Please, remove unnecessary liveries from DCS builds. Put them in separate packs

Please ED, remove unnecessary liveries from DCS builds, put them in separate packs, for optional download.

MiG-21 livery folder alone takes 6GB, Christen Eagle's takes ~4GB... all in all, it's like 20GB of unnecessary liveries that I have to remove every time a new OB update comes around (due to limited space in SSD).

Since the last big update, I'm forced to migrate the DCS folder to my HDD, update there, remove unnecessary liveries and then migrate back to SSD... it's no fun.

I think it would be better for everybody to keep non-essential liveries as separate packs (faster downloads, less stress on the servers, fewer complaints from me...:lol:).

Agree with that.

Please ED, remove unnecessary liveries from DCS builds, put them in separate packs, for optional download.

 

MiG-21 livery folder alone takes 6GB, Christen Eagle's takes ~4GB... all in all, it's like 20GB of unnecessary liveries that I have to remove every time a new OB update comes around (due to limited space in SSD).

 

Since the last big update, I'm forced to migrate the DCS folder to my HDD, update there, remove unnecessary liveries and then migrate back to SSD... it's no fun.

 

 

I think it would be better for everybody to keep non-essential liveries as separate packs (faster downloads, less stress on the servers, fewer complaints from me...:lol:).

They are part of the core, so if a user flies those aircraft on a MP Server you see the livery instead of "Missing Textures".

Maybe there is improvement for compression.

Agreed

Why don't you migrate the liveries folder to that HDD you have, until another solution comes along?

Sent from my ANE-LX1 using Tapatalk

They are part of the core, so if a user flies those aircraft on a MP Server you see the livery instead of "Missing Textures".

I think he's suggesting that they not be part of the core. Then it won't matter in MP. You'll just see a default skin, like when someone's flying with a 3rd-party skin.

I have oodles space so it's not a problem for me. But for those with limited space this is not an unreasonable request.

You could try to do a symbolic link on that folder to your HDD, I think I did some time ago for the Normandy map, and it worked well :).

This is a good idea. Lots of modules have many skins that I'll never EVER use. They take up a lot of space. If I delete them, they will be downloaded automatically with the following update.

I've been an advocate for compression for a while now so I can agree. Remove all extras leaving a single Default for each coalition. Let users download and install their own. For campaigns just supply the liveries on install.

Campaign Liveries are with the campaigns.

3rd Parties seem to be the ones with large Liveries folders.

They are part of the core, so if a user flies those aircraft on a MP Server you see the livery instead of "Missing Textures".

That's why I proposed the use of placeholder liveries, replacing the missing livery with a placeholder, but what better way to do this is to basically create a "core default livery" slot or slots, perhaps two or 3 slots maximum, which would be the core-default liveries that are installed with base DCS World core for everyone, and that would be used for the placeholder liveries when the optional liveries aren't installed, so no missing texture. These core-default liveries should go into separate folder structures that are part of the DCS core files to have a good distinction and avoid cleanup/modding confusion.

The MP client will notify if user doesn't have livery packs installed that are used by some players in a server but this may be done in-game if users can change liveries without leaving server, otherwise a notification in lobby when connecting would be enough, but then someone could join with a missing liverly later so this just has to be figured out and it's not the big problem.

It requires updates to a lot of areas, I thought of it as submodules, and they need their own e-shop pages, in-game and on the site, the patching/update system, the whole system for managing this behind the scenes has to be created, probably even some "API" for 3rd parties to register their picks for the core-defaul liveries and submit optional livery packs, preferrably split into several submodules and not a giant 20 GB one if possible.

A a popup of available submodules(liveries in this case, perhaps other assets in future) would show up when a module is being prepared for download (https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=272259), with the defaults being to install everything, and then the user can untick as necessary, this way most users will just apply everything and liveries won't be forgotten if there's any fear of that.

This is far better than cutting corners on quality, yes Mig-21 bis team will optimize the liveries with it's big update ... but I hope or rather I expect they mean LOSSLESS optimization, without lowering the fidelity, graphics data is going to get bigger and bigger in future with 10 and 12-bit HDR and WCG and sizes are going to get bigger and bigger. This isn't some way to avoid not even trying some liveries and I don't want it every having that effect, but perhaps a person would try a set for a while then replace it with another set and play with those for another while, so I hope this feature doesn't promote "livery lazyness" and the default to install them all is what should help, people who are into liveries won't just forget about them that easily.

The prompts in MP shuld be good, because then it could really be silly if everyone's seeing placeholder liveries for months before noticing they didn't had them installed.

You could try to do a symbolic link on that folder to your HDD, I think I did some time ago for the Normandy map, and it worked well :).

Thanks for the suggestion, looks like the time has finally come for me to start using symlinks.

I ended up migrating the terrain folder (which contains the DCS maps) to HDD and creating a junction for it in DCS folder... 82GB freed, jury is still out on performance impact.

Still, I think that the livery department needs a serious overhaul, every GB counts. ;) (@Worrazen's proposal looks promising)

... every GB counts. ;)

Yes, but our time is also valuable, and starting to shuffle files to save 80 GB doesn’t seem worthwhile to me ... maybe it would bother me more if the SSD were more expensive, but at their current prices they are actually the cheapest component of a gaming rig.

Greetings :)

Yes, but our time is also valuable, and starting to shuffle files to save 80 GB doesn’t seem worthwhile to me

Reducing size is always beneficial.

If having to "shuffle files" is a problem, then let's have properly compressed textures, at least.

No more 512MB livery nonsense (MiG-21, I'm looking at you :D).

maybe it would bother me more if the SSD were more expensive, but at their current prices they are actually the cheapest component of a gaming rig

$100+ isn't what I call cheap (I'm only considering 500+GB SSDs, since 250GB SSDs wouldn't solve the problem, long term).

HDDs are cheap, SSDs aren't (cost per GB is still high)... people are just getting used to inflated GPU/CPU/RAM prices, so SSDs seem cheap in comparison.

Also, I don't share the "I'll buy a new SSD, just so I can store liveries that I'll never use or see in MP" mindset.

Greetings :)

It's ridiculous lose 4 GB in CEIIwhen I don't own it for example. In that case, a compression is needed.

It is not just 80 GB, it is about terabytes of data in all DCS users disks, hours of writing times, thousand of dollars every year.

For what? For the possibility to see every rivet in other users aircraft? I am sure that for the people.who doesn't own modules, compression is not a big deal. For developers, is the right choice.

Thanks for the symbolic link idea. It won't be lost after updates?

Sent from my MiG-29S (9-13S) using Tapatalk

It's ridiculous lose 4 GB in CEIIwhen I don't own it for example. In that case, a compression is needed.

 

It is not just 80 GB, it is about terabytes of data in all DCS users disks, hours of writing times, thousand of dollars every year.

For what? For the possibility to see every rivet in other users aircraft? I am sure that for the people.who doesn't own modules, compression is not a big deal. For developers, is the right choice.

 

Thanks for the symbolic link idea. It won't be lost after updates?

 

 

 

Sent from my MiG-29S (9-13S) using Tapatalk

Sent from my ANE-LX1 using Tapatalk

Sorry to ask again. But I cannot believe. It's too good to be real LOL

DCS updater won't delete the symbolic link and restore the folder into the default path?

Sent from my MiG-29S (9-13S) using Tapatalk

maybe it would bother me more if the SSD were more expensive, but at their current prices they are actually the cheapest component of a gaming rig.

There are other reasons such as: I don't want to overspend on an oversized SATA SSD when I should be saving money on a new PC that has M.2 slots so I can buy the newer NVMe SSDs.

Yeah there's PCI-E M.2 expansion cards but ... if I buy that SSD now it'll be kinda old 3 years from now, we'll see.

+1

Please remove these fictional skins. It's useless to have these fictional skins for planes like Hornet with Ukranian and UK skins etc.

They indeed take unnecessary space.

Sorry to ask again. But I cannot believe. It's too good to be real LOL

DCS updater won't delete the symbolic link and restore the folder into the default path?

 

Sent from my MiG-29S (9-13S) using Tapatalk

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/131182-create-soft-hard-symbolic-links-windows.html

You have to use Hard Symbolic Links (soft will not work afaik)

I use it and works just fine. It's created on OS level, so the updater will not care about it.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/131182-create-soft-hard-symbolic-links-windows.html

 

You have to use Hard Symbolic Links (soft will not work afaik)

 

I use it and works just fine. It's created on OS level, so the updater will not care about it.

It is very useful.

Cheers.

Sent from my MiG-29S (9-13S) using Tapatalk

Thanks for the suggestion, looks like the time has finally come for me to start using symlinks.

 

I ended up migrating the terrain folder (which contains the DCS maps) to HDD and creating a junction for it in DCS folder... 82GB freed, jury is still out on performance impact.

 

Still, I think that the livery department needs a serious overhaul, every GB counts. ;) (@Worrazen's proposal looks promising)

I had originally installed DCS in the HDD. Went the other way round exactly because of the performance impact. Loading times were a pain before more so because I always play DCS in VR, otherwise I much prefer BMS.

I too support the idea of reducing the number of liveries in the core of DCS World.

The size of the CoreMods folder grows exponentially over time with each released module.

Some other users already tried to discuss this in the past.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=227783

The solution to add more and bigger SSD's may work for a desktop but is limited for laptops and a very expensive one indeed!

All that to collect liveries for planes you are maybe not having the slightest intrest in?! :)

Let's hope for a change in future DCS versions...

Sylvain

+100.000.000.000