Can't download a game and play another at the same time

[Kaedan]

For some time now, it seems you can no longer download multiple games at once, and if you start playing a game, it pauses any downloads you have going.

Who's retarded idea at Steam HQ was this? Fire the idiot and fix this.

[Renegade]

You can just alt tab out of the game hit pause then start then alt tab back in

[Kaedan]

I don't think you understand the problem. If you start to download something and then play a different Steam game while you wait, it automatically pauses the download, making it so you can't download while playing other steam games.

Furthermore, you can't download more than one game at once anymore.

Again, whatever moron made these changes needs to be fired

[Tsundere Kanojo]

Originally posted by Kaedan:

I don't think you understand the problem. If you start to download something and then play a different Steam game while you wait, it automatically pauses the download, making it so you can't download while playing other steam games.

Furthermore, you can't download more than one game at once anymore.

Again, whatever moron made these changes needs to be fired

It's faster downloading one game at a time since Steam is maxing out your connection with the new way they're doing it.

And even if you start a download and launch a game, it'll continue to download regardless.

It only automatically pauses the download if it's a game that doesn't use the new way of downloading from Steam servers.

It's probably slower letting multiple games download at once, splitting available bandwidth amongst themselves than just letting each game max out the connection, finish in 10 minutes or so (depending on size) and then just resuming the download for the next game and so on.

[Freyar]

Originally posted by Kaedan:

Again, whatever moron made these changes needs to be fired

It's actually on purpose and for good reason. In some games where content is streamed from the hard-disk, Steam writing downloaded content can interfere and damage the performance of the game you are playing. In some network setups it can even cause people to disconnect or lag (usually due to poor routers or QoS settings), so even if you don't like it, there's sufficient reason for it's behavior.

Downloading one at a time is fairly new, and while I thought it was kind of annoying, it does seem to help with the number of writes to disk at once.

[Dark Lord Satan Visit Your Bum]

I'm confused here. Not only can I download multiple titles at the same time, Steam no longer pauses downloading like it used to when I start playing a game. Mayb it has something to do with whether or not a user is running the beta or the regular client?

[Freyar]

Originally posted by Dirtman73:

I'm confused here. Not only can I download multiple titles at the same time, Steam no longer pauses downloading like it used to when I start playing a game. Mayb it has something to do with whether or not a user is running the beta or the regular client?

Possibly. I just tested it myself and currently all but one titles are "suspended".

[Dark Lord Satan Visit Your Bum]

Originally posted by Freyar:

Originally posted by Dirtman73:

I'm confused here. Not only can I download multiple titles at the same time, Steam no longer pauses downloading like it used to when I start playing a game. Mayb it has something to do with whether or not a user is running the beta or the regular client?

Possibly. I just tested it myself and currently all but one titles are "suspended".

Something to do with the new content system as mentioned by Peacock maybe? Whatever it is, I'm glad Valve are phasing out the "no download while you play" rule.

[Freyar]

Originally posted by Dirtman73:

Originally posted by Freyar:

Possibly. I just tested it myself and currently all but one titles are "suspended".

Something to do with the new content system as mentioned by Peacock maybe? Whatever it is, I'm glad Valve are phasing out the "no download while you play" rule.

Perhaps, but even with the new ACF format, I've still seen performance impacts in games using UE3/3.5 and other content-streaming games. Not so much a big deal for some, but still an issue for others, especially on certain peices of hardware like my laptop.

[bubrito bubstice]

Sometimes, two games can't be downloaded at once
Othertimes they can

[Legendary old man]

Originally posted by Dirtman73:

Originally posted by Freyar:

Possibly. I just tested it myself and currently all but one titles are "suspended".

Something to do with the new content system as mentioned by Peacock maybe? Whatever it is, I'm glad Valve are phasing out the "no download while you play" rule.

Where did you get that information? Pause downloading when launching a game was just re added during one of the recent Steam patches. Read the notes. I believe they intend on keeping it. I certainly hope they do ore make it an option. Nothing more annoying then have a download start in the background while your playing a game which causes your ping to go way up.

" Suspend all downloads automatically when a game is launched " was added FEB 14, 2013.

[Dark Lord Satan Visit Your Bum]

Originally posted by facedown:

Where did you get that information? Pause downloading when launching a game was just re added during one of the recent Steam patches. Read the notes. I believe they intend on keeping it. I certainly hope they do ore make it an option. Nothing more annoying then have a download start in the background while your playing a game which causes your ping to go way up.

" Suspend all downloads automatically when a game is launched " was added FEB 14, 2013.

That hasn't been my experience ever since the middle of last year -- most downloads continue to download as I'm playing a game. Before that, it was a consistent process of starting a game, Alt-Tabbing out, resuming any paused downloads, and Alt-Tabbing back into the game.

It doesn't make sense that Valve would transition to a new system only to revert it back again. I wonder if it's a beta/non-beta thing.

[aiusepsi]

It'd be hell finding the post, but when the change to stop downloading when a game launched was rolled into the beta, a Steam developer posted that it was a temporary measure. They're going to add a lot of features in the near future to control downloading, but until then (these new features needing the Steampipe roll-out to be completed) they needed to revert to the old behaviour for the benefit of less powerful computers.

[ßrΘkεñ$hαdów]

Originally posted by Dirtman73:

Originally posted by Freyar:

Possibly. I just tested it myself and currently all but one titles are "suspended".

Something to do with the new content system as mentioned by Peacock maybe? Whatever it is, I'm glad Valve are phasing out the "no download while you play" rule.

ikr who hell made these changes?

[Exile]

You can go to the Steam App, then go to Settings, then downloads, then click on the box that says "allow downloads during gameplay".