Post

In indie gamedev, studios can be split into three categories: - Those who know about FS and VFS effects - Those who don't know/don't care and use FS - Those who don't and just slap everything in a single VFS file for fun and a sense of security. And the latter are genuinely annoy me... (rant thread)

31/3/26, 3:14 pm0 reposts2 likes

Snowly

@owlso.me

31 Mar

Pros of FS: Steam is most happy to patch the changed files on updates, without requiring lots of space. And the patch process is quickest. Cons of FS: The more files = the more time to load them, mostly because of AV, but partially because that's how most FS work.

Snowly

@owlso.me

31 Mar

VFS is made to solve the loading time. For a single VFS file access your OS does a single FS and AV call, thus increasing the assets loading time by a huge margin. Indies appear to think that if VFS offer encryption then they use it for that purpose only. And "we have a single huge file, sooo cool!"

Snowly

@owlso.me

31 Mar

When their shiny early access game receive a constant updates, Steam has to download the patch payload and apply it on your huge file in a temp dir (making a patched copy), then replace old one with new one on success. So ALL users are expected to have gamesize+patchsize free space at all times.

Snowly

@owlso.me

31 Mar

Moral of the story: Chunk your freaking VFS. I'm tired to see this over and over. Tired of deleting other games just to apply few-mb patch on your 50gb pak, like as if devs do not care about user experience at all. And many of them cannot afford to have a bigger drive, yet they saved for your game.