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Note plenty FitGirl repacks are lossless; as in, she isn't taking less important files out of the game, she's compressing it better. 90GB→35GB seems accurate; you often see ~1/3 of the original size, like this. And it shows plenty game devs
And then those same developers get amazed at the fact FitGirl is so popular. "Maybe we're doing something wrong? ...nah."
It's more likely that the devs are not being given the time or resources to do this kind of thing properly. Their bosses are too concerned with what will save money and generate shareholder value.
Fair point. I guess it would be more accurate to say "development studios" (you know, the organisation... including the bloody boss) instead of "game devs".
I wouldn't really say that. The kind of extreme compression Fitgirl does comes with the tradeoff of really long decompression times. Depending on which games, nearly 45 minutes (with a 7800x3D)
Some games lack compression but I would not want those long install times by default, if you have a speedy internet connection they usually take longer to install than to download. Don't get me wrong, for people with really slow internet those repacks are a godsend but they are not "better" on every aspect.
Steam gets around this problem by doing the decompressing on the fly as you download. Go check out your CPU usage next time you install a game.
Edit: I think this is also why it defaults to not downloading while you game. Steam doesn't want you to have a bad experience from the decompression.
More like check your hdd. Steam goes like this for me download, download, download, pause downloading to extract and smash my hdd, download, download, downloand.
Yeah I think it ends up waiting for slower storage if your cpu or HDD are too slow. I experience that with slower sdcards on the Deck.
But on a decent NVMe with a balanced CPU the download and disk are full bore and the CPU usage goes really high.
Ahh yeah this could be. My system isn't by any means crazy but it is modern. A tuned 5600x (draws about 115W at full load) and an nvme 3.0 ssd. I'm being bottlenecked by internet bandwidth at the moment.
The thing about compression is you have to process it to decompress it. It may be benificial to people with limited bandwidth, or for peer-to-peer sharing, but it's probably better for most users for someone like Valve to share the uncompressed version. Bandwidth isn't the issue it used to be.
It also makes progressive updates harder. The best you can do is compress each update individually, not the whole package.
it's consistent, quick, and dependable. There's no reason to use anything else. I get the original purpose was for people in countries with slow internet connections but now everyone just uses it.
Which is kinda positive because that mean faster torrents
It's harder to use on Linux, and lower-performance devices. I would prefer prefer having dumps of the pre-installed game folder to use on a steam deck, for example.
I use it all the time on linux, what problems did you have?
What's your process for running the unpacker executable? Maybe it depends on the game, but I set up a wineprefix through Lutris and always seem to run into issues getting it to complete properly without any unpacking errors.
For the setup:
Final Edit: The wine prefix is the same for the games and the installer, just a windows subsystem that has all the dependencies.
First I install the wine-cachyos package, create a WINEPREFIX variable for the folder i want to put the prefix in, then i run winecfg to start the prefix, then I install the dotnet packages and vcredist packages through (before, when the repos existed) these links for the vcredist and dotnet (maybe archive.org or somewhere else still have the executables), or using winecfg too, but these are nicer to use as they install everything in one go.
Then I install the dxvk and vkd3d (you can install through lutris, so this is kinda useless hahaha).
Then I run the fitgirl repack through lutris and click to install the vcredist or .net when asked.
Then I just run the game with a runner or wine-cachyos.
I'll update this with valid links when I find them.
Edit: last time I used this and this, installing just the .net runtimes, not directx, java, silverlight, etc.
I mainly had trouble on the steam deck, in the early days. Most people recommended unpacking on a windows PC and transferring the files back then. It might be easier now, but it is more trouble than a game dump.
You're missing the point. The other user is highlighting why your typical player would go with those repacks. And, well, your typical player doesn't use Linux (...yet - Microsoft is fixing this real fast.)
(I typically use johncena141, but I don't recall having problems with FitGirl.)
As someone trying to move to Linux this year, what issues are there? I've heard this before, but I never see an explanation on what makes it difficult.
Proton can handle the game files but not the installer. So you have to install in wine and it's a hassle. I install the games on my windows pc, zip them and then transfer them to my deck.
Since Fitgirl's installer just unpacks stuff, I just use the same prefix for all installers. Protontricks/wine lets you specify a path in the Z:/ drive as well (the linux base system), so no need to move stuff.
I even made a dummy exe file that does nothing and added that as a non steam game that works as a catch-all prefix for whatever I need to run without adding it as a non steam game first.
They seem to work fine for me on Linux? Only thing is that stupid isdone.dll error but that's easily fixed using a different runner
If you can afford it
Might be a better option, or least send the devs some support while using repacks. It's sort of like a thrift store when you find something you really wanted maybe a game you didn't even know of, and it means a lot more because it feels like finding a treasure.
I actually didn't know that the whole point of fitgirl was for compression, I've been blessed with massive hard drives. I think I took my 4tb ssd for granted. Not everyone has even an extra $5 .
It probably has the same deals as your website, but I use https://gg.deals/. It shows keyshops with the various risks that might be associated with them, too
I actually didn’t know that the whole point of fitgirl was for compression
The whole point of view of the article is about people from countries that can't afford the modern AAA price, internet bandwidth... and even PC capable to run the game decently (AAA the full price always take in account hardware that runs on "Ultra settings"; not the customers running it at very low).
As aside note, piracy isn't even about piracy itself anymore: someone who buy an AAA videogame on "exclusivity store" (such as Epic)... soon or later will discover that's easier to store a fitgirl copy of his purchase to run the same game seamelessly across all the PC in their household (good old: Install > Next > Next > Finish) ... rather having set up those 2+3 launcher per PC.
The repacker* is great but there’s also ElAmigos and DODI.
They crack, she repacks
They crack, she repacks
This is just not true. Both DODI and ElAmigos are Repackers.
I only use DODI when there is no Fitgirl release. DODI torrents are always behind spam/scam link gates and the installer is horrible. In the DODI installer to start it for some reason you have to press the up arrow or something. Just... why? It's like he saw that feature on his phone lock screen and decided to add it without asking himself what purpose it serves. The installer is also totally broken if you have changed windows scaling so every time I want to use it I have to go into the properties and disable scaling.
Ah, alright alright
DODI torrents are always behind spam/scam link gates
There’s a bypass script for this and should be on the DB0 megathread list (or at least in the PiratedGames megathread).
and the installer is horrible. In the DODI installer to start it for some reason you have to press the up arrow or something. Just... why?
Honestly, I never found this to be an issue. But can understand it could be a bit annoying.
Yesterday I tried to mod persona 4 golden on Linux. After a couple hours of headaches and some help from the developer, I finally managed to fix the problem and launch persona aaaaand denuvo shut it down.
Denuvo literally shut down my legal version of P4G because I used one too many versions of proton. This is why I support fitgirl
Same thing happened to me with Street fighter 6. I was just trying to get it to run and kept switching proton versions and it got locked.
i'm surprised, i just thought if you couldn't afford a game these days you waited till it was 90% off on steam
I thought there was something like patient gamers who only played games a year after release or something like this but I can't find it
!patientgamers@sh.itjust.works
Steam doesn’t release every game in every market, do they?
That's me, I have a MASSIVE wait-list on Isthereanydeal.com and buy most games at strong $5, including triple A games, assuming I haven't already gotten them for free from Epic, Amazon or Good Ole Games.
However, if I know it's NEVER going to go down or it's from Nintendo, torrents all the way.
Still is more than a dollar so would rather play first and pay later when I'm not having to go to the food bank.
I used to, but steam is based in a banana republic where I don't want to send a single avoidable cent anymore. I stopped buying anything from steam months ago. Haven't gotten a new game since, but I will look into gog, who are based in Europe if I am not mistaken.
!patientgamers@sh.itjust.works
I was checking this year and most of the things I want from a few years ago are still at 50%. But I don't have enough time to play everything so I won't likely pirate new stuff even though I very much know how to do so safely.
Hell, new games aren't even competing with just each other- I've had a blast playing a lot of PS2 and PSP this year. When you don't give in to hype and peer pressure, you've got near limitless options for entertainment.
God bless Fitgirl
I've had a lot less of a desire to pirate games after moving to Linux full time a few years ago. But FitGirl has been the one reliable place for public torrents, compaed to chancing it on the third Google Link or scrolling through the Russian CS-Rin-Rulette forum to find links.
I have zero trust installing pirated software, especially when they go out of their way to break it when using wine on Linux or running it in a vm.
They don't go out of their way to break it, they just don't pay attention to it (yet). There was an interesting interview here a few months ago: https://lemmy.world/post/32441387
Folks here are like "everyone uses it. Eventually all gamers realize it's better"
Me, having never even heard of this in my 30 years of gaming: 🫣
