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[dirkzen]

Before I begin, this is not a thread about Skyrim versus Modern Warfare 3.
They're 2 completely different games and genres.
It would be like comparing a Plump Helmet to a ham and cheese sandwich.
If you like one or the other,  good for you.   I'm not in any way, shape or form trying to imply that one is better than the other.

I'm only pointing out something i've noticed, as i'm waiting for both of them to download through a certain 3rd party application.
Modern Warfare is wedging itself firmly into my computer at a hefty 13.8 Gigs.
Skyrim on the other hand is taking up a modest 5 Gigs.

...now.. correct me if i'm wrong..   but ...something seems quite amiss.
Have first person shooters evolved so far that they honestly need to take up the space of several blu ray movies?
...or did someone somewhere forget to compress a few textures?
..or is the game really 'that' long, campaign wise?

Skyrim seems to have quite the opposite issue..  with what i've seen and heard about so much more content than Oblivion,  and with as beautiful as everything looked..  i'd expect it to be at least twice this size.

Whats going on here?

[Itnetlolor]

Seems like the programmers and designers are just not optimizing or compressing their code or graphics (could be for various reasons, especially time crunching to meet deadlines). That, or converting from console to PC is not so efficient.

Probably for ease of production as well, especially where DLC is concerned between platforms for compatabiliy's sake.

But then there's the discouragement of piracy by padding the games themselves to be colossal, because "nobody is that patient to download such a large game. Or that reckless to clutter their computers with so much data".

Then there's of course, the Graphics vs. Content debate. What's taking up more of the space? Game or Graphics?

[Zangi]

*snip*"nobody is that patient to download such a large game. Or that reckless to clutter their computers with so much data".*snip*

Is that a shot at everyone getting the game?

Mind you, I don't have it nor do I plan on getting it.

[Itnetlolor]

*snip*"nobody is that patient to download such a large game. Or that reckless to clutter their computers with so much data".*snip*

Is that a shot at everyone getting the game?

Mind you, I don't have it nor do I plan on getting it.

I meant it as an anti-piracy know-it-all's point of view on how to discourage P2P downloading/file sharing of games by artificially making them large.

More of a general standpoint really. I wasn't really taking shots at anybody with that, aside from the fact that that's a pretty stupid way to go about it.

Would've been smarter back in the days of >56k connections, but not so much nowadays with broadband.

[Sensei]

I'm pretty sure all the graphics in MW3 are filters and lens flare.

Also, Bethesda always uses every model they make as many times as they can while getting away with, as you'll notice if you open up any of the games' respective construction sets.

[JamesCorella]

13 gigs? goddamn lol

[Mr.Person]

Oblivion and I'm presuming Skyrim used a file format that, by it's very nature, is compressed to hell and back. Additionally, the levels themselves are very, very barebones. They're literally just "Ok, there's this piece here and this one here and here's a listing of where all the entities are" where those pieces are giant sections of reused rooms and whatnot while MW3's are more like "Ok, here's a fully modeled building, a shitload of props, and all of the pathfinding that the enemies and NPC's use are at all of these locations" all of which is custom made for each level.

A level in MW3 probably took a month to make. One in Skyrim probably took a few hours. Skyrim reuses all of the content over and over while MW3's content is all single-use custom made for one level.

[LoSboccacc]

also, I think most of the assets of skyrim are generated on the fly from a small predefined set of components, while every branch of every three in modern warfare has it's own model

[Itnetlolor]

Those are actually really good points. As long as the extra space is for art's sake (IE- making games as an art form; taking pride in the production) then it's space worthy of existing. If it is just anti-piracy non-optimized padding, then we have a problem. That's my argument. I'll lay off that from now on.

[dennislp3]

all said its no real surprise...in a game as open ended as skyrim you have to reuse things and what not...you cant spend months on a "level" when you have a whole world to create (Skyrim has like 300+ areas)

[Kromgar]

Game looks marvelous as it needs to be no problem here Character Models and armor have vastly improved the world also seems much more alive. Dungeons are much more unique as well

[Levi]

Activision probably just forgot to take out all the assets from MW2 they didn't use.

Ha ha, I kid!   

My roommate was really surprised as well when he preloaded Skyrim, he thought it was tiny compared to what he was expecting.

[Cthulhu]

Not to mention games like MW3 tend to have prerendered cutscenes.  Two or three of those will take up as much harddrive space as the game itself.

[Shadowlord]

13 gigs? goddamn lol

You think that's bad? DC Universe Online takes up 17 GB, and that doesn't include DLC (which I don't have).

[Virex]

Compression costs extra time and too aggressive compression has a risk of data loss. So unless they're short on space, most companies avoid excessive compression. That also makes the graphics bigger than they could be in theory, but I doubt the size of a game is a selling point in our multi-terrabite harddisk era.