle it.
It could be done if toady had like, an actual team of developers and designers just like major companies. But really, its completely unescessary.