Steam's "trickle" distribution

[Chris D]

I wasn't sure if they'd actually introduced this or not but it appears as though Steam's "trickle" distribution system that was implemented a while actually does work.

You may all notice that when you reloaded Steam it's preload progress appeared to be frozen at a certain point. In my case it was 73%. I didn't think anything of it at first, and realised it was going to stay like that for a while and then speed up and get to 100% after the load on the servers is down.

Then I soon realised that I was actually downloading the complete game, and for any complete game to download in the matter of 2 minutes to 73% would have been a mammoth connection. The next thing I noticed is that it then, slowly but surely, went up to 74%. I realised that for some reason, I had downloaded the first part of this extremely fast. Or had I?

I reckon I've been downloading this in bits for weeks. We all have. Steam released an update about 6 months ago now saying it had introduced this feature. I believe we've all just had a chance to witness it

Cool eh?

 

[Skullhair]

I wasn't sure if they'd actually introduced this or not but it appears as though Steam's "trickle" distribution system that was implemented a while actually does work.

You may all notice that when you reloaded Steam it's preload progress appeared to be frozen at a certain point. In my case it was 73%. I didn't think anything of it at first, and realised it was going to stay like that for a while and then speed up and get to 100% after the load on the servers is down.

Then I soon realised that I was actually downloading the complete game, and for any complete game to download in the matter of 2 minutes to 73% would have been a mammoth connection. The next thing I noticed is that it then, slowly but surely, went up to 74%. I realised that for some reason, I had downloaded the first part of this extremely fast. Or had I?

I reckon I've been downloading this in bits for weeks. We all have. Steam released an update about 6 months ago now saying it had introduced this feature. I believe we've all just had a chance to witness it

Cool eh?

Half-life2 is already on your systems, find it!!! J/P :rolling: , or am I?

 

[Chris D]

Moved to Steam forum :|

Hey, I'm only human

 

[Wesisapie]

I dont think that's cool, i think that is deceitful. Also, its not really sound, morally speaking.

 

[Cutey_Kaite]

wait, so i dont get it. What has been downloading for 6 months? HL2? CZ?

 

[Bicka]

Gabes pron stash...think about it

 

[epsil0n]

I wasn't sure if they'd actually introduced this or not but it appears as though Steam's "trickle" distribution system that was implemented a while actually does work.

You may all notice that when you reloaded Steam it's preload progress appeared to be frozen at a certain point. In my case it was 73%. I didn't think anything of it at first, and realised it was going to stay like that for a while and then speed up and get to 100% after the load on the servers is down.

Then I soon realised that I was actually downloading the complete game, and for any complete game to download in the matter of 2 minutes to 73% would have been a mammoth connection. The next thing I noticed is that it then, slowly but surely, went up to 74%. I realised that for some reason, I had downloaded the first part of this extremely fast. Or had I?

I reckon I've been downloading this in bits for weeks. We all have. Steam released an update about 6 months ago now saying it had introduced this feature. I believe we've all just had a chance to witness it

Cool eh?

its not that... i actually noticed the same thing and then instantly answered the question to myself. (happens too often.) my theory is that CZ takes hl and cs to run, correct? i mean the difference between CZ and CS isnt that large, in regards to file differences... hence why those who have CS would pay less? not just a courteous thing to do for those who have waited for YEARS .. but also it could relate to the fact that having CS would most likely cut down the amount of data needed for CZ?

juusstt a thought. :cheese:

-Epsil0n

 

[Wesisapie]

epsilon's post makes a whole bucket load more sense. it probably just says "ah, you already have HL and CS, so there's 72% of the data already. now to download the actual new stuff"

 

[ale2999]

so what is being downloaded right now? my steam is dl sometin but I dont know what lol

 

[Chris D]

epsilon's post makes a whole bucket load more sense. it probably just says "ah, you already have HL and CS, so there's 72% of the data already. now to download the actual new stuff"

Yeah it does actually...

But this trickle system is supposedly supposed to be in place already. Is it being used?

 

[Chris D]

I dont think that's cool, i think that is deceitful. Also, its not really sound, morally speaking.

How is it deceitful. You know that feature is there.
Morally wrong? Why, if you were gonna buy the game then it's already there.

 

[Mother]

Somehow (probably when drunk last night) I started CS downloading, bearing in mind I'm on a 56k connection, it's already acquired 70% of it. I've just started the dedicated server downloading too and that's already at 60%.

I'm guessing that Steam copies common files from other installed games (i.e. the HL engine) and then downloads missing content from the servers. It makes perfect sense, saves bandwidth on the Steam network, and ensures that all data required to run a game is kept in the relevant cache file.

Essentially it's a trade off of disk space against bandwidth.

Mighty clever though!

 

[Maxi]

I think this trickle idea is a very good one, It minimizes the load on the servers and makes you able to play the thing that they release the minute it comes out, genious!

 

[Dr. Freeman]

I wasn't sure if they'd actually introduced this or not but it appears as though Steam's "trickle" distribution system that was implemented a while actually does work.

You may all notice that when you reloaded Steam it's preload progress appeared to be frozen at a certain point. In my case it was 73%. I didn't think anything of it at first, and realised it was going to stay like that for a while and then speed up and get to 100% after the load on the servers is down.

Then I soon realised that I was actually downloading the complete game, and for any complete game to download in the matter of 2 minutes to 73% would have been a mammoth connection. The next thing I noticed is that it then, slowly but surely, went up to 74%. I realised that for some reason, I had downloaded the first part of this extremely fast. Or had I?

I reckon I've been downloading this in bits for weeks. We all have. Steam released an update about 6 months ago now saying it had introduced this feature. I believe we've all just had a chance to witness it

Cool eh?

i have noticed this too.. and yes its quite cool :E
so hey? is the famous haxor gonna try for HL2? :dork:

 

[Feath]

I wasn't sure if they'd actually introduced this or not but it appears as though Steam's "trickle" distribution system that was implemented a while actually does work.

You may all notice that when you reloaded Steam it's preload progress appeared to be frozen at a certain point. In my case it was 73%. I didn't think anything of it at first, and realised it was going to stay like that for a while and then speed up and get to 100% after the load on the servers is down.

Then I soon realised that I was actually downloading the complete game, and for any complete game to download in the matter of 2 minutes to 73% would have been a mammoth connection. The next thing I noticed is that it then, slowly but surely, went up to 74%. I realised that for some reason, I had downloaded the first part of this extremely fast. Or had I?

I reckon I've been downloading this in bits for weeks. We all have. Steam released an update about 6 months ago now saying it had introduced this feature. I believe we've all just had a chance to witness it

Cool eh?

Actually I don't think that makes sense in the context mentioned on the Steam news page.

Changed HTTP download behavior to retry connections using old trickle download method if it can't download all files.

The trickle download method is probably what was used in the Beta version of Steam. It would download files as it needed them. I remember It used to take ages to load a map sometimes.

As for the 72%, isn't the Multiplayer of Condition Zero just CS 1.6? Then maybe 72% of the files just come from CS 1.6. Hence the really fast download times up to 72%.