Steam Feature request: Download & Patch Timer

[✨Hot Soup✨]

Really simple, it would be nice if a timer was added to downloads so you can see how long it took to download, update and patch.

for instance i have a 65MB update for a game that took 2 seconds to download, but the game has been patching with disk activity for almost 15 minutes now.

[✨Hot Soup✨]

it would be perfection if there was a timer summary with each category broken down into a list format.
like this:
Download 7:30
Update: 2:30
Patch: 0:00
total time: 10:00

[Ghostman]

I can support this, any suggestions which give us more details are ideas we should get behind.

[Cherrycat]

Speeds aren't static, it can fluctuate based on many things so they can't do anything but an estimate.

[Ghostman]

From my understanding Coco isnt talking about download ETA.

He/She wants to see 3 timers:
Elapsed download time.
Elapsed Installation time.
Total Elapsed time.

Not an estimate of speeds.

[cinedine]

Depending on how the game was setup it can download while already patching. In OP's case it's likely a small update for a huge compressed file.

[Satoru]

Can’t really know since it’s highly dependent on

1) patch size
2) cpu speed
3) disk IO

So estimates will never be correct especially in the patching stage

[wuddih]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Can’t really know since it’s highly dependent on

1) patch size
2) cpu speed
3) disk IO

So estimates will never be correct especially in the patching stage

that is correct and all, but already pointed out once:
OP wants just the times it took, not estimates.

the break down is just not really possible, since Steam update/patches/installs while downloading and this is not a step-by-step-process like other clients do it.

[Ghostman]

No, it is entirely possible.
It might be a bit difficult but it's definitely not impossible.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by Coco:

for instance i have a 65MB update for a game that took 2 seconds to download, but the game has been patching with disk activity for almost 15 minutes now.

Patching activity isn't directly proportional to patch size. It's highly dependant on how the developer built the game itself.
A small patch might require the rebuild of a massive file, which might take sensibly longer than the time it took the patch to download.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Originally posted by Coco:

for instance i have a 65MB update for a game that took 2 seconds to download, but the game has been patching with disk activity for almost 15 minutes now.

Patching activity isn't directly proportional to patch size. It's highly dependant on how the developer built the game itself.
A small patch might require the rebuild of a massive file, which might take sensibly longer than the time it took the patch to download.

Case in point

Payday2 patches always touch EVERY FILE due to the way the Diesel Engine works. That means each patch must read and write out currently all 50GB of game data every time

1) download patch file
2) read 50GB of game data
3) use CPU to calculate deltas
4) write out 50GB of new game files
5) move 50 GB of new game files to original install point

How long that takes will vary dramaTicslly depending on so many factors

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Payday2 patches always touch EVERY FILE due to the way the Diesel Engine works. That means each patch must read and write out currently all 50GB of game data every time

Oh man don't remember me Payday2 patches...what a pain. Specially when they ran an event and every day for a week you had to face that scenario.