How to play without updating

[slquoue]

Steam is so infuriating - every time there is patch I have to wait for it to download before I can play. Is there any way to avoid this?

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by slquoue:

How to play without updating
Steam is so infuriating - every time there is patch I have to wait for it to download before I can play. Is there any way to avoid this?

See here
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3077201809
you can play while it is updating that way

[Cool Cereal]

Should devs just not patch their games?

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Cool Cereal:

Should devs just not patch their games?

Your question is irrelevant as it has nothing to do with threadstarter's topic. If you are interested in developers stopping updates altogether, you should make a new thread with your topic instead.

[id795078477]

Originally posted by slquoue:

Steam is so infuriating - every time there is patch I have to wait for it to download before I can play. Is there any way to avoid this?

ATTENTION!

Just disabling updates and launching the game bypassing Steam is not enough!.
When Steam updates itself (i.e. the "Steam application"), there's a good chance it does a "whoops, I forgot your settings, user!" and sets everything to default forcing all updates you have pending to start. It happened to me several times before I realized what's going on. I wouldn't be surprised if Steam actually does this on purpose to force updates on users. I don't trust Valve one bit.

To be absolutely sure you don't get updates, you need to not have Steam installed as a system service (uninstall it via services.msc); you need to have it running under a separate user and have that user only reading permissions on your library installation folder. That's the only way to prevent its intrusive shenanigans.

[slquoue]

Originally posted by Cool Cereal:

Should devs just not patch their games?

It's not an insane suggestion to think that an update could download in the background but you could still play the current version in the meantime.

[Brian_the_Brute]

It's a real pain to do and you have to manually launch the game after without steam, but I tried this and it works. The key thing at the end to remember is you need to make the file READ ONLY so that steam can't change it. Removing the read only attribute will let the game update again. This literally should just be a slider or checkbox on the game, but nope, that would be too easy.

Get the "app ID" of your BG3 installation, and write that down for later steps

➤ From Steam's Library tab

➤ Right-click Baldur's Gate 3

➤ Properties

➤ Updates tab : Look for "App ID: " down toward the bottom of the tab, and record that number for the next step

➤ Close the Updates tab window



Lock your current installation and prevent Steam from updating it until you unlock it

➤ From Steam's Library tab

➤ Right-click Baldur's Gate 3

➤ Manage

➤ Browse local files : This should open an Explorer window at a location similar to:
<DRIVE>:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Baldurs Gate 3

➤ Go up to parent directory twice, to end up in:
<DRIVE>:\SteamLibrary\steamapps

➤ Find the .acf file that starts with "appmanifest_" and ends with the number you recorded from the App ID for BG3.

Edit: I missed a few steps here

➤ CLOSE STEAM by going to the lower-right corner clicking the up arrow to show running background processes, then right-clicking the Steam icon there and clicking "Exit"

➤ Make a backup copy of the app manifest file for if you ever want to reverse these changes in the future

➤ Right-click the app manifest file for BG3 and edit it in Notepad

➤ Find the row that starts with "LauncherPath" and change the path from "steam.exe" to something innocuous. In my case, I pointed it at notepad.exe.

➤ Find the rows that start with "AutoUpdateBehavior", "AllowOtherDownloadsWhileRunning", and "ScheduledAutoUpdate" and set each one of those to 0

➤ Save the file and close your text editor

➤ Right-click that app manifest file

➤ Properties

➤ At the bottom of the Properties pane, find the checkbox for "Read-only" and check that box

➤ Click "Ok" to close the Properties pane

Your install is now locked, as Steam uses that app manifest file to manage update installations. Doing this will cause issues when you try to launch the game from Steam directly, since it attempts to check for updates, but you can easily circumvent this.


Launching the locked game now that Steam's shortcut no longer works


Option 1 - Use BG3 Mod Manager

➤ If you already use Baldur's Gate 3 Mod Manager to launch your game, you are done. You may continue to use the manager to launch the game without any further work. Enjoy!



Option 2 - Create a simple desktop shortcut

➤ From Steam's Library tab

➤ Right-click Baldur's Gate 3

➤ Manage

➤ Add desktop shortcut. Launching BG3 from this shortcut on the desktop should work even when the "Launch" button in Steam no longer does.



Option 3 - Create a custom shortcut in Steam

➤ From Steam's Library tab

➤ Click the "+ Add a game" button in the very lower-left corner

➤ Select "Add a Non-Steam Game..."

➤ Click the "Browse" button to manually locate BG3's game binaries

➤ Navigate to the folder where BG3 is installed (we were there in previous steps), and click on the "bin" folder

➤ Select the game exe for your new shortcut to launch (unmanaged by Steam)

➤ Click "Open"

➤ Click "Add Selected Programs"



This should now show up in your Library and be launchable from Steam without using the standard BG3 Launch button.





When you are ready to unlock your installation and allow Steam to update your game again

➤ Simply follow the steps above as if you wanted to lock your installation, and instead, UNCHECK the "Read-only" box for the game's app manifest file





Hopefully this saves someone else some time and trouble!