Why does queuing downloads act so weird on this platform?

[Histfire]

If I set a download and it starts, then I set another, it picks the second one to progress and not the first one. If I set a third download, it'll pause the first one again and start the third. So on so forth. The bizarre thing? It doesn't always do this. Can you maybe fix the basics please?

I would very much like to set a bundle of games on download and have it download as 1 > 2 > 3. Can Valve count?

[lukaself]

There's nothing to fix really, it's just a design choice assuming most people want the last game they set for download the most.

Once you have set your bundle of games to download you can reorganize them by going to the library>download menu and hitting the "download now" button starting from last to first in your order of preference.

Nguyên văn bởi Khai-FX:

1 > 2 > 3. Can Valve count? :squirtmeh:

Best they can do is 1 > 2 > 2.1 > 2.2

[Histfire]

Nguyên văn bởi lukaself:

There's nothing to fix really, it's just a design choice assuming most people want the last game they set for download the most.

Once you have set your bundle of games to download you can reorganize them by going to the library>download menu and hitting the "download now" button starting from last to first in your order of preference. :clickbutton:

Nguyên văn bởi Khai-FX:

1 > 2 > 3. Can Valve count?

Best they can do is 1 > 2 > 2.1 > 2.2 :happyotus:

Yes but it doesn't seem intentional. For example, I downloaded about 20 games only a few days ago and the queue behaved as a queue should. I started one, it began downloading, then a little bit later I proceeded to add 19 other games. It finished the originally set first download then proceeded to download the others in order. The method you say, where you start a download and then another and it pauses the first, is such a crude thing. This doesn't seem like it was done by design. When I set my downloads I'd rather it be done as if Valve could count and, it has done that before, just not consistently. Chalk it up to another near 2 decade-long bug?

[lukaself]

Nguyên văn bởi Khai-FX:

The method you say, where you start a download and then another and it pauses the first, is such a crude thing. This doesn't seem like it was done by design. When I set my downloads I'd rather it be done as if Valve could count and, it has done that before, just not consistently. Chalk it up to another near 2 decade-long bug?

It's crude alright but well, the Steam client is bogged down by almost two decades of spaghetti code and they're probably wary of changing anything that works. I'm not trying to find excuses for it although, downloading dozens of games at a time is not a common usage scenario after all.

[Histfire]

Nguyên văn bởi lukaself:

Nguyên văn bởi Khai-FX:

The method you say, where you start a download and then another and it pauses the first, is such a crude thing. This doesn't seem like it was done by design. When I set my downloads I'd rather it be done as if Valve could count and, it has done that before, just not consistently. Chalk it up to another near 2 decade-long bug?

It's crude alright but well, the Steam client is bogged down by almost two decades of spaghetti code and they're probably wary of changing anything that works. I'm not trying to find excuses for it although, downloading dozens of games at a time is not a common usage scenario after all. :clickbutton:

Fair point. It's funny though that when I did queue a ♥♥♥♥ ton of games for download, it queued them correctly and downloaded them in order. Might have something to do with what is queued initially, like the size of the game for example.

May it forever live as an issue alongside the never-start-maximised Steam client window - going on strong for 16 years.

[lukaself]

Nguyên văn bởi Khai-FX:

May it forever live as an issue alongside the never-start-maximised Steam client window - going on strong for 16 years. :hatty:

[aiusepsi]

Nguyên văn bởi lukaself:

It's crude alright but well, the Steam client is bogged down by almost two decades of spaghetti code and they're probably wary of changing anything that works.

That's not really accurate, they totally rebuilt how downloads in Steam work about 7-9 years ago. They were pretty cautious about it and rolled it out over time, but the old system was eventually totally gutted and removed. As far as I know, pretty much all of Steam except some UI elements have been totally rewritten since it first came out in 2003.

Anyway: I wouldn't say this queue behaviour is weird or a bug, just a design decision that when you start something new downloading, that the new thing is inserted at the top of the queue. I think if it was the other way around and new downloads were added to the tail of the queue, that some people wouldn't like it that way either ("Why when I start a new game downloading, does it not do anything and instead just keeps downloading the thing I already had in progress? Why do I have to go to the downloads page to actually start it downloading the thing I just told it to download?")

I think the one thing they could do better is give you more control over the queue, perhaps by allowing manual reordering, rather than the only control being what to bump to the top. I'm pretty sure they're going to redesign the download page in the near future, and that's probably something that'll be addressed.

[lukaself]

Nguyên văn bởi aiusepsi:

That's not really accurate

I did take a few shortcuts for brievity's sake. Thanks for writing the comprehensive version!

[Kargor]

Whatever strategy you use to decide on the "most important download" is going to match expectations of some users, and fail expectations of other users.

Add to this that downloading multiple games at the same time is probably rare (since you're only going to play one anyway), and requiring downloads to go in a specific ordering is even rarer, they probably decided that an overcomplicated download management just isn't worth it. Especially since you CAN put any download to the top anytime you want to.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

I just use Control+Click to pick the games I want to download, in the order I want and then, right click the first one and "Install Selected."

[Histfire]

Nguyên văn bởi cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

I just use Control+Click to pick the games I want to download, in the order I want and then, right click the first one and "Install Selected."

:qr:

I didn't even realise that was a thing.

[Galdino]

Download order is probably following up a stack order(first in last out) instead of a queue order (first in first out).

[slimak[PL]]

@OP its not weird. its dumb. dumb by design. someone incompetent designed OR approved this.

why im so harsch and negative about that? well, im glad you ask : because its 2023 and its common sense really to expect that download manager/module DOES NOT MESS UP ONE THING ITS DESIGNED FOR, and seems that spreading positivity doesnt work.

if download is in progress, another download should not interrupt it, thet second install should go straight to second place on queue list and wait for the first one to be completed, OR there should be proper option to set up download/schedule manager behavior in such cases, or oprion : "install immediately" and "queue unscheduled" or soemthing. with "install immedialely" it will interrupt current download, without it, by default it goes to schedule. simple and easy but that idea apparently is too complex to whoever was designing this...