Peer to Peer Downloading of Games \ Updates

All Discussions > Steam Forums > Suggestions / Ideas > Topic Details

This topic has been locked

Da' Shoe Oct 31, 2019 @ 8:45am

Peer to Peer Downloading of Games \ Updates

What is Peer to Peer downloading?

Peer to peer downloading allows people who already have a game to be able to upload the game to people that are located near each other. This could be configured to only work on a local network which would be amazing for people that have limited bandwidth.

What is the downside

Honestly, security will be a big one. There are always bad actors out there and could use this as an attack vector for spreading viruses or other malware. There are ways to combat this but it would be a headache for the Steam development team. This could be fixed by using limiting to a local network only. Or using hashes to confirm there has not been any extra software substituted for the actual game. The hashes would pre-compiled from steam and pull directly from their servers.

The second issue is bandwidth for the local user. If you are playing an online multiplayer title you will not want to be uploading data while playing. Secondly, it could eat all of your bandwidth without propper settings to limit your upload rate.

Then why do it at all?

The massive speed increase of having millions of peers all uploading the same game at the same time increases the speed of which games could be downloaded. If you have a gigabit local network, if one computer on that network has it you could be getting gigabit downloads/updates of games. This massive speed increase also comes with a cost-benefit for steam. They would need less beefy servers everywhere and only need to run the minimum amount for the initial seeds of the game.

< >

Showing 1-11 of 11 comments

FMP Oct 31, 2019 @ 8:47am

The CDN Valve uses can already saturate most internet connections. P2P is not required.

Da' Shoe Oct 31, 2019 @ 8:48am

Originally posted by GDL:
The CDN Valve uses can already saturate most internet connections. P2P is not required.

My two-hour download of destiny 2 on a several hundred megabit connection begs to differ. I am not saying they don't do a good job but there is always room for improvement and cost-saving.

FMP Oct 31, 2019 @ 8:54am

Originally posted by Da' Shoe:
Originally posted by GDL:
The CDN Valve uses can already saturate most internet connections. P2P is not required.
My two-hour download of destiny 2 on a several hundred megabit connection begs to differ. I am not saying they don't do a good job but there is always room for improvement and cost-saving.

By cost saving you mean get the customers to do it for you? No.

I'd speak to your ISP and start troubleshooting, the CDN isn't the reason you have to wait 2 hours.

Da' Shoe Oct 31, 2019 @ 8:58am

Originally posted by GDL:
Originally posted by Da' Shoe:
My two-hour download of destiny 2 on a several hundred megabit connection begs to differ. I am not saying they don't do a good job but there is always room for improvement and cost-saving.

By cost saving you mean get the customers to do it for you? No.

I'd speak to your ISP and start troubleshooting, the CDN isn't the reason you have to wait 2 hours.

If it is in your local network it would not hurt you upload and only affect the computers you own. I don't see how this could be a downside. As a customer, I would be willing to allow my upload bandwidth that I am currently not using for others. But I still think even local network sharing of games would be great.

Gwarsbane Oct 31, 2019 @ 9:39am

This again... would be nice if people actually used the search feature and READ the other threads to see why this will never happen.

The downside is that it uses up a large chunk of your upload bandwidth. Bandwidth MANY people have to pay for. So could they turn it off? Sure, and then you make it pointless in the future for anyone who wants to download the game.

There are ways to set up a local network distribution for games so that you download to that 1 main system, and then all the computers on your network can download from that. I have no idea how to do it, but I'm sure if you google search you might be able to find the information.

Valves download servers are like city water mains, your connection to them is like a garden hose. They can push as much bandwidth as your connection can handle.

Valve would not be saving any money because if they switched over to the bit torrent version that you are suggesting and got rid of their download servers "to save money" people would be screaming that its taking days for them to get an update because its so slow to spread.

So they would end up keeping the download servers anyway.

The last people to suggest this same thing, wanted discounts for using their bandwidth. Also as you said security is the biggest issue.

Also what happens 5 years from now when few if any people have a game installed that I want to install. I would have to deal with their slow speeds to install a 60 or 70 gig game. If they are all restricting their upload speeds it could take me weeks to install a game. I'd rather return it then take that long. And you can't argue that in 5 years lots of people will still have the game installed, because you have no idea, there could be, or it could end up that everyone has left the game. And there is no reason for Vale to have download servers for it, if they are using peer to peer.

So no, "peer to peer" downloading of games is not a good idea. The only thing this would do is tick off people. It would not save Valve money, and would just end up costing consumers more money.

It was a bad idea the first 100+ times its been suggested, its a bad idea now, and it will be a bad idea the next 1000+ times its suggested.

cSg|mc-Hotsauce Oct 31, 2019 @ 11:09am

Average speed for me...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1620992612

During high traffic or ISP throttling...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1661600888

I can max out at 920 mb/s. The servers can handle it.

taiiat Oct 31, 2019 @ 11:40am

Originally posted by Da' Shoe:
Originally posted by GDL:
The CDN Valve uses can already saturate most internet connections. P2P is not required.
My two-hour download of destiny 2 on a several hundred megabit connection begs to differ. I am not saying they don't do a good job but there is always room for improvement and cost-saving.

that's not a problem of insufficient Datacenter Bandwidth, that's a problem between your LAN, your ISP, and the nearest Datacenter endpoint. there's a configuration problem somewhere along that line.

GamingWithSilvertail Oct 31, 2019 @ 11:48am

Originally posted by Da' Shoe:
Originally posted by GDL:
The CDN Valve uses can already saturate most internet connections. P2P is not required.
My two-hour download of destiny 2 on a several hundred megabit connection begs to differ. I am not saying they don't do a good job but there is always room for improvement and cost-saving.

Considering 75% of the world wont download d2 on steam within that time... -.-

cat Nov 13, 2022 @ 3:29am

Originally posted by PiggyCoppy:
The CDN Valve uses can already saturate most internet connections. P2P is not required.

Did you miss the bit about saving bandwidth? This is a feature MANY users would want. Not everyone has unlimited data.

Also Gwarsbane is wrong. It is an amazing feature, and I would use it myself. So would anyone else who has a bandwidth cap.

You must be a billionaire or something with a fiber connection and unlimited bandwidth no? Let the plebs have access to money saving tools.

If you understand P2P you understand when they get to a certain size, they could likely flood Valve's servers offline.

Last edited by cat; Nov 13, 2022 @ 3:36am

Gwarsbane Dec 30, 2023 @ 3:35pm

Originally posted by cat:
Originally posted by PiggyCoppy:
The CDN Valve uses can already saturate most internet connections. P2P is not required.

Did you miss the bit about saving bandwidth? This is a feature MANY users would want. Not everyone has unlimited data.

Also Gwarsbane is wrong. It is an amazing feature, and I would use it myself. So would anyone else who has a bandwidth cap.

You must be a billionaire or something with a fiber connection and unlimited bandwidth no? Let the plebs have access to money saving tools.

If you understand P2P you understand when they get to a certain size, they could likely flood Valve's servers offline.

Its been a thing for a while, you are replying to a 4 year old thread...
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/46BD-6BA8-B012-CE43

From Feb 2023
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200/view/3673285123502439065

Also what was being suggest is different then what we now have. The suggestion started out as one from going from other users PCs on the internet with being able to limit it to a LAN. The OP says this in the very first paragraph.

That that kind of transfer where you download and upload to other people on the internet would not save you any bandwidth.

The "Steam Local Network Game Transfers" only saves you bandwidth if you have more then 1 computer and steam account and you all play the same games. If you don't play the same games, then no it won't save you bandwidth.

#10