The download size is partially because the downloads aren’t optimised for fresh installs. I accidentally nuked my official package folder today (thanks Steam ‘verify’ option), and the patcher effectively downloads fresh plus all the subsequent patches to each package.
See below captured mid-install. I effectively downloaded more than 700MB for the ai-traffic package… a package that is only 28MB compressed.
This is incredibly wasteful and time consuming, even with fast internet. Even if it’s not every patch, Asobo should offer ‘rollup’ archives so we only need at most the last patches.
I thank you for the explanation.
I am not a noob, by any stretch … but could not really begin to understand this , for me “absurd” “update procedure”.
I hope i got it right : This means that every new update will take longer than the previous one ? i.e. it downloads “everything since day 0 for a particular package” and then compiles all of it to create the “updated folder” ?
If I am not wrong , i knew about “incremental” or “differential” file update since the mid 80’s
What is happening here ?
My poor numbers…
I wake up today at 4.30 AM to complete my “update”
About 5.00 the “file” in the picture finished downloading chunks.
It is now 6 AM and it is still “decompressing”
A whole hour of idle internet ( the reason for getting up at 4 AM is the better bandwith I get at that time of day )
Updates should be fine as you already have the the packages - clean installs are what is broken. Unless something changes, every clean install will take longer and longer, as it downloads the release version. Then the first incremental patch. Then the second. And the third. And now where we have so many patch iterations since release, so much extra data has to be downloaded.
What’s needed is some ‘rollup’ process where, eg, a clean install downloads fresh ‘as at’ whatever the latest world update is every 2-3 months, and then applies the incremental patches from there.
I am a bit confused with the total GB you are showing.
I have the deluxe ($120.00) version from the MS Store.
I have NO Addons. Nothing in Community Folder.
I have NO Scenery Cache, None
All updates have been accepted and installed.
I show No Updates pending in the content folder when in the FS.
MY total GB shows approx 125 GB and not 170 GB
Everything is on my C Drive default location.
Why is there a difference in our total fs storage quantity ? Do you have a cache on or am I missing something ?
121gb total for my pc.. So I don’t know why people are saying it’s 170gb. That’s after all marketplace updates. I have noticed that the numbers are probably install needed space.. Not the total amount needed on the hard drive afterwards.
The size of the initial download is X GB.
The size of the additional download is Y GB.
The size of X and Y change with each Update and Patch.
The size of X and Y change with each Version (I can only guess since
I only have one Version, Deluxe)
A “Clean Install” will provide you with a new copy of a program
as it is completely and currently.
You want Asobo to have a download program that can analyze
the 2 million PCs with FS2020 and correctly deliver the right configuration
of software each PC needs?
I’m very confused by a lot of the conversation going on here, but that’s fine, I’m happy not understanding it.
My feeling is simply this:
When I downloaded MSFS2020 from scratch yesterday the total download was 170GiB, so if there is any way for MS & Asobo to make that initial download smaller, that would be really lovely!
MrKryptic,
I believe that you are correct. After all is said and done, meaning after all downloads and updates have been completed the final stored size for the MSFS is approx 121-125 GB. That is probably what everyone was saying to begin with and I simply did not understand. Anyway, my msfs storage amount is in that range so I feel confident that all is well.
The original Thread Title was “install”, not final disk size.
It could vary with the edition you have: Standard, Deluxe, Premium Deluxe.
It could vary with your Add Ons, and etc.
It could vary with your Marketplace purchases.
I don’t know the answer as absolute.
I am MS Store
FS2020 Ver. 1-15-8-0
FS2020 up to date except WU 4 not installed. It is in Marketplace but not installed.
The only thing I have in “Community” is the WT CJ4 Mod.
Under File Explorer: (using “Properties”)
My C: and D: drive for FS2020:
C:\Users\my user ID\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe
Size is 2.36 MB (2,484,830 bytes)
HI All,
Your “Space Used” as recorded by a Premium Deluxe MSFS installation is shown at the bottom left of the Content Manager. Mine shows as : 123.75 GIB . I have nothing in my Community Folder. I have no addons.
No - that’s unreasonable. Someone with the game installed should be patched up as normal. Like the OP, I would just like to download less than 170GB to finish with noticeably less than that on disk. A fresh person just purchasing the game shouldn’t have to download the initial release, then the various patches, SU1, WU1, SU2, WU2, etc, sequentially.
The fspackage and fspatch files are just zip files, so I should end up with a smaller download than final size on disk, not 50% larger.
