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.
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.
It will also use ALL your bandwidth by default. I can’t even watch a yt video or anything while doing a steam download unless I limit the bandwidth in settings.
What kind of router do you have? If it has any kind of “smart queue” or “smart qos” you could try enabling that and it will de-prioritize steam’s packets (as needed) so that web browsing and voip still work.
Awesome thank you for the tip. I’m not too well versed in networking so I never really dig around in my router settings. I’m just using the Modem/router supplied by the ISP right now and it doesn’t look like it has anything like that from a quick look through the config page.
Ahh yeah the provided router might not have some of the more advanced features. But suffice to say this isn’t so much a steam problem as it is a “how computer networks work” problem. The way routers work by default tends to penalize “bursty” traffic like loading websites/gaming/voice and prioritize sustained traffic like your download, so it’s nice that valve provide the option to limit the bandwidth. I’m on satellite internet right now waiting for verizon to finish their fiber install and I can’t even use that reliably because my bandwidth changes constantly D=
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.
I don’t know any that take a long time to unpack from developers. They do have to pre-compile shaders, but that’s different. Maybe I just don’t pay enough attention, or maybe it’s just because I don’t play many big budget games.
Here’s a made up example. Suppose you have a choice between compressing a game:
to 10 GiB, and it takes 2min to unpack it in a certain machine
to 3 GiB, and it takes 8min to unpack it in a certain machine
The download size difference of 7 GiB only costs me another 60-80s to download as long as the Steam servers are serving well. So funny enough the first option would be better for me.
A lot of devs stopped giving a flying fuck to disk space and performance a long time ago. “32GB of RAM and 500GB of disk space? Don’t mind if I do!” - for a pixel art 2D platformer
The downside of the compression is the install can take way longer than the download. But if you’re on a slower connection the smaller download would be a big benefit.
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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.
I hope you aren’t literally still using an actual HDD.
Not for games, usually, but it still has its uses, so why not
Is this why steam is so insanely slow to download games.
Could be a variety of things but yes. It also depends on the game and how compressible it’s assets are.
It will also use ALL your bandwidth by default. I can’t even watch a yt video or anything while doing a steam download unless I limit the bandwidth in settings.
What kind of router do you have? If it has any kind of “smart queue” or “smart qos” you could try enabling that and it will de-prioritize steam’s packets (as needed) so that web browsing and voip still work.
Awesome thank you for the tip. I’m not too well versed in networking so I never really dig around in my router settings. I’m just using the Modem/router supplied by the ISP right now and it doesn’t look like it has anything like that from a quick look through the config page.
Ahh yeah the provided router might not have some of the more advanced features. But suffice to say this isn’t so much a steam problem as it is a “how computer networks work” problem. The way routers work by default tends to penalize “bursty” traffic like loading websites/gaming/voice and prioritize sustained traffic like your download, so it’s nice that valve provide the option to limit the bandwidth. I’m on satellite internet right now waiting for verizon to finish their fiber install and I can’t even use that reliably because my bandwidth changes constantly D=
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.
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I don’t know any that take a long time to unpack from developers. They do have to pre-compile shaders, but that’s different. Maybe I just don’t pay enough attention, or maybe it’s just because I don’t play many big budget games.
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I did play EU5 (and 4 ages ago) and didn’t notice the issue. I guess I just don’t pay attention to it.
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The download size difference of 7 GiB only costs me another 60-80s to download as long as the Steam servers are serving well. So funny enough the first option would be better for me.
No it’s making a choice. Faster decompress times. Considering a lot of their customers have fast speeds it doesn’t really matter.
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A lot of devs stopped giving a flying fuck to disk space and performance a long time ago. “32GB of RAM and 500GB of disk space? Don’t mind if I do!” - for a pixel art 2D platformer
It’s so infuriating I’ve either got 3 brand new games or 30 older games installed on to my device.
Even mobile gaming is getting out of hand
The downside of the compression is the install can take way longer than the download. But if you’re on a slower connection the smaller download would be a big benefit.