Random Preload Info from Gabe

[Tyrsenus]

Right now we have about 60 Steam content servers running around the world. They are throttled to 100 Mbps, but can handle ~800 Mbps if necessary.

In terms of network bandwidth, we're currently running at 4 Gbps, and will boost to 7 Gbps when we start pre-loading. We have the option of increasing that to 14 Gbps with a phone call (admittedly a really expensive phone call).

Since Half-Life 2 is ~2 GB (or 16 Gb) over the wire, we can serve up about a person/second with a complete copy of the game. These are idealized numbers - the real capacity planning numbers are quite a bit lower.

So pre-loading is a good thing, being able to play before you have a complete copy of the game is a good thing, and having buckets and buckets of bandwidth is a good thing. It's interesting that videogames in addition to being a larger aggregate audience than almost any TV show (and a lot of countries total Internet traffic) are also now becoming one of the largest consumers of bandwidth on the net.

I'm curious if people know of other single applications consuming more than 10 Gbps.

The Post

 

[FoxDie]

Gabe has been posting up all kinds of stuff over at HL2 Fallout the past week...I'm jealous ;(

Nice find though :thumbs:

 

[Tork]

Gabe is so cool, Valve is the most friendliest and coolest developer out there next to Epic games. GO GABE!!! and thanks for the info.

 

[Tyrsenus]

Gabe has been posting up all kinds of stuff over at HL2 Fallout the past week...I'm jealous

I wonder why he finds fallout so appealing? Maybe he just wants to make another forum besides halflife2.net popular.

 

[ManHacks]

good news, they are really prepared for this. About Gabe, i would like him to post here too, we didnt say anything to affend him did we?

 

[Ames]

I don't really care if Gabe posts on the HL2-Fallout forums. So what?

As long as we get information from him, I'm happy.

 

[Platinum]

WHY WONT HE TELL US WHEN ITS TEH GOLD??? ... just kidding

thx

 

[blahblahblah]

Thanks for posting this info. :thumbs:

 

[Tork]

I think gabe is posting there cause there are so many people here already, it wouldnt be fair for the other sites trying to grow their user base, so good for him. It makes no difference though really since we always get the information one way or another. Plus there are just too many people here again and could you imagine the post count on a post gabe would make ? it would never stop lol. Other then that we have greg and a few others from valve i think that post screenshots and what not, so its all good.

 

[Chris D]

Great info

 

[Sushi]

I don't really care if Gabe posts on the HL2-Fallout forums. So what?

As long as we get information from him, I'm happy.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Dougy]

I think its good becuase when he did post here his threads got spammed so badly with all kinds of crap, people asking him for sex to people asking if he can give them a free copy.

at least at that other forum theres only maybe 30-40 posts about his post and not the rapidly growing thread sysndrome we get here.

ie.. you ask a question and come back 5 minutes later and theres 2 pages of answers from people all writing the same thing at the same time.

 

[Vegeta897]

Since Half-Life 2 is ~2 GB (or 16 Gb) over the wire...

What exactly does he mean by that?

And thankyou Gabe for keeping us updated. Your awesomeness never stops amazing me.

 

[kaellinn18]

2 Gigabytes = 2 * 8 Gigabits = 16 Gigabits

 

[Vegeta897]

2 Gigabytes = 2 * 8 Gigabits = 16 Gigabits

Ahhh I didn't notice the little b. Thanks!

Speaking of.. Isn't there a forum member named 'Little B' on here? Heh.

 

[Mr. Redundant]

great scott! thats like a gajillion gigawatts!

 

[BigNamek]

Hopefully there will be enough bandwidth for too download the game at my top speed. It would take roughly 100 minutes on my 3MB connection.

BigNamek...

 

[Vegeta897]

great scott! thats like a gajillion gigawatts!

You mean jigawatts.

 

[Cabb]

It's spelt with a 'g' like all the other gigs isn't it?

 

[Vegeta897]

It's spelt with a 'g' like all the other gigs isn't it?

He was referring to the movie Back to the Future. And in that they pronounce it "Jigawatt"

Marty: "What the hell's a jiggawatt!?"

Good times. Love that movie.

 

[Spiffae]

if you bookmark this, it's a real-time search of all of gabe's posts on HL2 fallout.

jeez, i've been such a lurker recently. I miss you guys!

http://www.hl2fallout.com/forums/index.php?act=Search&CODE=getalluser&mid=210

EDIT: you have to bookmark the search itself, not just the results. copy and paste the URL into your bookmarks for best results.

 

[Vegeta897]

if you bookmark this, it's a real-time search of all of gabe's posts on HL2 fallout.

jeez, i've been such a lurker recently. I miss you guys!

http://www.hl2fallout.com/forums/index.php?act=Search&CODE=getalluser&mid=210

EDIT: you have to bookmark the search itself, not just the results. copy and paste the URL into your bookmarks for best results.

Heh, cool.

Thanks for that.

 

[Mr. Redundant]

You mean jigawatts.

no I mean Gigawatt. its pronounced Jigawatt, it is spelled Gigawatt.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=gigawatt

gigawatt.
gig·a·watt ( P ) Pronunciation Key (jg-wt, gg-)
n. Abbr. GW

One billion (109) watts.

however its still a great (and funny as hell) movie ;D

 

[Sparta]

if you bookmark this, it's a real-time search of all of gabe's posts on HL2 fallout.

jeez, i've been such a lurker recently. I miss you guys!

http://www.hl2fallout.com/forums/index.php?act=Search&CODE=getalluser&mid=210

EDIT: you have to bookmark the search itself, not just the results. copy and paste the URL into your bookmarks for best results.

Jeez man i was gonna say you haven't been here for a while. Welcome back dude.

 

[Vegeta897]

no I mean Gigawatt. its pronounced Jigawatt, it is spelled Gigawatt.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=gigawatt



however its still a great (and funny as hell) movie ;D

Actually it's pronounced Gigawatt.

The only way to show they said it like a J was to say Jiggawatt.

I recently watched the produceres commentary and they said they didn't know it was pronounced with a G and so they said it with a J.

This is getting too complicated.

 

[evil^milk]

So... what's this all mean? Is it important?

 

[ManHacks]

well this site is almost faster then Gabe himself posting new news, so it doesnt really matter. Thanks for the quick updates hl2.net! :thumbs:

 

[*_-SpAcKeL-_*]

So pre-loading is a good thing, being able to play before you have a complete copy of the game is a good thing, and having buckets and buckets of bandwidth is a good thing. It's interesting that videogames in addition to being a larger aggregate audience than almost any TV show (and a lot of countries total Internet traffic) are also now becoming one of the largest consumers of bandwidth on the net.

I'm curious as to what this actually means?

Anyone?

 

[Asuka]

Good info.

 

[Feath]

I'm curious as to what this actually means?

Anyone?

If you buy a game off Steam, you can play before it's it's completely downloaded. It could download the first few levels and then you can play them while the rest of them are downloading.

 

[[[LuCkY]]]

I'm curious as to what this actually means?

Anyone?

Once you have the main stuff loaded (the engine and sounds), you can play while its downloading the later levels. You're on level one, and its downloading levels 5, 6, 7 etc etc.

 

[me2you1]

Is anyone really going to download hl2 off steam? I much prefer to have the box and cd cases, but that's just me.

 

[sHm0zY]

gabes awesome i can't wait to meet him in 4 days!

 

[FISKER_Q]

gabes awesome i can't wait to meet him in 4 days!

I wish i would meet him, he always seems like such a nice guy.

I gotta travel to the US first though :x.

 

[Tyrsenus]

gabes awesome i can't wait to meet him in 4 days!

WHAT?!!! another valve visit! Be SURE to ask what EXACTLY comes in the CE box. But you probably already knew to ask that.

 

[DevgruSeal]

Reason I found Half-Life 2.net Forums is because I went to HL2.com and looked around, to find a forum, because I thought it was like the Half-Life 1, and at Sierra. So I googled, "Half-Life 2 Forums"

First thing that came up was this forum