Ubuntu: Steam downloads same updates of games

[-]c0c0nut[-]

Im running Ubuntu and once a day when i start the Steam client for the first time it downloads the same updates for the same games.

For example it downloads the same 5GB update for No Man's Sky, the same 1,3GB update for Borderlands2 and the same update for a couple of smaller games.

Those are games i dont play right now and only stay in my library, dont know if thats relevant are have something to do with it.

Known problem or anyone else with that kind of behavior?

[Edelgris]

This is most likely shader cache updates being downloaded. For some reason Steam thinks this is something that needs to be done even several times per day in some cases.

[Blazkowicz]

Originally posted by Edelgris:

This is most likely shader cache updates being downloaded. For some reason Steam thinks this is something that needs to be done even several times per day in some cases.

[Prodigious]

Originally posted by Edelgris:

This is most likely shader cache updates being downloaded. For some reason Steam thinks this is something that needs to be done even several times per day in some cases.

This is my understanding as well.

[Zyro]

Originally posted by Prodigious:

Originally posted by Edelgris:

This is most likely shader cache updates being downloaded. For some reason Steam thinks this is something that needs to be done even several times per day in some cases.

This is my understanding as well.

Somebody said that Steam downloads only a chunk of all shaders, so it should be a little (whatever that means) bit every... start of Steam or so. Gigs per game don't qualify as little though, I guess.

[-]c0c0nut[-]

You guys are right, those are apparently "Shader-Pre-Caching-Updates".
It says so in the mouseover tooltip.

Image host stretches some pics, just zoom in if its shown weird:

daily shader downloads [i.postimg.cc]

NoMansSky | Tooltip[i.postimg.cc]

Borderlands | Tooltip [i.postimg.cc]

Not cool Steam. Daily 10GB download in total.

[Blazkowicz]

Originally posted by -c0c0nut-:

You guys are right, those are apparently "Shader-Pre-Caching-Updates".
It says so in the mouseover tooltip.

Image host stretches some pics, just zoom in if its shown weird:

daily shader downloads [i.postimg.cc]

NoMansSky | Tooltip[i.postimg.cc]

Borderlands | Tooltip [i.postimg.cc]

Not cool Steam. Daily 10GB download in total.

Maybe the "problem" depends on the game developer rather than Steam

[-]c0c0nut[-]

Originally posted by Blazkowicz:

Maybe the "problem" depends on the game developer rather than Steam

Just found some stuff in the No Mans Sky discussions and they think its a Steam issue on Linux.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/1/4133808627029164149/

This dicussion leads to that one:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/0/7119694643857796459/

Current state seems to be:

Originally posted by Roadrunner:

Same issue here, also on Linux. Disabling pre-caching may be a work-around but is no option in the long run since this affects other games as well.

[Marlock]

most games just don't need shader precaching...

Valve really should turn the global option off-by-default and add a per-game override config so we can enable this only where really necessary

until then, the impact is a bit of stutter the first time you enter a new game map/scene and shaders are compiled on-the-fly (and only if this on-the-fly compilation is not fast enough)... then these are stored locally as a cache (only what's really needed and without being downloaded) and next time around the stutter is gone