When optimizing load times, it’s usually console that’s the benchmark. PC is assumed to have faster or equal hardware so they optimize for the lowest denominato

When optimizing load times, it’s usually console that’s the benchmark. PC is assumed to have faster or equal hardware so they optimize for the lowest denominator. Consoles aren’t PC’s but they are very close. They lack some instructions while gaining others. I can’t speak on current gen consoles but older ones like the Xbox 360, only could handle zip format and at a slow pace. You could show a loading screen while you unpack the data in memory or you can unpack on disk on installation saving some loading time, or it’s all uncompressed on consoles leaving the console to load the data as fast as console do. The issue at hand around install size comes down to the engines, their ability to decompress asset bundles, the fidelity of the assets (8k vs 8k,4k,2k,1024) if no runtime optimization is done. WAV sounds vs OGG vs MP3 vs flac, there’s a lot of shit in those asset packs. You could compress it all like they do, into a folder structure you can index and load from, or you can write that game code to make boss fights cause camera shake, the decisions you make making a game are really all about making the game and little to do with how best to deliver your content. Some texture formats like DXT are already compressed. Raw PNG’s could have compression. All these things are possible if the engine supports it.