Why aren't steam files compressed more? (takes ages to download with a regular DSL)

[Euroman1981]

Many of those game files for especially new games are almost over a 100 GB and with a 50 MB/s DSL connection it takes me almost two days download.

I know some people have gigabit Internet but for us who don't. Why aren't Steam files compressed in such a way that they don't days download?

[󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡]

If it takes you almost two days to download 100GB with a 50k VDSL connection you are getting scammed. I have a 100k VDSL connection and couldn't care less about 100GB+ games.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

They still are compressed for the most part. Games are just getting larger.

[BloodShed]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

They still are compressed for the most part. Games are just getting larger.

That and there's a limit on how much the files can be compressed.

[Phantom]

In fact, Steam downloads are heavily compressed and can saturate even gigabit connections.

Even with a gigabit connection, your CPU or drive may not be able to keep up with the download.

Your question was answered relatively well though; games are just larger these days.

[Satoru]

Steam games are already highly compressed

Call of Duty WW2 isn't going to trun into a 5GB download just because you try to 'crank up the compression'

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Eisberg:

You said 50 MB/s which means 50 Megabyte /s, but I am going to assume you mean 50 Mb/s which is 50 Megabit/s. At 50 Mbit/s it should only take a little under 5 hours. So if it takes 2 days, then you are only getting 5 Mbit/sec and you need to get with your ISP and get your connection fixed.

Sounds standard for normal ISP throttling.

[Overseer]

We need more data to make sense out of that. What is your actual download rate once you load a game from Steam?

[J4MESOX4D]

If your internet is that bad then you may have to simply neglect a lot of the larger games. Just be thankful we don't have a game like Battlenet's Modern Warfare which was over 100gb to initially download and then every update after that is between 5 and 60gb because of the horrendous architecture design.

Most AAA games these days are between 40-80 and many in the coming years will break the 100gb barrier easily.

[Euroman1981]

On paper its a 50 mbps connection. However it throttles down in steam.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Euroman1981:

On paper its a 50 mbps connection. However it throttles down to 5 mbps in Steam.

ISPs show speeds in Mb. Steam shows speeds in MB.

50 Mb = 6.25 MB download speeds, so it sounds like you are getting close to your max speed for downloads. A 100 GB game would take a while to download at those speeds.

You can go to Speedtest.net and check your internet speeds there. Please note that speeds on Speedtest are displayed in Mb/s by default.

In Steam > Settings > Downloads, you can change how speeds are displayed with the "Display download rates in bits per second" checkbox.

[MonkehMaster]

im running 200Mb or 25MB (i get higher speeds quite a bit, most i have seen is like 230-240Mb), it would take maybe an hour or 2 to download that on anything but steam.

steam has some bs preallocation nonsense that takes quite a long time, then the download speed that drops to random speeds and sometimes to 0 from some unknown reasons, then you have install time.

if steam worked like other game stores or even sites across the internet, if wouldnt take so long.

[Euroman1981]

If Google Stadia catches on, which is to my knowledge is streaming based and download like steam. Could with except steam to adapt similar tech in the future?

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by Euroman1981:

If Google Stadia catches on, which is to my knowledge is streaming based and download like steam. Could with except steam to adapt similar tech in the future?

I hope not. That would be even more devastating to your internet. You can burn 20gb+ in just a couple of hours using that and owners need a strong, consistent and stable connection just to have a standard experience. It wont be mainstream anytime soon and is not the answer to compensate against large downloads.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Euroman1981:

If Google Stadia catches on, which is to my knowledge is streaming based and download like steam. Could with except steam to adapt similar tech in the future?

Your connection couldn’t even stream Stadia at 720p