Steam 2.2 gig ?

Hello, can someone please explain to me why steam makes a 200meg dl a 2.2 gig download? I am just trying to understand and maybe fix it?

 

Its always been that way - fix: use the launcher rather than the steam client

 

Just use the stand alone installer. It’s just so much more efficient.

Ever since I switched to that, never used steam again (except to play other games of course).

 

Steam doesn't patch files it downloads the new version of the patched file so there could be a small change to a large file hence the larger download size. SotA has about 10 files that are within the range of 200-400mb, if each contain a small patch that's 2.5gb right there.

 

ty all for your input

 

Is it too much to ask for Port to confirm that?

 

This is not how it works. This has been stated here multiple times and now I just have to answer

Steam definitely supports "delta patching", meaning it can only patch files, that changed. This works very nicely with other games I play frequently. Its Port that has not done their part of the job.
Infact, Steam splits files in 1MB chunks and then checks if anything has changed in any chunk, then it takes that 1MB and packs it to the patch. This requires some thought from the dev, to really get the full power from it, but don't blame Steam.

Games that I now play are, for example:
Smite (17GB with updates bi-weekly minimum)
- Last patch, 6,5Mb

Natural Selection 2 (11GB)
- Last patch, 19.7Mb

Rainbow Six siege (71GB updates often )
- Last patch, 87,5Mb

Aaaaand Sota (~9Gb )
- Last patch, 2.2Gb

Its not the Steam, its the developers.

I actually could not care less about few gig downloads, I have 750/200 network and It takes few minutes from steam ( getting about 70MB/s ).

 

That's interesting to learn, though it is how Steam deploys SotA files and not something the user can configure which was the question. I guess the overhead of managing the delta patching on Steam wasn't worth the time when the SotA launcher already exists.

Do you know if it's something that can be added retroactively or does it require pre-planning at the beginning of a game's development?

 

I have no first hand experience on this topic, but I have read steamworks docs etc.
It can be added at anystage, because Steam already tries to do it. Its not programming or anything, its more about configuring your project to support it. I can't say if its easy or not, but is it doable? Yes

Found a nice blog by Jonathan Blow, who did changes to his project, to get more out of steam patching system, he had a huge zip file and he could swipe quite a lot from the patch size.
http://the-witness.net/news/2012/08/fun-with-package-sorting/