Steam takes ages to verify a game installation

[TakeToTheSky]

I have been trying to download games and when I do, it downloads them but the verification takes almost as long as the actual downloading.

[Satoru]

you are limited by either
1) your cpu
2) your disk IO
3) your anti-virus killing performance

[Вупсень]

you are limited by either
1) your cpu
2) your disk IO
3) your anti-virus killing performance

[hrdstyle]

Originally posted by Satoru:

you are limited by either
1) your cpu
2) your disk IO
3) your anti-virus killing performance

No its a glitch with steam.

[hrdstyle]

Originally posted by Satoru:

you are limited by either
1) your cpu
2) your disk IO
3) your anti-virus killing performance

I downloaded an update for Elden Ring and it had to reinstall all 64 gigs of the game while the update was only one, mind you not download, just install. Now I have the same thing with Apex , 0.7 gb update and steam wants to reinstall the whole game.

[Joke]

Steam recently (before christmas I think) changed how updates work.
Now the download is much smaller than before, but patching takes more time.

I don't know If you have any experience with software development, but when you change a program you can't just attach the changes at the end of the .exe-file.
Changes can be located anywhere in the files.

The patching will scan the whole code base, inserting/deleting things where needed.
It's not installing anything.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by haRdstylE:

I downloaded an update for Elden Ring and it had to reinstall all 64 gigs of the game while the update was only one, mind you not download, just install. Now I have the same thing with Apex , 0.7 gb update and steam wants to reinstall the whole game.

It's not reinstalling the game. It's patching the game. It saves you from having to re-download the entire game all over again just to update the files.

Originally posted by Joke:

Steam recently (before christmas I think) changed how updates work.
Now the download is much smaller than before, but patching takes more time.

Patching was around before the update. The only thing that changed was the download page will now show each step of the update process where before it lumped everything into "updating". Users complained too much about the updating process continuing long after the downloading of the update files, so now it's more transparent about what's happening. Unfortunately now we have to suffer from the "it's never done this before" posts from people who are just unfamiliar with how some updates can occur, especially for large games like Elden Ring.

[Nx Machina]

Originally posted by Joke:

Steam recently (before christmas I think) changed how updates work.
Now the download is much smaller than before, but patching takes more time.

A patch size is dicated by what is been fixed, added, removed to the original game install on ALL PC clients.

Cyberpunk 2077 for example has had various patch sizes on GOG Galaxy and the patching process takes forever due to how the game is structured. It is quicker to stop the update, uninstall the game and download it again.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by haRdstylE:

Originally posted by Satoru:

you are limited by either
1) your cpu
2) your disk IO
3) your anti-virus killing performance

No its a glitch with steam.

No you system is throttling the verification. It’s not a “glitch”

[Satoru]

Originally posted by haRdstylE:

Originally posted by Satoru:

you are limited by either
1) your cpu
2) your disk IO
3) your anti-virus killing performance

I downloaded an update for Elden Ring and it had to reinstall all 64 gigs of the game while the update was only one, mind you not download, just install. Now I have the same thing with Apex , 0.7 gb update and steam wants to reinstall the whole game.

This is called delta patching and that depends on how the developer distributes assets in the game. Steam is not responsible if a 1gb patch requires all game files to be patches. Please feel free to go scream at From Software or EA about their data structure

Or would you prefer that every patch requires you to download the entire game from scratch?