22 Gigabytes!!!! Of unnecessary hidden rf2 folder in steam. Check yours

[Lafrente]

We all know the crappy "packages" folder in rf2 keeping those .rfcmp files. Guess what. I figured there was something even worse.

Its again those ridiculous .rfcmp files of rfactor, sitting hidden under workshop folder in steam. Do these devs know that we pay for our storage and its not free? WHY, WHY would I keep 22 giga of zipped stuff? Why does rf2 never think of user experience? There are probably thousands of people keeping this in their disks wondering where all their storage went who has no idea its rf2 eating away at their gigabytes. I've never seen such approach in any other game.

The problem: rf2 keeps all the already installed content's zipped files in steam workshop folder. Now, I delete it, I run rf2, then stupid rf2 deletes ALL the installed packages within its own "installed" folder. How stupid is this? This is beyond stupid.

Could someone tell me, how can I get rid of useless crap and just install the contents and NOT keep its zipped crap?! And basically, NOT install two rfactor2's on my computer?

 

[Alex Townsend]

Oh no...
I'm guessing I should have redirected that default location too right?

 

[Case_]

It is a good practice to simply clean up your replay folders for all of the sims manually every once in a while, IMO. Especially in Raceroom and rF2.

(Just like it is a good practice to clean up your temporary folders in Windows manually from time to time, or using the built-in Clean up tool. Windows got somewhat better at keeping it tidier especially with Win 10, but sometimes files still get stuck there forever.)

 

[Denis Betty]

Yes, keep it clean.

Also, if you ever get the monitor in garage running in slomo, turn off record fastest laps and reduce things like instant replay length and quality. Works for me. I have a small SSD for OS only, so I'm now wondering if running rF2 (and all my Steam installs) from an HDD is causing me problems?

Incoming!

 

[Case_]

In my experience at least, running rF2 from an SSD does not really help all that much. It doesn't really need fast transfers or seek times a lot.

But I do run it from an SSD anyway

 

[balage06]

In my experience at least, running rF2 from an SSD does not really help all that much. It doesn't really need fast transfers or seek times a lot.

But I do run it from an SSD anyway

Well, rF2 has been sitting on my HDD for quite some time and the "Synchronizing with Workshop..." task lasted for minutes in the launcher, now it takes like 5 seconds with an SSD, so it definitely helps in that regard, but other than that it doesn't really matter. Same for R3E.

 

[24heuresdejeux]

Can always unsubscribe from all the Workshop Items then add back the ones you actually want if space is a concern. This doesn't work for the "Store" items ...

 

[avenger82]

Can always unsubscribe from all the Workshop Items then add back the ones you actually want if space is a concern. This doesn't work for the "Store" items ...

Yes Marcel already said that and linked the procedure. But I'm glad I have space because it has big disadvantages.

 

[Case_]

Can always unsubscribe from all the Workshop Items then add back the ones you actually want if space is a concern. This doesn't work for the "Store" items ...

How does that solve anything? The point here is that every item you are subscribed to in the Workshop takes double the space it needs, because there is a copy of it kept on the disk. So yes, you should think about what you subscribe to, but anything "you actually want" still takes twice the space.

 

[Lafrente]

So I got rid of the 22gb zip files. Step by step how I did it:

- Go to steam workshop folder and search for .rfcmp
- Move all the search results somewhere else.
(Each of the items are in individual number folders, that's why we are doing this step. Lots of work to go in every single folder and take them out one by one. Also search for .psd and .rfmod files, and confirm that you've emptied the workshop folder (named 365960) by right clicking and checking properties. You should see 0 bytes)
- Now unsub from everything on workshop (with 1 click)
- Launch rf2 (It'll sync with workshop and delete all the -installed but unsubbed- content)
- Copy all the files you moved from workshop into packages folder.
- Run rf2, manually install them (use shift to select items)
- After the install, delete all the stuff in packages folder.

Voila. You probably subbed to more content than me so on average you'll save 40gb which is a huge deal. I run no hdd system and I'll never buy an hdd and let that old tech keep surviving and crawling into our lives so this was good for me.

 

[Lafrente]

Another issue came to mind: Most of the content we are keeping the copy of are in their final stages. So there's practically zero need for most workshop files. So can rf2 not cannibalize itself just because you deleted a finished mod's zip in workshop folder?

But assume its for updating, lets say you're updating a 500mb content, does that .rfcmp file we have, help with the update in any way? Like if you have the zip file, you don't have to re-download the whole 500mb and instead Steam downloads a patch. Is that how it works?

If its downloading the whole thing again and zipped files have zero use, then this is just the worst. A new content management system could be integrated into the new UI non-dependant on Steam.

 

[Case_]

(I certainly hope there's not many people around who would spent so much time and effort essentially breaking their game and removing the auto-update capability of Workshop content just to save a few GB of space because they have a weird hate for regular HDDs while not having enough non-HDD storage space...)

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

It’s much more convenient. I have tons of mods, of course mostly from the workshop, and it’s auto updating functionality is worth keeping the compressed .rfcmp on a cheap HDD.

I agree, way more practical than manually updating. I wonder though wouldn't symlinking the workshop folder to HDD partly mitigate the advantage of having the game on SSD in the first place? One big delay when launching the game is the "synchronizing with workshop items" phase, it was actually the only stage of the loading that I noticed major improvements from after moving to SSD.

I also can't (still) wrap my head fully around the need to keep two copies of everything. Ok, Steam workshop mandates subscribed items to be in workshop folder, fair enough. But couldn't the game directly use the workshop folder then instead of duplicate installing everything in its own directory?

I had a go at installing a custom CS:GO map, and even more confusingly, it actually stored the map only in the CS:GO main folder. No copy is kept in the workshop folder, so it looks like Valve themselves have managed to bypass this "workshop content must be in workshop folder" requirement.

 

[Lafrente]

(I certainly hope there's not many people around who would spent so much time and effort essentially breaking their game and removing the auto-update capability of Workshop content just to save a few GB of space because they have a weird hate for regular HDDs while not having enough non-HDD storage space...)

Darn, the level of attention seeking on this kid.

So much time and effort: 5 minutes
Breaking the game: Get a clue
Removing auto update: My rf2 hasn't updated for months. Not a big deal. It'll still update the core, just not the mods. Don't beat yourself.
Few gb: Basically another rf2 size. Some in this thread had 70gb. 2-5 gb is few. 70 gb isn't.
HDD: I dont buy them. They are old, noisy, unreliable, have shorter lifespan, get even slower quickly. They might fit on your low end system you have in your signature. Doesn't fit mine.
Not enough ssd storage: 1 nvme + 2 ssd = 3 terabytes. Still not fun carrying around 20gb of useless stuff.

 

[Lafrente]

I agree, way more practical than manually updating. I wonder though wouldn't symlinking the workshop folder to HDD partly mitigate the advantage of having the game on SSD in the first place? One big delay when launching the game is the "synchronizing with workshop items" phase, it was actually the only stage of the loading that I noticed major improvements from after moving to SSD.

I also can't (still) wrap my head fully around the need to keep two copies of everything. Ok, Steam workshop mandates subscribed items to be in workshop folder, fair enough. But couldn't the game directly use the workshop folder then instead of duplicate installing everything in its own directory?

I had a go at installing a custom CS:GO map, and even more confusingly, it actually stored the map only in the CS:GO main folder. No copy is kept in the workshop folder, so it looks like Valve themselves have managed to bypass this "workshop content must be in workshop folder" requirement.

Yep it'll launch slower.

Game can't use the workshop folder because they are zipped versions. I also have a few CS-GO workshop stuff and I don't see a trace of them in the folder. 0 bytes atm so it is possible.

 

[Case_]

Yep, I'm an attention seeking kid. You got me.

 

[Marcel Offermans]

But assume its for updating, lets say you're updating a 500mb content, does that .rfcmp file we have, help with the update in any way? Like if you have the zip file, you don't have to re-download the whole 500mb and instead Steam downloads a patch. Is that how it works?

Yes, Steam is quite smart about only updating parts of files that actually changed when downloading updates. So if we do a BOP update to a car and that changes only a few small things, that will download quickly.

 

[avenger82]

Another issue came to mind: Most of the content we are keeping the copy of are in their final stages. So there's practically zero need for most workshop files. So can rf2 not cannibalize itself just because you deleted a finished mod's zip in workshop folder?

But assume its for updating, lets say you're updating a 500mb content, does that .rfcmp file we have, help with the update in any way? Like if you have the zip file, you don't have to re-download the whole 500mb and instead Steam downloads a patch. Is that how it works?

If its downloading the whole thing again and zipped files have zero use, then this is just the worst. A new content management system could be integrated into the new UI non-dependant on Steam.

Instead of having all .rfcmp files in workshop folder, there should be only .md5 of last downloaded file. It would only quickly compare MD5 sums. If it's changed it would have to download .rfcmp, but that's not that common and most people have fast download speeds.
This is simple solution, but I guess making Valve add such option won't be easy.

 

[Marcel Offermans]

Instead of having all .rfcmp files in workshop folder, there should be only .md5 of last downloaded file. It would only quickly compare MD5 sums. If it's changed it would have to download .rfcmp, but that's not that common and most people have fast download speeds.
This is simple solution, but I guess making Valve add such option won't be easy.

Remember that Valve must support a lot of totally different games that use the workshop, so they have to make a system that (more or less) suits all of them. rF2 does not need the files in the workshop anymore after installing them. Some other games do. The only thing we (=I, back in the days when I designed the system for ISI) could do is to ditch the packaging system we have and directly work with the content in the workshop folders. It would save the duplication, but it has other, more serious downsides, as it would make it a lot harder if not impossible to check the integrity of the overall install. Think of going back to the days of rF1 when you needed to unzip files into a folder and hope for the best (typically causing a lot of mismatches and frustration, leading to the design of systems like SimSync, multiple installs to mitigate some of the problems, etc.). So I personally think the compromise we have now is reasonable and with the guide I referred to earlier you can save space if that is more important to you and you don't mind spending some extra time maintaining things by hand.

 

[avenger82]

rF2 does not need the files in the workshop anymore after installing them. Some other games do.

OK if rF2 is an exception from the rule then it won't happen. But, hypothetically, if there are quite few other games that don't need to persist the workshop files, then technically, Steam could add such option.
Didn't have rF1, but have a lot of mods in AMS and even more in AC and didn't have any issues, except of course sometimes have older version of a mod when joining multiplayer. This is solved by workshop, but unzipping is in some ways simper, because it's one simple step, no additional "installing" needed.
The problem is with uninstalling, because usually folders are extracted to many folders i.e. Vehicle, Sounds , Series etc. I believe In AC this is solved by the (third party) Content Manager, where you go to Content tab, then locate and delete a mod. To install you just drag&drop na archive(zip,7z, rar) and click install.
But I know rF2 packaging is more complicated than that and more importantly Steam workshop integration works mostly great and it completely doesn't make sense to do revolution and go back at this point.

 

[Durge Driven]

Guys, ever checked your replay folder? lol.

Never enable replays until you want them

Guys you can buy a 240GB SSD for ( $35AU ) and put all sim archives on it
That would fit all my rF2 AC and AMS mods ( i use "mods" in all sims with OVGME and JSGME , even GPL .so maybe $8 a sim ...whoop whoop


If you subscribe to everything don't blame ISI it is steam's fault

Oh it is also why you don't have rFactor2 warez like the new ACC DLC is already a torrent !@! sheeesh ask Kunos to look after you more ...you spend money for devolpment to see them give it away ! lol