Every patch reinstalls full game

[thegeodemon]

Been having this problem ever since the last change to Steam's new look.

Whenever a game needs a patch, it will download a small patch- say 103mb.
Then the total patch my HD has to write is the entirety of the game size - 20+gigs.
It is always the full size of the game, as if it was starting from scratch.

So the download part is super fast, like 3- 5 seconds. Then it takes 10-15 minutes for my NVME HD to finish the patch because the total patch size always reads the same as the entire installed game.

This happens on every game, every patch. So if a game is 8.4 gigs, then each patch I need to wait for 8.4gigs. If a game is 39 gigs- the patc hwill be 39 gigs even if the update is only 100mb.

I've tried reinstalling steam, changing install directories, and turning on and off cloud sync. I just can't figure it out. It sucks to take 20 mins to install a patch that should be sub 10 seconds.

[Zekiran]

This has always happened, it's just telling you now.

Notably if something is slowing down your install speed, that's on your computer's end, not on steam. As you say: the download itself takes nothing for time.

Make sure that your drive is allowing steam to work fully and properly. But I mean we just had a discussion about this very thing recently. All games patch this way, as far as I have ever known, any amount of code must actually validate and insert that code *fully*, so yeah it's going to be looking at the full install.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by thegeodemon:

Been having this problem ever since the last change to Steam's new look.

Whenever a game needs a patch, it will download a small patch- say 103mb.
Then the total patch my HD has to write is the entirety of the game size - 20+gigs.
It is always the full size of the game, as if it was starting from scratch.

So the download part is super fast, like 3- 5 seconds. Then it takes 10-15 minutes for my NVME HD to finish the patch because the total patch size always reads the same as the entire installed game.

This happens on every game, every patch. So if a game is 8.4 gigs, then each patch I need to wait for 8.4gigs. If a game is 39 gigs- the patc hwill be 39 gigs even if the update is only 100mb.

I've tried reinstalling steam, changing install directories, and turning on and off cloud sync. I just can't figure it out. It sucks to take 20 mins to install a patch that should be sub 10 seconds.

Yeah. That's how patching works. It's not reinstalling the game. It's changing the files of the game. And the only reason why it seems like it's "since the last change to Steam's new look" is because it didn't specifically spell out what the updates were doing prior to the change. Patching games has always been a thing on Steam. There is nothing that you can do to change how a developer pushes out an update. If they choose to issue a patch, then your update is going to have to patch a lot of files. It's either that or you have to re-download the entire the game which would be reinstalling the entire game.

If your update has a patch, leave it alone to finish.

Small download, big update 

Community Created Artwork for Steam Artwork

By: rawWwRrr

Yes. Sometimes an update that is a tiny download can take a long time to update a huge amount of files. Here Tropico 6 had a small 20.4MB update to download but it is having to patch almost 18GB of game files which is...

[thegeodemon]

Well thanks for explaining that. Still doesn't help my problem though.

Same games that used to take under 2 mins to patch now take between 8 and 15.
I don't know of anything that could be throttling disk speed and I have made no changes to my PC from when it was working quickly. Usually my 960 NVMe was very efficient for time when doing patches.

Steam says its running between 50-90mb/s disk usage during patching and about 450 mb/s during the verify files stage. That all check out ok?

[thegeodemon]

Task manager says my disk is using 25% speed during the patches.

[LukeFoxy]

I have the same problem and I can't find a solution.

[Nx Machina]

It depends on how the developer structured the game. Steam is just the tool.

Previously before the download ui was updated the process was the same but you did not have a visual representation of what was happening. All you saw was a green horizontal line for updating.

[my new friend]

When a game/update is actively downloading it will now display the total progression completed for the download or update. Previously the progress bar would only display the downloading content progress but not the disk allocation process which would make an update to appear completed when it was not.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/2941402621044012221

[thegeodemon]

Originally posted by my new friend:

When a game/update is actively downloading it will now display the total progression completed for the download or update. Previously the progress bar would only display the downloading content progress but not the disk allocation process which would make an update to appear completed when it was not.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/2941402621044012221

Thanks, Perhaps I just never noticed the disk was still busy after download on my task manager for the last 10+ years. I always played the games right after though, so it seems strange that this process was "secretly" not complete and it still played fine. Also that the next game in line would immediately start downloading after the download part was finished for the first game.

I prefered back when i could do 6+ games in under 10 minutes, and start playing. Now it takes over an hour and it's rough hearing "it's always been like that" as an answer. I guess I'll have to get used to it?

Anyways, thank you guys for replying to what seems like a silly question.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by thegeodemon:

I prefered back when i could do 6+ games in under 10 minutes, and start playing. Now it takes over an hour and it's rough hearing "it's always been like that" as an answer. I guess I'll have to get used to it?

I will say that the ability to patch a game for an update has always been there. It could be that your games' developers are using them more now than before so you're now noticing that your updates are taking longer.

For a developer, there is no win-win when it comes to issuing updates. If they don't patch, then they subject their users to downloading large files. If they patch, now they depend on their users PC to effectively compute the patch. In either case, there will be a subset of their users that want it the other way.

Originally posted by thegeodemon:

Task manager says my disk is using 25% speed during the patches.

Depends how intensive the patch is. It won't be like copying files. It's a computational process and it's not a linear process.

[kitt]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

This has always happened, it's just telling you now.

Notably if something is slowing down your install speed, that's on your computer's end, not on steam. As you say: the download itself takes nothing for time.

Make sure that your drive is allowing steam to work fully and properly. But I mean we just had a discussion about this very thing recently. All games patch this way, as far as I have ever known, any amount of code must actually validate and insert that code *fully*, so yeah it's going to be looking at the full install.

so you went from: the code must be applied blablaba

to: all games patch this way


at least you learned something, still writing down wrong stuff though.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by ThraxxMedia:

Originally posted by Nx Machina:

Previously before the download ui was updated the process was the same but you did not have a visual representation of what was happening. All you saw was a green horizontal line for updating.

I'm sorry, but this just isn't true at all. Please refrain from spreading false information when it's very clear that you have no idea what the actual issue is.

It is true. There were tons of forum topics of people asking why it was taking so long for a small download to finish updating their game. The issue was that the UI didn't provide the feedback that it does now about patching and verifying files. Now it does. Patching was always present prior to the new UI.

Originally posted by ThraxxMedia:

Originally posted by Nx Machina:

It depends on how the developer structured the game. Steam is just the tool.

In the context I described above, this is nonsense as well. It's not the game that's reading and writing to the harddrive, thus causing the performance hit and longer update times... it's Steam, and Steam alone in this instance. A game developer has no agency whatsoever over how Steam handles its own global processes, or how many system resources it may or may not consume.

Developers certainly have the decision whether or not game is meant to patch or update full files. Some games are just not designed to patch, others are more flexible. Some updates just can't be done with patching and in those instances you get a straight install albeit a larger download.

Originally posted by ThraxxMedia:

If Steam receives 2 small files where it's supposed to simply put them into the game's data directory or whatever, but Steam then goes ahead and says "Screw it, I'm going to copy-paste the whole damn thing from one folder to another and then back" - that's Steam's fault, and nobody else's.

The "2 small files" tell Steam to take code and splice it into all of these files which is done through patching. Your ignorance about how patching works is clearly evident.

Small download, big update 

Community Created Artwork for Steam Artwork

By: rawWwRrr

Yes. Sometimes an update that is a tiny download can take a long time to update a huge amount of files. Here Tropico 6 had a small 20.4MB update to download but it is having to patch almost 18GB of game files which is...

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by ThraxxMedia:

Addendum: you were just attempting to lecture an IT professional (software development) with over 20 years of experience about how the process of patching works. I'm not quite sure whether I should cry or laugh at this level of idiocy; but I do apologize, since there was no way for you to know that.

If your proposed way of patching games is the "be-all, end-all" solution, please explain how programs like Origin or Blizzard's Battle Net are doing it way better (by either not rearranging every single file to begin with, since it's unnecessary if your service doesn't suck... or by throttling their disk usage). Either way, Steam is undeniably lacking in that department.

I'm pretty sure that 100% of the time people come here gloating about how much time they have spent at a desk with a computer, 100% of them do not, in fact, know how Steam works.

You are not a Valve employee. You do not know how their system works. However, it's demonstrably true, as stated numerous times above, that this has always been how the process DOES work.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by ThraxxMedia:

Addendum: you were just attempting to lecture an IT professional (software development) with over 20 years of experience about how the process of patching works. I'm not quite sure whether I should cry or laugh at this level of idiocy; but I do apologize, since there was no way for you to know that.

How come it's always "the professionals" which know the least and talk the most?

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by ThraxxMedia:

2) If developers have the ability to choose how to implement their update routines, as you claim... then how come that basically every single game is affected and updating slower now?

Don't believe me? Wait a few days, let a couple of updates queue (postpone their auto-update dates if you must) and then run them, one after the other. Report back with your findings on a) how long each game took individually, b) how long it took in total, and c) whether or not Steam was patching the entire size of each game's installation.

*I* have, Mr. IT Professional.

I've got a 20TB raid array as a game depot. Most of my games are installed on it. I also utilize a NVME 1.0TB in a PCIE Gen4 slot for the more demanding games that exhibit lag due when installed on the spindles.

I mass edited all of the appmanifest files to turn their update behavior to only update when launched in order to control what games were getting updates, but also to analyze their update behavior. For instance, I uninstalled PUBG because it was clear they update way too often than I'm comfortable with and I'm not really playing the game much to justify getting 1GB+ updates every other day or so.

During that time I was able to see how update behavior differed from game to game and it's clear there is range of choices that developers make from straight downloads of updated files, to patches, to a mix of both. Some games have to download and apply patches in chunks while others go in one shot.

Since then I went through and mass changed the appmanifest files to high priority so that the updates aren't scheduled any more and are applied automatically. I can spend that time doing more productive things like debating random people on Steam forums who spread misinformation behind their supposed epeen computer career, or just play games and whatnot.

[Nx Machina]

@ ThraxxMedia

I have been here 17+ years ( https://ibb.co/fHg2MwY ) as you have and i can state the patching process has not changed so please do not accuse me of spreading false information.

Secondly understand how patching works, which is the patch been integrated into the game and how a patch integrates into the game IS how the developer set it up, how the game is structured, what they are patching etc and Steam is the tool which has two patching process options for the developer to choose from to do the patching.

As for any other launcher - Cyberpunk 2077 on Galaxy takes forever to patch and it is easier to uninstall and redownload the game rather than patch. Secondly Ghost Recon Breakpoint on Uplay had a restructure with a patch reducing the game size and setting up for future updates to be quicker and just like Cyberpunk 2077 it was easier to uninstall and redownload the game.