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]

I'd be interested to know this too. Pretty sure I dont want 22gb of crap sitting on an SSD when it could be more games and/or content etc.

 

[Gringo]

A better question is... who has the largest rF2 workshop folder. Mine is 64 GB!

 

[WCR-jv27]

As far as i know, this stuff never leaves. The workshop will always want to "sync" it again. European Truck Simulator 2 (i know....try it....you will love it.) does the same thing. Better yet, they want 100gb of mods in the Documents folder. lol.

 

[Jens Roos]

This is as mention not behavior of rF2, it's how workshop function within Steam.
It's safe to delete any files in "..\rFactor 2\Packages" if you like to.

My own solution is to make a virtual link of the workshop folder to another hard drive, here you can use any low cost hdd as performance have no game impact, only accessed with workshop packages.

Example:
mklink /j "D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\365960" "G:\Data\mklink\365960"
(link is permanent created, but you need to move the files manually first)

This put all rF2 workshop items on another drive in the mklink folder, new and deleted content will of course be handled directly on the linked folder.

Steam folder:

The other drive:

Btw, my workshop folder is currently only 63GB

 

[Denis Betty]

Ok, I will start by saying that I know nothing about stuff like this, so this is probably gonna make you all laugh. BUT, would it be possible to make an empty file in Notepad and name it XXX.rfcmp (insert the name of one real .rfcmp file) and replace the huge file with a tiny little impostor?

Yeah ok, some people say that there are no stupid questions - I think they wanna think again.

 

[Ho3n3r]

Ok, I will start by saying that I know nothing about stuff like this, so this is probably gonna make you all laugh. BUT, would it be possible to make an empty file in Notepad and name it XXX.rfcmp (insert the name of one real .rfcmp file) and replace the huge file with a tiny little impostor?

Yeah ok, some people say that there are no stupid questions - I think they wanna think again.

If it's in the Packages folder, you can go ahead and delete it if you've already installed it in-game.

I have a folder where I download mods to on another drive, and then copy/paste them into packages, install them and then delete them out of the Packages folder.

 

[Denis Betty]

Hmmm, but the more stuff you have installed, the longer rF2 takes to complete the synch with Steam (I forget the name), correct?

 

[balage06]

F***in hell, mine is 71.5 GB. I was thinking about cleaning up my workshop items anyway.

 

[Lafrente]

This is as mention not behavior of rF2, it's how workshop function within Steam.
It's safe to delete any files in "..\rFactor 2\Packages" if you like to.

My own solution is to make a virtual link of the workshop folder to another hard drive, here you can use any low cost hdd as performance have no game impact, only accessed with workshop packages.

I already deleted the packages folder long ago, though the game actually should auto-delete it after installation.

I'd not blame Steam for a feature it offers to the devs. How devs use that feature is the problem. My AC folder never had a 20gb (or 70gb for some) zip folder taking up my space. And it updated for years and years without any issues. As a dev you'd find a proper way to use these features IF you care about your users. I wonder how many thousands of terabytes of valuable space rf2 is taking in total right now in every computer its installed on. Its just ridiculous.

 

[Marcel Offermans]

Steam keeps a copy of every workshop item you subscribe to by design. As long as you're subscribed to something, it will be there. It's how the system is designed. Most people don't care, the convenience of simply subscribing to what you want and not having to worry about manual installation or updates outweighs the extra disk space needed.

If that bothers you, we've written a document that explains how you can manually manage your rFactor 2 installation. I would not recommend people to do this, because it usually means doing more work yourself, but we documented the process anyway:

In full control! Managing your Steam install manually. - Users Guide

 

[Lafrente]

Steam keeps a copy of every workshop item you subscribe to by design. As long as you're subscribed to something, it will be there. It's how the system is designed. Most people don't care, the convenience of simply subscribing to what you want and not having to worry about manual installation or updates outweighs the extra disk space needed.

If that bothers you, we've written a document that explains how you can manually manage your rFactor 2 installation. I would not recommend people to do this, because it usually means doing more work yourself, but we documented the process anyway:

In full control! Managing your Steam install manually. - Users Guide

I've had AC for years, it updated silently and properly without having to have 70gb of zipped files in my steam folder. Also, quite a big part of the content are in their final versions. There's zero reason to keep them in that folder. This way to manage content is just not right and not good.

Another surprising issue is I delete that folder, and when I run rf2 it deletes all my installed content, why? Because I deleted the zip files that it doesn't even need! If it would just let them be I'd have all the content and my space back.

 

[Marcel Offermans]

AC does not use the workshop as a unified way of installing content. I understand your problem with how the workshop works, but we can't change that. We'd have to convince Valve to change its behaviour in Steam. I'm personally not holding my breath for that.

So if you are bothered by this, don't use the workshop. Maintain your installation manually. You have that option.

 

[Lafrente]

AC does not use the workshop as a unified way of installing content. I understand your problem with how the workshop works, but we can't change that. We'd have to convince Valve to change its behaviour in Steam. I'm personally not holding my breath for that.

So if you are bothered by this, don't use the workshop. Maintain your installation manually. You have that option.

Is this the right way to do it? Move the "installed" folder somewhere else, unsub from every item on the workshop, delete the workshop zip folder, move "installed" folder back in rf2 root? Don't wanna dl 22 gb of stuff for a second time. (70gb for some)

 

[Marcel Offermans]

Not quite. I'll explain. If some content is put in the "installed" folder from the workshop, that item is marked as being installed via the workshop. This tells rF2 that it can manage the item and if you unsubscribe from it it will uninstall the item.

So what you need to do is manually install the rfcmp files you want and then delete them. That marks them as "user installed" and rF2 won't touch them anymore.

If you have not unsubscribed from all workshop items yet, you can point your explorer to the root of the workshop, search for rfcmp (and rfmod) files, copy all of those to your rF2/Packages folder, install everything from there, then delete them from Packages and unsubscribe from all workshop items.

If you already have done that, manually download the workshop items you want (into the Packages folder) and install from there... you get the picture.

 

[Pawgy]

Rfactor 2 has the most screwed up instal and delete system of any of my major game. I do not try anymore to figure it out .I just delete.

 

[Case_]

If you're on an SSD and want more space, moving the folder to a different drive and just symlinking it back is probably the best option (as already described above).

And yes, it sucks Steam Workshop works like this. It's good to think about what you subscribe to for this reason alone. rF2 takes over 150GB of space for me for this very reason.

 

[Kjell Nielsen]

-

 

[avenger82]

AC does not use the workshop as a unified way of installing content. I understand your problem with how the workshop works, but we can't change that. We'd have to convince Valve to change its behaviour in Steam. I'm personally not holding my breath for that.

So if you are bothered by this, don't use the workshop. Maintain your installation manually. You have that option.

Or if someone just want to save SSD space, then workshop packages can be moved to low cost HDD, like others explained:

My own solution is to make a virtual link of the workshop folder to another hard drive, here you can use any low cost hdd as performance have no game impact, only accessed with workshop packages.

Example:
mklink /j "D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\365960" "G:\Data\mklink\365960"

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.

 

[Kenneth Jurmann]

Guys, ever checked your replay folder? lol.