Steam Preloading Info from Gabe

[synth]

Gabe Newell of Valve Software has posted on the hl2fallout forums about the preloading and bandwidth issues for Steam.

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.

See his entire post here.

 

[Hazar]

/me wonders why it needed a new thread.

 

[baka-raven]

Thats a crapload of speed! :cheese: Why dont i have such an internet connection at home hehe.

Its nice to know that Steam may actually handle the burden of delivering HL2

 

[thehunter1320]

/me wonders why gabe loves HL2fallout now

 

[Feath]

/me wonders why it needed a new thread.

This isn't a new thread, it's a news post.

 

[Gorgon]

/me wonders why gabe loves HL2fallout now

I was trying to ask your question long time ago. why he keeps posting at their forum and left our forum ?

Personally, I am not going to download it off steam.

 

[ItchyFish]

How can they transfer 2Gb of data in 1 second, i dont get it at all ffs.

 

[Kadayi]

He has posted 25 times there, that's a bucketload more often then he has here....

 

[JimmehH]

I was trying to ask your question long time ago. why he keeps posting at their forum and left our forum ?

Personally, I am not going to download it off steam.

Maybe he doesn't want to alienate the other HL2 fan sites that aren't too keen on hl2.net. Besides, we have Greg and he gave us those exclusive screenshots remember?

 

[Someone]

I think one reason Gabe, more or less, stopped posting here because of the constant negative flow towards him, Valve, the delay etc.

Not talking just threads he was involved with, but just in general. If I came on here and constantly saw thread after thread of negative comments about me, my game, my company, my employees, my weight, how all valve lie etc etc etc...not sure I'd post too much either.

Sure that kind of thing is on most sites he has posted at, but seems to be a bit more on this one than most.

Doesn't matter to me where he posts, as long as he posts; we all get the info anyway. It's a good sign though, to me at least, that the information (no matter how big or small) is starting to trickle in more and more now.

 

[tommie]

How can they transfer 2Gb of data in 1 second, i dont get it at all ffs.

Well didn't they hire that BitTorrent guy? Must have something to do with him :dozey:

 

[slicktick]

How can they transfer 2Gb of data in 1 second, i dont get it at all ffs.

I would assume not to one person, but they can download 2 GB a second to lots of people so "essentially" they get the game to one person a second. Or at least that is what I think.

 

[The Mullinator]

I think one reason Gabe, more or less, stopped posting here because of the constant negative flow towards him, Valve, the delay etc.

Not talking just threads he was involved with, but just in general. If I came on here and constantly saw thread after thread of negative comments about me, my game, my company, my employees, my weight, how all valve lie etc etc etc...not sure I'd post too much either.

Sure that kind of thing is on most sites he has posted at, but seems to be a bit more on this one than most.

Doesn't matter to me where he posts, as long as he posts; we all get the info anyway. It's a good sign though, to me at least, that the information (no matter how big or small) is starting to trickle in more and more now.

There was far more people defending Gabe and Valve here than basically any other major HL2 fan site, plenty of other fan sites have called us Gabe Fanboys because we supported him here so much. So no I don't think thats the reason.

HL2fallout is much smaller than us and we already get plenty of exclusive info and publicity. We don't need anymore so why would he post here when he can help out another HL2 fansite that isn't as big and wouldn't be getting much publicity otherwise. I say good for him, he still loves us but he wants to give HL2fallout some publicity and show he really does care for the community in general.

At least thats my take on it.

 

[Adrien C]

/me wonders why gabe loves HL2fallout now

Me to, me to,

 

[UKchaos2]

So the entire game is 2 gb compressed, 16 gb uncompressed?

 

[Paintballer]

no, its like... 2GB = 16Gb (notice the lowercase b)

like 1Mbps doesn't mean you will download at 1MB/second.

 

[NeoNight]

/me wonders why gabe loves HL2fallout now

probably because someone on this site insulted him about his weight and because of that he doesn't like this site anymore :| ... erm anyhoo

Now am wondering when the in shelves store date for hl2 is? and is it possible to order the game off of steam but with a debit card or money order?

 

[Alig]

2GB in a second? not bad!...wonder what the monthly installment for that is then

I remember reading somewhere that Steam's bandwidth is more than the whole of Italy (yes, the country!) :O

 

[lans]

2 GB is might fine. It's good that both D3 and HL2 don't have large intro movies or pre-rendered cutscenes that take up most of the space so both are in a good 2 GB range.

Ah...the perks of having good graphics!

 

[Dr-X]

I remember reading somewhere that Steam's bandwidth is more than the whole of Italy (yes, the country!) :O

Well, that sounds like a load of shit if I ever did hear one, considering Italy has more than 56 million people in it.

 

[TinyKilbasa]

Im guessing not all of them have internet access though

 

[Dr-X]

Consider that the percentage of people in Italy with broadband would be similar to the US, well, you do the maths.

 

[UKchaos2]

Why do they even use Megabits when everyone is used to megabytes, it only serves to confuse...

 

[Anable]

Why do they even use Megabits when everyone is used to megabytes, it only serves to confuse...

Any time you refer to bandwidth, it's done in bits. When referring to storage it's in bytes. Since 8 bits is a byte, if you have 1megabyte, it's equal to 8megabits. I don't know who decided that storage should be labeled differently than bandwidth, but there you go.

 

[Blad3]

16Gb? :O The biggest game ever?

 

[Dr-X]

jesus christ read the thread

 

[jOOblaR]

so they are preloading it onto steam, and then releasing it in stores in boxes in EB so we can buy it and when we come home, well be able to play on steam? is that what preloading means?

 

[Dr. Freeman]

There was far more people defending Gabe and Valve here than basically any other major HL2 fan site, plenty of other fan sites have called us Gabe Fanboys because we supported him here so much. So no I don't think thats the reason.

well Mully the truth still is that this forum gets way more negative remarks from users about Valve than any other site...now whether this affects how Gabe posts all really speculation.

Someone makes good points in his post.. if i were Gabe, perhaps i would shy away from a site which tends to have negative responses towards my company on almost a daily basis.

i hope Gabe posts here again...but i certainly wouldn't blame him if he chose not to.

 

[Ender01]

16Gb? :O The biggest game ever?

16 gigabits


So thats 2 gigabytes right?

 

[Claus]

Preloading and/or Buying the Box

so they are preloading it onto steam, and then releasing it in stores in boxes in EB so we can buy it and when we come home, well be able to play on steam? is that what preloading means?

You can do that, yes. You'll be able to type in your CD-Key, and get it activated. You can alternatively order straight through Steam and get a key online. But I expect a lot of people will prefer a box and a disc, even if they do preload it for quickness' sake.

On the other hand, if you're buying the box, you don't have to preload it... you can just install it like a regular game.

So in summary, you can do either, or both

 

[randygandy]

I dont get this at all

so whats the accual size of the the game in meg pplz

no areivations

Pot smoker present :farmer:

 

[cadaveca]

not actual size listed,beside the 2 gigabytes...