Why do I need 35 GB of disk space to download a 100 MB patch?

[Abu Mustard]

I think it seems a tad unreasonable.

[Mr. Ape]

It's how SteamPipe patch works. From my understanding, the newly downloaded patch is compared with the old files, and assembled together to make the updated version. This process 'replicates' the existing files, so a disk space equal or larger to the original game file is required.
35 GB is roughly the size of Total War Warhammer. Therefore, to update Warhammer, 35 GB of free space is required.

You'll have to ask Steam why they choose to update their games this way.

[Lou the Lou]

It's not Steam. It's CA. They developed it. Steam is just the distribution platform.

I have other games on Steam that do not do this. Marvel Heroes Omega is 20GB and updates just fine if there's less than that on the drive. Other games use their own launchers to patch.

Stop blaming Steam for this. It's the game devs, not the distribution platform.

[Kazaanh]

Its absolutely terrible, and you can't even move game files while its "being updated" but halted.

[Lou the Lou]

Originally posted by Kazaanh:

Its absolutely terrible, and you can't even move game files while its "being updated" but halted.

What's more, if it's "Preallocating", that means it's copying that 35GB. If you interrupt that (by, say, starting another game), it will try to start over when you start it again. If the partial copy results in you having less than the required amount free, you have to go and manually delete the "prealllocated" amount from the downloading folder in order to free that space back up. Otherwise, it will tell you there's not enough space.

So, so stupid.

[Mr. Ape]

Originally posted by Lou the Lou:

It's not Steam. It's CA. They developed it. Steam is just the distribution platform.

I have other games on Steam that do not do this. Marvel Heroes Omega is 20GB and updates just fine if there's less than that on the drive. Other games use their own launchers to patch.

Stop blaming Steam for this. It's the game devs, not the distribution platform.

It is Steam. The distribution system is call SteamPipe.

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamPipe

CA has no part in development of this system. They are end users like many other game developers who choose to use SteamPope.

[Lou the Lou]

Originally posted by Mr. Ape #I.TOLD.U.SO:

Originally posted by Lou the Lou:

It's not Steam. It's CA. They developed it. Steam is just the distribution platform.

I have other games on Steam that do not do this. Marvel Heroes Omega is 20GB and updates just fine if there's less than that on the drive. Other games use their own launchers to patch.

Stop blaming Steam for this. It's the game devs, not the distribution platform.

It is Steam. The distribution system is call SteamPipe.

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamPipe

CA has no part in development of this system. They are end users like many other game developers who choose to use SteamPope.

They didn't develop it, but they use it. That's my point. They use SteamPipe instead of some other patching system that doesn't suck balls.

[Kazaanh]

They could use external patches like game launcher to download smaller updates and keep steam for bigger ones.

[Mr. Ape]

Originally posted by Lou the Lou:

They didn't develop it, but they use it. That's my point. They use SteamPipe instead of some other patching system that doesn't suck balls.

Well you did say in your other post that CA developed it. This is not true at all.

Furthermore, SteamPipe is the default content management system for Steam. CA (like most other developers) opted to use Steam's default patching system instead of making one of their own. Anger should hence be directed at Steam for making SteamPipe instead of developers who simply use it.