Steam streamlines updates and downloads with new content delivery system

by Jessica Conditt on Jul 16th 2011 6:00PM

Steam is cleaning the gunk out of its gears with a new content delivery system, upgrading its download rates and streamlining its publishing process. The new system boasts a larger aggregate bandwidth, meaning Steam will be able to more easily cater to large demands worldwide, and an HTTP delivery system.

Updates are getting tuned up in a big way -- instead of re-downloading an entire file to install one update, the new system will only download the changes made to the file, because that's what an update means. It will also be possible to update to a game while playing it.

Valve has written new tools for developers and publishers to simplify their behind-the-scenes processes and ship products faster, promising that publisher-side updates will also be streamlined, which is something EA in particular has been quietly vocal about changing. The new system will be applied to "more and more" content over time, beginning "soon" with the release of Dota 2 later this year. You can try it out now by downloading an HD trailer from the Steam Store.

Via: VG24/7
Source: Steam

Tags: dota-2, mac, pc, STEAM, update, update-upgrade, upgrade, valve

Reader Comments (57)

Sounds...

sensible.

Sounds fantastic. Let's hope they execute as well.

If Origin can't compete with 2Mb/s downloads, then they lose out of the starting gate.

@Kirkpad
You know, it's funny, PC gaming is starting to really take off again. More Indie developers are focusing on simple, fun games that they can distribute themselves and major publishers have heard the large outcry of a dedicated community (Ubisoft, Activision for example) and responded with big promises and some good results (no more excessive DRM and dedicated servers to name a few). It seems Origin is just now trying to get into the market whereas Steam stuck with us through thick and thin. I'm not necessarily saying Steam doesn't need competition, but I think I'll always have more loyalty towards Steam, mostly because of its age and enduring service.
Anyway, hopefully both systems can coexist and, more importantly, revitalize PC gaming to its former status.

@Kirkpad

They already do provide that >.>

Granted, they don't have near the load that steam does.

@Special Agent Steve

PC gaming isn't taking off... PC gaming DISTRIBUTIONS are... There are still dozens of games that come out on consoles that never make it to PC. The one or two time it gets any lead in platform the PC crowd wont shut up about it.

PC gaming used to be king when it was known that it was the platform of choice then ported over to consoles.

@PR0F3TA

Can you name a dozen? Because I can't.

Besides the obvious last few Halo games, the Gears of Wars sequels, Uncharted, and Metal Gear Solid, and those games are not even console agnostic, most games nowadays are multiplatform.

@Sphen Red Dead Redemption, all console exclusives, Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy 13, Demon Souls/Dark Souls, there's lots heck. I just tried to name some of the bigger names.

@PR0F3TA
Hm, guess I should have said taking off in a different way. I mean, look at the success of Minecraft- that's a game that garnered a ton of money because of its independent distribution method (and no DRM). It probably would've been pretty successful had it been an Xbox arcade or PSN game, but I don't think it would've jump started Mojang studios like it did on the PC.
Anyway, that's just my two cents. I think PC gaming is getting better (slowly), and I may be a bit optimistic but I honestly hope that it becomes a more competitive platform (and option) against 360 and PS3 (...and Wii?).

@PR0F3TA Oh yeah? How about console gamers that don't shut up about getting PC exclusives like The Witcher 2 (they got it), Diablo III, Starcraft II, TorchLight (they got it), etc?

The PC has plenty of exclusives, the only problem is that they lack the marketing and popularity that console exclusives like the Uncharted and Gears of War series has. Most console gamers have never heard of them. The PC has no shortage of games.

I'm also hoping the PC can rise again, and it may. I believe especially if these current consoles are going to sadly, stick around for longer than they should, the devs will finally get tired of the outdated hardware and actually make games for the PC first and port them down to the consoles, not vice versa.

@nerdydesi1 -

I say this as someone that recently spent a considerable amount of money to get his rig ready for Battlefield 3; PC gaming isn't what it once was, but that's okay.

Two free to play players on the screenshot!

@Pipera One douchewagon elitist on the comment thread!

Actually, looks like a late beta screenshot when the Engineer had a heavy 5 o'clock shadow.

Update a game while playing it? If you had told me that 10 years ago I would have sh*% myself.

If any of this will in any way stop Steam's unwillingness to see a 9 million gigglebyte TF2 update to completion... then I will be happy. All that manual pausing/resuming really annoys the piss out of me.

@darkinchworm

gigglebyte? :P

@Jet Grind Radio
That's what they go by these days, don't you know? Word has it Microsoft execs commonly use the term when referencing their overpriced Xbox 360 hard drives.

@darkinchworm

That's pretty much exactly what this update aims to fix.

@liquidsoap89
I would hope so. When attempting to start Magicka the other day, I was given some error message indicating that servers could not be reached, which I thought was *probably* bologna given that just about every other Steam function was functioning. I figured, hey, maybe if I bully these CSS and TF2 updates into finishing, things will magically work. One at a time, I managed to force them to download, then I was able to start Magicka... or so I thought. That's when Steam suddenly realized Magicka needed an update! And after that, the game finally comes up...

...only for me to discover my system is too shitty to run it.

/coolstorybro

When StarGate: Resistance was running, it never updated just the game.

When an update was released, they reuploaded the game to the Steam servers, and the update went out.

It redownloaded THE ENTIRE GAME. Every time StarGate: Resistance was updated, here's a 1.6GB download. Seriously, you updated some models, maybe a few audio files, and I have to redownload the whole damn game?

You could get just the patch via the company's website if you wanted to apply it manually. But updated thru Steam? You have to wait for the whole thing to download.

It is alot quicker.

Steam continues to be an amazing service.

Is this why downloading Witcher 2 the other day was getting like 80 kb/s?
The Steam servers were like, dead, an update would explain it I guess.

@MrPistachio

No I think the slow updates were because the servers were getting hammered during the sale. I noticed all the games I had purchased were installing horribly slow, and any updates to old games were the same story.

It all seems to be fixed now, minus a few bugs in the actual steam store everything looks back to normal.

@MrPistachio
The summer sale was on, hundreds of thousands of people trying to download the games they just bought.

@MrPistachio

4-5 days ago CnC3 was maxing around 80kb/s for me. I paused it after a few hours. Last night/today it was magically getting 155kb/s max.

Steam was probably just overloaded.

Sounds like a response to the Witcher 2 patch fiasco. Who here likes to download a 9 GB patch?

@Ramen of Doom

Reminds me of all the horrific "updates/patches" that Gran Turismo 5 had (has?) been getting. Easily 1-2 gb each time but yet the amount of content in each update didn't seem like enough to warrant the size. One reason why I got rid of the game....

@Jonbo298
I would have played my housemate's copy, but when I try to play it for the first time, it installs; and then begins a 3-4 hour updating process that takes complete control of my PS3 away from me.

Housemate had the right idea by never connecting his console to the internet..

This is why nobody can compete with Steam on digital download distributions. Steam doesn't just think of sales and deals. They think of what is best for the customer.

Updating and patching games and updating Steam to make it the most user friendly gaming platform in history.

Hopefully this is the change EA wanted so that Battlefield 3 would be viable for Steam. That is what they cited previously, something about how Steam doesn't implement updates the way they want.

@Alphonze

I think EA was just trying to find an excuse, much like pretending that Origin isn't meant to compete with Steam.

@Alphonze Honestly, I don't think we'll known anything regarding the Steam vs. EA debacle until Origin is buried in its box next to Impulse. Excuse me, GAMESTOP Impulse.

@Alphonze

Origin doesn't implement updates at all so I doubt that was EA's real reason, probably just fluff. I mean, I find it ridiculous that for Shift 2 for example; if I download the game from Origin, I must manually go find the NFS website, download the patch (which there are three versions of the same patch-3rd party, Origin, and DVD) then install it on my own. I would rather deal with steam downloading half the game again than that BS.

I'm not too sure about the whole "update while you play" sorta thing. That just sounds glitchy. I've never known a program ever that you could alter it's running code as it is being executed and not have it explode and crash.

That right there, if they could pull it off, would be huge. Not having to reboot a computer to apply updates, not having to restart browsers to add add-ons, being able to mod games in-game. I don't think it's possible, but if they manage a way, wow.

@Lekko
Looks like you misunderstood what they meant. It's not "update while you play", it's "download while you play". Nothing gets updated until you've closed the game. It just downloads the files and lets them sit there until you're not playing.

@Lekko
I think the article is a little misleading. Here's a quote from the original Steam News post.

"You’ll also be able to download an update to a game while you’re playing that game; Steam will apply the update after you exit the game. "
http://store.steampowered.com/news/5856/

@ArcticPlumber

I hope they treat it like Microsoft does with XBL, they pause while playing an online game. Otherwise everything you join will have one or more people causing lag.

@ArcticPlumber Ah, well that's what I thought they meant. Thanks for letting me know.

The summer sale earlier this month would have been handy.

@vo98fd9sa die

Hm. I wonder if Valve has considered switching over to a P2P update system. Works for Blizzard, and it seems like it would save a lot of their bandwidth.

@Shockz It may save Valve's bandwidth, but it doesn't save the customer's bandwidth. With more and more ISPs setting monthly bandwidth limits, the uploading that comes with a P2P distribution model also counts towards that bandwidth. Also, Blizzard still does most of their downloads/updates via a HTTP downloader, and you can turn off the P2P alltogether and still get 1-2 MBp/s down.

Some ISP's severely limit, or even block P2P traffic.

Going P2P only for the updates would be a bad idea.

Faster hat downloads.

The only reason PC gaming is taking off is because of the mobile smartphone gaming reshaping the industry and eventually expect Steam to create 'Steam mobile' that way they can distribute games anywhere anytime through Steam, heck while we're at it eventually where going to see more of what steam did with portal 2 on ps3 which is double distribution, buy the game on the console and get the mobile or pc version free.

@type2red Uh...no.

But I do expect how console gaming has negatively affected PC gaming and "dumbing" it down, the same will happen with mobile gaming to console gaming, or at least portable gaming.

@type2red You think PC gaming is taking off because people are buying games in the hopes that games like portal 2 will be released for a phone and they'll then get it for free if they already have it. That doesn't make sense. At all. Please stop.

"Steam is cleaning the gunk out of its Valves with a new content delivery system"

Fixed

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Dota 2

Steam streamlines updates and downloads with new content delivery system

Reader Comments (57)

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:11PM Qehb said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:13PM gordogg24p said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:16PM Kirkpad said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:24PM Special Agent Steve said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:28PM Alphonze said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:38PM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:56PM Sphen said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 7:34PM Dcmac said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 7:43PM Special Agent Steve said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 8:28PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 10:04PM BananaBoat said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:20PM Pipera said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 9:19PM Lance001 said

Posted: Jul 17th 2011 2:33AM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:22PM BaronVonSachsen said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:27PM darkinchworm said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:29PM Jet Grind Radio said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:47PM darkinchworm said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:48PM liquidsoap89 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:54PM darkinchworm said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 10:36PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:28PM Jet Grind Radio said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:29PM SisypheanLife said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:31PM MrPistachio said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:50PM liquidsoap89 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:57PM Reapers said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 7:59PM sonicspike41 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:31PM Ramen of Doom said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 7:12PM Jonbo298 said

Posted: Jul 22nd 2011 12:13PM Haggard said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 6:44PM Slomoshun said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 7:03PM Alphonze said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 7:56PM SisypheanLife said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 8:20PM Gibbeynator said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 11:15PM deftonesmx17 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 7:52PM Lekko said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 8:11PM PointlessPuppies said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 8:14PM ArcticPlumber said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 11:18PM deftonesmx17 said

Posted: Jul 17th 2011 4:07AM Lekko said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 8:15PM ColorblindMonk said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 8:34PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 9:11PM Shockz said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 11:44PM Dangerskew said

Posted: Jul 17th 2011 1:17AM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 9:38PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 9:47PM type2red said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 10:00PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 11:32PM blackangel209 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 11:01PM KaCeX said

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