Please Address Game Bloat from CoreMods & Excessive Liveries

[celestHawk]

Dear Eagle Dynamics,

First of all, thank you for the incredible work on DCS World and for continuing to expand its scope. Hiring modders like CurrentHill shows real commitment to quality and community content, and it’s something we all appreciate.

That said, there is an issue that is increasingly frustrating the player base: the ever-growing size of the CoreMods folder and mandatory livery packs.

The Problem

• Many modules include 10–15 GB of liveries (e.g., F-14 = 14GB, F-4E = 12GB, others = 8–9GB).

• These are downloaded by all players, even those who don’t own the module, because they’re placed in CoreMods.

• The result:

  • Install size is inflated by tens of gigabytes.

  • Frequent updates are huge and slow because they touch massive files.

  • Players are forced to buy new SSDs or split the game across drives just to keep playing.

This isn’t just an inconvenience. It actively prevents new players from trying DCS, and makes existing players frustrated when every update eats bandwidth and disk space unnecessarily.

Why This Matters

We understand the reason behind CoreMods: everyone needs to see the same aircraft and skins in multiplayer. But the current implementation is heavy-handed. Right now, we’re downloading and storing content that many of us will never use.

Constructive Suggestions

There are practical solutions that would keep multiplayer compatibility intact without punishing everyone with bloated installs:

1. Optional Livery Packs – Move liveries into modular downloads (via Module Manager). Players who want them can install, others can stick with a default skin.

2. Fallback System – If a client doesn’t have a specific livery, DCS should display the module’s default skin instead. This is common practice in other sims.

3. Lightweight Core Option – Allow players to choose a “Minimal Core” install that includes only essential assets. Great for single-player or those with limited storage.

4. Better Compression/Deduplication – Many liveries reuse textures or differ only slightly. Optimizing this would cut gigabytes without removing content.

Conclusion

DCS is already a large, complex game, but it doesn’t need to be unnecessarily bloated. With every new module (and now with more asset packs from CurrentHill), this issue will only get worse.

We ask that ED prioritize a solution to reduce storage and update overhead caused by CoreMods and excessive liveries. This would improve accessibility, performance, and overall user satisfaction.

Thank you for considering,

 

 

P.S. 

CoreMods>tech>Animals  contains only one animal a Cow and it is 51MB in size!

[niru27]

As someone who doesn't care what livery someone else is using, I agree 100%.

At the very lease those liveries should be made part of the module itself: if I buy the F14 for e.g. it implies I want to check out the different skins. If I don't, it implies I don't care for it.

Forcing everyone to download skins for modules they don't own is just a waste of space.

[TheBiggerBass]

Am 18.8.2025 um 19:38 schrieb celestHawk:

Dear Eagle Dynamics,

First of all, thank you for the incredible work on DCS World and for continuing to expand its scope. Hiring modders like CurrentHill shows real commitment to quality and community content, and it’s something we all appreciate.

That said, there is an issue that is increasingly frustrating the player base: the ever-growing size of the CoreMods folder and mandatory livery packs.

The Problem

• Many modules include 10–15 GB of liveries (e.g., F-14 = 14GB, F-4E = 12GB, others = 8–9GB).

• These are downloaded by all players, even those who don’t own the module, because they’re placed in CoreMods.

• The result:

  • Install size is inflated by tens of gigabytes.

  • Frequent updates are huge and slow because they touch massive files.

  • Players are forced to buy new SSDs or split the game across drives just to keep playing.

This isn’t just an inconvenience. It actively prevents new players from trying DCS, and makes existing players frustrated when every update eats bandwidth and disk space unnecessarily.

Why This Matters

We understand the reason behind CoreMods: everyone needs to see the same aircraft and skins in multiplayer. But the current implementation is heavy-handed. Right now, we’re downloading and storing content that many of us will never use.

Constructive Suggestions

There are practical solutions that would keep multiplayer compatibility intact without punishing everyone with bloated installs:

1. Optional Livery Packs – Move liveries into modular downloads (via Module Manager). Players who want them can install, others can stick with a default skin.

2. Fallback System – If a client doesn’t have a specific livery, DCS should display the module’s default skin instead. This is common practice in other sims.

3. Lightweight Core Option – Allow players to choose a “Minimal Core” install that includes only essential assets. Great for single-player or those with limited storage.

4. Better Compression/Deduplication – Many liveries reuse textures or differ only slightly. Optimizing this would cut gigabytes without removing content.

Conclusion

DCS is already a large, complex game, but it doesn’t need to be unnecessarily bloated. With every new module (and now with more asset packs from CurrentHill), this issue will only get worse.

We ask that ED prioritize a solution to reduce storage and update overhead caused by CoreMods and excessive liveries. This would improve accessibility, performance, and overall user satisfaction.

Thank you for considering,

 

 

P.S. 

CoreMods>tech>Animals  contains only one animal a Cow and it is 51MB in size!

I guess the same applies to all liveries stored in DCS World\Bazar\Liveries , right ? Can they just simply be moved to Saved Games\DCS\Liveries ?

[celestHawk]

10 hours ago, TheBiggerBass said:

I guess the same applies to all liveries stored in DCS World\Bazar\Liveries , right ? Can they just simply be moved to Saved Games\DCS\Liveries ?

All issues have more than one solution, hence at the moment there are three destinations for such files - Bazar, CoreModes and Saved Games\DCS\Liveries

Bazar's total size (if I didn't trimmed it heavily the other day) is less than the Liveries of F-14, which I don't have and never tried ~ 10 GB.

but my issue is that there are so, so, so many and especially for models not everyone have or for me personally will never have like WWII models and even the F-14 and this is totally a personal choice so why there is no way to choose? Even if I'm all for WWII and keep TF-51 with Marianas WWII map, I'll still will be bugged to install all the rest of maps and modules just because I own them and have the CoreModules/Liveries as well. 

Last week saw Kola map has a Trial option, downloaded it, flew few missions with F's I have, made few missions myself and decided it's not a map I like, now untill the trial period is over, I'll have a notification to download it and what if I don't like to see F-15/Su-27 in my list just because I prefer full fidelity models? DOWNLOAD IT! 

My very first module in DCS was F1 and I adored M-2000 but wasn't a time to buy anything at the moment and now I can't have it at any cost but I'll have all the required files for both of them just because!

 

Now I'm starting to think that separating files and folders wont be enough, maybe, just maybe ED should brainstorming on possibility to separate modules entirely and have Asset packs for every taste?

 

FYI: the trimming of CoreModules saved me more than 100GB, at the moment I'm re-downloading (make a 'DCS_Updater.exe repair') as I might went too heavy and I'll do it more mindfully just to not throw more than required.

[celestHawk]

Do I really need this: null

 

[SharpeXB]

Perhaps at some point DCS just goes for streaming all the content vs storing it locally. 

[BIGNEWY]

Streaming content is very expensive, which is fine for massive companies with unlimited resources. But it does not scale down to well. 

 

On 8/18/2025 at 6:38 PM, celestHawk said:

Dear Eagle Dynamics,

First of all, thank you for the incredible work on DCS World and for continuing to expand its scope. Hiring modders like CurrentHill shows real commitment to quality and community content, and it’s something we all appreciate.

That said, there is an issue that is increasingly frustrating the player base: the ever-growing size of the CoreMods folder and mandatory livery packs.

The Problem

• Many modules include 10–15 GB of liveries (e.g., F-14 = 14GB, F-4E = 12GB, others = 8–9GB).

• These are downloaded by all players, even those who don’t own the module, because they’re placed in CoreMods.

• The result:

  • Install size is inflated by tens of gigabytes.

  • Frequent updates are huge and slow because they touch massive files.

  • Players are forced to buy new SSDs or split the game across drives just to keep playing.

This isn’t just an inconvenience. It actively prevents new players from trying DCS, and makes existing players frustrated when every update eats bandwidth and disk space unnecessarily.

Why This Matters

We understand the reason behind CoreMods: everyone needs to see the same aircraft and skins in multiplayer. But the current implementation is heavy-handed. Right now, we’re downloading and storing content that many of us will never use.

Constructive Suggestions

There are practical solutions that would keep multiplayer compatibility intact without punishing everyone with bloated installs:

1. Optional Livery Packs – Move liveries into modular downloads (via Module Manager). Players who want them can install, others can stick with a default skin.

2. Fallback System – If a client doesn’t have a specific livery, DCS should display the module’s default skin instead. This is common practice in other sims.

3. Lightweight Core Option – Allow players to choose a “Minimal Core” install that includes only essential assets. Great for single-player or those with limited storage.

4. Better Compression/Deduplication – Many liveries reuse textures or differ only slightly. Optimizing this would cut gigabytes without removing content.

Conclusion

DCS is already a large, complex game, but it doesn’t need to be unnecessarily bloated. With every new module (and now with more asset packs from CurrentHill), this issue will only get worse.

We ask that ED prioritize a solution to reduce storage and update overhead caused by CoreMods and excessive liveries. This would improve accessibility, performance, and overall user satisfaction.

Thank you for considering,

 

 

P.S. 

CoreMods>tech>Animals  contains only one animal a Cow and it is 51MB in size!

Hi celesteHawk, 

Thank you for your input. I will share your comments with the team.

Managing the size of DCS is something we discuss internally, but it is a challenge. 

thank you 

[Rudel_chw]

8 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

Perhaps at some point DCS just goes for streaming all the content vs storing it locally. 

seems you have excellent internet bandwidth, but I see many people that wouldn’t have enough bandwidth to play.

[Darcaem]

On 8/18/2025 at 7:38 PM, celestHawk said:

Constructive Suggestions

There are practical solutions that would keep multiplayer compatibility intact without punishing everyone with bloated installs:

1. Optional Livery Packs – Move liveries into modular downloads (via Module Manager). Players who want them can install, others can stick with a default skin.

2. Fallback System – If a client doesn’t have a specific livery, DCS should display the module’s default skin instead. This is common practice in other sims.

 

100% agree with the general topic, and with those 2 suggestions specifically. We are already able to manage what terrains and modules want to install, we might use the same manager to chose which liveries to install, besides the default livery for each core asset (or maybe even one default livery per country per asset, when appropriate).

[SharpeXB]

1 hour ago, Rudel_chw said:

seems you have excellent internet bandwidth, but I see many people that wouldn’t have enough bandwidth to play.

If you try that other sim that streams the content it actually doesn’t need that much bandwidth. The recommended is just 50mbps. It seems like the only solution for games with such large content. Like when or if DCS ends up with a global map just putting it on a drive will become unmanageable. 

Edited 13 hours ago by SharpeXB

[Czar]

12 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

If you try that other sim that streams the content it actually doesn’t need that much bandwidth. It seems like the only solution for games with such large content. Like when or if DCS ends up with a global map just putting it on a drive will become unmanageable. 

Blurry and glitchy mess as end result when the servers are somewhat stressed during a major release or sale. Streaming assets is a nuisance and it will always be as optimization naturally migrate to server expense and not user experience.

DCS need to actually make a tech that reduces terrain storage footprint for a global map, not send the task to a cloud service that will be paid for use.

You can't compare Microsoft's size to Eagle Dynamics. These are not even in the same universe of magnitude.

[Czar]

On 8/18/2025 at 2:38 PM, celestHawk said:

This isn’t just an inconvenience. It actively prevents new players from trying DCS, and makes existing players frustrated when every update eats bandwidth and disk space unnecessarily.

You're 100% right on the first part. DCS is a hungry game on every front.

The second part is not accurate as it is written. Updates don't re downloads any large asset unless is modified. Liveries are very rarely retouched. Once downloaded, it will only sit in storage, unless you're mentioning the technique of deleting the liveries to save storage.

On 8/18/2025 at 2:38 PM, celestHawk said:

There are practical solutions that would keep multiplayer compatibility intact without punishing everyone with bloated installs:

1. Optional Livery Packs – Move liveries into modular downloads (via Module Manager). Players who want them can install, others can stick with a default skin.

2. Fallback System – If a client doesn’t have a specific livery, DCS should display the module’s default skin instead. This is common practice in other sims.

3. Lightweight Core Option – Allow players to choose a “Minimal Core” install that includes only essential assets. Great for single-player or those with limited storage.

4. Better Compression/Deduplication – Many liveries reuse textures or differ only slightly. Optimizing this would cut gigabytes without removing content.

These are all great 100%.

Lots of duplicated data indeed.

Edited 13 hours ago by Czar

[SharpeXB]

1 hour ago, Czar said:

Blurry and glitchy mess as end result when the servers are somewhat stressed during a major release or sale.

Works very well for me personally but I guess it’s not an option here. Hard drives will just have to get bigger and cheaper and they are…

[Esac_mirmidon]

Sorry for this but with all due respect, SSD or M2 drives 2TB-4TB, are the cheapest component for a computer. Buy a 4TB drive and enjoy all liveries at will.

[Rudel_chw]

52 minutes ago, Esac_mirmidon said:

Sorry for this but with all due respect, SSD or M2 drives 2TB-4TB, are the cheapest component for a computer. Buy a 4TB drive and enjoy all liveries at will.

 

Totally agree, most of the suggestions here will inconvenience those that have an appropiate amount of storage, in order to allow an unknown quantity of users to employ a smaller SSD drive. 

[Czar]

1 hour ago, SharpeXB said:

Works very well for me personally but I guess it’s not an option here. Hard drives will just have to get bigger and cheaper and they are…

They are and will continue to be even more cheaper per GB as time goes on. Agreed.

Relying on cloud is just another failure point that a proper optimization on assets can save the sim from having it.

Edited 10 hours ago by Czar

[SharpeXB]

On 8/18/2025 at 12:38 PM, celestHawk said:

Fallback System – If a client doesn’t have a specific livery, DCS should display the module’s default skin instead.

This is how DCS works already. But in many cases that default livery is bright metal. So it’s a bit of an exploit online being able to remove your opponents camouflage if they had selected that. 

[niru27]

1 hour ago, Esac_mirmidon said:

Sorry for this but with all due respect, SSD or M2 drives 2TB-4TB, are the cheapest component for a computer. Buy a 4TB drive and enjoy all liveries at will.

I don't know what your local costs are, but for me a 4TB NVMe costs more than 64GB 6000MHz DDR5 kit.

And I can't "enjoy" those liveries since I don't even own those modules, the only time I will ever see them is if I happen to spawn right next to them.

45 minutes ago, Rudel_chw said:

Totally agree, most of the suggestions here will inconvenience those that have an appropiate amount of storage, in order to allow an unknown quantity of users to employ a smaller SSD drive. 

Let's say ED puts all liveries into a "free downloadable liveries" module. You having to click one extra checkbox is an incovenience?

And to rid you of that great burden, everybody else have to buy bigger SSDs?

 

Don't you think people would rather use that money to upgrade to their RAM, than get a bigger SSD to store useless liveries only to accomodate your laziness?

Unless both of you have outdated specs in your signatures, it's funny that you think it's prudent to spend more on SSD than on RAM

[celestHawk]

2 hours ago, Esac_mirmidon said:

Sorry for this but with all due respect, SSD or M2 drives 2TB-4TB, are the cheapest component for a computer. Buy a 4TB drive and enjoy all liveries at will.

Fair enough, I even will agree and say that this is a viable point! However there is a point in ones life when a man just stops to justify not only spending money but also to make room or shift data between drives and a dedicated TB drive for DCS and EliteDangerous is far perfect and only 'money well spend' goes for content like Terrains, Modules and ARX. As you can see the specs of my setup and tanks haven is still runs the game, I already have enough SSDs in the workstation and seen no point to change any of them just because of the bloatware which has nothing with the core game.

Just to clarify - next update of DCS will force the updater to download every single CoreModule just to update the ones I'm using and have no reason to 'update' modules which I don't have installed - the updater.exe makes a file check before update and makes a list of missing files so it install theme, not update the available ones. Explaining that, the solution could be easy and even trivial as - check which modules are installed and then download delta for download. The 'update' makes it like new installation with every update - is literally checks where it was disconnected the installation previous time and continues from there. 

Earlier comments mentioned Cloud storage or on-line repos - nonsense! The issue I'm addressing is EXACTLY against overwhelming Eagle Dynamics servers every time there is an update - less modules, less updates, less bandwidth, shorter peaks on servers!  

[Czar]

You guys are blowing things out of proportion, I think. I still want optimization but:

• You don't need a 4tb drive to have all liveries installed at once.
• Liveries from modules you don't own are compressed.

What you guys do when you want a new map? Because those are coming 100gb +, which far outweighs all heavy module liveries you might not own atm (F-14, F-4 etc...).

28 minutes ago, celestHawk said:

next update of DCS will force the updater to download every single CoreModule just to update the ones I'm usingand have no reason to 'update' modules which I don't have installed - the updater.exe makes a file check before update and makes a list of missing files so it install theme, not update the available ones.

It will force a download of missing >core< files. The ones you need to have them in your mission as in; textures, meshes, sounds and weapons. The modules you don't have installed are not in your storage nor are downloaded in any shape, only its external visuals and weapons. 

Updates are done only on the modules you own and have currently installed. Example: I don't own Afghanistan, so it saved me a download of 85Gb on the last patch because of the new "normal maps" <-new textures thingy that makes "shadows" in 2d. Anything else that updates besides maps, are things that you'll need to see other units as intended. Liveries from module you don't own are compressed, while you still can delete them and go into multiplayer.

The check does not go through the internet. It doesn't consume any bandwidth. The file checks are done by DCS_Updater.exe offline after the .exe is updated on a new version, which afaik is the same executable responsible for downloading the whole sim too. It far exceeds in efficiency than other major launcher called Steam.

If it is about Steam, that's a complete another party and their file management on download and patching are beyond ridiculous in recent years.

Apologies if I misunderstood anything here in advance.

Edited 8 hours ago by Czar

[Rudel_chw]

1 hour ago, niru27 said:

Don't you think people would rather use that money to upgrade to their RAM, than get a bigger SSD to store useless liveries only to accomodate your laziness?

 

This theme of removing liveries to accomodate people with smaller storage cames up every few months, and its not laziness but rather I find that any such scheme will not really eliminate the cause of the problem, as a few extra GB will not solve much if your drive is too small.

On my DCS the biggest use of space come from the Maps, not CoreMods:

 

 

almost 1/3 storage space is used by my maps, 1/4 is on CoreMods, 1/5 on aircraft Modules. Even if all coremod liveries were removed, I would only recover around 1/6 of the space ... so, I don't find the effort truly worthwhile.

[celestHawk]

34 minutes ago, Czar said:

You guys are blowing things out of proportion, I think. I still want optimization but:

• You don't need a 4tb drive to have all liveries installed at once.
• Liveries from modules you don't own are compressed.

What you guys do when you want a new map? Because those are coming 100gb +, which far outweighs all heavy module liveries you might not own atm (F-14, F-4 etc...).

It will force a download of missing >core< files. The ones you need to have them in your mission as in; textures, meshes, sounds and weapons. The modules you don't have installed are not in your storage nor are downloaded in any shape, only its external visuals and weapons. 

Updates are done only on the modules you own and have currently installed. Example: I don't own Afghanistan, so it saved me a download of 85Gb on the last patch because of the new "normal maps" <-new textures thingy that makes "shadows" in 2d. Anything else that updates besides maps, are things that you'll need to see other units as intended. Liveries from module you don't own are compressed, while you still can delete them and go into multiplayer.

The check does not go through the internet. It doesn't consume any bandwidth. The file checks are done by DCS_Updater.exe offline after the .exe is updated on a new version, which afaik is the same executable responsible for downloading the whole sim too. It far exceeds in efficiency than other major launcher called Steam.

If it is about Steam, that's a complete another party and their file management on download and patching are beyond ridiculous in recent years.

Apologies if I misunderstood anything here in advance.

It is not about Steam, although I'm using it for the Xbox controller - Thank you Tuuvas.

Core files you say? So you need, I need to download 11 GB of Liveries for F-4 module I don't own, why? Never tried and even don't know how it looks, or the 14GB of Liveries from F-14 which I'll never use. Lets address the tens of Liveries for Mig-21 just because is a popular jet around the world or the tens of modifications for Mirage F1 and is even not a EagleD module. We still keep gigabytes of stuff from Razbam - M2000 and F-15E. Great some people still use it but why do I need it - there is a F-15E S4+ in the assets - works perfect for the purpose. 

Long story short I cleared - 110GB with unnecessary Liveries - every module left with one-two Liveries so it goes fallback when needed with the one I left that which saved thousands of files from SSD which are prone for failure just because you use them, another 4GB from Bazar's Liveries - could make more but starting from 10.4GB didn't worth my time. 

Now just for a moment try to guess after I saved so much space, would the updater.exe recover those files with the next update or just because is setup like that or it is required for the Core? Just recently I haven't own F-16 but is a core modulenull so I must update those files? 

"The ones you need to have them in your mission as in; textures, meshes, sounds and weapons" - is called 'optimization'.

3 minutes ago, Rudel_chw said:

 

This theme of removing liveries to accomodate people with smaller storage cames up every few months, and its not laziness but rather I find that any such scheme will not really eliminate the cause of the problem, as a few extra GB will not solve much if your drive is too small.

On my DCS the biggest use of space come from the Maps, not CoreMods:

 

 

almost 1/3 storage space is used by my maps, 1/4 is on CoreMods, 1/5 on aircraft Modules. Even if all coremod liveries were removed, I would only recover around 1/6 of the space ... so, I don't find the effort truly worthwhile.

Thank you for you time but is not about few gigs of storage is a hundreds of gigabytes of bandwidth every single update! In matter of fact the CoreModules are not the one you bought/own they are just...there, despite the ownership   

[Rudel_chw]

19 minutes ago, celestHawk said:

Thank you for you time but is not about few gigs of storage is a hundreds of gigabytes of bandwidth every single update! In matter of fact the CoreModules are not the one you bought/own they are just...there, despite the ownership   

 

I'm so glad that I don't have to purchase them, I get to employ them for free on my own missions as either enemy or allied AI aircrafts and assets.

[SharpeXB]

It’s a flight simulator. The liveries are just about the chief artwork in the game.

[niru27]

35 minutes ago, Rudel_chw said:

 

a few extra GB will not solve much if your drive is too small.

... so, I don't find the effort truly worthwhile.

Please refer to the thread title before sharing your opinion on "what is worth it" (for you).

The issue is about bloat: the liveries cause a noticeable increase in storage space while not adding any meaningful value.

FYI I have 2 separate installations of DCS (latest + older, more performant one with mods), so yeah it's not just about saving a few GBs, they add up and bloat the install. Don't forget they also consume extra VRAM when 4 jets next to you are using 4 different liveries. In the end, it has a net negative effect on everyone.