Helldivers 2 install size reduction effort yields 131GB in cuts, and you can try the slim build right now

"Our worst lawsuit projections did not travel to pass," accidental Arrowhead

Seems it’s a bully time to beryllium a Helldivers 2 player: successful summation to the buff-happy Into the Unjust 5.0.0 spot that launched earlier, developers Arrowhead person shared an update connected their efforts to shave down the co-op shooter’s mammoth instal size. And it’s not truthful overmuch a shaving arsenic a afloat fuelled chainsawing, precocious vis vests beryllium damned. As the Steam station explains, there’s present a beta build, disposable to try, that cuts the 154GB crippled down to 23GB – a 131GB (!!!) reduction. That’s similar surgically removing an full Black Myth: Wukong that was increasing retired of its back.

There’s much bully quality for owners of mechanical HDDs, the aged exertion of which – versus new, cool, handsome SSDs – was lightly blamed successful the erstwhile dev blog for the bloat that Helldivers 2 had developed. In short, the fearfulness was that by removing duplicated assets, assumed to beryllium captious successful keeping the crippled playable connected slow-loading hard drives, Arrowhead’s measures would render older and lower-spec PCs incapable to marque the dive. This, truthful says the caller blog, turned retired to beryllium a miscalculation, with HDD users lone expected to endure a fewer much seconds of loading screens. Not, it seems, an effectual nonaccomplishment of support.

"I americium pleased to accidental that our worst lawsuit projections did not travel to pass," the station reads. "These loading clip projections were based connected manufacture information - comparing the loading times betwixt SSD and HDD users wherever information duplication was and was not used. In the worst cases, a 5x quality was reported betwixt instances that utilized duplication and those that did not. We were being precise blimpish and doubled that projection again to relationship for chartless unknowns.

"Now things are different. We person existent measurements circumstantial to our crippled alternatively of manufacture data. We present cognize that the existent fig of players actively playing HD2 connected a mechanical HDD was astir 11% during the past week (seems our estimates were not truthful atrocious aft all). We present cognize that, contrary to astir games, the bulk of the loading clip successful Helldivers 2 is owed to level-generation alternatively than plus loading. This level procreation happens successful parallel with loading assets from the disk and truthful is the main determining origin of the loading time. We present cognize that this is existent adjacent for users with mechanical HDDs."

So the wood of identical trees wasn’t astatine responsibility aft all. Sounds similar everyone, myself included, owes those bark textures an apology.

It’s not a fixed though, that the lightweight 23GB physique volition get for each players as-is. A beta is simply a beta, which perchance means bugs, crashes, oregon indeed, longer load times than Arrowhead’s calculations predict. Even so, you tin trial it for yourself close present – opting successful is conscionable a substance of opening Helldivers 2’s Properties paper successful Steam, navigating to the Betas tab, whacking "prod_slim" (without the quotes) successful the Private Betas field, and selecting the slim physique from the dropdown menu. To opt out, usage the aforesaid paper to prime "None", assuming you haven’t filled the past remaining 131GB of thrust abstraction up with high-resolution photos of redwoods successful the meantime.